Author: Mrs A
Location: Moonee Beach
The sound of thousands of ball bearings being thrown on the roof of our mobile apartment was what greeted us this morning, with heavy rain showers blowing in from the ocean. Adventurous plans of going hiking in the rainforest were abandoned in favour of cake baking and morning tea with our fellow Zoners, also dodging the inclement weather. As the morning wore on, more Zone RVs arrived taking us up to 11 vans, making the caravan park look like a muddy rainforest version of a Zone showroom, should such a thing exist!
A fun morning tea was had with lots of laughs and discussion with our fellow Zoners.
Eventually there was a break in the cloud, so Mr A and I decided to head into Coffs Harbour to find some long awaited oysters from the Fisherman’s Co-Op…as we entered though we were enticed by the smell of freshly cooked Blue Grenadier and chips, and so were swayed into having a naughty lunch instead. Oysters will wait until tomorrow!
We have such good memories of our last visit to Coffs Harbour, the beautiful sights and plenty of walking, paddling and cycling opportunities. Its a beautiful part of New South Wales.
After filling ourself we decided we ought to get out and do a walk, and drove up into the hills behind Coffs to Ulidarra National Park. There we managed a short 3km return hike to the Korora Lookout which rewarded us with views across the region and to the north – a rainforest walk with beautiful natural sculptures telling an Aboriginal story.
From there we drove to the Forest Sky Pier, a jetty which stretches out over the rainforest allowing a view across Coffs and to the south. The views were magnificent, probably moreso because of the dramatic skies with billowing clouds, showers and rainbows out over the ocean.
We returned to the campground via the Moonee Tavern, confirming our group booking for dinner tomorrow night and booking the courtesy bus to ferry us down there. Before long 6 o’clock drinks were calling us, and we all reunited in the camp kitchen for stories of travels and tips for future adventures.
The rain settled in again for the evening, drowning out any chance of conversation or entertainment via the television. It’s forecast to be similar weather tomorrow, hopefully with the odd break allowing us to enjoy the Bollywood Market along the coast…yes, Bollywood….sounds intriguing – who are we to consider not attending that spectacle! Watch this space for news of tomorrow’s adventures!
The other side of the river was much quieter, with hardly a car on the road. We passed more oyster farms and beautiful white gum trees, before reaching the next ferry about 6km later.
While the afternoon was bright and sunny, we noticed that the sky to the west was looking very dark. A quick look at the weather forecast listed a whole load of warnings, including for severe thunder storms, large hail and strong winds…we whizzed back to the campground to make sure windows were closed and the awning was secured. Of course, no inclement weather eventuated, just a hot cloudy humid evening. Still it was a good 18km ride, and got the blood moving after a few days of not much activity.
There was a lot of birdlife around our camp, with yellow robins, honeyeaters, fairy wrens, black cockatoos, wattle birds all flitting around. We climbed down to the beach and discovered pelicans, white bellied sea eagles and pied cormorants – a veritable sanctuary of feathered creatures.
Our stay was brief, however, and the following morning we headed back on our way.
That evening we enjoyed a delicious night out at the local Thai restaurant where other friends Alan and Jo joined us, entertaining us with stories of their goats and life on the farm.
A lovely quote caught my eye on a bench at one of the lookouts, an apt thought to end the day on:
We toured down the river, stopping just before it went into Merimbula Bay, close to where we had been hiking last Sunday.
Just over twelve kilometres later we were back at our start point munching on a dozen oysters each. Well deserved this time!
The water looked perfect for paddling on, being shallow and not too fast moving, but there was a strong southerly breeze which makes it a challenge. We decided to save paddling for tomorrow.
All this blog writing had made my iPad keyboard battery run out…or so I thought, so we popped out to the nearest shop for a new one (I later found that it is not the battery, but the Bluetooth capability which has stopped working. Ugh – seems a new keyboard might be required unless any readers know an easy fix?). On the way back we called into Boydtown for a look around.
We finished off with feeding the peacocks, peahens and a chick before heading back for dinner, armed with the eggs and a bag of fresh spinach from the veggie patch.
The rock formations were amazing creating some amazing backdrops for the paddle.
