Actually, to be honest, we haven’t had any really foul days, but we have only had two beautiful days. (That’s what you get for coming in winter!) One of these days was the day of the coastal walk, which we described in our last post, and the other was the following day which we’ll describe here. The rest of the time has comprised grey, inclement sorts of days – good for relaxing and eating, and for gentler, considered excursions.
Before I get onto all that though, I thought I’d mention birdsong! We usually wake up in Canberra to the rather harsh sounds of the Wattle Bird, and at certain times of the year to the raucous sounds of the Black Cockatoo. Sometimes, particularly in spring, we also rise to the lovely song of the Australian Magpie which makes up for all the rest. Here at Vacation Village, we also wake up to the Magpie, but what I particularly love, despite its manic-to-some sound, is waking up to the Kookaburra’s laugh. There’s nothing quite like it.
But now, our activities, which in this post I will do more chronologically.
Trial Bay Gaol and environs
On our second beautiful day, we took a little road trip north to South West Rocks and the beautiful Trial Bay Gaol in Arakoon National Park. This was my third, and Len’s second, trip to this site. It’s special – for a number of reasons. The prison ruins are beautiful, the coast is stunning, and the history is interesting.
What is interesting about the history is that this was the first, only perhaps, gaol built in NSW to house prisoners for the express purposes of providing labour for a building project. First though, they had to build the gaol. That started in 1876 and finished in 1886. Then the actual project could commence, which was to build a safe haven breakwater in the bay. Construction took much longer than expected as storms kept damaging it. It all eventually came to an end around 1903 when not only had ships become better, stronger, with less need of a safe harbour but the breakwater was finally so damaged in a storm that construction was abandoned for good. The gaol then closed for a decade or so until the First World War when Australia, like other allies, interned foreign nationals, mainly Germans. Some 500 men were interned here from 1915 to 1918. The story of their lives is a fascinating one too. They were an intelligent lot and apparently made more demands to the authorities than all the other internment camps combined! They produced plays, established an orchestra, printed a newspaper, and so on …
Anyhow, after wandering around the Gaol, we drove back to the Smoky Cape Lighthouse area in Hat Head National Park where we did the steep little Jack Perkins Walking Track down to the beach, a beautiful, (not surprisingly) quiet little beach fringed by pandanus and she-oaks (casuarinas). We then did the even shorter but steeper little climb up to the Lighthouse itself where the views were splendiferous. It’s a good whale-watching spot, and we had seen some there on a previous visit, but not this time.
… and then the grey weather returned
For our last two full days in Port, we stayed closer to home. The weather was more inclement and not conducive to a lot of outing-and-abouting. In fact, on Wednesday we lunched at one of our favourite little places, the Little Fish Cafe at the Innes Lake Winery, and spent the rest of the time relaxing, reading, “computering”, and so on. We enjoyed our Little Fish lunch. It has changed hands since our last visit and has become more French-focused, but it’s still very pleasant sitting on the verandah, looking over vines and enjoying a tasty meal (including, escargots. “Try if you dare”, the sign said, so we did). It did sprinkle with rain a little, but not enough to dampen our spirits!
Our last day was grey again but we risked the rain and did a new walk for us, the Googik Heritage Trail in the Lake Innes Nature Reserve which is within the town’s environs. The track was a level one of about 5 kilometres (return) and took us through some subtly changing ecologies, with wetlands near the beginning and native grass trees near the end. No critters though, except for the sound of birds and frogs.
We also squeezed in a couple of rounds of mini-golf, as we did on the first day, because you really can’t stay at Vacation Village without playing at least a few rounds. I didn’t repeat my hole-in-one of the first day but we enjoyed the challenge nonetheless. There’d been so much rain, in fact, that the course was rather damp which meant that on those (very rare of course) occasions when our balls went awry, they didn’t run away quite so fast and so far as they are can be inclined, most unkindly, to do!
For our final night we tried a new-to-us restaurant in town – Fusion 7. It’s 10 or 11 years old, but because it is only a dinner restaurant we hadn’t tried it before as with Mum and Dad we would not dine out at night. We had a very enjoyable meal – with me choosing, of course, their kangaroo entrée option. While the Stunned Mullet (or Stunned “Wallet” as Mum has appropriately dubbed it) remains our favourite Port restaurant, Fusion 7 has now been added to our list of regulars with places like LVs on Clarence, Rivermark and Little Fish.
