Day 12

St Helens and the Bay of Fires

Waking up in St Helens we enjoyed breakfast on our deck, eating cereals out of sandwich boxes. We then set off to the boat ramp at Binnalong Bay to check in for our Ecotour boat adventure. The girls were allocated the front row of the 20 seater boat. Christina and I sat directly behind them, all of us at the bouncy end of the boat.

We set off from the boat ramp and gently a little out to sea for the first stop and a discussion about the Bay of Fires and the plans for the rest of our 2 hour tour. We then moved to the north end of Binnalong Bay at a much faster pace. Unfortunately this was too much for some of the younger passengers and we returned to base to drop them off.

Already the tour had been shortened to an hour because of the choppy nature of the sea and with some rain appearing over the hills. We continued at great pace to Skeleton Bay and Elephant Island. The girls grinning broadly as we leapt over and crashed through waves at great speed. Sadly, at Elephant Island the decision was made to cancel the trip, as sea conditions were worsening. We ended up beneficiaries of a ‘free joyride’ but determined to go back another time to finish the trip.

Over a cup of coffee we replanned our day. Planning was interrupted by the appearance of a large ray in the harbour. It was about 1m2.

We drove north on narrow gravel roads to The Garden, where we enjoyed lunch on the rocks, and even saw a seal swim by. The girls were eventually prised away from their rock hopping and we retraced our route back to St Helens. After a brief relax and change into shorts Christina and the girls went out on a jaunt.