Felt slightly “off” today for some reason….. perhaps a bit too much heat yesterday?? Anyway, we had a quiet morning and then drove a little north, through Surfer’s Paradise to meet Jane for lunch at a seafood restaurant in Labrador. It was boiling again today! Felt even hotter than yesterday.
Charis Seafoods is both a seafood supplier and a posh fish and chip shop, right on the inlet beach, with a lovely lagoon in front. We were all three starving, so we ordered food right away: Barramundi and chips. Bob and I were naughty and had it battered! We ate under the trees outside. The portions were massive and it was all delicious. We were stuffed…..
At 130 every day, one of the staff comes out with several buckets of fish bits and feeds the local pelicans. They gather together and sit there waiting for him and then advance in a mob to be fed. It’s very amusing to watch. He feeds some individually and at other times throw several “filleted carcases” out to be fought over. When a pelican catches a fish, he puts it into his pouch, often with bits sticking out, waddles out of the crowd and down to the water, scoops up a bit to help wash the fish down and then eats it from the pouch. The pouch expanded just like a plastic carrier bag. Amazing to see so close up.
Then Jane took us a little up the lagoon and showed us the army crabs. These are tiny blue crabs that move around en masse almost as though they were battalions of troops. When we first moved onto the mud, they disappeared down, but then once we stood still, they all started to come up again. There were hundreds and the larger ones (still tiny) were a bright blue, rather like an opal. Fascinating to watch.
We had a quick look around Surfer’s Paradise, but we are coming back for 3 or 4 days in some weeks time so will see it more then. We passed the Versace resort where the Jungle celebs go after their gruelling ordeal!! It looked posh but a bit flashacious. We’ll have to go for a drink and see. Went to one of the outlet malls, but it was largely outside and we found the heat just too gruelling. Drove back to Broadbeach and went into the massive indoor mall there. I wanted to get some things for Bob’s birthday tomorrow. His main present is to see La Traviata at Sydney Opera House later this month but he had to have some “opening” presents too. Managed to get some things, so that was excellent.
Came back to the apartment about 5pm. Very annoyingly, we are having to move apartments tomorrow for our second week. We assumed when we booked two weeks that we would be in the same place for both weeks, but no….. the reception staff are not at all helpful. In fact we are having to pack up, check out and then later in the day, check in again! Really ridiculous particularly as we have frozen food in the freezer. Not entirely sure how its going to work tomorrow but not impressed so far. It’s a shame as the apartments are really very nice, but let down by the front desk who are quite the worst I’ve ever encountered.
Still too full up for any dinner. Just had some rice crackers and hummus. Spoke to Lu and Daisy on their way to work through the snow.