Vada Heads of the Mid-North Coast

Bird of the day: Eastern Reef Egret.  

The big flock goes to an enormous collection (about 150 birds) of Hardhead in the Belmore River..
Flower of the day: An unknown aloe in a garden near Flynns Beach

Garden of the day: No award today..
Geological feature of the day: Two colours in adjacent  rocks at Nobbys Beach.

Other contenders will appear below, only slightly unhappy at missing out on the biggie!
Outstanding Weather feature of the day; Warm and sunny all day!  Not the forecast for this area tomorrow!
Council behaviour of the day: Bouquets for dog access at Lighthouse Beach (Port Macq) and Hat Head (where the Council appeared to have controlled NSW NPS).  A brickbat for the restruicted hours at Crescent Head.

As we set off for our dog walk a blimp was cruising over the town.  It continued to do this all dy, showing that the wind was very light.

This is a view of the headland at the South end of Nobby's Beach.  The purple arrow marks the obelisk on top of the rock.

In the evening - you should excuse the jump in time - I climbed up to it on a rather steep track which would be great fun if wet.  The obelisk commemorates two guys who died at the base of the headland in 1874 - one who got into trouble in the water and the other who jumped in to try to save him.

Getting back to the dog walk, this is the whole plant of 'flower of the day'.

Our main expedition on this day was focused pn Crescent Heads about 30km North.  To get there we took a ferry across the Hastings River.  I took a snap of some pelicans on a sandbar but decided that the roll cage on the ute next to me made a nicer image.

We took the Maria River Rd to Crescent Head expecting this to be good for birding.  In fact it was just about devoid of birds and there was no sign of the River.  Most vegetation was in a Nature Reserve which apart form being canophobic had no obvious means of public access.

As well as the reef Heron which was Bird of the day our first Darter of the trip was on the rocks at Crescent Head.

In the water were many surfers.  Apparently the town is famous for its break, and is also a convenient distance North of Sydney for those heading up the Coast to stop off.

The strata on the headland to the South of the town were a  contender for geological feature of the day.

There were two traditional signs on most beaches: one banning things (eg dogs) and the other setting out bag limits.  It would be interesting tosee if these vary by site or follow some standard.

The Crescent Head War Memorial.

Frances had a conversation with the lady in the bakery (who gave good pie, and excellent pumpkin bread) and she suggested going to Gladstone and some other small towns up there.  Gladstone had an interesting War Memorial is that it was a street (Memorial St) with 10 small posts topped with memorials to individuals who had died in conflicts from the Boer War to WW2.

The town also had this rather spiffy, and large Police Station.

Overall it seemed a rather pleasant and well-looked after town.  This became particularly interesting on the way home when we crossed the Macleay River to Smithtown, the site of a huge Nestlé factory.  The latter town was run down and daggy - obviously where the workers lived.  It didn't have a Memorial of any sort so isn't really a town!

In between visiting those two settlements we went to Hat Head.  This about three streets lined with holiday shacks, plus a canophobic caravan park,  To our astonishment the beach was an off leash area so on we went.  The beach was magnificent - and not crowded.

We headed back home through Kempsey finding a memorial to the dead of the Macleay District as we went.

By now we were getting a little low on fuel so swung into a service station which was charging 142c/l which was a fair bit better than the 145c/l being asked in Port Macquarie.  Then I found that they were adding 1.5% to the bill if you used a credit card so moved on.  In fact we moved about 400m down the road to a place which charged 134c/l! Go figure the economic rationale of that.  (The next day, as we left Port McQ a place on the highway - about 10km from the town centre- was asking 132c/l which is even more bizarre.)

We had some daylight left when we got back to Port Macquarie so I climbed up to the obelisk as reported above.  On descending a Brahminy Kite was perched on a rock.  I really like these birds, which seemed to be very common on this trip.

We then moved down to Lighthouse Beach, which Frances had visited the previous evening.  It took a bit of reading to work out where the dog area was but it started at these arher magnificent rocks.

Another magnificent beach - the specks in the distance are some of the many folk exercising their pooches.

The dog friendly area was quite well used which the canophobic area was unoccupied (apart from one person transiting it with their dog, and a surfer leaving the water).  That demonstrated the total daftness of year-round dog restrictions.

The cloudscapes were very attractive.

Back at the camper we reviewed the weather forecast for the next few days and decided Corindi, with 50kph wind, was not what we wanted so decided to head for Grafton instead.

