Nelson Bay

Wednesday took it's turn being the adventure day of the week this week, and borrowing the car, Marc, Jeremiah and I drove up to a little town called Nelson Bay about 2 1/2 hours north of Sydney. Marc is an all star at driving on the wrong... I mean Left... side of the road, and we made it there without incident. Oh, here's a tidbit, car accidents here are not very commonly called accidents. Thus far I have only heard them referred to as "smashes". I thought this rather amusing. Anyhow, after getting up relatively early to get a jump on the day, we arrived in Nelson Bay with just enough time to find parking and go get our ferry tickets. The area of Port Stephens in which Nelson Bay resides is well known in the state of New South Whales for it's multiple pods of bottle nosed dolphins which reside in the bay. Apparently there are over 150 dolphins that live in the area! So taking the little walk-on ferry across the inlet is a good way to spot some without going on a dolphin watching cruise. We hopped on the little old wooden ferry which barely had wide enough isles for the stroller, and kept our eyes peeled on the water in hopes of spotting some playful dolphins.

On the way to the little town of Tea Gardens, which is where the ferry travels to, Jeremiah batted his eyes and charmed the First Officer of the ship, who's name ironically enough was Katie! She stood and chatted to us for a good 10 minutes or more as Jammers flirted and cooed and showed off his dimples.

Just about on the other side, we saw hat appeared to be an island, but upon closer inspection, looked to be a grove of short trees growing right out of the water! However, on the way back when the tide was lower, we could see that the water was just very shallow, and it was in deed an island.

Arriving at Tea Gardens, we were famished and therefore began to seek out an establishment at which to eat. There were several choices, and the indecisive pair that we are, we walked up and down the street until we were so hungry we just picked the closest shop. It happened to be a Chinese place. Now, you'd think I'd have learned by now, but no. I have not. Fear not, I didn't get ill, but the stuff was tasteless. Rather a disappointment. Anyhow, we followed it up with some ice-cream and got back to the boat just in time for it to leave. Shortly after departure the captain came on the sound system and told everyone to lookout the windows as he slowed the engine down. There was a Mother dolphin and her calf playing in the shallows up ahead! But as our luck would have it our camera ran out of batteries right before Marc was able to snap a picture of them. So we have no photographic proof of the remainder of that journey, which included a trip to Fingal Bay where we sat on the beach, caught some rays and watched the waves.

All in all a great day of exploring.