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Published: January 22nd 2016
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The alarm goes at 6am and Martin complains that we are meant to be on holiday. I too am tired but we have sights to see!
Good morning the group echo as we board the tour bus, how was your evening? What was the hotel like? How was the lodge? What was your food like? We are all starting to share our common experiences which have the effect of bonded you to strangers and opening up new friendships. What time did you go to bed they ask us. I confess that we were in bed by 10pm expecting to hear tales of drinking late into the night. Well that was later than us they replied, we were in bed by 9.30pm they laugh, we were exhausted.
We make our way to Indian Heads. Apparently it was called Indian Heads because when the Europeans first discovered Australia the only black people
they knew were Indians. We have to climb from the beach up some rocks to a cliff edge and the views are amazing but the folklore story that goes with this trip is rather sad. Apparently white men settlers heard stories that aboriginal men were raping white women settlers and killing white men so the white settlers took their revenge. The story goes that the aboriginal men were killed and the women and children were taken to Indian Heads cliff edge and pushed off to be killed on the rocks below. If they survived the fall they were made to tread water until they drowned. Wayne tells us that occasionally, aboriginal decedents visit a sacred 'off-track' path to pay their respects to their ancestors.
Our next stop is more uplifting and is called the 'Champagne Pools'. This is where pools are created behinds some rocks and the impact of the waves hitting the rocks has the effect of opening a shaken bottle of champagne. By now we are all wilting in the heat and we
can't wait to strip off to our cosies and run down to the water. The cooling effect is bliss and there are even coloured fish in the pools. So, so pretty, It makes me feel excited for the Great Barrier Reef snorkelling for next week.
Next stop is lunch courtesy of Wayne. Now if you can imagine Wayne in his smoked scored jumper, missing tooth and carefree nature making a packed lunch for 9 you will get the essence. Ham and cheese rolls, pack of cookies, crisps, apples that are beyond edible and a couple of bottles of pop between us. Some of the rolls had mould on them and others were so wet they were inedible. The funniest part though was that he knew the Australian and his Spanish partner were vegetarian but he couldn't be bothered to make thlem different rolls so he simply brought them the left over bread, tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber and said help yourself. He even provided 2 forks - but no knives! Luckily one of the others had
a pen knife. Wayne simply took him self off to the shop to buy his lunch!
After lunch we head to the Maheno shipwreck which was originally a New Zealand ocean liner later converted to a hospital ship in WW1 but was washed ashore by a cyclone in 1935. Most of the ship is now buried within the sand or has simply rusted away and it is hard to imagine the true original size of this ship but it makes for some good photos.
Our last stop of the day is Eli creek. This a freshwater creek that meanders down to the beach and into the ocean like a lazy river. Families and groups of friends had reversed their 4x4 vehicles facing the waters edge, some had gazebos and rubber rings for the natural lazy river and they all had picnics for a safe day of splashing about in
the crystal clear waters. I wished Wayne had suggested bringing rubber rings to float down on instead we just jump in and floated down on my our tummies.
After our allotted time (Wayne runs this tour with military precision and lo and behold anyone who is late - which was often the American and the Spanish lady) we jump in the vehicle with just our towels wrapped around our cossies and head back exhausted again.
We get back to the hotel and quickly change to walk down to the jetty to see if we are in time to hire a canoe for an hour or so but they are closing so we settle for a drink and watch the sun go down.
Martin
has managed to buy himself a torch so after dinner we repeat the ranger walk of yesterday only this time on our own and I have to confess it is amazing to find spiders and the regular sights but still no dingoes.
We fall into bed and Martin asks what time do we have to be up in the morning? I tell him it's 6am and he groans.
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