Holiday Happiness

December has been a blur since my weekend in Joburg. The tourism season is in full swing here in St Francis, so the Sea Centre is busy with boat tours and activities every day. Being out on the boat regularly means I’ve been seeing some incredible marine life. Scalloped hammerhead sharks can be seen prowling near the surface of the water – they’re small sharks (don't worry, Mum) that are attracted to the area by the chokka industry. 

Little bit tricky to see - but there's a hammerhead there!

What I’ve been excited about the most is the dolphin activity. On December 23^rd, we followed a pod of over a hundred bottlenose dolphins as they swept across St Francis Bay, mating and feeding. We then came upon a pod of five humpback dolphins that often frequent the bay and had the extraordinary opportunity to watch them mate. Humpbacks are very elusive and easily disturbed by humans, so to spend nearly an hour watching them jumping and displaying their bellies was an incredible opportunity. When I got off the boat, I felt like I was walking on a cloud - we were so lucky! I felt like Christmas had come early.

Bottlenose dolphins

Humpback dolphins and Ally dolphin!

On December 18^th, we celebrated Blair’s 26^th birthday. It was a wonderful, sunny day, and we took the opportunity to enjoy the sun by the pool. Later we feasted on a massive ice cream cake, and continued the birthday festivities.

Blair's birthday slash Christmas photoshoot!

Despite the parties and poor eating that go along with the summer holidays, I’ve managed to stay motivated to exercise by the St Francis summer series – every morning there is a bike ride, run, swim, duathlon, triathlon, or other event of some sort. Chida and I won the duathlon (I swam, she ran), and I won a 1km swim race (I was very surprised – it was a very popular event and I thought my butt had been kicked … luckily many of the distance swimmers chose to do the 2km race!). On December 26^th I did the swim portion of a triathlon, with Luke (Sam and Rob’s son) doing the bike, and Chida doing the run. On January 2nd, Chida, Blair, Alex and I will be attempting our second Quadrathlon.