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Putting the fang on a vet

The night was a little disturbed with Tammie being very restless.  And that was before a herd of possums stampeded across the roof at 2am!  When we got up she kept shaking her ears in a half-hearted fashion and was not interested in food.  I thought I could see an arthropod well down her ear so it was off to the vet.

The vet was very thorough and said that he couldn’t see a tick in the ear but she did have a lot of wax down there which was sufficiently impacted to have started a little bit of inflammation.  So he gave (in the sense of ‘provided’ not ‘donated’) me a bottle of stuff to put in her ears for the next couple of mornings.  In the course of this he probed her ears quite deeply and she repaid his professional with a lightning snap.   When I apologised he said something like ‘It was just a warning shot.” and she didn’t break skin at all, but I was very embarrassed.

On getting home the first set of drops were administered with some difficulty, but ultimate success.  As herself seemed to be feeling better we thought we’d take her for a stroll along the other dog beach to the North of the town centre (after checking out the lighthouse). 

The lighthouse is on the most Easterly point in Australia.  As such it is one of Byron’s claims to fame.  Of course this makes it very popular and the jobsworths have to step in to control matters.  So when we got to the road going up there we were greeted by: a sign saying we had to pay $7 to go in there; another sign saying “no dogs”; and, when got to the lighthouse - a dweet in a NPWS uniform about to enforce both those rules and tell us there was nowhere to park anyway.  (It is nicely ironic that they wear brown shirts: now, if NSW trains ran on time….).  This is the first encounter we have had with such officialdom on this trip.  It would be a lot better if they devoted their energy to defending the Parks against real threats: did anyone mention coal-seam gas?

So we headed off to Belongil Beach and had a very pleasant walk of about 3km.  At one point I counted 13 dogs visible in the 1.5km exercise area, ranging in size from Tammie up to large Labrador.  All having a lovely time, as were the owners.  We didn’t see any whales or dolphins but a large school of fish were evident just off shore, providing food for the seagulls and interest for the humans.

The next part of the plan was to drive around the Arts and Industrial area to check the place out and possibly to get a burger at the Big Top Café. 

Many of the places were shut but the BTC was open and a burger was acquired.  It was OK: I’d rate it about 0.6 Yass Road Takeaway points (a Big Mac comes in at around 0.1 YRT). 

Frances checked a few places out and many were shut.  Eco Furniture wasn’t, and earnt points by welcoming Tammie inside.  They sold us a cheeseboard and some wood conditioner!

On the way back we swung by the BBBGTT (Byron Bay Brewery and General Tourist Trap).  It does have a small brewery as well as a day spa ( blleccch- this term made me vomit in New York), a cinema and the Budda restaurant.  I suspect the later is more to do with Chris Handy than Gautama.  They don’t sell bottles but they can be acquired at bottle shops around town!  This was done the next afternoon and the brew - only one of their products appears to be bottled, which is a nuisance - rated as very acceptable.

I then went for a run along Tallow Beach. About 7km (very honest kms as well).  Even without a dog it was nice to see the hordes enjoying themselves.

Going to the Heads

It wasn’t unduly cool overnight but it did seem to rain most of the time and certainly is doing so right now (7:15).

With the grotty weather I chose to spend a little time reading the latest edition of the Byron Shire Echo.  There were several interesting points in this.  

The previous edition had been their 25^th Anniversary and they had duly had an awards night, featuring Julian Morrow (from The Chaser) as guest speaker.  This edition included the text of his remarks.  Apparently he has been lodging a classified ad in the Echo seeking work, but as it was positioned between “Deep Masculine Honouring“ and “Best Body Rub Anywhere” he wasn’t getting  much action.   He thought the headline for the ad – Non-Tantric Wanker – was a fair description.

There were several letters about new restrictions on dog walking.  It seemed that the main idiots in this business are the jobsworths of the NPWS (see entry about the lighthouse).  They also seem to be responsible for the restrictions in Great Lakes and Eurobodalla.  I repeat my question as to why they are not fighting the coal seam gas interests instead of tourists or pensioners walking their small dogs.

On the subject of gas, there was also a comment from a media relations factotum at Origin Energy saying how folk have got it wrong about coal seam gas.  Apparently they are not using potable quality water so it is OK.  This dude is such a goose he doesn’t realise that such an obviously misleading statement reduces everything he says to the level of bullshit (as that substance is also accompanied by methane it seems a particularly apt analogy).

After a short visit to the Pacific Highway to Brunswick Heads we went for a walk along the banks of the Brunswick River, where the most interesting birdlife were some very lairy chooks.  I couldn’t bring myself to claim them as lifers (and since they were all roosters could hardly claim they were a self-sustaining population). 

