Myall Lakes
After a hard weeks work what better way to celebrate than by taking a trip up to Myall Lakes. Rach and Mike worth both taking their friend from England on her way to New Zealand on a little trip about 3 hours North, a short distance South of Seal Rocks. I went up with the trip with them, taking the new 4WD for its first trip off road!
The drive up was very very wet and windy and went a bit slow. When we got to the last town (Bulladelah) it was late and the bar next to the bottle shop was in full swing party mode, the local drunk kids asked us to ‘wheelspin off’ as we left, we did it making their day / week / month.
In the morning we woke up to find our beautiful resort, here is Rach and Mike in their walking gear getting ready for the trip –
Rach and Mike with the Villa
Before we went out we made some tea and ate some biscuits (we hadn’t got any breakfast food yet) and it attracted loads of birds to our balcony. There was even a bird I had never seen before come and visit but first there was the Kookaburra.
Mr Kookaburra
Also there was this little guy which I have not identified yet –
Strange Bird
After a visit from all the birds in the area we headed off for a walk entitled ‘Rainforest Walk’ it was a lot like the rainforest. It reminded me of the popular hit TV series ‘Lost’ so was a bit scarey at some stages!
Lucy and Mike on the Jungle Walk
At the end of the walk there was a beautiful view over the lake to some hills, we were intercepted by some ducks that were begging for food. We did not give them any as they need to fend for themselves.
Erin with the two ducks
We then went on another walk, Rach and Mike are big walkers so we did a 10-20km down a track to a supposed old fishing village, that when we arrived wasn’t what I would have expected (just some boats and a few wooden shacks, I was expecting men with beards smoking pipes wearing big pullovers).
We went shopping and then headed back to the ferry. The wind gusts were getting very strong but that didn’t stop us stopping on the way back to climb a sand dune. It was a bit freaky on the dune, it was getting dark as well. I took my camera up and took this photo, it looks like the surface of the moon when the flash went.
Very windy sand dune!
That night Mike pulled out his new device used for recording audio in out to mp3 (as well as bring his drum pads). There and then the face of music was about to take a new direction when we thought up some new beats to lay down, however, the device was puchased in USA and the powersupply was at the wrong voltage! Musical milestones were not going to be passed that night so we watched Bridget Jones instead.
When it got dark we went out to see if we could see the stars, we were quite a long way from any big towns with lights. Erin told me that the ‘bulb’ function on my camera allowed me to expose a picture for as long as I wanted. I was surprised when it passed the 30 second maximum that the camera sets, so this picture was taken with my camera at ISO 1600 and exposed for around two minutes. It was so amazing to look at it after it was taken as you might agree –
The Milky Way from Myall Lakes
The next day we got up and went for a trip to Sandy Point. When we got to the beach Erin was talking about Whales and Dolphins when we spotted some surfing the swell!!
Dolphins in the Waves, Broughton Island in the Background
Here is Mike taking a picture of the girls with the Islands in the background –
Mike, Rach, Erin and Lucy
No weekend outside of Sydney can be concluded without some serious off roading. We didn’t actually go too much serious because there were too many people in the car. So we just drove to a 4WD parking area near the beach (where the above photos were taken).
New Car off Road
and again..
Splash!!
Because the trip was so good and as Amy didn’t get to come (she is in London now) we are going up again next weekend when she gets back! A great weekend, shame it had to end!