Sandwiches and seals (and more penguins) at Sandfly Bay 2

A wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve. Late and leisurely start to the day. Had a rare lie in (for this trip anyway) which was lovely, and spent in a real bed as we have a few nights in an appartment – a nice break from the van.

Cooked up and ate another lovely breakfast, then headed out to Sandymount Reserve, about 15 mins drive away for a glorious afternoon’s walking.

First off, an 800m upward slog to the viewing point…

As it turned out a good warm up for what was to come… and well worth the effort for the erm… view.

Back down to set off on the lovely 2km walk to the bay.

Don’t be fooled by the seemingly short distance - this walk from the upper car park is definitely not for the faint hearted as we were soon to discover (Deb you may want to have a little lie down before, after or during reading this).

Don’t get me wrong, the walk is a stunning one over huge sand dunes, the path lined with sweet smelling yellow lupins, magnificent views of the beautiful Sandfly Bay (so called because of the amount of flying sand rather than those pesky blood sucking sandfly critters) in the distance.

It’s just a bit of a slog over lovely deep, soft, squeaky, sand, and just when you think you’ve got to the top… you haven’t… Made it eventually and rewarded our efforts by sitting on the rocks and eating our delicious sandwiches, gazing at the unbelievably blue sea, crashing waves and spray. Seals, Oyster Catchers, seagulls, and maybe 10 other people in the distance for company.

At one point while we were stuffing our faces, a seal came in from the sea, looking all lumbering and huge, eyballed us, had a bit of a sniff around then headed straight back into the water. Something we said? Shame I was stuffing rather than snapping - would’ve been a nice shot. Oh well, another one that got away…

Sat in the sun for a goodly while longer (mainly to put off the uphill slog back up through the sand dunes it has to be said).

Walked along the beach for a bit and were treated to another penguin experience. There was one on its way down to the sea and another on its way back. We looked on with another couple of folk as the penguins passed each other en route to their respective destinations, without so much as nodded greeting to each other. Pretty special to see them doing their thing, especially after being so close to the seals as well earlier.

Anyway, if we were going to get back for dinner it was time to face the upward slog back up to the carpark. Bloody hard work – what goes down must eventually go up… Anyway made it in the end to our great relief and joy and the walk was a truly rewarding experience – as they say, no pain, no gain.

Hoping for a nice day tomorrow so we can do it all again… same reserve, different walk…