 We then went for a walk in the Dog Exercise Area at Brunswick Heads (just North of Byron Bay.  This was such a short area as to be pointless: the main reason for stopping seemed to be a Nature Reserve immediately behind the beach.  In the hours we have spent on these beaches I have not seen a dog leave the beach to go into the dunes: the ones that are likely to do so are going to be strayers, and they will not be stopped by the signs.

In one community we drove through we saw a young woman exercising two ferrets,  on leads.  Since the livestock subject to bans appear to be dogs, horses goats and pigs we presume she can take her ferrets wherever she pleases.  As can the owners of alpacas, llamas and cows!

A better walk followed at Ocean Shores.  By this time the wind was really howling (the rain had stopped) and the blowing sand was probably unpleasant for a small dog.  She didn’t complain however.  At the entrance to the beach there was a notice about Pied Oystercatchers breeding in the area, and asking folk not to let their dogs chase them.  As far as I could see this was put up by the community rather than NPWS.  It does offer some rationalisation for restrictions on dogs near suitable habitat, but in this season I doubt if there is an Oystercatcher of any species breeding nearer to this beach than Kamchatka.  And if the restriction was for the dogs to be on leads in the breeding season then they shouldn’t chase anything.

 By the end of this we had had enough hopping in and out of the car so went home.  I gave my legs a bit of work riding the bike around various parts of the area near our house, but couldn’t bring myself to ride up to the lighthouse.

Many types of fings wiv wings

The day started with a few showers and continued strong wind.  This makes me pleased we had decided not to go whale watching here: the seas are rather bumpy and we haven’t seen a whale within 10 kms.

The first business of the day was to go to the Byron Bay Farmers Market.  As it didn’t seem to be on any of the schedules we wondered if it still existed but as it was only 2km away it wasn’t that much grief if it didn’t.  In fact it was there, active and popular with the punters.  My guess is that it was about 4 times the size of the Murwillumbah equivalent.  Frances got a few bits and pieces.

 The litter skips were an interesting design!

While Frances was shopping I walked around the nearby reserve with Tammie and found a fruit bat colony.  The bats given mention around here are Grey-headed flying foxes and reference to "Australian Bats" by Sue Churchill confirms that..  Looking at them closely, and comparing the head shape with that on a small dog and it isn’t hard to see where the name ‘flying fox’ came from!

 We then went for a walk along Tallow Beach in the gale.  There were not many people around (and only a small number of dogs).

One brave soul was doing something in the water- possibly body surfing.

 Just was we were coming off the beach I looked to the South and 4 kite surfers hove into view.  I was never able to get all 4 in shot at once but some images clearly show the riders.

 After this trek it was time to have a snooze.  Having recuperated I left Frances with Tammy and set off to ascend the Tallow Ridge trail to the lighthouse.  It was a very pleasant walk through brushbox and banksia (with a few palms and cycads for variety). 

Near the top a hang glider was being prepared for action and as I got out of the bush they took off (it was a tandem job – presumably for a fee).  The ride lasted about 20 minutes and should have been really exciting for the passenger as they seemed to just sit still in the air quite high above the ridge.  They eventually landed down on the beach.

 As they took off I was distracted by the sight of an Osprey in serious discussion with a Sea-eagle nearly at water level.  At one point the Sea-eagle became seriously annoyed and rolled on to its back, showing the Osprey its talons.  Sensibly the Osprey found it was scheduled for a meeting with some mullet at another venue.  Shortly thereafter the sea-eagle was up near the hang glider, but from a conversation I had with some other pilots these birds don’t attack gliders (unlike wedgetails, which do hit the gliders).  I just got a good view of Tallow Beach

and the lighthouse.

A second local paper was delivered this evening.  Again much coverage of the reduction of dog exercise areas.  There was also a story quoting the local fuehrer of the NPWS with the reasons why they have to exclude dogs.  She must be a media person: never have I read so much regurgitated corporate diktat.  I also had a conversation with some other locals (mature and very well spoken people – much like me) this evening and they said it was symptomatic of Byron Bay, with an elite concerned to maintain power and control and a very subversive majority fighting them tooth and nail.  Go for it people.

“With a bucketful of prawns upon my knee”

Dedicated students of the work of Barry Humphries will recognise the title of this post as a line from a song made famous in the Bazza Mackenzie series.  Hopefully tomorrow’s post will not continue to quote from this saga.

