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Waiting for Midnight

New Year's Fireworks. Ups, it seems that we never told that two years ago (starting at the Balmain Sailing Club right in front of our then home) we enjoyed the New Year's Eve fireworks from our kayaks. Anyway, having spent NYE 2004/5 in Tassie instead of Sydney, we want to repeat the fireworks-from-kayak-story this year. As we now live on Sydney's North Shore and the distance to the Main Harbour is the shortest, we enjoy the fireworks for the first time ever from this direction: with Opera and Harbour Bridge in the foreground.

Syndey runs two NYE fireworks: The first one at 9:00pm (for the kids who have to go to bed), the second at midnight. We watch the first ones. That is becasue each and every Sydneysider who owns a boat spends the night on the water. Our concern is that after midnight, the harbour transforms into a boiling chaos of drunken yachties. In our kayaks, we better avoid this danger!

With a group of seven friends we launch at Clontarf in the later afternoon and paddle the 8km to the Harbour Bridge. During this paddle, the harbour doesn't look any different to normal. Until we come around the headland of Bradleys Head, where the last bay to the opera and Harbour Bridge opens up. Here, the waterway is completely covered by mooring watercraft. Everyone is in party mood, we smell barbeques. Claudia earns her dinner in form of two chicken wings by doing some nice eskimo rolls, the others spread their picnic rugs on the beach. Just in time for the 9:00 fireworks we get back into our kayaks and enjoy from this spot in the first row ... — well, just check out these photos taken at NYE 2002. And the reality is much better still!

Still so small and already a turtle

Turtles. The remainder of this monthly report talks about a long week-end in Queensland. Five years ago, when we were holidaying in Australia — unaware of that we'd live here one day — a nice lady had recommended to drive to Bundaberg for the sea turtles laying their eggs. The beach Mon Repos is one of only a few spots on the mainland where people can watch this spectacle. From mid-November until early February these amazing creatures come to shore to nest. Six weeks after, from early January until end March the little ones hatch. The area is managed by the National Park Service who lead night trips on the beach and provide lots of information for a small entry token. We learn that turtles return several times during one season to lay eggs. Their shell just doesn't allow to grow all the eggs in one batch. The little hatchlings need to callaborate to digg their way out of the nest; it takes them a week for all the digging and crawling inside the sand until they exit the sand one night, all together. During this time, they feed on their egg shells. The temperature indicates to them when it is night outside, and off they go to run for the edge of the ocean. Only one in a thousand turtles makes it to maturity at the age of 30.

(Almost) the same in large

In any case, last April already we had booked our flights and accommodation to repeat this experience in 2006. This time, Sue and Kevin, and Silvia and Benjamin join our group. And we have learned since 2000: Then, Claudia and Peter had spent a whole night long on the beach to watch the turtles nest. This year, we had carefully watched the moon and the tide charts and selected a week-end with full moon (to see better) and high tide (which makes it so much easier for the turtles) just after sunset in the early night. Matter of factedly, we are not disappointed by this carefull planning: On all of our three nights, we witness the amazing spectacle when the heavy animals move up into the sand dunes, use their hind flippers to digg holes 60cm deep and lay 100-160 eggs. We are encouraged by the rangers to help moving eggs of nests too close to the water's edge to a higher spot up the dunes (where they are save from storm tides). Freshly hatched baby turtles walk down the dunes to the ocean; We help them finding their way by lighting the path up with our torches, since they orient their way to the moon light. A fascinating escape from the daily routine, just one flight hour away from home.

Full of concentration: Speeding Silvia

Body Surfing. The days are easily spent at the beach or driving around. Claudia and Peter were in this area in September 2005 already, as that time to watch whales. They are not around at this time f the year, only August till October, but the Bundaberg rum factory still is. For Sue, Kevin, Silvia, and Benjamin worth an excursion. While we two don not repeat the factory tour, we join into the after-tour-rum-degustation ;-)

What else?! Typical beach in Queensland

The coastline in Queensland differs from "our" coast in New South Wales: Whilst the coastline around Sydney is marked by sandstone cliffs and (relatively) small beaches in-between, the coast in Queensland is one single long beach. Not from nothing that they have places colled Surfers' Paradise. So after 4 years in Australia we finally do it: We walk into a surf shop and purchase an inflatable body board, a short surf board, and immediately dounble our fun in the waves (how much fun our spectators on the beach had will not be disclosed...)