Australian Wildlife Sucks..........literaly

23rd
As it was Sunday we did think it would be fun to go to an Aussie Church but ended up having Sunday School in the cabin! It was a lovely warm and sunny day so Rachel, Isaac & Charlie spent the morning at the playground whilst the washing was on, followed by a long walk to see the boats. Charlie was fascinated by the 'beaky birdies' we saw, including pelicans, ibis' and rainbow lory's.

After lunch, both boys helped hang the washing on the line, whilst Al did food shopping...what well trained boys! Lydia popped in to say Hi and we then went over to their house later to meet Byron & Trixie, who were both adorable.

Once Dunstan was home (we won't mention what time!) we had a good catch up and the children played really well together. Isaac thought he was in heaven given free rein to play with all Byron's toys and Charlie & Trixie hit it off straight away.

"Do you come here often?"

L&D have a great house with an enormous covered deck and a large garden full of paddling pools and trampolines. Dunstan has a fully-rigged double garage with his music composing computer set up - a much better bolthole than Al's shed.

As we left the fruit bats were coming out and flying over the house. They were incredibly big - similar to a rook but with fatter bodies.

24th
Dunstan took the next two days off as holiday so we could hang out together and we spent Monday morning playing by the river, digging up sand and paddling. Lots of other little kids around including Harry whose father had caught a large mud crab which fascinated the boys. Harry only had 9 fingers due to an axe wielding friend called Tiger. Charlie & Trixie teamed up and without any help managed to carry the dingy all the way down the sand bank and into the water! In the afternoon we went over to Lydia's parents home in Mullumbimby and jumped into their swimming pool within minutes of arriving and Alastair got to show off his scar, whilst I told his story to Gabriel & Brian. Mullumbimby appears to be a farming community and the town stores had a long line of cars outside - every one was a ute. G&B are great hosts and we had a very relaxed afternoon, with kanga(roo) sausages for supper!

In the evening Al & Dunstan went out for few beers in the Brunswick hotel - pretty much the only pub in town. Good to catch up on the news and relive a few memories. Interesting to note that you get better highlights of the premiership in Australia than the UK.

Katie CB has emailed to say that Ces and Rob have had a baby boy called Jake Buster Robert!

25th

Al & Dunstan load themselves and 4 kids onto a 2 man canoe and go for a paddle up the river. Everyone sat very still and no-one fell in which was quite surprising as it felt fairly unstable and we went up past the bridge and landed briefly on "snake island". We looked out for sting rays which are regularly seen here but didn't see anything.

In the afternoon we headed over to D&L's for a bbq and play time.

We've had an email from William and he has been made a partner at the law firm - way to go Will!

26th

A rainy day so we decided to drive to Byron Bay. Both Al & Rach stayed here on their last trip - Rach for much longer. It is world renowned for its surfing and hippy communities.

We started off by visiting the Arts Factory Lodge where Rach stayed and she had a good poke around again but it didnt evoke any backpacking urges.

We then drove up to the lighthouse which gave some great views down over the beaches - supposedly you can regularly see sharks in the surf from here but it was too murky for that.

We then parked in town, did some banking and posting and ate pizza in the Byron Bay hotel. As it was raining everyone was in town rather than on the beach and it was packed with all sorts of strange hairstyles. There is either a very large gay community or "camp" is the current look. There were a lot of leafleters out but we noticed that none of them gave any to us - we either looked liked locals or like a middle aged couple who would never go to the surf school/ nightclub / strip club. Al blamed this on Rach's cagoule.

The beach looked amazingly long and sandy but the rain got heavier and drove us back to the shopping malls where we reviewed an endless selection of boardies and t-shirts.

All in all Byron Bay was a dissapointment both in terms of its reputation and our memories of it but that may have been due to the weather.

In the evening Al went fishing from the rocks near the cabin. He was feeling very superior to all the spinners around him as he was fly fishing, right up until he feel off his rock! Later on 2 large (~1.5m) spotted rays came right into the shore about a metre away from Al - quite scary at night but very beautiful. Later fishing while standing in the shallow water they were swimming round his feet.

We heard lots of chatting from the boys in their bedroom late into the evening and when we checked on them, Isaac had gone to sleep in Charlie's bed.

27th

Another forecasted rainy day so we decided to go for a walk in a rainforest. Minyon falls was about an hours drive away through beautiful rolling countryside which seemed very English only greener and hillier.

Arriving at the national park map we decided to attempt the 4 mile walk to the base of the water falls.

I suspect this is the first time that a double buggy has done the trail.

It was a great walk with incredible bird noises all around us although we didnt actually see much wildlife.

About half way in Charlie pointed into the forest with his finger and gave a "wot dat?" - its a bird Charlie - "NO wot dat?" - its just a bird Charlie - "NO wot DAT?" then we noticed he wasn't pointing, he had a leech attached to the end of this finger.

We then noticed that he had several on his legs as well and so did we. So I stopped taking photos and started trying to get them off but they were very difficult to grip and we didnt have any salt or cigarettes. They were moving very quickly with a cartwheel motion like an uphill Slinky and they were actually coming up our legs more quickly than we could remove them. Suffice to say that we had a fairly traumatic 30 minutes until we got back to the car.

