Australie dag drie, vier en vijf (7,8 en 9 april 2017)

Dag  drie, vier en vijf  in Minnie Water Australië (7,8 en 9 april):

Iedereen staat hier vroeg op dus we gaan mee in dat ritme, dan flinke wandeling gedaan met Herman, Rineke en Cooper. Door het natuurgebied en heerlijk gewandeld langs het strand. Supermooi hier, het regent af en toe, en is ongeveer 21 graden, hier is het nu herfst. Op de foto’s zie je het vakantiehuis van Rineke. Deze ochtend wel geld mee en een koffie gekocht bij het enige kleine tankstation wat tevens winkel is, het staat ergens op de foto. Verder hier geen restaurants of enige andere winkels. We hebben gezwommen in de zee, de Pacific. Het is hier prachtig met mooie uitzichten. Je klimt hier over de rotsen en er liggen prachtige schelpen. Minnie Water is een erg mooi gelegen gehucht met ongeveer 200 inwoners in dit prachtige natuurpark.

We zijn naar Wooli geweest, dit is een gehucht wat op 15 km ligt van Minnie Water en een paar kleine wandelingen gedaan langs dit prachtige kustgebied. Er zijn hier gigantische wandelroutes waar je dagen over kunt doen. De wandelgebieden in de nationale parken zijn prima aangelegd door de Australische overheid, het onderhoud is geweldig goed geregeld hier. Neef Lachlann zoekt elke ochtend een prima golf uit om te surfen. Robert en Hamish houden het bij vissen. Surfen is hier erg populair, je ziet de surfers overal liggen om de juiste golf te kunnen pakken. Uren achter elkaar zijn ze hier mee bezig, mooi om te zien. Er is een filmpje gemaakt wat je kunt zien bij video’s. Drie prachtige dagen gehad in dit geweldige Minnie Water. Op dag drie weer terug om huurauto op te halen in Tweed Heads.

Hieronder een stuk geschreven door een vriend van Rineke die twee dag naar Minnie op visite kwam en het leuk vond om een stuk voor mijn blog te maken. Dank aan Gary. 

Minnie Water, New South Wales, Australia  – 250km south of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Saturday 8 April 2017

We jumped out of bed on a sunny autumn day and wandered from the house on Boronia Crescent down the beach road to the sand. Along the beach, 20 minutes walk to the north, is the Surf Club and the corner store where we planned to grab a morning coffee and just watch the surf for a while, deciding whether or not to have a dip. The water was quite warm, still, though rather rough from the remains of tropical Cyclone Debbie which ravaged the north Queensland coast and impacted on the east coast all the way to Sydney, before heading across the Tasman to cause chaos in northern New Zealand.

In dribs and drabs we wandered back along the beach to the house, having planned to take a drive down to Wooli.

After lunch we four piled into the car and went south to Wooli. The government has recently told the residents of the village that if a heavy weather event ever cuts the village off from the main-land, the government will do nothing to reconnect Wooli “island” to the rest of the village. From the map it is easy to see that, while remote, this is a possibility. If there was to be a huge amount of water rushing down the river, it could simply cut across the spit, rather than flow all the way to the end of it. All the houses below the cut would be isolated. A year ago there were “For Sale” signs everywhere but these places have either sold, or been taken off the market as there were only a few houses for sale this time.

We drove to the end of the spit just as the tide was turning. People were fishing or going for walks and children played in the shallow water or on the beach. The sand was littered with tiny balls – the residue of crabs feeding. They extract nutrients from the wet sand and spit it out in little balls. There would have been millions of these on the wet sand below the high-tide mark. The rain had also brought a water-fall to life and a small cascade of water bounced down the cliff across the river at the end of the spit.                                                      

The water in the river was also very brown as a result of the recent heavy rain. Wooli is surrounded by low-lying swamps which support thousands of paper-bark trees - melaleucas. The water around these trees is brown from the tannin in their bark and after heavy rain, all this brown water is flushed into the nearest river. As Wooli has quite a bit of swamp around it, the river will be brown for quite a while until all the tannin water makes its way out to sea, and even the sea will be brown, and perhaps frothy as a result.

