A lazy day in Jervis Bay, with paella but no whales

Getting six adults, two kids and a baby out of the door of our holiday house proved remarkably difficult, especially when three of them are still on Spanish time. So we spent much, well almost all, of the day lazing about in a very holiday-by-the-beach manner. Some slept, some drank coffee, some read and many played with their extremely cute one-year-old cousin/ niece/grand-daughter who is finding no shortage of willing people to hold her up while she learns to walk.

Later in the afternoon saw a flurry of activity when the boys set upon their uncle with water-pistols. The fight was very one-sided until Uncle Bob found the garden hose and then things escalated into full-on soaking. Jennifer got dragged into the fray while everyone else used baby Julia as a human shield.

Later still, as the shadows lengthened, we set out to drive to the old St George Lighthouse. The Lighthouse was built in the wrong place, causing more shipwrecks than it prevented, so it was eventually decommissioned and used for target practice by the Navy. There are still sandstone buildings, the stub of the tower, and a viewing platform with expansive views out to sea. We stood there for quite some time peering into the distance in the hope of seeing whales; eventually we thought that maybe we saw something that might, possibly have been a whale breaching, but it was so vague that it doesn’t really count. We did see some lovely sea eagles and a wallaby and so didn’t leave entirely unsatisfied.

Greenpatch Point claims to have the whitest sand in the World. It’s certainly nice sand, but the claim is a little hard to support from just standing on it. We didn’t really visit for the beach as much as for the kangaroos. Last time we were there they were all over the place: This time, in the gathering dark, we managed to find three of them munching on grass right in front of, not the lovely beach, but the toilet block. As photo-opportunities for the Spanish relatives go, more could, perhaps, have been wished for.

No matter, our outing meant we all felt we were deserving of a beer and a home-cooked paella.