Lakes and oceans

This is the last full day of our short break and we really made the most of the time we had. After a brief and quite light shower we packed the car with our lunch and my cameras and off we set – first to see the lake that is at the northern end of Lennox Head township. Lake Ainsworth is only a small lake but at the moment it looks beautiful. Apparently it is not always so attractive and judging by the odd bits of weed floating about it will not be all that long before the water hyacinth takes over once again and turns the clear waters green and lawn like.

Driving past the well located caravan (“tourist”) park along a gravel road I turned the car into a side track and we found ourselves at the ramp where four wheel drives can access the “Seven Mile Beach”. After watching a family of tiny quail (birds) scratching and feeding in the short grass just in front of the car we climbed out and over the dunes to see the beach. We hadn't been there very long when a couple of sea horses appeared!

You never know quite what you will find in this part of the world!

Our plan was to drive to Evans Head, however on the way we had to drive past Wardell – the little town we turned into yesterday on our drive to Thursday Plantation. I had read about this place being historic or having historic buildings so once again I turned the car to leave the highway and this time swung left to explore in a different direction. The road I took looped back under the highway and sure enough, led to the old part of the town.

The old pub has no name and doesn't even show the name of the proprietor over the door but judging by the cars out front it still operates as a pub. Across the road stands a beautiful old brick building that was once a branch of the National Bank of Australia – the faded gold letters are still above the door on the corner of the building. A sign board beside the structure shouts “Sold” so it will not crumble into disrepair as so many old buildings have. Behind where I was standing to take this photograph stands a huge Catholic Church. I would say that at one time Wardell must have been a sizeable town to warrant such large buildings and such a wide road.

The Pacific Highway that cuts across Wardell passes over a lifting bridge, further indication that this area was once busy both on the river and on the land.

I just had to stop the car after driving under the highway a second time, I hadn't seen it before but this time I spotted some amazing artwork on one side of the bridge.

Good, isn't it?

Evans Head proved to be another interesting place and although I took several photographs I will save them for another day – because I want to show you something different – we took a turn off the highway before we reached Ballina to take a drive along the narrow neck of land that lies between the river and sea. I did not expect it to be populated – it seems so out of the way from shops and amenities but there were plenty of expensive looking homes with a fair amount of garden around them as well as several farms planted with sugar cane. The road seemed to travel along the river for ages and ages and just as I was beginning to think I should turn around, we mush surely be at the tip, we came across a ferry.

So really the people who live on this side of the river do not have so very far to drive after all! They can tootle up the road and wait for the ferry to come back over for them and it saves them having to drive about 30 kilometres. The ferry is motorised but is guided by two cables. Maybe it pulls itself over by these cables, I don't know.

The prices of transport look a bit expensive – but petrol being as high as it is at the moment, I guess it does work out to be a saving.

Colin and I pack the car and leave Lennox Head tomorrow morning, We might call in to visit a couple of places on the way home though. Our dogs will be happy to see us again!

AJ

Exploring again

Once the morning showers had passed we loaded the picnic box in the car and headed South to Ballina. Our first stop was at the Ballina Manor, we had been recommended to take a look at this historic building by our son, Steven. The building itself is timber and not particularly remarkable.

It was built in 1925 as a Wesley Girls School and has been through a few transformations – but in 2000 it was purchased, Heritage Listed and restoration was undertaken – additions to the building removed and painting undertaken using the colours of the era, furnishings used between 1925 and 1931 (the year the school closed) were purchased and later that same year the refurbished Manor House was opened with great pomp and ceremony.

We were given a guided tour through the building calling in to see the rooms (they are hotel rooms with en-suite bathrooms) and given a description of how the room was originally used.

This picture is a small part of the dining room (it was originally the dining room for the girls). I found the décor very attractive and we both found the story of the building really interesting.

Leaving Ballina behind us we made our way to Thursday Plantation, a Tee-tree plantation, once again we enjoyed a free tour, this time of the gardens and rainforest. Throughout the garden and rainforest are sculptures.

There used to be an annual sculpture competition at which there would be an acquisition prize – but apparently some of the sculptures just never went home even if they had not been awarded the acquisition prize! Being a gardener I was very interested in all the varieties of ginger and herbs that were growing there. The young gardener came over and talked to us and he responded enthusiastically to all my queries. I even had the temerity to beg a little piece of root of one of the gingers! Yep! I have some to see if I can get it growing!!! One of the rather unusual flowers we saw there was a “bat flower” what a wonderful thing it is.

No! I didn't ask for a bit of it!

Our next interesting stop was Victoria Park. That is a pocket of unspoiled natural timber – a tiny patch that had never been logged by the timber getters in the early days of white settlement. Originally it had contained a massive fig tree that could be seen from miles away – it had been spotted from out at see by Captain Cook as he sailed up the east coast of Australia in 1770. However that tree is long gone. It was struck by lightning many years ago.

