Dolphins and sunsets

Graham and Judi called us at noon and said they are heading to the Bribie island in a couple of hours if we would like to join them. We checked our extremely busy calendars, asked our secretaries to move a couple of meetings and said ok.

The beaches north of Brisbane are less lived in and built around, south beaches are beautiful but more busy. There are also lots of islands around the city. Today we headed to a Bribie island.

The beach was as far as your eye can reach, the sand fine and pure and clean. Since it’s Australian winter, there were just a few people taking walks on it.

A Finnish man fishing with a hat that says “Born to be wild”,
a little girl with her dad walking, leaving behind tiny little footprints,
a woman exercise-walking,
an old couple taking a walk and stopping for a little chat.

We walked a couple of miles.

I was collecting the seashells.
Perfect little shells, some of them had perfect little holes that would make a perfect necklace. Little transparent jelly fish washed out on the shores. We admired them and rolled them back in the water. Sand dunes to the right and vast Pacific to the left with waves loudly crashing on to the shore. Other islands in the distance.

Perfect peace.

After walking a couple of miles we turned around. The sun had started going down. The horizon was starting to turn into mild pinks and reflecting gentle purples in the water. The golden sunshine was still in the ocean in the distance.

Then we saw the dolphins. A little family. Playing with each other. At times swimming with their bellies up, their round little snouts in the air. Diving in and out. You can’t help but feel this happiness wash over while watching them. They look like cheerful little kids playing.

We watched them a little while and headed off because there was a sunset to catch on the other side of the island.

The first thing you notice there was the loud chirping of the birds. Thousands of parrots in greens and oranges and whites sitting in the trees. In the distance there were pelicans and other birds that I didn’t know. The sun had started setting when we went to the fish and chips shop to get the dinner. While we were waiting for it to be cooked we were watching the sun go down casting bright yellow and orange in the sky that reflected in the dark blue calm bay water. By the time we were eating it was a perfect color harmony of opposites – deep orange in the sky reflected in the deep blue water with the dark silhouettes of people fishing, boats parked in the water and the pelicans getting ready for the night.

We finished our dinner watching huge bats, about half a meter (about foot and a half, two feet?) wing span, flying in to the island over our heads from the inland with their dark silhouettes over the bright orange sky.

This afternoon is why we moved here. Watching wild birds instead of London commuters getting home, listening to the waves crashing, instead of horns and sirens going, enjoying God’s creativity and admiring Him for it – we are so blessed!