Camping!

Well we have just returned from our first dry run of our camping trip.  It was a good learning experience.  One, we decided that we are too old to be sleeping in a little tent, and since we wont' be backpacking or sailing our way around Australia we can opt for a tent that we can stand up in.  Two, the ground is really, really hard and our little sleeping pads just don't do it for us.  That and I kept sliding down to the bottom of the tent and we were barely on a slope.  Lesson learned form our first dry run, bigger tent, and cots!  I figure we will need at least 2 more dry runs before we hit the road.  One with camp cooking!   That will be an interesting learning curve I'm sure.  When we got the roof rack for the car the bloke at the shop, Frank, is a wealth of information, and he loves to share it.  Lucky for us, believe me.  After we told him we were going to do our dry run down to Coffs Harbour, he made a couple of suggestions, camp down in Sawtell, go see the lagoon walk in Uranga, see Bellingen.  We started out driving down the Pacific Highway and our first stop was at Yamba, a place we certainly want to go back to again, a lovely seaside town with great rocks.  Our friend Tony Sweet would just love it there, surf and rocks.  The bakery also has good meat pies.  Then on to Coffs, don't need to go there again, although the pier to Muttonbird  Island was really cool, and even saw a humpback whale.  We spent the night at a campground in Sawtell, another beautiful town, where we about froze our ***** 's off.  Next morning off to Uranga, another must see town. Just check out all of Steve's photos, it was awesome, and just a taste of what is in store for us.  Cheers.

Yamba Rocks #1

Allie the Thinker

Sawtell Dawn #1

Beach Tower #1

Coastal Jungle

A bit of wild life

Here's a juvenile Giant Southern Petrel that was too exhausted to fly and came ashore on Tallow Beach. We took turns watching over it until the animal rescue folks came and retrieved it. The seagulls were circling like vultures looking to attack it, poor bugger.

And here's something that shouldn't fly but does (wait until the ending). We watched for a half hour until he was done.

Amazing the things we see here in Oz!

A compendium of images

We're doing just fine and the weather here in winter is as changeable as home's. One minute it is pouring and the next sunny. So, dressing for the climate is a hit and miss thing, more often missing. So layers are key.

We tried to find a place today and found a state park, Mt. Jerusalem State Park, instead. We also found the end of the road way back in the mountains. I had hoped it would go through but we ended up doing miles of backtracking. Oh well, part of the adventure.

Tallow Estuary Panorama

Cape Byron Branches and Bird

Tallow Storm Walker

The Black Surf

Tallow Beach Teepee

Storms and Beaches

I’ve never had the experience of spending a lot of time near the beach. I’ve read the “Outermost House” by Henry Beston who wrote of his years experience of living on the beach of Cape Cod but this is the first time I have spent mornings and afternoons walking the same beach for two months now. I have found it amazing. I think that Tallow Beach, “our” beach, is one of the more beautiful beaches on New South Wales north coast. It is nestled between Byron Head and Broken Head, and it is just a long expanse of clean white beach.

I know that beaches come and go, I know that many municipalities spend a fortune trying to retain their beaches by building sea walls and all of that, but not here, and it has been fascinating to see the daily movement of our Tallow Beach.

At the north end of the beach is Tallow Creek, a wonderful place for birdlife and photography, Steve has spent much time there taking stunning sunsets. But Tallow Creek when we arrived was land locked. The beach blocked its entrance into the ocean. The water levels were high, almost up to the bridge. You could walk the beach without any problems past the creek and on up the beach towards the lighthouse. Going south towards Broken Head, there was a similar creek that had created a beautiful lake what was home to much birdlife.

Then last Thursday, we had a terrible storm, many waterspouts were seen out on the ocean, one touched down in Lennox Head, the next town south of us, and destroyed about 30 homes. We were lucky, we were driving back from the Byron farmers market when the heavens opened up. And I mean the heavens opened up. Anyway, the storm ripped openings in both creeks and the water from the creeks cut the beach in six places. You could no longer walk the beach unless you were barefoot, you had to ford the cuts. Tallow Creek wasn’t

even fordable, way too dangerous. Today, one week later, the sand has again filled the beach in, the creeks are no longer running through to the ocean, and the lakes have returned. I find this absolutely amazing.

After the Storm 1

After the Storm 2

After the storm - drained estuary

Before the storm -flooded estuary

Miscellaneous

Here are some images that I enjoyed taking down at one end of the beach. Not much of a story but they do showcase a small corner of Australia. :)

The Tweed Range Scenic Drive

The edge of the world

The other day we took a drive up into the Border Range mountains that separate New South Wales from Queensland and finally found the drive we had read about but was not easily mapped. This is a strange phenomenon of Australia, they talk about places but neglect to tell you how to get there. So, we took a long and round about way but we found the Tweed Range Scenic Drive and enjoyed it immensely.

Happily, we have 4wd and used it on more than one occasion on the drive. The road is gravel and after the huge storm of the previous day, the road was a bit rough, to say the least. It was well worth the effort as I hope the images demonstrate. Basically, the drive is along the rim of an ancient volcano rim and the road is not for the faint-hearted. The distant peak is all that is left of the center of the volcano and the rim extends in an arc about fifteen miles from the center. It must have been a huge one with a diameter of 30 miles.

The last image is of the morning of the storm, referenced above. It made the national news as there was a tornado which started out as a waterspout and then came ashore and did quite a bit of damage to the town just south of us. They get plenty of waterspouts, but this was the first one that had come ashore in memory. Of course, it headed right for a caravan park, which is the Aussie version of a campground and trailer park, and it tumbled the campers and trailers like they were toys. The biggest miracle was that no one was killed or seriously injured (unlike the twisters that just hit Ohio) and that a couple in a tent lived through it as the tornado literally hopped over their tent. Wild.

Other that that, we've been enjoying the sunshine like crazy when we get it (not today) and hope the thunderstorms back in New England haven't impacted any of you in any significant way.

Steve

The Mount Warning Caldera

A view from the roadside

Storm Morning