As usual the day began with a walk for Tammie.  This one was greatly enlivened by 3 Black-shouldered Kites providing advice to a passing Brown Falcon.  There were also questions about whether the garbos had been – they are expected tomorrow - as several bins were horizontal.  As at least one set of bins (still vertical) had content we decided the strong winds, rather than a garbage truck, were responsible for the horizontality.

On our way out to Forster we discovered that we were probably wrong since the recycler’s truck was going down the road in front of us, having already been to the (empty) Topi Gums bins.  What the heck, we put the recycling – mainly bottles – in there: it can wait until next week.

We rolled happily into Forster with the plan being for me to go to the library for internet purposes and Frances to do grocery shopping in the shopping centre across the road.  This happened very nicely: the library didn’t even charge and had hour slots!  Big plus points for Great Lakes Shire!  They even have nice mural art on the outside of the building!

Of course they have the worst dog regulations of any of the Shires we have visited: not only have they kowtowed to the idiocy of NPWS for most of their sandy bits, but those which aren’t fronting a ‘National’-  why are National things run by the States? – Park are also dog-banned during daylight hours.  However we had left Tammie at home.

That meant she didn’t get to see the octopus in their sea-filled baths.  This was quite a large beastie – perhaps 30cm across the tentacles – which, when we got to see it, was slithering across the bottom of the pool.  However the girl who first spotted said it had been right at the lip when initially seen.  Despite our hanging out for some time it didn’t ascend again so no snap!

We carried on along their Bicentennial walk to Pebbly Beach which lived up to its name.  This meant that when waves receded we got the classic (a la Brighton UK or Lima, Peru) rattle of the pebbles being rolled back. 

 Our final bit of business was to visit the Wallis Lake Fisherman’s Cooperative to acquire some prawns and oysters for tea.  Quite good value, and from memory will be very tasty.

The memory was correct: the prawns were the tastiest I have had for yonks and the oysters very juicy.  Frances suggested adding a small drop of Tabasco to the oysters and I must admit this did enhance their extremely good natural taste! 

To complete the story/song referred to in the subject of this post, the health and safety implications of the seafood were as hoped for and I did not need to complete Mr Mackenzie’s couplet “… chundered in the old Pacific Sea.”

The tree of Quilton

While my health was fine that of the small dog was only average.  The primary symptom was not eating: very unusual for her.  Frances then recalled that she had reacted like this the previous time we gave her Frontline so we expected her to pick up after a nights sleep.  Which she did.

I commented earlier about the dominant noise (when the Phantoms are not in the vicinity) being the birds.  This morning they were in particularly good voice.  The noisiest were, not surprisingly, the Noisy Friarbirds feeding in a group of flowering gums about 500m from the house.  Others joining in were Red Wattlebirds and Yellow-faced, White-cheeked and Scarlet Honeyeaters.  The last species provided the melody to the atonal squawks and screeches of the others. 

This ruckus caused me to examine the state of flowering at the top of the nearest trees.  It seemed that only a little of the blossom was out and given the supply of swollen buds there was going to be a mass of flowers in a few days.  I am not sure what species are involved in this.

We took the recovered one off for a walk around the area starting off Barbie Rd.  When we got there Frances remembered that last time we got here we started to drive off through part of the National Park to get to a State Forest but a tree had fallen across the road so we turned back.  So after a brief walk we drove onwards and found some nice forest to walk in. 

As we went along we both commented how a tree trunk beside the track looked like a backside.  I have decided this is a species new to science Eucalyptus gluteus and it will be turned into Quilton toilet tissue which has the slogan “Quilton loves your bum”.

Obviously a face plant has happened!

When we got to Ferny Creek Rd I recalled that there was a Forest Park of that name on the map so we headed off in that direction.  Unfortunately it turned back in to National Park and even though they didn’t have a no pooches sign on it (and as we were more than 5km from a cappuccino machine there was limited chance of meeting a Ranger) we decided to follow another road.  This was interesting to drive as several of the drainage humps were quite humpy.  We then ran into an area where forestry (ie chopping down trees) was happening so turned back and went home.  En route we had a look in a small quarry where the statement that ‘old Fords never die’ was disproved. 

Interestingly the sump was still full of oil – according to the dipstick.

Late in the day I took Frances and Tammie up to see the greenhoods.  For the sake of peace and quiet I carried Tammie through the thickest stuff as she would get her lead terribly tangled if on foot.  The greenhoods were flowering all over the place, as were some of the midge orchids.  At one spot we found them flowering together and by using the flash got a reasonably image of this.

This is a rather short post: I reckon I must be getting tired!