Sat 5th July – Day 56: Whitehaven Beach – Tongue Bay

As tradition now decrees Whitehaven is the venue for the theme day. Last time it was “Pirate Day” and this year it was the First Fleet re-enactment. Each Cat had been given the name of a ship from the First Fleet and was asked to research its history, crew and purpose. The early morning dawn was broken by a lone bugler as the figure head on a long boat circumnavigating the anchored fleet. We scrambled on deck to see the Winders and Alpen’s who stole the show with their full red-coat uniforms complete with long plaited white wigs, bugle, and ladies of the manor rowing amongst us calling the fleet ashore. We all donned our period dress and went ashore on mass. What the campers and early morning visitors must have thought as 44 soles from 1788 hit the shore. A close second place in the costume stakes was the spuds, potatoes & tats dressed Groat family from the supply ship ‘Fishburn’. The Convicts from HMS Sirius, Friendship and Alexander were then set upon by the pirate renegades ‘Capt. Silvertongue’ and ‘Capt. Jack Sparrow’ armed with pistols, cutlasses and a couple of wenches…let the games begin! The kids ran amuck on pristine Whitehaven beach hunting for buried treasure, racing with leg irons, boys v girls ‘tug-o-war’ & sand fort-building until all could take no more and a huge sand fight ensued with everyone ending up in the water. We expect that these crazy exploits may just be made famous as there was a photo journalist on the beach that day doing a book of the area. She was just amazed at the fleets exploits and dress. A few snaps were taken and we signed away the rights!
Farewell was then said to the Groats who left us on their extended journey around eastern Australia – we hope to catch them later. This was made even more imperative when we ended up with a raincoat, T-shirt, towel, coloured pencils and notebook belonging to them…hold on we’re coming Shelby!