Good old Moulamein U!

Day 18: Good old Moulamein U!

One of the advertised features of the Rainforest Villa was ‘free bikes’.  They even had a helmet that fitted me (no shell, but it’s the polystyrene that absorbs the shocks anyway!).  So I leapt aboard and headed off the town centre to find some internet access.  It turned out the library was open before any of the commercial operations so they got my custom.  All good: Yankees back leading the AL East.

The business for the day was inspecting Lismore, which appears to be the large town around the area.  Murwillumbah is a small country town as is Casino, while all the coast places (eg Tweed Heads, Byron Bay and Ballina) are relatively recent developments.  The drive to Lismore was very scenic and went past a few interesting villages.  In one of these Frances thought she saw a sign for mangoes so we went back to check.  It turned out to be for Mandarins but at 8 for $1 was good value.  The noteworthy bit was the accompanying sign ‘Kids savings.  Please be honest’. 

We also went past some strange sculpture which I went back to see.  The sign on the gate referred to crash repairs and the work was made out of bits of firewall.

 The artist swung in as I was taking photos and confirmed that the tall woman had been selected for display in the Byron Bay Writers Week exhibition.  He commented that the income was a bit fluctuating but it was more fun than panel beating.  Judging by this sample of his work on a car I would certainly think twice about him beating my panels.

Lismore was an interesting place.  It seemed to have a big-town feel to it and certainly had some age behind it.  A well restored building dates from 1876,

and the War Memorial area referred to a fair number of locals who died in the Boer War. 

There were quite a few buildings from the art deco period or older. 

The final image is the croquet club, which has been given an explanatory panel inset to the pavement.

 The Wilson River runs through the place and has flooded a few times.  A sign by the Transit Centre gave flood heights according to the Rowing Club gauge: anything over about 9.8m is a major flood and it once hit about 12.8m.

There was also some modern 'works' including a roundabout and a shelter in the middle of the street.

The folk of the town seemed an interesting mixture.  More aboriginal people than we have noticed elsewhere (and unfortunately most of them carrying an amount of condition suggesting that saturated fats are a high proportion of their diet).  Also a bunch of Africans, possibly reflecting the presence of the main campus of Southern Cross University.  We passed this on the way out of town and since we went by three road signs pointing to it (off the Bruxner Hwy) Frances suggested it might be the academic equivalent of Moulamein.

We returned via the outskirts of Ballina and then up the coast past Lennox Heads.  The road was basically fine until we hit the Pacific “Highway”.  At that point I got a call on my mobile and by the time I parked and picked up the missed call we were parked off the road and needing to take a right turn to get back on North.  That wasn’t going to happen so we did a left and a U-turn.  It appeared I needed to get back to the Byron Library and do some financial stuff.

Before getting to the Library we swung by a lookout just South of Lennox Heads.  This had great views up the coast and sightings of some Humpbacks migrating just offshore.  Most of the sightings were puffs of spume, but a couple of big splashes suggested someone had just done an aerial.  Looking at the number and position of spouts I guessed there were at least 6 whales in this pod.  An interesting item here was the construction of a launch ramp for Hang-gliders.  This would seem likely to reduce the demand on Ballina Base Hospital services quite a bit, compared to the previous run-over-the-edge-of-the-cliff approach!  Noting the efforts of a patrolling Sea-eagle in the next bay, there is nice bit of lift available.

After doing the financial stuff I passed by a Cellars outlet and picked up a 6 pack of Byron Bay Premium Ale.  Not cheap at $2.99 for 330ml but very tasty.

A reflection on Byron lifestyle.  On the ubiquitous map of the area there is a blurb for the Eastgate Christian Community: the worrying bit in the ad is the reference to ‘Prophetic Art Workshops’.  Again, I quote Andrew Sachs: Que?? 

I should comment about the weather.  Since the deluge of the North Coast at Mullaway it has been very, very nice.  Walking along a beach (or wherever) at about 20 degrees C is what we hoped for.  Tonight feels cool – we are running a heater – and it is raining.  We can stand this small inconvenience.

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.