Day 2 Strabroke Island

The last day of 2012 had us rising early to go sand tobogganing. Boogie boards in hands we traipsed up a huge dune.  I was slightly freaking out until I saw one of the kids go down. We weren’t going like bullets but had a lot of fun going down in singles, doubles or just running down.

The view was spectacular and somewhat mesmerising from the top.  After a few climbs of the dune the old thighs were complaining slightly. There were people running up this dune for fitness sake  - just wrong I tell you! After a scan of the nearby rock pools we checked our trusty “Straddie document” for our next adventure.

A 4WD trip across the island took us to a 360 degree view of the island and toward “Brown Lake”.  Brown Lake is brown because of the stain from the tea tree leaves. Another lake on the island, Blue Lake, you can’t swim in because of the leeches. Ick!  Continuing on we drove to one of the Main Beach entrances where a Pajero was stranded due to a broken clutch. Please God, don’t let this be an omen! The old Cruiser’s clutch is only just hanging in there.

Amity Point was buzzing with New Year tourists. The jetty was full of fishermen. The vegetarian in me hopes they catch zilch. After an hour there was a lot of oohing and aahing coming from that direction.

Dolphins had come to visit. Now people pay a lot of money for this type of experience. Three dolphins decided to show off right in front of the group.  You could feed them fish if you had some on you. There’s something special about seeing animals in the wild rather than in a zoo or theme park.  I didn’t want to leave the dolphins but e all returned to the ‘hill’ for one of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen.  A sense of calm washed over us as the last piece of yellow dipped below the horizon.

On return to camp the New Year excitement was setting in and we went in convoy on the beach to Amity Point.  Les was in his element. I think he said, “I love beach driving” about 300 times in half an hour.

Day 2

Later in the night (yes, we all actually made it to midnight!), a bunch of twenty somethings were getting into the spirit of things. Just before midnight the beach was the place to be. A Stradbroke version of “Times Square” ensued.  Midnight came. Fireworks and flares were everywhere. We could even see the firework of Brisbane from where we stood.  Welcome 2013.