Sunday 15 September 2013 – Up and down in Nambucca Heads

I was up at a quarter to seven this morning (Grant beat me by about twenty minutes) after a rude awakening at some ungodly hour this morning of a little girl in the campervan next door to us screaming/crying for what seemed like ten minutes.  And while we were having our early morning cuppa, a really strong coloured wallaby came past our van.  So at about 9.30 we went off to explore Nambucca Heads.

I’ve never seen such steep streets – and so many of them!!  It’s a very hilly town and countless times you come to the top of a steep street, only to find the road drops away down the next hill, and you can’t even see the road ahead of you, it’s so steep – literally a big dipper every two minutes!  But it is also very picturesque, almost surrounded by water – the Pacific Ocean, The Nambucca River and the Inner harbour make for lots of beautiful views from any of the lookouts which dot the coastline.  And the day was beautifully sunny, with no breeze early on, but strengthening wind as the day progressed.

We stopped and enjoyed the views at three or four lookout spots, went to a couple of the beaches and walked the length of the Vee Wall – a very long man-made breakwater constructed of huge rocks and blocks of concrete.  The interesting thing about the Vee Wall is that is regarded as a giant outdoor gallery for graffiti artists, locals and visitors alike. Everyone is invited to leave their mark on the rocks, and the overall result has become quite an attraction.  The messages are many and varied, and there is very little space left to make any additions.  Some of the messages are funny, some are clever, some are romantic and many are in memory of someone.  Some are tiled, brass plaques have been attached, marriage proposals preserved there forever, religious messages – in fact there is a bit of everything.  And together they have converted a stark grey wall into colourful and interesting feature of the town.

The Nambucca River meets the sea.

          

Dawn at the end of the Vee Wall

Back at camp we had lunch then went for another walk along the ocean beach adjacent to our park.  We walked for a bit over half an hour in the direction of the township, then sat for five minutes and watched a surfer before turning for the return walk.  In the short time since we’d passed that way, there were about five big blue jellyfish dead on the beach.  They were about twenty centimetres across and domed (like an upside down mixing bowl).  I reckon it was the chosen place for suicidal jellyfish.  Weird!

As we got back the track into our camp there was a bloke on the beach preparing his parachute for when they parasurf (not sure if that’s what it’s called, but they zoom across the water carried by the arc shaped parachute), so we sat on the sand and watched him get it ready, then launch himself into the water.  He went out a long way before manipulating the parachute to bring him back – not sure how he did that when the wind was very strong and blowing offshore.  He did several runs before we decided that we’d seen enough, and returned to camp for a cuppa and a read.

Tomorrow we are going to Forster (pronounced Foster) where there is a Telstra shop, so I’m hopeful I can sort out my dongle problem – at least someone there can sort it out!