Today was our last day in the Brisbane area and we made an impromptu teip to Straddie which is an island southeast of Brisbane (and third we have considered visiting after Fraser and Moreton).
The pictures will set the scene on the incredible scenery of the island (which is lightly inhabited and visited by maybe 500 people today) so we will tell the story of what we observed by simply sitting on an outcropping of rocks. There was actually a time when we could see a sea turtle diving on our left, a pod of dolphins surfing and jumping through waves directly in front of us with another pod playing behind them and further in tbe distance humpbacks whales leaping from the water and slapping their fins. It was actually impossible to look at the ocean around Lookout Point and not see these things happening, and the best part was nearly the entire are was empty. In total we would guess we saw about 10 humpbacks and between 20-30 dolphins. We later learned that there are about 500 humpbacks that migrate through in winter, now, and about 1000 dolphins who live within 1.5 km of the island. Oh yea, and we saw a kangaroo jumping up a hill on the way down to Fenchman's Beach so we really knocked a bunch of animals off the must see Australia wildlife list.
This entry would not be complete without sharing an anecdote we heard from a WWII vet who has lived on the island for about 65 years now. We don't recall it word for word but essentially a lady bought a bird for its ability to sing, or so she thought. Long story short it gets a crumb in the bum and we learn the bird was not in fact singing but farting. This stranger thought this was hilarious so in his honor we share.
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