Riding the waves and the dunes

5:30am is not a fun time to wake up to. We headed off on an early morning sea kayak to try and see dolphins, whales and other marine life. We have to be at the operator's shop for 6:45am which is a shame when the hostel offers free amazing vegan American style cinnamon pancakes between 7 and 7:30am. We met a Swedish couple in the kitchen while making breakfast who happened to be doing the same thing as us so we got pretty friendly throughout the cold early morning. We arrived at the shop and signed our life away on forms before beginning our drive down the beach. We headed to the furthest point of the beach which has some of the best surf waves in Australia. After getting suited in life jackets we were ready to hit the water. The waves were super high and you see why people come here from all over to surf. In a kayak though this was hard to get through and Nick and I struggled the most to get off the shore. Eventually we went for it but our kayak was flooded by waves instantly and we sat in cold water the whole trip which wasn't ideal! Also I hadn't properly secured my phone in its waterproof pouch so that was a worry but it was fine despite the sudden flood. The kayak out of the bay was hard work and it felt like we were going for hours. Eventually we stopped as the sea really opens up and started looking for whales. We saw a few very far away but nothing that close. Eventually a group decided to swim into the bay rather that straight across it. This is usually if the baby is premature and needs the protection of the shore line more. The whales surfaced about 100m from us which was pretty cool to see. Other than the whales we only saw a turtle briefly and no dolphins at all. I don't think they should call it a "dolphin kayak" as they do. Getting back in to shore was hard as well especially trying to avoid surfers and in the end our kayak was swept away and we were wiped out by the high wave. It was a pretty smooth quick way back to shore though. Although we didn't see much we had a good time and still enjoyed it. The rest of the day was filled with fun things like laundry and food shopping. We also have a new couple in our room for our last night. We went for a nice lunch and then at 4pm joined the guided tour with the hostel up to a sunset point. The area is at the top of a sand dune and you can see the sunset over the town. There's also a slope that has been flattened through people using it to body board down the hill. We borrowed the hostels boards and had a great time flying down with our new room mates. We watched the sunset from the top of the dune behind a cloud of smoke that had turned red by the sun. It was a shame that the council picked sunset to start a controlled bush fire but it did make for a pretty cool photo!Read more