We then had a strip check and found that our feet were covered in them - most of of them very fat on our blood. Love is...... putting your hand in your wifes shoe to tempt out the leeches!

Isaac remained completely unscathed which we later learnt was because he was always in front (waking them up).

Once de-leeched we found a picnic spot at the top of the falls and a couple from Melbourne who gave us lots of tips for later in our trip. During the conversation a Cookaburra dived down and stole the tomato from her sandwich which evoked an impressive level of hysteria. They then admitted that they were real townies.

The falls, and particularly the rainforest below, was dramatic in a way which doesn't really show in the photos.

On the drive home we saw some barefoot buddist monks walking along repentance creek road which seemed poignant (not sure why!).

In the afternoon we went to the local playground and Al fell over on route with Charlie on his shoulders. Luckily Charlie cushioned the fall and Al was fine, although impressively covered in mud from head to toe.

Dunstan called in to the cabin after his shift at the hospital to look at Isaac's ears and diagnosed Glue Ear which hopefully will be cleared up with antibiotics, but if not could need grommets. Fingers crossed.

The evening BBQ on our terrace was interrupted by a thieving Ibis who entertained the boys but, surprisingly, stank - we've never come across a smelly bird before, at least not the feathered variety. Forever onward to be known as "the naughty beaky bird".


28th

It was a beautiful sunny morning when we had been told to expect rain so we decided to go to the sea beach. We took one look at the sea beach and changed our minds as it was very windy with enormous waves and went to Torikina Safety Beach instead which was sheltered behind the sea wall. The "safety" element was caviated by "don't let children in the water beyond their knees - strong rip" and "watch out for brown snakes around the rocks" - everything is relative! The atmosphere was a bit like Hollybush but with bikinis - lots of mums who all knew each other calling in briefly between playgroups. Dunstan seemed to know most of the mums too.

The water was very clear and with a mask we could see a very large group of fry and a variety of silver stripy fish eating them.

We all had calamari for lunch which Isaac particularly enjoyed and then went to Byron & Trixie's house for an afternoon play and a few drinks.

Granny Gabrielle came round to babysit in the evening and the boys were too excited to sleep so we left with snuggles still going on - all 3 seemed quite happy about this. We walked to the RICE Indonesian Restaurant with D&L and after much debate decided to sit outside - this was based on Dunstan's "blink" theory; your first instinct is always right. The rain started almost immediately. There was a band playing sixties rock in the hotel next door and we had a great meal with some juicy conversation.

We said our slightly drunken goodbyes at the entrance to Massey Greene - hopefully it won't be another 4 years before we meet up. It has been really great seeing D, L, B & T and we are very sad to leave them.

29th

The early morning packing up and checking out is quite stressful, especially with a hangover. As we drive out of Brunswick Heads there is a feeling that we may already have finished the best bit of our trip and the journey down to Yamba is longer than expected. On route Al discovered that "The Works Burger" is not as good as it sounds.

We are only staying in Dolphin Bay Resort (recommended by a friend of Ruben's) for 1 night but we have had a great afternoon. Much larger than Massey Greene it has 2 swimming pools and several playgrounds and I know that Isaac will be dissapointed to leave in the morning. Both boys enjoyed the water slides. Again we are on a river beach but this time the river is really enormous, perhaps 1/4 of mile across.

The mosquitoes are quite bad here even during the day - bad enough that Rach & Al will be happy to move on.

Surprise call from Judith tonight was great - Granny B doing well.

30th

Another roasting day. Al took the kids out for a morning session on the playground (and got eaten alive by the mossies) while Rach packed up and then we headed south towards Sawtell.

We decided to stop on route at Grafton as it sounded interesting in Lonely Planet. "Grafton with its wide streets, big verandas and spectacular jacarandas feels like the border post for the subtropics".

Sending Charlie for coconuts

The bits that we saw appeared to be fairly ordinary but Isaac did find somewhere to spend his $1 from Lydia which was a relief as it had been lost approximately 47 times in the last 24 hours (in the car head rest, down the back of his trousers etc etc). 2 lollipops later we headed to "Healthy Bites" for sandwiches.

Back on the road and just after Bald Knob Road we turned off to Red Rock to answer a call of nature (Rachel enevitably). Red Rock was an incredibly beautiful coastal town with a river estuary. Isaac wanted to be swam across river to the beach the other side but an old lady came and told us it was too dangerous so we had to go round the corner where she couldn't see us.

Floating down the river was great fun but swimming across holiding Isaac was actually very difficult. We were right on the point where the river met the sea so we swam in both and the water was very warm. There were only a few other people on the beach who were catching small bream and we chatted and flashed at them. Red Rock was fantastic and a really highlight of the trip so far.

A little further down the Pacific Highway we took a chance on Kangeroo Trail Lane and after only half a mile saw a mob of reds. Amazing to see them bounding across the paddocks.

Coffs Harbour is just north of Sawtell and the major town of the area - as we passed through it seemed much bigger than we remembered. Shortly afterwards we turned for Sawtell and stopped at a lookout point as you come into the town. These photos show the view on 3 sides - looks like another good beach town



We are having an amazing time - keep in touch!!!!