The rain had continued to fall yesterday through most of the daylight hours so now, Saturday morning, everything is mostly wet. To prevent water from getting into Jenni's side of the bed, I erect a blue tarp over that end of the tent.
2 Saturday 21-10-2017 The camp site
While Jenni goes to the showers, I get the mattress out and hang it over a log. I do the same with the doona and the bedsheet and a few of the still damp clothes.
3 Saturday 21-10-2017 The camp site - JGR
Inside the tent gets a good sweep out. Being Saturday, a few of the punters from Canberra start to arrive. Not exactly crowded though.
4 Saturday 21-10-2017 The camp site
When Jenni returns we decide to go back to Batemans Bay to meet Marie-Therese and her husband Barry. It's a small world in that Marie is my first wife's direct cousin. My first wife refuses to talk with Marie now because Marie is friends with us.
5 Saturday 21-10-2017 Marie-Therese
We are a few minutes late getting to the Venetian restaurant which, despite its name is just a coffee house. Here, I meet Barry for the first time. He's a big guy, 6' 4"in his prime. He's had a lot of health issues lately as has Marie. It is a great catch up with Marie-Therese as it's been a few years since we saw her last. . During coffee (no breakfast) Dennis calls interested in how the camping is going. I give him a complete run-down of the disastrous first night in the rain and how we are still recovering.
6 Saturday 21-10-2017 Marie-Therese - JGR
I rejoin the table and we agree to meet in a little while at Marie and Barry's place to see their little piece of paradise. They are very near the ocean and have a house in a relatively new estate. It has a great back garden many feet below the rear deck. Marie says she loves gardening and has heard (via Alison) that Jenni is a keen gardener as well. I quickly disabuse Marie about this. Loving gardens is not the same as loving gardening.
7 Saturday 21-10-2017 Marie-Therese - JGR
After a very long chat and a cuppa tea, we leave and return to camp. We return to Depot Beach to find that the mattress has dried and most of the bed clothes are dry as well. We refit the mattress and bedclothing.
8 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
It is about 2'ish and the light is good so we decide to do the rain forest trek which is about 1000 metres long. It turns out that this part of NSW has the only remaining "littoral rainforest" in NSW. Littoral means "plants and animals that live by the edge of a river, lake or ocean.>
9 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
The track is rough and strenuous and we struggle with the steep, treacherous terrain.
10 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
These are the Burrawang palms (Macrozamia communis). It is a cycad found on the east coast of New South Wales. The common name for the species is burrawang, a word derived from the Daruk Australian Aboriginal language; this name is also often applied to other species of Macrozamia.
11 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
The burrawang has the most extensive distribution of any cycad in NSW and is found along the NSW coast from around Armidale to Bega 700 km south, and on the coastal slopes of the Great Dividing Range. Sometimes it is found on the inland slopes as far west as Mudgee.
12 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
It is most abundant on the south coast of the state. Seed cones are formed after fire. Male and female seed cones are on separate plants and the large female seeds are ripe when red or yellow. Individual specimens take 10–20 years to mature and may live for up to 120 years.
13 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
The other feature of our walk is the spotted gum (Eucalyptus maculata). It is a tall tree with a straight trunk, growing up to 45 metres in height (sometimes taller). Spotted Gum has smooth powdery bark which is white, grey or pink; often with characteristic patches ("spots"). The bark is shed in polygonal flakes.
14 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk - JGR
It grows well in this rain forest.
15 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk - JGR
Spotted gum is a dominant species of open forest in Qld, NSW and Vic. It occurs on infertile and dry sites and is associated with the presence of shales and slates. The species is naturalised in W.A. and S.A. and in areas of NSW anf Vic outside of its natural range.
16 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
The track is well signposted with lots of interesting information along the way about the rain forest and its inhabitants
17 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
18 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk - JGR
19 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk - JGR
20 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
21 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk - JGR
I rests me weary body
22 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk - JGR
23 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
24 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
25 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
26 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
27 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
28 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk - JGR
29 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk - JGR
30 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
These palms blew over in a storm and park rangers sawed them into pieces to reopen the track.
31 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
32 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk - JGR
33 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
Yes, where are they? We see plenty of animals on the beach but nothing on our walk,
34 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
The going gets very rough just here.
35 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk - JGR
Look at the next picture to see the result.
36 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
It looks like a scene from a movie.
37 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk - JGR
One of the stunning views that we get is as we end our the trek with the beach in sight: there are stands of very tall old-growth rain forest trees silhouetted against a clear azure sky and a deep blue ocean.
38 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
39 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
40 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
I like this bit. It shows Australia connected to Antarctica 60 Mya. The last few million years have seen the Australian continent break free from Antarctica to set off on a journey northwards across the southern ocean. Along the way the continent has experienced major climatic change associated with its varying location and the occasional ice age. These effects have seen rainforests contract across much of Eastern Australia as the flowering plants better able to cope with dry conditions moved in to take their place.
41 Saturday 21-10-2017 The bush walk
A little piece of paradise and it's no longer raining.
42 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach
43 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach
"Hello. My name is Skippy. Do you have any food?"
44 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach - JGR
45 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach
It's crowded today.
