Oct 6 - Hangover and Champagne (Pools)

Needless to say, everyone was feeling pretty rough this morning due to the late night of alcohol consumption, so we had some cereal, very slowly, before setting out for the day's activities. Surprisingly, once we arrived at the first stop, everyone was feeling much better and ready for some excercise. Eli Creek was our first stop, which is really hyped up by every tour operator and our guides as well. It was...a creek. Nothing too exciting or spectacular. We walked up a boardwalk to the start of it, then walked down the knee-deep creek to the start. The highlight of Eli Creek was getting to use the nice washrooms after having only the bush at our campsite all night.

From here we headed to where we had lunch then walked to the Champagne Pools, which are little pockets of ocean water surrounded by rocks. When a wave crashes into the rocks, it trickles down and bubbles into the pools, creating a champagne-like effect. We spent a couple hours floating in the pools, enjoying the sun and I ventured over to an empty beach past rock cliffs while the rest napped by the pools.

After the pools, we drove to the other end of the cliff-enclosed beach and walked up the cliff peninsula known as Indian Head. From up here we saw a manta ray, and some saw sharks and turtles, but we were pretty high up (maybe 200 feet) from the water, so it was tough to see much marine life. We had to leave in a hurry to be able to utilize the beach for driving before the tide came back in and gunned it down the sand over to the shipwreck. This rusty old wreck was being towed to Japan for scrap metal many years ago when the line broke in a storm and it washed ashore. It was too expensive to retrieve, so they let it sit on the beach and made it a tourist attraction. It's about as exciting as a few tonnes of rusty metal could be I suppose.

Then it was back to the campsite for a delicious chicken stirfry with rice and plenty of veggies and significantly less alcohol consumption (but still a little). Our group played cards for a couple hours and everyone went to bed pretty early. This didn't alleviate the brutal sleep once again, however, as the sand was just as terrible a mattress as the previous night.