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Published: March 6th 2007
Ronan and I spent our last week in Launceston staying with Adam and Kylie trying to be helpful, which involved lifeguarding a lot while the wee kids swam in the pool every afternoon. It was fantastic for Ronan whose water confidence has grown significantly whilst being in Australia. It is handy that a lot of the places we have stayed at have either had pools or been walking distance of the sea... We also sent a package home by seamail so it will be interesting to see if we get home first. I also bought a new bag for Ronan as we have amassed a bit of extra stuff, so it should make carrying it all a bit easier.
We flew to Sydney where we were met by 'the girls' who had been singing in Canberra (with Ronan Martin...!) and visiting more cousins who have a winery....There might be a blog about the girls trip later
Anne had booked us into a cheap motel walking distance from the airport (84 dollars for a room which seemed like a bargain) and the next day we arranged a hire car (better than rent a lemon and even cheaper being 25 dollars
Valla Beach
Surfing Heaven just 500m from Cousin Jenny's House...a day which is about 10 pounds...) while watching donuts being made at a donut factory cafe....
We then had to find the company that have pressed Anne's CD to pick up a final batch which involved driving round various Sydney industrial estates before taking the Pacific Highway north to Valla beach and Anne's Cousin Jenny's.
It was lovely to see Jenny again (after woodford folk festival) and we all just fell in love with the incredible place that she lives. 500 metres from a fabulous beach, and of course everybody surfs.. Valla Beach (even the name of the place oozes cool) is between two small towns Nambucca Head (where Jenny works and rows with the surf life saving club) and Urunga (where cousin Ross lives) and is 3/4 of an hour from Dorrigo national Park which contains awesome rainforest.
We surfed (or tried to...) chilled out, both Anne and I went rowing with Jenny in the Surf Life club boat, which was brilliant, (although involved a 6am start, as they row before work...) The boats have 4 rowers and a 'sweep' who has an oar out the back (through an eyed rowlock) to steer) They are
quite 'Currach' like in their shape, and the competition boats have sliding seats which made the rowing relatively easy. I was quite proud of how quickly I picked up the technique The sweep was Gary, a lovely old man who has been involved with surf boat life saving for years and claimed I was one of the quickest learners he'd ever had, so I just said well he'd only coached Australians....(you can imagine the banter on the boat) The morning I went, Talitha also came for the ride
Cousin Ross (or rather Rosses wife Fiona) had organised a concert for Anne at a lovely small town called Bellingen, about half an hours drive from Valla beach. The concert was in a 'venue to be' or a 'work in progress' but was totally suitable and a really nice space. I spent the afternoon with Fiona chasing lights and PA and setting up, but kept looking across at the bat colony that you could see from the venue balcony. As dusk fell the bats start flying, it was unusual to be setting up a gig while having hundreds of bats flying about...I decided there and then that the bats needed a
Cheeky Kukaburrow
Not so much pigeon post... visit on another evening.
Anne had to go back to Brisbane to run a couple of workshops, which was a shame as we were having such a great time with Jenny and enjoying the beach, but her trip was successful and appreciated. She went by overnight train and was away for a couple of days. While waiting at midnight for the train we heard some shuffling and thought it was more passengers arriving, not so, as no one appeared (we were the only people on the platform) eventually as the shuffling continued, curiosity took the better of us, and we walked into the waiting room where there were two of the most enormous moths I have ever seen, one on the wall and one fluttering around the light, making all the noise. They were both huge and beautiful, if a little disconcerting when they flew into you....
Whilst Anne was away the Kids and I had a couple of good trips, one back to Bellingen to look at 'Flying Foxes' which are enormous bats, and one to Dorrigo National Park to explore the rainforest there. We also had an hour or so in Nambucca fishing off the v
Talitha Surf Babe
It has to be said...she is a natural wall, which is the breakwater where they allow and even encourage grafitti, which is very effective in brightening up a pile of rocks...
Flying Foxes
Flying Foxes are huge bats (lots of wildlife in Australia seems to be big...) they live in camps and can fly up to 50 or 60 kilometres at night to find food, which is a good job because there are thousands and thousands of them 'camped' right next to the small town of Bellingen. I asked a Park Ranger if they knew how many, she said 100,000 but i would have said there were more. They are about the size of a small rabbit, with a wingspan of maybe up to a metre. At dusk they set off to find food and it is one of the most amazing wildlife sights I have ever seen (even more so than returning shearwaters if it is appropriate to judge..) At first there are a few, then a lot and then the sky is just filled with them, like a river of bats flying off up the valley for as far as the eye can see, a constant stream until it gets dark, and then
Ronan Surf Dude
It has to be said...he is also a natural......... who knows. Before dusk you can see them hanging upside down, on just about every available limb and branch of the trees (when they hang 'the right way up' they are defecating.....) Talitha Ronan and I watched them from a small park (between peoples gardens..!) and then walked through the bush near the river where the noise, fluttering and smell was quite something. Ronan got 'Bat Poo' on his leg which caused a bit of a stir so we went to the river where Talitha and the Kids had swum the day before to wash him, here was the amazing sight of the constant stream of bats....amazing. We washed Ronan off, and then returned to the bridge in the town where we sat and could just see in the dark the occasional bat swoop down to the water and scoop a drink of water. Having never really thought about it, but it is the obvious way for them to drink, as they don't really walk.. Seeing the bats at Bellingen has been one of the highlights of our trip for me, they really were that amazing....
