Tin Can Bay Dolphines Part Two

So my last attempt to see dolphins in the wild didn't go so well but I was determined to have my dolphin dreams come true! When my alarm went off at 5am and I had a one and a half hour drive ahead of me I got to say there were a few doubts in my minds :P

I got to Tin Can Bay at around 7am I walked over and there are heaps of people...GAH what are you people doing on a weekday at 7am in Tincan bay? As Ben always says, nothing wrong with humanity it's only an issue when they appear in excess :P I walked closer and people are already standing in the water and there is a...DOLPHIN

WHAT THE! I know he's the reason I was there but unlike last time there was no build up or anticipation, the critter was just in the water waiting for it's food. They really make him wait too right until 8am when the ferry load of people have been dropped off from surrounding areas. I was a little upset it was only mystique (the alpha male of the pod) in the water, the brochure promised two dolphins at least :P By the way, do you think they knew it was a boy dolphin when they named him mystique :P

So peeps are just standing in the water, the dolphin is just sitting there/leisurely swimming. I hear kids inquisitively inquire as to why the dolphin is cover in scratches, the volunteers in the water brush it off as being nothing serious, just other dolphins teeth marks... SAY WHAT?

This guy ain't not SeaWorld dolphin! To be honest I understood why the kids were a little apprehensive about going anywhere near him, especially with his half eaten tale, a mishap from several shark attacks.

7.45am goes by and the ferry rocks up and also...Patch (Mystique's gf)..yay! Patch is a bit more prettier than Mystique, still has teeth marks over her body, hey you don't get to be the alpha female without a few cat fights right? I also think Patch is a little smarter than Mystique knowing to rock up just on time and not having to wait an hour for their 3kg of fish. I like that they only feed them a small amount of their daily intake, I however was confused when there was fish swimming all around in the shallow water and they didn't go for them!

At this point I also discovered that I probably wasn't going to get my leaping through the air, Seaworld shot I had mislead myself to believe in. What was I thinking, dolphins live in the water not the air :P

Luckily the water was clear and I snapped some shots whilst watching the peeps feed the dolphins. There were quite a few touch attempts made (a cardinal sin) with the culprits pulling out the "I don't understand English" card and the volunteers threatening the $500 on the spot fine.

These head out of water shots were rare, they volunteers discourage the dolphins from lifting their heads due to their limited neck vertebrae and subsequent harm. They ask everyone to feed them below the water, which I 100% approve of despite my longing for some out of water action!

So once the volunteers have fed the dolphins the dolphins know that's it and they swim away...

all wrapped up by 8.30

It's just the cormorants who stick around for left overs

P.S When they gave their talk they said the dolphins had only not shown up three times this year!
Totally jibbed on our first visit!

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Tin Can Bay

The other weekend Ben and I decided to fulfill our life long dream (well my life long dream) of feeding dolphins.  'Life long' might be stretching it a little too, but hey I have been wanting to go for several months now. 

With Ben going back to work soon we decided to go!

I've been to Tin Can Bay once before and when Ben asked me to describe it I said it's pretty much Redcliffe but smaller. I actually have a soft spot for Redcliffe, so it was said in a knowing but loving way! Redcliffe, if you don't know, is on the water but flat, kind of the uglier sister to the sunshine coast.

So we got there around 2pm Saturday with no booking, last time we attempted the tin can bay visit, I called up the day before to book accommodation and the lady laughed at me for trying at such short notice, so rocking up at 2pm made perfect sense.

You have to be bold sometimes and luckily we got the last cabin available. The lady at the caravan park was quite enthusiastic for her town, especially for the native flower walking track and the local restaurant serving up "to die for" garlic prawns..I was sold!

We dumped our bag and I dragged Ben to the native flower walking track...

I should have know then that the garlic prawns wouldn't be that fantastic, when we had trouble deciphering between the 'wild flowers' and the weeds and when most of our flower shots were taken from people's nice kept gardens!

still we decided to see what tin can bay had to offer us and decided to explore the town on foot..not much it turns out

The most exciting thing was Ben trying out the new Brekka flavour...copacabana...don't try it, unless you love coconuts and pineapple together!

Anyway lets fast forward to tomorrow morning, the day I'd been waiting for! We had read on the internet feeding was between 7 and 8 but more leaning towards 8 and only a limited amount of people got to feed, so we the fools got their at 6.45.

You can't pre-order the feeding fish so we stood around patiently with a few other families...waiting. Fast forward an hour later and I want to say there was 100 peeps now though I've never been that good with maths :P The dolphin volunteers explained at 8am that the dolphins were a bit late and it was possibly due to the storms last night and too much fresh water. I have to point out here that you should never have expectations. I had imagined myself with perhaps a handful of others standing in the water patting the dolphins (not allowed). Instead it was super hot, I was crammed in, there was already an insane line for the feeding and we were waiting for dolphins that may never even come and when they did come I suspected I might not be able to even see them because of the mass of people :(

the story really goes no where so I'll cut to ending. Four and half hours later, the volunteers went home and I took that as my que to go to. In that four hours I watched a ferry full of peeps get off excitedly and then begrudging back home, I saw families go home disappointed, I saw little girls break down...well that's a lie. I really with all my heart believed the dolphins would come, just super late and perhaps they did but when the volunteers left and it was just me and a bunch of four Germans, I held back the tears and joined Ben in the car, who had been waiting patiently for my insane stubborn ways. Ben had it pretty sweet though, shade, music, laptop movies so don't feel too sorry for him

Anyhoo the moral of this story is, the dolphins don't care if they shatter your dreams...but hey don't worry my insane and stubborn ways are ready planning for a return trip this time driving back there early one morning on a week day! 

Stay tuned!!!

P.S. we did get to see a bunch of cormorants who unlike dolphins actually rock up on time to be fed!

Taken early morning before the masses came

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