The Tangalooma trip

It has been a very long time since I updated Eli's blog - apologies for that! - but we have been very busy. Recapping the past five or so months will take a while, but to get you up to speed we have been spending a lot of time with Jenny, Izzy and Alex, including the trip which is the focus of this blog post, to Tangalooma. We took this trip right at the end of the 2013 school year and made the most of that fact that Jenny's work Christmas break up was in such a nice place - so instead of staying just for a single day, we spent three days enjoying the sun, sand and sea. It was absolutely beautiful weather and as you can see, we had an awesome view from our apartment balcony...

 
We also enjoyed all that Tangalooma has to offer for kids (and adults that want to be like kids - ie me). Of course we absolutely had to see and feed the resident (wild) dolphins that come into Tangalooma each night. It was amazing to see them up close and the kids (and Jenny and I) really enjoyed feeding them too (despite the slimy, smelly fish we fed them). Even though they are 'wild' these dolphins new the drill perfectly - not only did they all come in right on 'showtime', but they also lined up in rows ready to be fed, which certainly makes it easy to get the hundreds of people that want to fed them through swiftly.   

 
 

We also enjoyed a lot of swimming, especially out the front of our apartment - the eastern side of Moreton Bay really is beautiful - and Eli spent a lot of time trying out his new snorkelling gear too (and that is why most of the photos have him swimming around our legs acting like some sort of shark!).

The afternoon sunsets were magical too - there's nothing quite like the sun setting over water - and we all enjoyed a stroll (and a jump and a run!) down the beach - here are some photos of the kids (and Jenny) splashing along the water's edge as the sun set behind Brisbane.

On our second day at Tangalooma we decided to take on two major activities - snorkelling the wrecks in the morning and tobogganing the sand dunes in the afternoon. The wrecks were deliberately skittled (all 16 of them) to create an artificial reef and a great diving and snorkelling environment. We signed up for the morning snorkel tour and spent a bit of time getting all kitted up - here is Izzy, Eli and Alex all wet-suited up and ready to go. We then walked across the beach, jumped on the boat and headed to the wrecks. It was all pretty exciting - and Eli was super keen to put his new-found snorkelling prowess into action.

The way they run the snorkelling tour is pretty clever, depending on the tide they drop the group in the right spot and simply let everyone just drift through the wrecks, observing the fish and coral as they go. It's great that you don't need to swim against the current (which is pretty strong) and Alex and Eli had the added benefit of holding onto the life ring and being close to the tour leader, so they got to see all sorts of amazing sea life (those of us at the rear of the group saw a lot less as fish swam away after the first few people drifted by).
 
We did see some good corals and fish, all growing on the rusting wrecks, but before we knew it we were out the other end of the wrecks and getting back on the boat. It was a pretty quick tour really, but since the water was deep and cool I don't think too many people were worried about it.

As you can see from this photo, Eli and Alex were pretty happy after the tour, although by the time we marched back up the beach we were all pretty hot again so Eli decided to take a dip in the bucket that we were all supposed to wash our wetsuits in... 

We were all quite tired after the snorkelling adventure, but our day was not done, not by a long shot. After having some lunch and a bit of 'down time', we climbed onto a large 4WD bus and headed out to the massive sandblow for some sand tobogganing fun. Here's Eli, freshly landed on the 'desert'. 
















After some relatively simple instructions on how to sand toboggan, we grabbed our 'boards' and started the trek up to the top of the dune..

...some time later we were at the top and as you can see from this photo back towards the buses, it was a far climb. Alex was the first to head back down on his sand board, and he almost took out the very brave photographer that was perched about a quarter of the way down the slope... 

Next came Izzy and then Jenny - and in some ways you might say that the sand was the winner. For some strange reason neither of them were particularly impressed by the face full they received...I did want to get a photo of Jenny covered in sand - it was everywhere including all over her face and through her hair - but she wouldn't let me (even though she agreed later it would have been a good photo!).

Eli was next, and he got to the bottom of the dune without incident (and he loved it). I followed suit and slid uneventfully to the base of the sand dune (I imagine it had something to do with following instructions...?).  

As you might have guessed, Eli and Alex were super keen to get back up and have another go, but it wasn't all plain sailing (or sand tobogganing). Here's a video of Alex followed by a spectacular crash of Eli's...

 

After a really big and eventful day we were all pretty knackered. It really was a great trip though and we had incredible weather. It was hard to decide what part of the trip was the most enjoyable in the end, but we all agreed that the dolphins were great and that the snorkelling and sand tobogganing were great experiences too (even if they were a little bit uncomfortable at times).

I'll sign off from this post with a sunset photo - it was really hard to decide which one to include though, as there were so many taken and each had its own character and colour. What a stunning way to end each day...

Take a hike (with Eli)!

We recently decided to do some local exploring.....on foot. We set off from home nice and early and Eli was particularly keen to look for signs of koalas - not so much like this one on the right, but more like the claw marks on tree trunks like those on the left. And we saw lots of them as we plunged deeper into the forest near our house.

For any of you that know him well, you will know that Eli is quite the collector, so he was also very excited to find lots of different types of rocks on the trail - if only I had Christy's geological knowledge to answer his questions! Aside from identifying quartz and sandstone, there wasn't much information I could give him. I love how he asks questions and wants to know so much about the world. I'm less keen on his desire to bring big rocks back home with him, especially since I become the packhorse for these ventures...after some negotiation, I finally got him to agree that we could take some photos of the bigger rocks, but leave them behind...phew!

It was a lovely day in the forest, we saw lots of these yellow Pultanaea flowers and plenty of different types of Eucalypts too, like this scribbly gum.












