Sand in my shoes...

After waking up this morning and discovering that I was still able to move all my limbs as they hadn't all seized up overnight, we were all looking forward to our first day at the beach! The coastline on this side of Australia is the Indian Ocean and seems to consist mostly of very white sands and white tipped waves, creating lots of good surfing spots. Being a bit challenged when it comes to surfing, we were more interested in finding a beach we felt we could swim at as well, so made our way to one of Mark's recommendations - Redgate Beach.

The brilliant thing about this area is that the sheer amount of beaches mean that when you get to them they are pretty much all deserted! So we were very excited to find this one to ourselves... of course this might have had something to do with the fact that in Australian terms it probably wasn't strictly speaking beach weather - after all it was only about 26 degrees and there was a breeze, but we weren't going to let little things like that put us off! We found a sheltered spot near the rocks and settled down to the art of sunbathing. I managed to survive without the use of an umbrella (anyone who has been to Sardinia with me will know what an achievement this is!) especially as in typical British fashion it was probably nearer 12 by the time we made it down there. We occasionally saw a few walkers along the coastal path and they probably looked at us thinking we were crazy English people as they seemed to be in jeans and jumpers, but we were definitely able to soak up some rays...

To be honest, the coastline was very much like the Costa Paradiso in Sardinia (or Bedrock as it was known to Hayley and Tarrah!) but without any of the crowds. The only downside was that the waves really were too wild to swim in - we didn't want to seem pathetic but I think the picture below might give you a bit of an idea as to how powerful the sea was!!

This evening we also decided to go out for a bit more kangaroo spotting, which is fast becoming our new favourite past time! Apparently around dusk is the best time to go so we wandered up to the local fields and were thrilled to not only see some more, but this time to actually see a mother with a joey in her pouch, and then the joey got out and started jumping around too!! It was very exciting, although I am starting to think that they are just a bit like deers with weird back legs, and I'm sure by the end of the week I'll be sick of them and viewing them as vermin like the locals do!!




Our other wildlife spot was more exciting once we worked out what we were actually looking at!! Check out the birds we saw on the way home.... once we consulted our useful 'Birds of the South West' poster that is hanging in our accomodation (sort of like the random picture boards at the Old Bay Cottage) we realised we'd actually seen a flock of..... GALLAHS!!!! I'm not sure if it was 'flaming' though!!!!!