Straddie Rules!

On Saturday we took a 45 minute ferry ride at 8:00 in the morning to Stradbrooke Island, or "Straddie" as they call it here. It is around 70 miles long, and full of beaches. It only has about 2,000 people living on it, and they are mostly the native Aboriginal people. Some of our friends come over to school everyday, because there is only one Aboriginal school. Once we got over there, we went to a town called Point Lookout at the North tip of the island. The surf was really big, and we were getting thrown around a lot. They had six year olds training to be Life Guards out in the waves boogie boarding. Luke had brought his board to and we all did lots of boogi boarding. We went on a walk called the Gorge Walk, it was a very long brand new board walk through the jungle. Along the way we saw manta rays, dolphins, sea turtles, birds, lizards, and maybe even a shark. It was really hot out, and by the end of the walk we we're ready to jump in the ocean! After we swam for a while, we hopped back in the sandy car and went to Cylinder Beach, a gorgeous beach on the east coast of the island, facing out to open sea. We ate a delicious lunch, then dived in to the crystal clear water. The waves were perfect, not to big but perfect for swimming and playing. I have to say, it was probably the most amazing beach I had ever been to. Cate nd I found loads of beautiful shells and Dad and the boys fished. We didn't want to leave, but we did and went to another beach in Amity, that was small but nice. The only scary thing was that there was a shark net within about 15 feet both ways, and a sign saying to watch out for sharks. We swam for a bit, then left because we had to catch the last ferry home at 5 at night. It was a great day to be at the beach!  From Claire