Fish, flying and bewildered pups (Part Two 5/3/14)

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While we were at the Wharf we had some lunch. I finally got my ½ dozen oysters (for $7.50) straight off the oyster beds that morning and just opened. They were tender and delicious, so I’m happy now! Barry had Blue Grenadier and we shared some chips. We sat outside to eat and watched the comings and goings on the wharf, both human and bird. We saw some really large black cormorants, the usual pelicans and Silver Gulls. Whenever a boat returned to the wharf, it was mobbed by birds appearing from everywhere to see if there would be any handouts. They got lucky on one boat – a hire for the day fishing experience that had been successful and caught loads of fish. Part of the deal is that the crew clean the fish for the client and pack them ready to take home.

We came down to see the antics of the cormorants, diving underwater and coming up directly below whatever had been thrown over the side of the cleaning station on the wharf. They would appear suddenly and gobble it straight down. We realised that they could stay under for quite a long time and could swim really fast underwater, too, so they could have started from metres away. The skipper of the boat had a cute little honey-coloured terrier that came on all the trips. He was racing back and forth along the very edge of the jetty watching as the cormorants ducked down and then chasing after them as they swam below the surface. Sometimes he lost one as it dived too deep and he would stand staring into the water waiting for it to come up, which it would do a long way off, thoroughly confusing him. He didn’t bark at all, which surprised me. The skipper told us that his name was Barney, that he had his own chair on deck and that he didn’t like birds coming onto his boat so he was making sure they didn’t. He certainly got plenty of exercise during his endeavours!

While we were watching, Barry saw a white wing and long thin black tail break the surface. It was an ENORMOUS Stingray, close to 2 metres across. It was “flying” back and forth between the boat and the wharf’s stone wall. As we watched two more appeared. They filled the whole area as they passed, often lifting part of a wing out of the water and showing the white underside. Later, another two, slightly smaller ones, arrived. They were amazing. We watched until the whole catch had been cleaned and then went back to the car to do a bit of food shopping.

With the food stowed, we took a stroll down to Wallaga Lake at the edge of the caravan park, near our camp site. The tide was low and lying in the shallows, with its yellow-brown mantle slightly out of water, was a quite large jelly fish, digging itself deeper into the sand in its efforts to swim. I did consider trying to pick it up with my stick and toss it further in but Barry was convinced we should leave it as the tide was turning and it would soon be picked up and would be able swim away. I do hope he was correct!

It began to get cool and we could see dark clouds approaching so we returned to the van. The sun was low and was casting a beautiful golden glow over the edges of the towering nimbus and onto the rain that was falling across the other side of the lake. It looked like heavenly rays coming down to Earth - lovely. Soon after that, we watched a gorgeous sunset over the lake - a stunning end to another wonderful day (and the storm clouds passed us by, too!)



Tomorrow we move on to a cheap site near Moruya, the Moruya North Heads Campground, $11 a night for Seniors during off-peak periods. It doesn’t have power but we can manage that ourselves and it’s way past time we had a low cost night.

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Photos

Bermagui Wharf
An enormous stingray scavenging for fish scraps.

Barney the Nautical Canine
"Now where did that pesky cormorant go. He's not coming on MY boat!"

Wallaga Lake
Towering storm clouds near dusk

Wallaga Lake
Sunset over the lake taken from outside our van