9th Jan – Onto Norah Head

With only a 3 hour drive we arrived to a gloomy sky with a few raindrops coming down as we setup, not a heavy rain, but with our speedy set up it wasn’t going to be a problem. Being overcast, we grabbed the bikes and took a ride to the Rock Pool and the Lighthouse which were just a stones throw around the corner, Chris told Aiden all the rocks were poured concrete as they were sedimentary rocks and looked similar, he got rather annoyed when we told him latter this was not true and he asked Dad to not tell any more lies! But the realty was the rocks actually did look a little like weathered concrete! The scenery was beautiful, with a large cliff area with huge rock plateaus right to the waters edge. We finished our ride at Soldiers Beach and the boys set their sights on surfing tomorrow after seeing the waves, unfortunately the forecast isn’t looking too good. After scoping out the caravan park, this one unfortunately is the worst to date. Being $90 a night it’s not cheap, but no one here, including the other guests have no respect for any of the facilities. That aside we will ignore and enjoy the sights around the area, this was a good eye opener for the boys who are quiet annoyed at the state of the place.

As usual Bell had us do our beach walk before dark and this time we were certainly not disappointed. It is a 500 m walk to the beach through the bush filled with very old Banksia trees and native bushes. As we arrived at the beach, the beautiful warm breeze added to the spectacular sight of the storm clouds rolling across the horizon. We sent the boys for a run to the point and Riley came back in a hurry asking us to run as there was a spectacular sunset. So we all ran and as we arrived around the corner the red glow on the horizon was like no other we had seen before. As the sun set the wind increased and the lightning began signalling our time to get back to camp, along the way we found a flock of seagulls sitting on the shore like little weather vanes in the wind....hanging on for life. We headed for the track back to the camp, while walking back through the bush in the dark from nowhere a little possum dashed across the track and up a tree just next to us. He then proceeded to nibble away at the Banksia flowers without a care in the world, completely ignoring us standing right there. Unfortunately we couldn’t get a photo as it was dark and the flash no longer works on the camera (lucky for his night vision too). The walk finished with a bat flying around us and the nonstop lightening show above. The morning news reported Sydney was hit by 4600 lighting strikes that evening, we only saw it from a distance but it was still fantastic to see as the sky was constantly alight.



















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