I took many photographs in the rainforest but I will not include any here. . . . because the little town of Alstonville might be more interesting to show here.

The town is attractive, small and popular. It has a country market that draws people from far and wide. Here we are on a Wednesday and the pub is humming with the voices of the many patrons which proves that the town is popular everyday, not just on market days.

My eye was caught by an obelisk standing near the war memorial.

The young man who was awarded the VC was killed in Ypres at the age of 20 in September 1917.

AJ

Unexpected history

This morning saw my little red Corolla parked in the busy main street of Ballina, a town only ten minutes drive away from where Colin and I are staying.. It is a lovely drive too, the road runs along the cliff tops overlooking the sea and the occasional sighting of the angry ocean was breath-taking. If anything the waves are more unsettled than they were yesterday with the white of the breakers stretching back almost to the start of the following wave. Unfortunately there was no where to pull over to take a photograph so it has to remain etched in my memory! Its a good job I can't show you what is kept there!

Ballina is both old and new.

The distinctive architecture of the Court House Offices has been a feature of Ballina since its earliest beginnings as a town – which by European standards is not long! Probably 1912.

Contrasting with the austere styling of the Court Offices is the very modern looking Library. This building is not the only modern styled one in the town. This indicates a vibrant and progressive community and council, one that is both modern an believes in preserving the good things of the past.

You may notice the difference in the sky between the first and second photograph. When we arrived there were patches of blue sky and we were hopeful of doing plenty of exploring. It is less than a hundred metres from the Court House to the Library and in that time the blue had almost vanished. We rounded the corner to enter the building next door – the Information Office – and almost as soon as we closed the door it was raining.

A very helpful young man advised us on places to visit and gave us a couple of maps that will be very useful. Our plan was to take a look through the Naval Museum just across the road but for that we needed the big umbrella and big strides! The rain was pelting down! Off we splashed and laughingly made our soggy entrance.

What an amazing collection! I am not really a museum enthusiast but what was kept in this building really sparked enthusiasm. There were dozens and dozens of the most incredibly detailed models of ships from both the first and the second world wars. Wonderful large scale models – some made wholly from copper and brass – (sails as well, made from copper sheet)

The most amazing exhibit is La Balsa. The raft that was used by an intrepid explorer to traverse between South America and Australia.

Balina itself has quite a nautical history, the volunteer at the entry told me that the river was once one of the busiest ports on the east coast, rivalling the port of Sydney. There is a mural on one of the walls of the museum that depicts that time. Can you see the Court Office building?

A sailor at the wheel is at the entrance to the area that contains the second world war maritime history.

In this second part of the museum are many more model ships of ships from Japanese, English, American and German navies as well as Australian. Plus there are little dioramas that give an insight to life on board a war vessel.

Leaving this fascinating place was as difficult as getting into it. The rain was even heavier and the road and pavements were awash with water. That decided us to return to the dry comfort of our unit and wait until the weather calmed a bit before venturing out again!

AJ

A few days away

Tonight I write from a new destination only a little more than an hour from home on the New South Wales coast at a tiny town called Lennox Head. The only downside I have found so far is the exercise that is needed to get from the car to the unit – several banks of steps, both up and down. On my last excursion carrying stuff up from the car I counted the steps – 50 of them! Ah well, I shall not need to go to a gym for a while!

The place is very attractive and well located. We didn't need to take the car to get to the centre of the town or to the beach.

Here is a look at our Resort (Headland Resort) as seen from the door to our self contained unit.

You can just make out the lap pool at the bottom of the picture, it is very popular and seems to be in use all the time. Of course the temperature is ideal for swimming, it is both hot and humid since the rain with the mercury around 27 degrees and the humidity around 80 per cent. The sea is far too rough to be a good place for swimming and a walk along the sand was an exercise in “dodge the stingers”. The rough seas have washed in hundreds of these stinging jelly fish.

But I was talking about the place we are staying in. It is a one bedroom unit with a bathroom that even contains a spa bath, and a large lounge, kitchen and dining area..

Looking through the bedroom window we can see the sea and the town and the headland.

Finally a photograph I took as we walked along the sands. The tide was almost at its lowest revealing a few little rocks that I found made an interesting foreground for the view of the headland.

The sands are firm to walk on so I did not even have to remove my shoes. The sight of all those jelly fish would have prevented me from removing my shoes anyway! You can tell from the sky and from the dismal grey look of the salt spray that the rainy weather is not over yet. Hopefully we shall get windows of time like this when we can get out and enjoy the sights of the area. We shall make the most of our four days away!

AJ

A Sand Safari

There is always something interesting happening in our part of Australia - especially in Surfers Paradise. Once again there is a sand sculpting competition - which will last all this week so I will be able to return and take more photographs to share.
The weather is against these talented sculptors though. This morning there were very heavy coastal showers so for most of the morning what had already been created would have been covered with plastic to save it from being washed away. I did not get to Surfers Paradise until after lunch time and by looking South you could see the clouds building up and threatening yet another fall of rain. I was with the grandchildren - who both have very short attention spans - so they were happy with the fly-past of the sculptures.

