Beach, boat, bubs

In addition to rummaging through the scary closet, I've been out on the boat a few times this past week.  I ended up having to stay on the boat most of the time since my ear infection was still causing me grief, but I finally managed to do the second dive of the day (after a 17 minute foray to 7.5m and back on dive one) Monday.  I had an Underwater Photography student and the conditions were pretty tough, so I didn't shoot many frames myself, but it was still nice to be underwater again for the first time in weeks.


There was a very large white tip reef shark having a snooze under a ledge on our dive. I've got lots of shots of these guys and was far more interested in the remora near its tail...unfortunately, the shark was having none of it and kept kicking up sand and swimming out in a circle before cruising back under the ledge. I did grab one as the shark swam through me :)

The humpback whales were everywhere while we were out. Mostly they were simply swimming along but a few of them were really showing off and playing with big fin and tail slaps. We had some breaching and spy-hopping, too. I was too lazy to grab my camera most of the time but did get some snappies

I hope to get out a lot more for the humpbacks this season as I don't think I got out at all last season! It's pathetic how much I don't take advantage of the amazing marine life here, something always seems to come up and then poof, the season is over.

Speaking of seasons, it's baby emu time! I saw the first dad with teensy bubs on our drive out to Tantabiddi on Monday. Unfortunately, we were towing a trailer and had a whole line of traffic behind us so I was only able to grab a couple of frames of their baby bootys as they spastically ran away. I am going to try to get out one day and get their little faces coz they are simply too adorable at this age. There are five of them with this one dad...so far.


Dave and I took Dora & MatildaLily down to the beach the other night to just chill for awhile. They had a great time running around like maniacs, sniffing every bit of flotsam on the beach, digging holes (ok, that's a bit grand as Tilly loses interest after about two inches, but still, it's kind of doggie-like behaviour) and trouncing through the water.










Dave found a shell in the car that he'd been meaning to show me

And Til had to jump in and out to see just how much sand and salt water she could dump into the back of the car

On the way back home there were tons of kangaroos and a few bustards - big birds, also called bush turkeys here - along the edge of the road. I hopped out and walked along, trying to get close enough but it was pretty dark already & none of them were hanging around. I do like this shot of a kanga in the bush, though