After wandering around at the end of the spit for a while we drove back to the middle of the village and got out to have a look at the open beach. There was hardly a soul on it, as far as we could see, and this emptiness – at least lack of people - was repeated all along the coast. The sun was about two hours off setting and it warmed our backs as we watched the surf surging about, whipped up by the present turbulence of the South Pacific and an on-shore breeze which nipped at the tops of the waves.

The boys had gone around to Diggers Camp for a surf and we hoped to catch up with them there. They had their boards tied to the car with rope, rather than straps, and there was some concern that they might not make the distance. We left Wooli and turned off on the Diggers Camp road. The bitumen quickly gave way to gravel and then to dirt as we motored along. We drove past a large fresh-water lake which is the water supply for Minnie and Wooli.

There was also a sign that warned of emus, but we didn’t see any. While not noted for their intelligence, perhaps they are sensible enough to know that the road means danger.

We pulled off the road a little later to walk out to the edge of the cliff. It was about 1000m from the car-park to the cliff and in some places the path had been washed out. The beach section from Wooli to Minnie forms part of the Yuraygir National Park which is managed by the Federal Government and eventually the rangers will have the paths back in good shape. From the board-walk we looked out over the rugged, wind-swept coast, the boiling surf and the vegetation, clinging to the ground as the wind constantly tries to rip it out and fling it further inland.

As we returned to the car we met a man who was carrying a fishing rod and, oddly, a can of baked beans. We asked him if he’d had any luck but he was on his way out to try to catch some fish. “If I don’t get a fish, it will be just beans for dinner.” He also told us that there were two snakes in the toilet so we went for a look. Sure enough, up in the rafters, close to the corrugated iron roof, there were two pink diamond pythons, one about 1m long and the other a bit bigger.

They are not venomous and they paid us no attention as they lay as close to the iron as they could get, extracting the last of the day’s warmth before the sun disappeared altogether. If you didn’t know they were there until you were well settled on the seat, there’s a very strong possibility that you’d be encouraged to hurry up and finish what you were doing!

We carried on to Diggers Camp, a small hamlet of 15-20 houses at the end of the road. There is no running water or electricity so any residents have to have solar power, generators and rain-water tanks. After the recent rain the tanks would be full, so water would not be an issue for a while. We found the boys, just as they were packing up. They had enjoyed the water, but as far as surf went, it left a lot to be desired. They had decided that the boards were not secure on the roof and the last we saw of them was as they headed off along the dirt track with the boot open and the boards sticking out the back. It was the job of one of them – the youngest, of course – to hang on to the boards and make sure they didn’t slide out the back onto the road on the way home.

We stood on the top of the cliff and surveyed the scene. There were small groups of people down on the beach, but again, very few of them. There were still a few surfers in the water, conspicuous by their wet-suits, enjoying a last surf before failing light forced them ashore. We noticed a small drone hovering above them, though we could not see the pilot on the beach. Obviously he was shooting the surfers as every now and then, the drone would follow one in and then head back out beyond the break to the others. Eventually it shot sky-wards and we lost sight of it.    A sea eagle was also out and about, catching the up-draft created by the cliff as it patrolled the length of the beach, eyes out for bait-fish in the shallows.

As the sun headed for the sanctuary of the western horizon we realise that we needed to get cracking if we were to maintain one of the Minnie traditions – wine on the head-land as the sun finally sets. We drove back along the dirt to the main road and turned onto the Wooli road to Minnie.

Arriving back at the house, we gathered together drinks and nibbles and walked the five minutes to the head-land.

On the way we could see the Southern Cross and other stars, only visible in the southern hemisphere. It is easy to find due south, using the Southern Cross so you should not get lost – at least in theory!

Chairs and sometimes, tables, are left there for just such an occasion, which, for us, came around every evening!    We settled in, enjoying the wine and the company, watching the reflected sun in the eastern sky until it was consumed completely. Soon after, the moon, only two days off full, provided further light so we stayed where we were, listening to the crash of the surf and watching lights come on around us. The moon gradually acquired full strength and distributed itself in shards and sparkles over the surface of the ocean, which was finally calm after the sea breeze had dropped away. At some point, the empty wine bottles, the approaching dark and the mosquitos pushed us off the head-land and back to the house, but it was a pleasant end another remarkable Australian day.