Third day
Trip Start
Jul 03, 2007
1
4
8
Trip End
Jul 10, 2007
Lord Howe Island,
Australia
Friday, July 6, 2007
M:
Feeling much better this morning - that moment when you suddenly realize you just feel like a person with a cold rather than someone who has the whole world against them while they die a ghastly death. It was too windy to consider the beach so we set off to walk to The Clear Place. This was a good walk for me in my miserable state as it was very level and mostly in forest but even so there was a point when it was raining and I was cold and headachey and sorry for myself that the only reason I went on was that the thought of having to go all the way back to Ebbtide was worse. I plodded through those marvellous forests unable to raise a spark of interest, in a daze - and if I thought anything at all, it was that I wouldn't be able to remember any of it afterwards because I was in such a dumb stupor.
01 "Googs may give you a fright!"
G:A day of gusting wind, so we stayed in until ready for a long walk. Mandi had slept ok, but her head is full of snot, so wasn't feeling great. It started to rain as we rested on the way to the Clear Place Point and she started to cry quietly - poor girl. I was all for going back, but she bravely went on and we sheltered in a Bunyan Fig forest. These are really amazing trees with their multiple trunks and interlocking branches. By the time we came out the other side into sporadic sunshine, she seemed better. We could see the hazy shape of Balls Pyramid above the next headland. It must be huge to be visible at 23km, and we later read that it is about 500m tall.
M:
Anyway, it wore off and I started feeling better and before long we were at The Clear Place which is literally just a small mowed area - smaller than a suburban lawn - with a badly positioned bench (behind a bush so you can't see anything from it) on a scrubby hillside. With a lovely view (except from the bench!) but we nearly missed the best of it. I don't generally usually use binoculars as I find it difficult to hold them steady and to fuse the image. But I had a quick look through Gray's fancy new ones - seeing as I had lugged the damn things back from South Africa! - and thought I was seeing some sort of reflection when I saw what looked like a fairy palace hanging in the sky behind - or even perhaps in front of (like a rainbow) a distant headland
02 Banyan trees
. We worked out it was Balls Pyramid but as we knew that was 23 km from the far end of the island, hence about 28-30 from us, we couldn't believe we could really see it, especially on a cloudy day. So we decided it must be a mirage. But it remained in place through several changes of light, so perhaps it was the real thing - in which case it is HUGE!! We also watched one of the many seabirds just playing on the wind. Jonathan Livingstone Booby or something.
When we were walking back and I wasn't as cold and miserable, and the light was nice, I could really enjoy the magnificent banyan trees in the forest. They are genuinely incredible, dropping their plaited pillars over huge areas of forest so that you can't see any longer which is trunk and which is branch and which is aerial root. Such lovely shapes.
G:
We stopped off at the visitors centre for an egg and bacon brunch before spending some time in the museum. All rather interesting reading, we found that the island is, as we had surmised, the flank of a 5 million year old caldera. I was pretty interested in the history of commercial air travel to the island, which was by flying boat until the middle 70s.
M:
We came down to Lagoon Rd and went into the Museum where we had good hot chocolate and big fried breakfasts (it was only 11:30!) and then looked around the not very exciting displays - lots of sad stuffed birds and old photos (mostly ones we'd seen in other books anyway) and bits of rusty old agricultural machinery rescued from people's grandpa's places. I also spent $4 trying to use the least accessible Internet point I have ever had the misfortune to encounter - obviously designed to be absolutely maintenance-free so operated by a coin in a slot and a with really bad tracker ball - I spent about ten minutes unable to do anything because it was jammed on some other window and wouldn't return to the one which was actually showing as the active window
03 View from The Clear Place
. Anyway, I did manage to establish that there was nothing requiring my attention, and I sent brief messages to the daughters and the mothers.Then to Thompson's to buy ice creams despite the by now freezing wind where we had a looong chat with the lady but forgot to buy a hot water bottle which would have made my back and neck a lot easier - not to mention de-freezing the very cold bed.
G:
We went home the long way so we could get an ice cream from Thompson's Store and then spent the afternoon reading about Lord Howe Island and doing our washing so that we could hang it outside in time for the afternoon squalls. One came on so suddenly that it wasn't possible to get to it in time, so we abandoned it there for the night.
M:
Afternoon peacefully at home. We did some washing and pegged it out in a good sunny breeze, saying we only had an hour or two of sunlight left, but that would be enough to have it dry, and of course the moment our backs were turned, the rain poured down so now there's no point in bringing it in at all. Let's hope tomorrow is clear!!
Also (with a lot of trouble) managed to speak to Sarah who had been to an interview at Notre Dame and has been verbally offered an early-offer place for the political/journalism course, which will be a huge relief in terms of not having to worry quite so much about UAIs
04 More banyans
. I hadn't been worrying about her future but it's a surprisingly big relief to know that at least we won't be spending this summer vac fretting about next year as we did with Jen in 2005!I couldn't get hold of Jen then, but did manage to later. Her good news is that she and Ben have finally found a flat they are happy with, just up in Sutho, and are moving in on Monday! So Gray and I feel we should go away more often as they seem to accomplish all sorts of things better with us away than with us there!
At 6:30 Emma took us down to Milky Way for dinner. We had superb steak - the best I've ever had in Australia I reckon. We suspect it has to do with 5th generation islanders who raised and slaughter their own beef, and always have done, and know how to do it.
G:
At 6:30, Emma came to collect us for the drive down to Milky Way which is the last accommodation before the Old Settlers beach. The girl who was selling raffle tickets at the Bowling Club was behind the bar, and taking dinner orders. Seating was communal, and we were put at a table where a drunk man was boring a couple. We sat at the other end.
They left with the drunk, which relieved us greatly, and we were able to move away from the door. Our steaks arrived, cooked almost perfectly, and delicious. Mandi reckons it is the best steak she has had in Australia. Another couple joined us. They were school teachers from Ballarat. We think he was a headmaster about to retire, and she was a science teacher. They were quite difficult to talk to. I think they were here to see birds and to climb Mt Gower. She was very short sighted and reminded me of Mandi's friend, the professor, from the US.
05 Tree trunks
M:We were seated at big communal tables and were very glad to sit at the far end next to a constantly opening door because at the other end was a very drunk local who had reached the maudlin "you are such a beautiful person!" stage with the other couple who were at his end. We were concerned he'd move in on us when they left, but luckily they offered him a lift so he went with them and we were able to move out of the draft to the middle of the table just as our food arrived. Shortly afterwards, another couple joined us - Joy and Terry O'Connor - from Ballarat. Both teachers and good company.
And home via the trusty restaurant bus by 8:30 - this is the life!
G:
I had pudding for something to do while we talked, then we asked for a lift home. Got a very chatty local who doesn't like the tourists much as they don't respect the fact that both electricity and water are in limited supply on the island. She said that there was some talk of wind, but many of the people worried about the aesthetics of a wind farm. Probably the main problem would be bird strikes.
