'A Fosters and a tonne of curry, please'

Manda writes:

The heat-wave has finally broken and temperatures have plummeted by almost a half. At 23 degrees Celcius, it is a noticeable and comfortable drop. Definitely a more comfortable temperature for old Ethel anyway!

Ian and I travelled to a twin town called Forster and Tuncurry today. The name sounds more like a restaurant order - 'A Fosters and a tonne of curry, please!' - rather than a name of a place!

The two towns are separated by a long bridge over Wallis Lake. We were told by another couple of travellers that dolphins can be found here. They'd seen no less than fourteen of them swimming around by the jetty. Ian and I were looking forward to spotting some. However, it had started to rain and we didn't have high hopes.

We went over to the breakwall at Forster and then over the bridge to the jetty at Tuncurry but on both occasions, we didn't spot any dolphins. Instead, we saw a group of pelicans huddled together on the sandbars. These birds were huge - I've never seen any as large as these ones. Judging by their size, I came to the conclusion that this lake must be teeming with fish. Looking around, I could see that this may indeed be the case, as I caught sight of a fish and chip shop, fishing boats and a handful of fishermen angling off the side of the jetty.

Pelican preening itself at Tuncurry.

Ian spent the next few minutes flapping his arms to try to provoke the pelican to open its mouth. Not sure why but here is a view of the pelican's tonsils:

A close-up of a pelican's tonsils.

[Ian adds: Not sure why? Well, to get a photo precisely like that one above and hopefully to walk away with both eyes still intact. Mission accomplished!]

We decided to stay in Tuncurry overnight on the off-chance that we'd be able to spot some dolphins at dusk - as we had done in Moreton Island previously. Besides, we were hopeful that the weather may improve with time.

Our second dolphin-spotting mission proved to be more fruitful. It was drizzling but the dolphins still made an appearance, swimming playfully with each other. From the breakwall in Forster we spotted a pod of seven or eight of them in the distance. One of the local fishermen told us that a group of dolphins swam up to the breakwall a few days ago. It would have been good to have seen them up close, but Ian and I were just content that we'd spotted some before heading off for the next town (us, not the dolphins!).