Dorrigo National Park
Dorrigo is a few more kilometres up the
Valla Surf
Fearless fish Talitha underwater on the left, Anne getting out though the surf on the right with Cousin Jenny helping. valley and up the hills from Bellingen, and there is a fantastic rainforest there. The kids and I visited the day after the bats and walked to a lovely waterfall called crystal falls. The path snaked through the rainforest, past massive trees and lovely smaller (6-8ft high) walking stick palms which have thin straight trunks (hence the name) and lovely red berries The falls themselves were probably 60 or 70 ft high with thick woody vines hanging down one side, which was really spectacular, as was the view from behind, as the path went into an undercut and behind the falls. here we en counted our first leech...! Not like our leeches in loch Mealt (although a bit smaller I would say) no these ones bite and suck.. I felt something on my ankle, and there was a leech sucking away..They flick off relatively easily but there were a lot of them so consequently we would have leech checks every few minutes. I don't think any others actually bit, but they would sucker their way up your leg. The kids took it all in their stride, all part of the adventure....
Kayaking - River Bellingen
There
In mum's footsteps...
Talitha sang with Anne in Bellingen is a small kayaking outfit based near Bellingen, so we decided it would be a great trip for all the cousins to join us on, so on our last night we went for a night paddle. It was warm, and there was very little flow in the river and it was really a lovely way to finish our stay. The kayaks were big and stable and bouyancy aids 'not required' (???) I paddled a 'triple' which was basically an open canoe, so enjoyed it immensly. The clouds disappeared and the stars and moon came out, and then we finished with a champagne on the decking (part of the marketing/selling for the trip...)
Birds
I am still amazed at the beauty and almost brashness of the birdlife here, Ibis, Cockatoos, Lorikeets, Miners, all very beautifull and easy to see, and often very noisy, especially the cocatoos at dusk and morning. Treats have been the cheeky Kuckaburra who lived near the cafe in Valla beach and would try and steal food from the cafe, he also sat on the post box which made a great picture (see below) The ibis fly in packs like geese and again like
a lot of birds will hang around picnic sites (so are easy to photograph) A rarer treat was the tawnwy frogmouth, an owl like bird which arrived on Jenny's veranda one morning, they are normally nocturnal so this one must have been on its way home. The Lorikeet in the pictures was outside our cabin in Sydney....
Valla Beach to Sydney
Eventually we had to move on from Valla Beach as Anne had concerts near Lake MacQuarrie and then in Sydney, although I think we could have all stayed in Valla for a lot longer...
We stayed with some lovely folk in Lake Macquarrie who were putting on the concert for Anne, once again they had a pool which the kids enjoyed. Then it was to Sydney where we stayed in cabins at the Lane Cove National Park. This was amazing because it is bushland, by a river not 10 Km from the centre of Sydney. We picked up debs from the airport which was lovely (Debs used to work with us and lived on Skye for a number of years) She and her friend Pru stayed with us in the Cabins.
We 'did'
Sydney, the Opera House (Beautiful but hey not a patch on the Taj...) and used ferries to get under the harbour bridge.(it was great because we got daysaver tickets which paid for the train into the city to save having car hassle, and allowed as many ferry journeys as we wanted, which basically ply around the harbour, so you don't need to go on the tour boats...)
We watched Aboriginal buskers (slick and good fun so we bought an album) had lunch in a cafe on the esplanade between the opera house and the Bridge, went on ferry rides and visited the luna park fun fair (for ronan, but we had a great time on the dodgems...)
Anne worked with the Sydney Gaelic Choir and also did a short spot at a folk club just outside Sydney
We also met another cousin (iain) who lives in Newport, where we had a lovely day relaxing near Palm Beach, an amazing Beach spit which I believe has been made famous by having Sydney's most expensive real estate and being the location for one of Australia's soap operas 'Home and Away'
We visited Royal National Park, yet more bush
and wilderness about an hour out of the main city and swam in a beautiful but popular swimming hole, (where we also hired a pedallo for Ronan (not a success for various reasons) and a Canoe which would have been pleasant but I think we were all just getting a bit tired.. ( We have all done remarkably well with no real fall outs and only the occasional cross word.....
Our last night in The Cabin was spectacular for the reason that we were in the middle of a huge thunderstorm, lightening and rain, thunder cracks which were so close the cabin shook and poor Rona became terrified. It was spectacular an provided a little much needed rain for the city...
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Elaine
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I'm really loving these pics. Talitha: You really are good on that surf board. Maybe you can me some tips! Nice to see Ronan found a place on the beach to take a nap. Missing you all. Elaine