The Magical Beach in Dunalley, Tasmania

Our next stop after Freycinet National Park was the Tasman Peninsula.  We stayed in Dunnalley at a spot right next to the beach.  The first day we were there we headed down for a look.  Thank goodness we did because it was the only good beach day we had during our stay there.  The tide was out, the waves were calm, the water was shallow and warm.  But there was something magical about this beach that we hadn’t anticipated. There were crabs everywhere! The kids called this sandy spot Crab Island.  It was very hard to walk without stepping on a crab. It was so neat to watch them bury themselves in the sand.  They’d turn in circles and make this pattern which dotted the beach. So sorry if you are looking at this and don’t like crabs.  I thought they were gorgeous.  It was a great experience for the kids to see so many in one place.  We had so much fun watching them skitter around. Dad spotted something in the ocean.  Can you see it?  Another magical creature! It was just hanging out there in the shallow water, not moving.  This was quite far from the shore.  We didn’t get any closer.  Such a great spot.  Because the water was shallow it was so warm and nice to wade in. As the afternoon wore on the crabs all buried themselves in the sand.  Suddenly the beach was bare.  Magical, no? In one of the tide pools we found several of these squishy snail egg masses, complete with snails.  This was before I knew what these gelatinous blobs were so I wondered why the snails liked them so much! The kids ran for their boogie boards.  There weren’t any waves, but they pulled each other around and had great fun. This guy enjoys the boogie boards too. I love beach pictures.   See the baby crab?  They were hard to find. We saw more of those Pacific Gulls that we’d seen in Coles Bay. The others took off down the beach to look for a good fishing spot.  I stayed behind with JitterBug and TurboBug. Love this kid. Suddenly he shouted ‘Is that an echidna?’ and wow, it was.  On the beach.  I’m not sure if it had been in the water or just walking down the shore.  We watched as it headed across the beach and disappeared into the long grasses. It hesitated next to this water but then walked on through. I nearly forgot TurboBug was with us.  He happily sat here for ages playing with the bucket and shovel. A great toddler smile! The next day it was windy.  Very windy.  The wind pushed the waves up the beach and the ocean was choppy.  We never saw the crabs again.  I’m so glad we headed down to the beach as soon as we got there.  I think I have some videos of the crabs, I’ll put them in another post since this one is long enough!