Not just alive, but alive and kicking! I survived a somewhat more gruelling than expected Club expedition along the Yuraygir Coastal Walk, from Angourie to Red Rock, on the north coast of NSW.
It's a 4 day trek involving 65km of beaches, rocky platforms, headland walkways, and river crossings. There are stunning views of deserted beaches. There are idyllic spots to camp and swim. There are exciting challenges such as how to cross the three significant rivers encountered along the way, how to find and carry sufficient drinking water to get you through the day, and of course how to pick up and then carry your 18-20kg backpack for up to 23km a day. There was also one rather wet night and day to get through.
Answers to the river crossing conundrums, by the way, turned out to be: (1) bludge a lucky lift from the only boatie passing by, (2) phone the relevant operator and pay the $10 per head taxi fare, (3) beg assistance from a group of kayakers, to thus become one beach's star entertainment offering for the afternoon, and make us celebrities around the town.
Answers to the river crossing conundrums, by the way, turned out to be: (1) bludge a lucky lift from the only boatie passing by, (2) phone the relevant operator and pay the $10 per head taxi fare, (3) beg assistance from a group of kayakers, to thus become one beach's star entertainment offering for the afternoon, and make us celebrities around the town.
Food consisted mainly of noodles, Cup-a-Soups, and weird stuff in packets claiming to be Moroccan lamb or egg and bacon breakfast, to which you add hot water, and which then turned into wet and soupy weird stuff in packets. One of us (guess who) got through the whole trip like this. The others all defected at some stage to the shops that occasionally and miraculously turned up in the handful of holiday townships we passed through, and bought evil things like chips and ice creams.
The plusses generally outnumber the minuses on these sorts of expeditions, and among the other plusses were the expert leadership of Liam, and the fine companionship of Jacqui, John, Sarah, Tom, and Fernando. Probably the highlight was the idyllic and little known Freshwater Beach camping spot, many kilometres from anywhere the car campers could have got to.
New Year's Eve celebrations were held at 9pm in a delightful bushwalkers only area near the Lake Arragon Camp Ground, in keeping with our practice of early nights and then failure to sleep much anyway (noisy seas, hard ground, and in my case repeated failed attempts at comet spotting).
For the post expedition recovery session we ended up at the Red Rock Bowling Club, where we overindulged in food and drink, as you do. Great trip, great company. Thanks all of you.
Photo credit (last picture): Unknown fellow Bowling Club patron