46 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach
Aboriginal people have a long connection with the Country of Murramarang National Park, and this continues to the present day. The south coast headlands have long been a focus for economic life, giving easy access to the food resources of both the sea and the land, and plants within the park provided medicines and shelter.
47 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach - JGR
There is much evidence of the past today, including shell middens, tool manufacturing sites and indications of a specialised industry producing bone points and fishing hooks. At the Murramarang Aboriginal Area, near Bawley Point - there's a complex of middens that are of great cultural value.
48 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks
We walk south along Depot Beach until we get to the rocks. This is interesting because the oceanside rocks were formed from sediments deposited in rivers and swamps approximately 255 million years ago when Australia was part of Gondwanaland.
49 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks
On top of that rock, a short distance away, is a worn-away cliff made of sandstone that had been laid down over millions of years at a later time.
50 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks
51 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks
After many more millions of years, the sandstone wore away to become the sand that lined the ocean and the beaches. This picture shows that the sandstone sits on a base of harder sedimentary rock layers.
52 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks
This is the view across Tranquility Bay up past Depot Beach to Pebbly Beach on the distant shore on the right (north).
53 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks - JGR
54 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks - JGR
That's Grasshopper Island in the distance. What intrigues me is that the sandstone, sitting on the harder sedimentary rock of the island, was once a part of the sandstone cliff to our right.
55 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks - JGR
All that sandstone between here and Grasshopper Island is gone.
56 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks - JGR
An anemone. "With fronds like this, who needs anemones?"
57 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks
The water is very clear today.
58 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks - JGR
Honeycomb weathering of sandstone occurs when salt crystallises in the pore space of rock, causing the mineral grains to separate. Sand is then swirled around causing erosion and creating the honeycomb effect.
59 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks
Rock pool. The stones at the bottom are polished smooth by wave action. Amazing.
60 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks
61 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks
The nearby Grasshopper Island is a shorebird rookery and makes for excellent birdwatching. Sooty oyster catchers, white-faced storm petrels and even little penguins can be seen here.
62 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks
63 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks - JGR
Some seabirds take a rest. Pebble Beach is in the distance.
64 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks Rocks
The sea is very calm and I wait some time to get even a small puff like this.
65 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks
I walk around the headland and there is a tiny little beach there.
66 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks
67 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks - JGR
Jenni attempts to get a picture of a wave breaking but the ocean does not cooperate
68 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks
It is a very calm day and the sea doesn't crash against the rocks and everything is peaceful and serene.
69 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks - JGR
70 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks - JGR
71 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks - JGR
In parts, it looks like the surface of the moon but It is a natural process caused by salt crystallising in the pore spaces of the rock, Plenty of salt in the oceans.
72 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Rocks - JGR
73 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach - JGR
We head back to camp.
74 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach camp Site - JGR
This is the scene behind our camp site: as nature made it.
75 Saturday 21-10-2017 Depot Beach Camp Site - JGR
At the moment, we're back in camp. The bedding is dry and back in place. We're both a bit tired and my right foot's giving me hell . We're showered and we've put some clean clothes on. We're ready to go back to Bateman's to rage until the wee hours. Or maybe, have dinner at the pub that we went to the other night and have an early night
76 Saturday 21-10-2017 Dinner in Batemans - JGR
We're on our way into Batemans to have dinner and we see this derelict barn. Jenni thinks our German friend Claus will enjoy these shots of an old barn in an advanced state of decay.
77 Saturday 21-10-2017 Dinner in Batemans - JGR
Later: Jenni sends the photos of the barn to Claus and he replies that he loves it and that it is very difficult to find barns like this in Germany because the nation has a neat and tidy complex. That's true. You don't see old tractors, trucks and old windmils and water tanks rusting away in Germany. German farms actually have flower beds of geraniums under the windows and wood piles that appear to have been cut by laser and stacked by robot.
78 Saturday 21-10-2017 Dinner in Batemans - JGR
From what I can see on British TV shows, if this were in the U.K. then there would be a preservation order placed on this building for its historical value. The order would be reinforced by suffocating bureaucracy with prison sentences for anyone bold enough to use their own imagination.
79 Saturday 21-10-2017 Dinner in Batemans - JGR
We park alongside the water's edge in Batemans and cross the road to a string of restaurants intending to have fish and chips. We look at the menu outside one place and decide this will do. I have a most magnificent NY sirloin and Jenni has lamb cutlets. No fish 'n chips.
80 Saturday 21-10-2017 Dinner in Batemans - JGR
Initially, we sit in the far part of the restaurant. We soon ask to be moved as every time the front door opens, the cold wind blasts in through the open door. They very graciously move us to a table near the side door. Unfortunately, the front door has so much cold and wind entering the restaurant, that they close that door and put up a sign asking patrons to use the side door. We spend the rest of the meal getting up to close the side door to keep the wind out.
81 Saturday 21-10-2017 Back at camp - JGR
We drive back and enter our warm, dry, cozy bedroom. It is dark as we fumble around for the switch on the lamp. This picture was taken earlier in the day of course.