Mohammed Ali’s shorts

Today we leave the Tweed Valley.  Boo-hoo.  

We rolled down the Tweed Valley to the Pacific Highway.  The former was a fairly narrow and twisty road but with some scenicity.  The latter was 4-lane so who cares?  A low point was an idiot with Queensland plates driving in the outside lane at 95kph (in a 110kph zone).  Three people – including me - passed this goose on the inside and then when the speed limit dropped to 100 he sped up to about 130 and passed everyone.   Either:

• he was one of nature’s mistakes; or 
• he been driving non-stop from Cairns and was asleep; or
• he had bought some stuff in Nimbin and not read the fine print.

As we drove in to Byron Bay (the most Easterly point of Australia) it was surprising to see how much retail action was happening on the sidewalk.  The town seemed to be one big garage sale! It reminded me a bit of the Haile Selaisse boutiques along the eponymous street in the Msasani area of Dar es Salaam!  (Come to think of it, the vegetation was also similar: the suntans not so dark her here!)

We got to the next accommodation about noon, which was a bit of a shock to Cynthia (the owner) as I had suggested we wouldn’t get there until 3.  Thus the place had not been cleaned yet.  We sorted something out while Tam checked out Cynthia's tiny and affectionate Papillion.  She also checked out the cleaner’s somewhat larger dog who indicated a need to establish a pecking order: this debate – likely to be enthusiastically developed on both sides - was smartly ceased by spoilsport humans.

We took ourselves off to Tallow Beach which is quite close to the house.  It was a very nice walk on a bike path through the National Park.  It was fortuitous that it passes the settling ponds for the town sewage works.  Not a bad collection of waterbirds.  Also my first interesting (ie photographable) butterfly for the trip: after much searching of my field guide this turned out to be a Swamp Tiger.

 The bike path was well patronised by cyclists and dog walkers.  I suspect Tammie has never met so many other pooches in a day before: some of them were in packs of 4 (not to be confused with a pack of 3) but all was very sociable.

After a stroll along a very good beach (quite a few people, nearly all with dogs of one sort or another) we returned pausing to chat with a Landcare volunteer who was painting glyphosate on Morning Glory.  He explained that it was real monster to get rid of, with Bitou Bush being more widespread but very easy to kill. 

We then headed for a Woolies which we had noticed (to my surprise as it wasn’t listed in the Phone Directory for this town).  Frances went in and on emerging rated it as a very good supermarket.

Back at the ranch the excitement was a pair of Brush Turkeys wandering about on some vacant land next to the villa.  One of these ran past where we sitting on a deck and nearly causing the small dog to do herself a mischief.

As the time for the evening repast approached Frances reminded me that I had said I wanted fish and chips for tea.  So when was I going to get them?  Right now was the answer!  This involved driving the length of the main drag of Byron Bay to find the chippery I had noted on the way in.  I developed some trepidation about this since getting a park seemed to involve myself in the one way system and it being after dark the chances of finding my way out were somewhat low.  At least I’d have some fish and chips to eat if I got seriously lost! The chip-shop was quite small and had two interesting items of décor: a map covered with pins (presumably the origins of the customers) and a framed picture of The Greatest alongside a pair of Everlast shorts.  On looking closely The Man had signed the shorts just above the crotch): now that is what I call a souvenir!

 I found my way back home and can report the meal was delicious: barramundi is yum.

A sniffy post

Today being our last day in Byron Bay we decided to revisit the Northern beach – Belongil.  As Frances commented it sounds like a pidgin word for some that is bad for your health.  Not so: it was very pleasant.  There were few people or dogs on the beach, which a tad surprising: perhaps the howling gale of yesterday had turned people off?

I realise I haven’t commented on dog etiquette.  Tammy can spot a dog shape at (at least) 200m at which point she goes into long-dog mode with everything in a straight horizontal line.  She then moves forward gradually increasing in speed, as determined by how the lead holder is feeling.  (Other dogs, especially those with collie or kelpie in the genome, tend to insert a phase of laying on the ground and pointing at the other dog.  This tends to be followed by a mutual charge.)  In all cases the actual meeting tends to be followed up by sniffing each others noses.  A couple of things can happen next: the investigations can be broken off then if nothing of interest is found; genital sniffing can happen (involving gymnastics if one of the dogs is four times the size of the other); or there may be a move into mutual pouncing.  So far, there has been no aggression amongst the dogs on the beach (other than Tammy giving some one a snap for some reason – and getting a tap on the honker for her trouble).

After walking up and down the exercise area (and spotting a pair of Sacred Kingfishers) we returned home where the drive was being pressure cleaned.  So we fled the noise to Tallow Beach: passing the local chiropractor's office.  I liked this sign.

 Tallow Beach was also fairly deserted.  When I went to look at a bunch of birds on the beach – about 500m outside the dog exercise area – they all turned out to be Crested Terns.  However, an Osprey – probably the same one I saw from the lighthouse - bathing in a swale was a major bonus.  Frances, being a law-abiding person, had stayed back in Stalag Hund and was interested to note Tammy reacting to me (in a different way to other pedestrians) when I was about 400m away.