Eli spotted some ants that looked like they were drinking the sap from a scribbly gum - here's a photo and a short video of them in action.

After lots of walking (I later calculated that we had walked about 5.6 km), we came home along the roadside and Eli discovered (by stepping on it) a snake that had been killed on the road. This was undoubtedly the highlight of his walk, as he kept on talking about how he'd found it and how that was the first snake that he'd ever stepped on...and I kept telling him that I hope that is the only snake he ever steps on...






Not far from home (about 500 m away actually) Eli wanted to record a message, about the snake and about a rock he'd collected...enjoy!

He's a natural!

There's something fishy about Eli and it's honestly not all my doing. He just loves getting into our local creek to do a spot of fishing and he is always super excited whenever he catches something, whether it be a water boatman, a backswimmer, a waterstrider, a damselfly or dragonfly nymph, or even a caddis fly larvae. But what really excites him, more than all of the wonderful types of bugs he can capture, is when he is able to catch a fish in his net. 

Now it must be said that Eli's an experienced hand at catching the non-native guppies that reside in our creek, but on our most recent fishing trip he managed to catch a couple of bigger and much better specimens. First, he went deeper than ever before, so that he was chest deep in the water and away he went sweeping his net through the water near the overhanging fern tree...and lo and behold, he had netted a purple spotted gudgeon. He was over the moon (since we were getting sick of collecting guppies!) as he'd never caught a gudgeon before.

Not content with one gudgeon, he set back on the task of catching something else, something new...and that's when it happened. After a seemingly innocuous sweep of his net, he proudly proclaimed that he thought that he'd caught an eel! I didn't scoff at the suggestion (there are eels in our creek), but I was a bit suspicious, but then there it was swimming around in our bucket. Sure, it was tiny, but there's no mistaking it. Eli was super excited and wanted to keep the eel in one of our aquaria, but I didn't think that plan would gel so well with our gudgeon breeding program (see earlier post) so I convinced him that we shouldn't keep it. The deal was brokered that we would add his newly collected gudgeon to our ever-growing population and Eli named him 'Crazy'. It took a few days, but Crazy has now really gotten comfortable in the tank and is even starting to get brighter colours courtesy of the clear water and good food. Now Eli is looking forward to Crazy breeding (we are pretty sure she is a female) to continue the successes we've been having of late...I wonder where this is going to end...

More and more and more gudgeons!

Yes, I know, another aquatic tale in this blog post...but it turns out that we're very good at making excellent breeding conditions for our purple spotted gudgeons! As you may recall, we caught a few of these fish in our local creek last year and they've been quite happy in our tank since then.



So happy, in fact, that Eli and I woke one morning to find the side of the tank covered in tiny gudgeon eggs and being guarded diligently but one of the males in the tank. I'd never reared fish successfully before and with Eli's urging, we decided to keep a close on these eggs and do all that we could to ensure that some of them made it through to adulthood. A bit of reading later we learnt that the male defends the eggs for between 3-9 days and gently fans them with his fins to make sure that they don't get covered with sediment. No risk of that happening in our tank, but the male kept up his parental duties, day and night.


A few days later we noticed that the eggs were looking even more fishy...with the eyes and shape of the young gudgeons becoming apparent. We decided then to remove all of the fish, Dad included, and our red-claw crayfish, into the other tank, which had only just been made available courtesy of the new turtle pond out in the backyard, to ensure that none of the small fish were going to be gobbled up when they hatched. And then, a couple of days after that, we started seeing the small gudgeons at the bottom of the tank (there is a tiny one, right in the middle of this figure), essentially learning to swim and fend for themselves. Since then we've added food and there are six baby purple spotted gudgeons swimming around in our tank and getting bigger as each day passes by.

After all of that excitement, it then came as a big surprise (but maybe it shouldn't have!) when we spotted a male guarding eggs again in the new fish tank...and we're now into our fourth round of breeding and we are fast running out of space and capacity to rear more gudgeons!

The turtle pond project.

All winter Eli and I had been working on a pond project, with a view to getting the turtles out of the aquarium and into the backyard. Unfortunately it took a lot of waiting for critical parts of the set up - things like the liner, the pump, the filter... - and we sadly lost Zoomy during that time. However, we persisted with the pond project and we eventually, after about 4 months of waiting, had all of the necessary elements to create and fill the pond for Swifty. Here are some photos of the final phases, long after I dug the hole and had the corrugated iron walls and front gate installed. 



Eli was a great little helper too, including selecting the log and rocks that we need to provide some habitat for Swifty and he absolutely wanted to be there as we filled the pond from our raintank for the very first time.



Finally, it was time to release Swifty into his new home. We were all very excited - not only does the pond give him more space for swimming, but there are heaps of opportunities for basking too...


Eli did the honours, placing Swifty down on a rock at the side of the pond, so he could have a look around and become familiar with his new surroundings...

It took him (Swifty) a long time to get comfortable - I actually think that he was just enjoying sitting on the hot rock - but with the crowd watching - including three of Eli's grandparents! - he eventually plunged into the water and began swimming around his new home.

 

Later that afternoon Swifty was out of the pond, exploring the land and sharing his new home with a cute little water dragon (who has also laid claim to this new territory).

It's been great since Swifty moved out - we now have more room for fish in our aquaria - but more importantly Swifty is much happier and healthier as he gets to bask, swim, walk and enjoy his new surroundings. Aside from our plan to get a few aquatic plants for Swifty to hide behind/eat, the turtle pond project has finally been accomplished!