In the afternoon we headed off in cars to start a short walk up the coast though coastal forecast in Ben Boyd National Park. The roos were plentiful, the very lawn like grass indicative of a sizeable mob enjoying this grazing. Dolphins even obliged by appearing on cue, as well as an echidna and bush wallabies. A sea eagle soared overhead, while crested terns dived for fish in the bay.
This area of coast is one of our favourite spots in Australia. It does get busier every time we come, but there is still leaves plenty of space. We would only have seen half a dozen people on the entire walk.
Spending time outdoors in this serene and largely pristine environment is so good for our souls. It’s especially welcome as we mourn the loss of our friend. He’s on my mind a lot of the time, processing thoughts that move from angry to sad in a heartbeat. Our friends provide a welcome distraction, reminding me of the criticality of these relationships to our overall wellbeing.
After a fabulous team BBQ brunch, a group of us decided to try burning off some of the calories with a bike ride into town. Eden is famous for its incredible coastline with spectacular views. This means of course hills so we really did burn a calorie or two, but the views are worth it.
We rode down to the wharf where a large cruise ship had just arrived, and enjoyed coffees down there before heading back to camp.
After showers it was most certainly beer o’clock and the evening began. A delicious Ward spag bol was concocted followed by a very tasty dairy free chocolate birthday cake from Jenny. Much fun and laughter and a lovely birthday eve eve had.
We finally emerged onto the main waterway of the Bega River, and decided to explore upstream.
Minimal breeze meant mirror calm water, perfect paddling, with a few observers from the shore.
A quick ‘comfort stop’ and we headed back to our launch point, being carefully tracked by nosy roos and 13km under our belts.
It was time to move on again and make the short drive down to Eden, stopping en route at the beautiful little town of Perimbula for some supplies.We set up camp and shortly after, the gang arrived from Sydney. It was great to see them all after the emotional events of the last week. Nothing like old friends to help you get perspective.
So let the good times roll, after a short ride along the beach then back for some afternoon nibbles and drinks. We made everyone dinner and then some more friends from Canberra arrived. We had a full team.
Around 6pm we decided to head out to the Tathra Hotel for dinner. It had been recommended as a spot to go to, and we could see it was a nicely painted heritage building from the outside. As we entered, I expected the usual stinky sticky carpets and dark dingy walls of the typical Australian pub, but was nicely surprised. The interior has been freshly renovated, with a lot of money spent and some great interior architecture and design in place. It looked fantastic, with high ceilings, and huge windows making the most of the views across the ocean. We settled onto a table with an ocean view and ordered our food. We accompanied this with a craft beer for Mr A and a local winery Tempranillo for me – just delicious. The food was great too – my curry a little mild for my liking, but still tasty.
Wednesday morning saw us packing up and driving to a MUCH nicer campsite just 5km away in Kalaru. Lots of space, birds, wallabies, unspoilt bushland and close to the Bega River for potential kayaking opportunities. We set up early and relaxed with brunch to make plans for April, realising we have the Easter period quickly approaching when every decent campground is likely to be fully booked and full of children. We made bookings, including a couple with friends who have kindly offered us places to stay at the busiest times, and now feel a lot more in control.
We then jumped on our mountain bikes to head off on a ride. We had only made it about 500 metres when a phone call came which shook our world. We had the horrible news that a good friend back in Sydney had lost his battle with depression. Just awful, we feel there must have been something we could have done to prevent this happening…how could we have fun while a friend was in so much pain? We spent a tearful hour or so calling other friends to let them know the bad news, and considered heading back to the caravan to reflect.
Tonight is not to be an alcohol free night. Barbecued lamb chops on a pumpkin hummus will be accompanied by spinach with toasted walnuts and a lemon and lime dressing. We will toast our friend and hope he is in a happier place tonight. There will certainly be more tears from us before the day is out…
We did a short 4km paddle before returning to shore, deciding that air conditioned surroundings would be more suitable on a 35 degree day.
The mercury remained high for the afternoon, so we retired to the air conditioned caravan to read and relax.
We caught the free courtesy bus both ways and are now safely tucked into the caravan as a huge storm has rolled in, taking the temperatures down finally, and making for a very cosy evening. Cheers folks!