 I then went to the centre of town for email checking.  There was a slight diversion back to Belongil Beach to get some chopped down bamboo: this may get converted into a wind chime when we return home!  I needed to use a café for email access since the library was fully booked for the next hour.  Some bottled goods were then acquired as liquor stores are not common around Topi.

Amongst the bottled goods were a couple of samples of the work of Messrs Stone and Wood, who also brew in Byron Bay.  The first offering, a lager, was very pleasant indeed.  Much taste and full bodied.  The second sample was a Pacific Ale which had a very fruity taste: I suspect some passionfruit may be involved.  An excellent beer. 

The two beers were used to assist ingestion of a second serve of fish and chips.  Tonight they had sold out of Barramundi so I took two servings of Basa – described as like Dory.   Whatever, it was very tasty.  I looked more closely at the map and found that the reason they had few pins in Australia and New Zealand was that the Styrofoam backing had been totally destroyed by the number of holes stabbed in it!  Given that the same guy had been running the place for many years and presumably put the map up soon after arriving that is perhaps not surprising.

I just realised I have included no images of the house/villa in which we stayed.  So here are the drive (it is a set-up of 19 units, but very quite - the no party rule is strongly enforced); the front and back views.

The Battle of the Pacific (revisited)

So we left Byron Bay (adding Wonga Pigeon to the list for that area) and headed back towards Bangalow for access to the Pacific Highway.  For those not in Australia this road has a terrible reputation for both fatalities and slowness (a further comment about this history comes on day 25).  On the way North we didn’t find this to be the case from Sydney to Grafton, nor South into Byron Bay, but had been told the bad stuff – exacerbated by roadworks - now ran from Grafton to Byron Bay. 

Certainly the road South from Bangalow was narrow and quite heavily trafficked.  Getting through Ballina – and our current policy position is that this is a good idea, the place seemed to have no redeeming values (think Batemans Bay shifted North about 800km) – was a pain.  We covered about 70km in the first hour, and given that we had about 600km to travel today that was not good.

Things picked up somewhat after that, although we were surprised at the number of folk who drove 10kph below the limit until they got to a bit of overtaking lane, where they suddenly found an extra 20kph!  A few learner drivers added to the fun, but it is probably good that they learn how to deal with roads like this while under supervision (rather than under a semi-trailer).

Getting close to Grafton a very slow truck was labelled ‘Livestock transport’.  At the speed it was achieving I assumed it was herding snails.  Eventually we got past it and it turned out to be Craig Pigg again!  How interesting that we encountered this guy on both legs of the trip.  Perhaps he has heard that I have a pig located behind my belt and is stalking us??

A bit South of Grafton we came across references to the metropolis of Wooli.  This resonated with Frances because it was the source of some excellent tomatoes we had acquired from a street-side stall in Mullaway.  On this occasion the signs were promoting the Australian Goanna-pulling Championships.  My mind was boggled and still is when delving into the history of goanna pulling!

I have always thought of sugar cane as a Queensland crop.  It was thus a surprise as well as a delight to find it in the Murwillumbah area.  However on this leg of the safari it seemed to extend down pretty close to Grafton.  The town of Broadwater had a mill which dominated the scenery from some distance away. 

 (As the images show it was raining again!)  I was intrigued that, as was the case in Congdon, the mill had a conveyor or such like going across the road – why?

We had a comfort stop in a small town where Rugby League was happening in the park adjacent to the dunny.  Unfortunately I felt a need to keep moving on, so that we got to Topi before dark (after floods etc the prospect of the dirt road and bush track in the last 2km were a tad awesome), rather than watching the game.   I did find it within my plans to stop for a pie in Frederickton – who could resist signs about 50 varieties of meat pie?  - and excellent it was, despite the Marilyn Monroe statue outside the shop.  After a fuel replenishment in Kempsey (where flood evidence was clearly visible on the outskirts of town) and the acquisition of some vegies at a roadside stall we pressed on.  The only additional stop was in Nabaic to buy bread: the folk we asked for directions to the bakery were so helpful that even though the bakery was closed we wanted to spend some money in their village.

Yes, we got to Topi.  In fact we got there about 6:45 hours after leaving Byron, which was pretty good considering that we stopped 4 times en route.  (I think we would easily have made Newcastle in 8 hours (and probably 7:30 if we hadn’t stopped so often), rather than the 9 quoted in Newcastle.

 Yes, the final road and track were fine. 

Yes the venue and setting were as great as we remembered from our previous visit about 2 years ago.  It is nice that they had laid in enough firewood to get things happening and provided a bottle of welcoming wine: a Chardonnay from Great Lakes Winery.

 We have now settled in and have got the TV and set-box communicating with each other.  It is a source of wonder and amazement (well not really – the private sector are involved so there should be no expectation that the end user will be considered) that there is no standard for how these devices function.  Thus every time one comes across a different device or combination of devices the process of getting them to work will be different.  I am sure that no-one would expound ‘read the manuals’ as a solution: they will be written in some unknown language and these days (probably) only be available on the internet anyway!

I have just stuck my head outside and heard nothing except a distant frog.  How wonderful.  It is even quieter than Carwoola.