Arrived home from our top to bottom journey of Australia last night to finish the Keneallys The Soldier’s Curse set in Port. And bill very much enjoyed exploring the history there on his way up north at the beginning of the journey xxxx
Lovely to hear you are home safe Marie. I didn’t know about that Keneally book set there. Kate once talked about one of his – River town or something like it – set in northern NSW. I’ve had that one on my radar, but now I’ll have to add this. Hope you are feeling refreshed! xxx
Lithe Lianas, too, has talked to you about Keneally’s ‘A River Town’ which is set in Kempsey in its early days. LL’s mother gave her the book and will gladly lend it to you at any time. It is well worth reading.
We have enjoyed your blog and other communications together with the great photos and look forward to seeing you soon.
Oops. It was LL’s daughter who gave her ‘A River Town’.
Ah Kempsey LL. I should read it! Perhaps I gave it to you after Kate talked to me about it because she made it sound so interesting.
You have certainly fulfilled all requirements for nourishment and exercise … What fun!
I am writing with good bird news. While tramping along the top of our ridge last week I happened upon four beautiful kookaburras having a good old chuckle. I have seldom seen a kookaburra up there – perhaps we have some new neighbours? So keep your ear to the east – that lively chuckle might occasionally brighten your morning chorus here at home!
Travel safely! Love A
Oh, great news Andy. Like you, I’ve only seen/heard them very rarely in our neck of the woods. What ho, if they move in!
Nourishment! I like that way of putting it. I took my yoga mat but somehow didn’t get to roll it out, though did the odd stretch and balance without it. Funny how time goes on holidays!
Oh My!!
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
Merry King of the bush is he!
Laugh, Kookaburra, Laugh Kookaburra!
How gay you life must be.
Ha! Ha!
Had to. Loved the song and the Kookaburra laugh since my days as a girl scout. But since I met the Terry/Wherry clan they all mean more to me…. including the old gum tree. Love to hear some may have moved right into your neighborhood. Makes me smile just to think about it.
The pictures are wonderful! Thank you for the bathing magpie, the seductive Kangaroo, and the winsome Koala. I was thrilled to see them all and the pictures are perfect. Those beaches around the Smokey Cape Lighthouse are incredibly lovely. The neon colored flowers are splendid, as is the curly brush of the Banksia. Are either or both also fragrant? What did it smell like along the Googik Track? I have a friend who always asks me what the smells are like when we are on vacation. You two, with your travels, pictures and descriptions, make me look at and for textures in nature when I am out and about. That friend makes me breathe deep, so I can remember the scents of the woods and the ocean and the trees and the flowers. Sharing with others enriches their lives and changes how we see and feel and smell the life around us. I love that and I am so grateful for it.
It is fun to see ya’ll playing mini golf. Are the two of you very competitive about it? I am sure ya’ll make It fun. By the way you both look wonderful in the pics at the Little Fish Café and as always I enjoy the food pictures.
I also have a little thing for Lighthouses. Is that a swamp along the Googik Track? Those two pictures remind me of Louisiana swamps. Carter says he used to canoe through places like that in southern United States in his younger days. He enjoyed all the pictures, too. At a glance, all that is missing is the Spanish moss hanging off the tree limbs!
I’d love to actually be on your adventures, although I am sure I could not keep up. =) AND I fear I would scare all the critters away with unquenchable squeals of delight. I am fascinated at the great pictures that ya’ll have the patience and the skill to take!
Oh! and I adore your mom, Sue – ” The Stunned Wallet ” =D
Thank you, Thank you!!
Trudy for Trudy and Carter
Ah Trudy, sorry I’ve taken a while to reply. We’ve been in Sydney working hard on my aunt’s estate and I didn’t even look at this blog until today when we got home. I knew you’d love the critters. Darn it we loved them too. I’ve seen koalas in the wild before, but not frequently and this was the first time I actually saw one bounding along the ground (though I didn’t manage to get a good photo of it doing that).
I don’t naturally have a good sense of smell, though sometimes I do smell the bush if the scents are strong. They weren’t here. I don’t think banksias have a strong perfume. Gums can. I do love looking at colours and textures though. Yes, I guess that was swamp, though we’d call it wetlands. I still have to work out what that neon-coloured flower is! So far my research has brought up zilch!
No, we are not competitive playing mini-golf. In fact, we didn’t even score. We just had fun going around the course. (I was the only one to get a hole-in-one! But, no, I’m not competitive!!)