Australia - Ettalong Beach

  Ettalong Beach, Australia
Thursday, December 15, 2005

Day 1

After a fairly quick and non eventful 9 hour flight to Oz, encompassing 1 film, 2 meals and 5 hours sleep, we touched down at midday and passed straight through immigration picking up our working visas on the way.

We had planned to spend the first few days with Andrew's relative; Kathleen (grandad's second cousin) in Ettalong Beach on the East coast an hour North of Sydney, so we headed straight for a train to central and then hopped on a train to Newcastle passing by the Hawkesbury river, getting off at Woy Woy.

Having met with Kathleen at the station, and been exposed to the searing heat for the first time, we popped to the supermarket and then paid a quick visit to Ettalong beach - which is only a 5 minute walk from the end of Kathleen's road (PICS). We instantly felt more relaxed and the hectic pace of HK slowed to a laid-back crawl.

The rest of the afternoon was spent back at the house acquainting ourselves with our new host, learning about red-backed spiders (which she has in her garden and has been bitten by!!) and preparing for our first Aussie meal - meat pie and sweet potatoes.

In the evening we meandered down to the village and the local hotel where they were holding the Christmas concert outside, in front of the beach (PICS). Local talent (questionable in a couple of cases) was on display and ready to entertain with renditions of Christmas carols and to top it off Santa made an appearance towards the end of the evening - poor guy must have been sweltering in his Santa suit and being mobbed by a hundred kids....we got a bag of sweets out of it though so all ended well.

It felt bizarre to be sat in the bright sunshine and warm evening breeze with just t-shirts on and looking at all the Christmas paraphernalia, after all, we're more accustomed to wearing several layers of jumpers in front of the fire and with the threat of snow outside, at this time of year.

Bed time beckoned so we checked every nook and cranny of our bedroom for those pesky red-backs and settled down for a well earned nights kip.



Day 2

Having woken up at the ungodly hour of 8:30 we had breakfast and took a trip in to Woy Woy to sort out our train tickets to Canberra for Christmas, as Kathleen had arranged for us to stay there with her daughter; Josie, for the festive period.

Whilst in Woy Woy we happened upon a Cheesecake shop and decided to investigate. Two slices of yummy caramel cheesecake later and we got on with the more practical tasks of finding out the exchange rate and withdrawing some more funds.

While waiting for Kathleen to finish her exercise class (puts us to shame - she's nearly 80!) we had a look around the small harbour and were amazed to see dozens of huge pelicans on top of ALL the lamp posts in the area obviously waiting for any fishermans left overs.(PIC)

Back at the house we enjoyed the luxury of using a washing machine (free of charge) to clean our clothes properly - a novel experience given Kathleens old top-loading machine - a first for us (not the washing you understand).

We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling along Ettalong beach shoreline and sleeping on the quiet, warm and clean sand - not a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon.

The local wildlife wasn't shy about coming up close and personal - tiny transparent crabs, huge pelicans..... (PIC)



....and extremely annoying flies. Flies are one thing that we were not prepared for or warned about and were to take some getting used to; they are constantly around your face trying to get into your eyes, nose, ears and mouth. What's more annoying is that you don't seem to see any other idiots flailing about frantically trying to get rid of them - we initially suspected this may be due to our lack of a shower in 24 hours but subsequently found out (from a local) that they do bother the natives as well but they have learned to ignore them unless they're trying to get into their mouths.

On returning to the house later in the afternoon we found we were locked out as Kathleen had gone shopping. Undeterred, we ventured around the back of the house to seek out some shade under her gazebo only to be greeted by a golden beetle (PIC) a couple of garden spiders (PIC) and hoards of ants....that bite!!!

Suddenly Verdi spotted a brightly coloured bird in one of the trees in the front garden (which we later found to be a Rainbow Lorikeet) (PICS) they are stunning looking social birds you would only normally expect to see in a zoo, aviary or tropical paradise but they were quite happy residents in those particular trees in Kathleen's garden.



Showered, refreshed and ready for the evenings entertainment we went to the local pub for dinner (big portions and good value) and an education on their beer measurements; Skooners and Midis, before heading to Woy Woy Theatre. Kathleen had suggested the 'celebration of song' concert with original acoustic performances by four singer/songwriters; Earlwood Greg, Amy Vee (Australia's best new artist of the year), Kez and the headline act Glen Cardier, who had toured with Spike Milligan and written songs for Olivia Newton-John.

Our initial skepticism was unfounded as all the performers were varied and accomplished and we enjoyed the entire evening, especially Glen Cardier who wowed us with his repertoire, incredible guitar playing and amusing anecdotes. An evening well spent.



Day 3


Verdi awoke at 9 with a call from her parents and a sore throat and snotty nose to boot (it had to hit some time). Having gone back to bed to try and sleep it off, we were then awoken at 11 by the dulcet tones of Kathleen serenading us with 'Come all ye faithful' outside our door, shortly followed by a sudden thunder storm and heavy down poor that looked like it was going to quash our plans for a trip to Palm Beach that day.

Luckily by the time we had dressed and had breakfast the storm had passed and left bright sunshine in its wake, so we headed out. En route to the pier for a ferry to Palm beach, we stopped off at the local indoor market and sampled some fresh mini Dutch pancakes for a mid morning snack.

From the open top deck of the ferry we were afforded stunning views of the coastline and Lion Island (PIC) while enjoying a brisk and much needed breeze. Palm beach was a 5 minute bus ride around the corner from the dock and then a brief walk past the immaculately kept golf course.

Palm beach is not only stunning in its own right, it is also the home of 'Home & Away' which soon became apparent when we recognised the descent to the beach (PIC) and the clincher was the 'iconic' Summer Bay Surf Club (PIC).

We occasionally paddled in the break of the water but were mindful of the small, bright blue jellyfish (Blue bottle / Portugese Man'O'war) that were scattered along the shoreline (PIC). We whiled away a few more hours sat on the beach watching kite surfers and indulging in some more sleep...Verdi had a cold after all and needed to rest - that's our excuse and we're sticking to it.

We strolled back to the ferry port and returned to Ettalong beach to buy supplies for the evenings gastronomic delights; beef and shitake mushrooms with noodles, followed by fresh strawberries and yoghurt, it was our turn to cook. The meal went down a treat and saw three happy campers contentedly to their beds.


Day 4


Sunday, being the day of worship for some, saw Andrew accompanying Kathleen to her local church. Sunday, being the day of rest to others, saw Verdi staying in bed (and doing the laundry).

At midday Kathleen's granddaughter; Danielle, came for a brief visit (PIC), she attends university in Sydney and also works at the pie shop which supplied our first nights meal. After lunch and a lengthy chat we took a walk into the village and back onto the beach (PIC).

Once Danielle had returned to Sydney for her works Christmas party, we returned to the beach for some more lazing around and Andrew decided to 'brave' the beautifully clean and clear waters.

By early evening we had returned to the house in time to grab a quick shower in preparation for more guests. This time Kathleen's youngest son and his wife; Richard & De, called down from Newcastle bringing a delicious home made chicken pesto pasta dish laden with garlic. As unlikely as it sounds, at 6ft 5in Richard dwarfed Andrew and made Verdi feel even shorter than her tiny 5ft 2in. After exchanging travel stories, hints and tips with De we said our goodbyes and retired to bed.