Michael Gorey

We had a particularly enjoyable day on our beach holiday with some interesting moments.

The waves at Florida Beach looked bigger than they had been for a few days, but were still moderate, then literally out of the blue some giant swells rolled in. By that stage Juliet and I were holding Maggie and Jim respectively with their floaties on.

When the first monster came, your hero surrendered himself to the wave and lifted Maggie high into the air. I’m told Juliet did the same with Jim, but actually threw him airborne.

Needless to say, Juliet and I were dunked. Michael Jnr, who was watching from the shore, said Maggie didn’t even get her face wet and Jim came through remarkably unscathed.

The little ones then departed the water. A few minutes later kids near us shouted the alarm for a stingray. I’ve heard false alarms before for sharks, but this one sounded genuine.

I headed towards dry land and saw a five-foot wide dark stingray in the water about 10 feet away. I’ve got no idea if it was deadly or not but had no intention of finding out. Steve Irwin RIP.

After the beach we enjoyed a picnic at Dawesville on the estuary.

UPDATE:

This is a picture I found online of the type of stingray we saw, however this smooth stingray is apparently often confused with with the “black stingray“.

I say we saw a smooth stingray, based on these pictures, albeit a small one.

Although the screed says they are “bottom dwelling” I guess it might have been washed up in one of the big waves.

I don’t like this part: “It usually has one venomous spine (the sting) halfway along the tail which is capable of inflicting severe or potentially fatal wounds.”

These articles might be of interest:

• Beach erosion
• The carnival is over
• Changing times