A Touch of Canada in Jervis Bay - Currarong

The weekend is here! Our plan is to try to get out each weekend (for at least 1 of the days) and enjoy this beautiful country.

We were invited by friends, Di and Ian (who have done an exchange themselves in Canada), to go kayaking/canoeing on Jervis Bay and see some of the spectacular marine life we have here.

We borrowed John's "canadian" canoe, loaded it all up early Saturday morning and headed to the Currarong side of Jervis Bay National Marine Park for a full day adventure.

We've "slipped, slapped and slopped" (shoes, hat, sunscreen) - ready for the water!

It's shocking how some of these beautiful beach areas are EMPTY when we get there (in Canada it would be a big admission and parking charge and then it would be crammed with people).

We had to set out early enough to be at high tide to access a small inlet where clear, sand bottoms make sea creatures easy-to-see.

The Finney's First Canoe Trip!

Clear, warm waters

We had an up-close and personal encounter with a Banjo Ray. Ian spotted it and picked it up, so we could pet it and have a closer look. Very cool!

Don't have these in Pigeon Lake, boys!

Wow!

Good on ya, Ian!

We also had large sea turtles, other rays, large fish. The whole trip was looking out for signs of life in the water and then attempting to paddle towards it or keep watch for it to swim by our canoe. 

We paddled ashore on an empty sand beach with very warm water and had a picnic lunch.

Chy and I did a snorkel around the rocks near the shoreline. We saw large schools of (small) fish, some larger ones - and I even snorkelled over a ray!

Liam and Bryce tried to catch some of the fish swimming all around us....and then we saw this! (click on the bottom-right corner of the video below for it to go FULL SCREEN to watch our discovery!)

They were really fun to catch (and release of course)

The edge of the coastline was a "wall" of crabs! You can see in the photo above where they hadn't been scared into burrowing into the sand yet by us. 

It was like the shore was moving!

Watch where you step!

Some were braver than others...

Cute little guys! Look at their little eyes!

Bryce and Liam moved 3 crabs into a crab hotel that they were building. At first, the crabs were happy....then we had an escape!

After the canoe trip, we headed to Currarong for an ice cream and a coffee! Beautiful spot!

The boys did what they do best....play in the rocks of the shoreline looking for "treasure" 

I mentioned to Diane that Liam really wanted to see a shipwreck while we were in Australia. She said, "Oh. There's just one down the trail over there. Let's go check it out."

This prompted Liam to start recounting all his knowledge about the Titanic (non-fiction junkie!)

We were fortunate that it was low tide - so we could actually walk around on the rocks and explore the Wreck site. 

Happy boys!

This is an attempt at shock and surprise (Liam unprompted!)

Besides the shipwreck, we saw urchins, crabs and some very cool shells

The boys found a great spot with clay - and insisted that they play with it and leave some of their shells to become preserved "discoveries" in the future.