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My last full day in Australia started with an early rise, and a drive to the docks, to grab a boat to take me on a 75 minute journey to Tangalooma Resort, an island (made entirely of sand) full over tons of different activities for the entire family. For me, that consisted of…
A Desert Safari, complete with Sand SurfingA Quad (4-wheeler) lesson and tourJet skiing around the island and catching SERIOUS airAnd finally, feeding the dolphins at nightfall.
I’m exhausted, tired, in a ton of sore (the good kind) pain, awesomely suntanned, and best of all, chock full of photos from today’s awesome, awesome experience. What a way to end an amazing trip!
Some quick notes, before I fall asleep…
Tangalooma has eleven dolphins, 75 activities, two restaurants (that I counted) tons of incredibly nice people working there, and enough sand to rebuild Abu Dhabi.
Sand surfing, when done right, involves screaming down a sand dune at speeds topping out at around 40 miles per hour. When done wrong, it involves rolling head over heels down a sand dune, ingesting more sand than you’ll ever want to eat, ever in your life. I did both of them.
And yes – These were big-ass dunes. Person walking up them thrown in for scale.
Here’s a photo of me and my guide for the day, prior to our dune surfing. Note the lack of sand all over our bodies:
And after.
Quad Wheeling, or Four Wheeling, as we call it in America, can be scary as hell. Once you get the hang of it, after about five minutes, you just want to jump dunes for hours. I know now why this is a very popular sport with people who also own houseboats and watch Ultimate Fighting Championship.
I totally did NOT like my Jet Ski guide. The reason for this, obviously, is because a) he just stepped out of an Australian ChapStick commercial, and b) got to ride Jet Skis all day and get paid for it. In what universe is that ok? Obviously, I liked him fine, I’m just jealous as hell. And somehow, when he jumped waves, he looked so smooth doing it. Every wave I jumped compressed my spine by an inch or so. I’m so sore, incredibly achy, and I’m now 4’11”.
Finally, the day ended with feeding the dolphins. As I was waiting to go down to the beach and meet the dolphins, I asked the group leader what kind of fish we were feeding him. “Herring,” he answered. I for one, was pleased to find out they were Jewish dolphins.
I’ll have photos of the feeding in a few days, but in yet ANOTHER sign from the universe that I’m simply supposed to marry Eliza Dushku, the dolphin I got to feed – What was his name? Echo.
The sunsets from the beach at Tangalooma were awesome.
And that’s it. Tomorrow I pack up, and grab a 12pm flight from Brisbane to LAX, then connect from LAX to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, then Bangalore, India, for a conference. This has been beyond an amazing seven days, and I’m so very fortunate to have had the opportunity to come here. I can’t recommend Australia enough – I’m already plotting my return somehow. If you’re looking for a vacation spot this year – Trust me on this. Seriously.
Thanks for reading. I hope it was fun. 🙂