We did not get a chance to see this sculpture before it was covered with plastic. I just hope that when it rains  it does not rain hard and come accompanied by wind because the plastic that was being used to cover the sand was really thin. It looked as if it would tear really easily!
A couple of the sculptures were well advanced and I will share pictures of them - others are still in the very early stages and although the shapes are revealing, they are not yet ready for plastering on the Internet!

The theme of the sand competition is "Sand Safari" so most of the works are of an "African" nature - but there are a couple that have looked "outside the box" and those I will share another day.

This lion cub and the picture that follows are both  of the same work. This artist is obviously a faster worker than the others and his piece is more involved too'

The sand that is used for the sand sculptures is not beach sand. Beach sand does not bind together well enough for this sort of sculpting. The papers advised that the good sand that was used last year came from Bundaberg but this year the sand had to come from somewhere else. Bundaberg is still trying to recover after severe flooding. Their quarries are still filled with water. So everyone feels they are dealing with inferior sand - BUT! They all have the same handicap!
Seeing what these artists can do with a pile of sand is really inspiring and my two little grand-daughters enjoyed an hour of sand sculpting themselves down on the edge of the sea!
Here is a turtle almost made by the eight year old.

By the time she finished it had four legs and patterns on the "shell" as well as a dry moat and a wall all around it.
It is so sad - while we were down on the edge of the wet sand near the sea a bunch of people who were about to have a surfing lesson came walking past us and I had to stand between my granddaughter and them to prevent them from marching over the top of her and her sand turtle as they dragged their surfboards behind them. They were so one-eyed that they could not see in front of themselves.
All pictures here were taken with a six year old point and shoot Samsung NV3.
AJ

A bird in the bush

Today I am going to share something very different to yesterday, I took a short road trip and enjoyed a couple of hours in the nearby rainforest so rather than give you something to learn I will give you a little story.
Last weekend much of Queensland was battered by a severe and long lasting storm that has left in its wake immeasurable damage. Damage to homes to businesses and to farms. It has also done a lot of damage to the bush. In monetary terms this is not a national worry, the bush heals. The communities in small towns divided by bush are not so lucky though, the damage to the bush created road closures, gigantic trees fell over roads, landslips and rock slides created hazards to be cleared and access to these small places was compromised.
From my home to the top of the mountain where a small township called Springbrook is situated the roads were cut in several places but amazingly by today the roads were passable. Road crews are still busy and I could see how much had already been done. Colin, my husband, and I decided to take a look at the National Park that wraps around the town of Springbrook. It is one of our favourite places.
The park has many rainforest trees which are characterised by their buttress roots - rainforest trees are shallow rooted, the moisture is filtered through the canopy of the trees and lies on the surface of the soil and in the leaf litter so the roots do not need to penetrate deep into the earth.

Sometimes it seems as if these trees can grow on solid rock, their roots wrap around boulders and stretch over the surface of rocks. They trap the leaves  for their nourishment and the leaves trap the moisture to keep the tree watered. Nature is at her busiest in a rainforest.
We could not go to the National Park without going to see at least one waterfall! The largest and easiest to walk to is named "Purlingbrook". It is a few days since the big rain so the waterfall is not running as fast as it was in the peak of the storm, however it still looks magnificent.

There is a walking track from the lookout that takes the energetic down into the valley and right under the falls, but the deluge had created several hazards - land slips - that made the track unusable so the gate access was locked. A walk to the lookout at the top of the falls was not to be either because debris had been washed down and onto the causeway/footpath and piled up against the safety railing making passage impossible.
Colin and I retreated to a picnic area where we made ourselves comfortable and were joined very quickly by a bird of the rainforest. A scrub turkey.

Not all scrub turkeys are this friendly but many learn that seated humans usually have food that they are willing to share! It is not breeding time -- or if it is, this fellow is not searching for a mate! How do I know? That wrinkly yellow bit on his neck is like a small yellow ruff. In breeding time it relaxes and droops down almost to the top of the legs. The lady turkeys must think it looks really grand!

Our Scrub turkey friend stayed until he was quite sure we didn't have another crumb of our blueberry muffins left and off he strutted to find another free meal at another table further in the park!
To be honest, I quite enjoyed his company because I could use my camera and the new off- camera flash unit I had recently acquired! The bush is quite dark under the trees even on the brightest day - in the first picture you can see that the sun is shining brightly - the bird would have been a full silhouette if I hadn't used the flash. In the second picture the bird is much closer to me and was very difficult to see (very hard to focus on something you cant see!) I held the flash lower than the camera and I was really surprised at how bright the shot came out.
I hope you enjoyed  the shots from our mornings entertainment!
AJ