Pre silly Season

Before all the hoo-ha and massive exodus to seaside towns for the holidays we made a quick getaway to the North Coast. We chose Tea Gardens/Hawkes Nest area, as I really liked the names. It conjures up images. I did mean to ‘Google’ why those towns were called this but I did not.

It is very undeveloped there and I wonder why this is, as it is really only a short trip from Sydney. It was also very quiet, not like our seaside town on Jervis Bay. But we did enjoy the quiet pace.

Fourteen years ago we had been to the resort at Bombah Point, Myall Lakes for a holiday and so I wanted to see the tannin coloured lakes and the Paper Bark Trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia) again as I had taken quite a few photos I had liked. That was pre iPhone days and it took some time to find them on my hard drive. The colours did not seem to be as intense. But then iPhone does seem to give a more realistic colour than the early digital cameras. Tho the colours on this trip were hyper realistic but it was so beautiful.

The colours of the Sydney Red Gums also fascinated me. There are small pockets in the Myall Lakes National parks around Mungo Brush.

Nothing much had changed in this region. You still ride across in a car ferry, which leaves every 30 minutes. (The times that this happens are not advertised so you wait. But then we have leant patience in this era of the virus pandemic)

Another day we took the 1940’s boat from Tea Gardens to Nelsons Bay and back. That was also unhurried and a step back in time.

Another day was tracking down the tallest tree in NSW also in the Myall Lakes National Park, Eucalypts Grandis. This was pure rainforest and it was so quiet, still and beautiful (and damp) I am also on a quest to see as many Lighthouses as I can in Australia. I found another one at Seal Rocks. It was designed by the same architect that built the Point Perpendicular Lighthouse here in Jervis Bay.