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Blog 12; Chased by a native beach creature…

  • Writer: Mary Moscrop
    Mary Moscrop
  • Jun 18, 2023
  • 3 min read

Blog 12; Chased by a native beach creature…


We were up and out by 7 this morning as we had a 6 hour drive and wanted to give ourselves a chance to explore. It was a bit early to have our first embarrassing moment, but, none the less, we had it at MacDonalds of all places. Not being familiar with what Maccas (affectionately known over here) had to offer, we pulled up at the drive through and when asked what we wanted, Emily (driver, so in charge of ordering) explained we were just perusing their menu, but she would have a medium coffee and an egg McMuffin – there was the obvious ‘what kind of coffee, latte, cappuchino?’ and then I said I would have the same order, so Em asked if he could give her a second order of the same……. Silence……. We waited, no sound…. eventually Em said ‘hello?’ and the guy answered, oh sorry, I thought you asked me to give you a second… worst thing is of course that then you have to face them at the payment window! I am not sure who was more embarrassed.

They have a thing over here called Driver Reviver stations where the driver can get a free coffee to help keep them awake – apparently the biggest killer in New South Wales is driver fatigue, so a free coffee seems a small price to pay….

The drive was fine, we split the driving so not too tiresome and we arrived at the Hotel to find it is about a 2 minute walk from the centre of town and has its own private access to the beach, so we dumped our stuff and went to explore.

Last time we were here we were on the surfers beach – this time it was the main beach that we had direct access to, and it is glorious!


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It is long and fine sand and just lovely. We did have a little nervous moment as we were walking along the beach, socks and shoes off, toes in the sand. We could hear a squeaking sound and we were looking all around for the bird/creature that was making the noise but we just could not see anything. The noise followed us along the beach and we were getting really confused…. Until we realised it was the sound of our feet in the sand! Doh!


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We met so many people with dogs on the beach – all being responsible dog owners. We met a right cutie who wanted to say hello – just a pup called Chip who was being lead trained, but he wanted to jump all over me, and he was covered in sand 😊.


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The surfers beach is the one you can see in the distance, below the lighthouse.


After the walk along the beach, we grabbed a salad from a takeout store and sat on the grass being serenaded by a busker who had drawn quite a crowd. He was ok but was clearly a surfer who was supplementing his surfing habit.


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Emily had a close encounter with a ‘bin dipper’ (Ibis) who was taking a fancy to her salad - not sure who was more startled…



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We wandered through the town, all boutique stores, no chains at all and LOTS of bars. After we had a mooch about, and an ice cream it was time to dine, so we opted to visit the biggest bar that had live music.

Emily was delighted when the Security guy stopped us at the door and asked her for ID – first time since we have been here – she was delighted until she realised that she did not have any with her! Fortunately, I had a picture of her passport on my phone, so all was good :D

Apparently, there was a music festival here yesterday, and there were certainly a lot of musicians about – some busking, some just hanging out, some just vibing. The bar we chose had a 7-piece funk band playing – I almost said we should leave during their first song as they had the sound levels all wrong, but they sorted it out and we stayed for their two full sets. They took me back to my youth when I was doing my nurse training in the 1980s, and used to hang out at the Inn on the Bay in Morecambe.


I really have loved this place, perhaps because of the music festival, but it is full of old hippies like me, remembering their roots and young surfers just living their best life.


I have just heard on the news that there has been a small earthquake in Sydney – clearly the city was sad to see us go!


We were getting up at 5.30 tomorrow to go up to the lighthouse to watch the sunrise, and then we are relocating to Noosa and heading north, yet again, a fairly early night, but so much to see tomorrow!

 
 
 

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