MONDAY
July14Th
– WEDNESDAY July 16th
We left Kiama with a sigh of
relief and a great deal of thanks that we got away from the mooring
from Hell unscathed and only slightly traumatised. If I ever travel
to Kiama again, it'll be by car!
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| As we moved away from Kiama, the coast took on a decidedly industrial feel. |
We were heading down towards
Port Hacking/ Cronulla on our way to Sydney on seas that were fairly
high and rolling but with enough wind to be able to use the sails for
a while. We were pushing along quietly with no particular thought
process going on or particular expectations at all and in fact I do
believe I may have been slightly snoozing in the V berth when
suddenly, out of the blue, the day became COMPLETELY AWESOME!
“Why?”
I hear you inquire (although that may just be in my head). The reason
is.... WHALES!!!!!!! Yes, we finally got a closer view of whales when
one suddenly breached in front of and kinda sideways of the boat. I
totally missed it of course (due to the fact that I like to sleep a
lot on these journeys, especially if I feel I might be ill), but Dave
managed to grab the camera and catch the aftermath of it whilst
yelling at me to come up top. Arrrggghhhhh I couldn't believe I'd
missed it again but instead of disappearing from view altogether, a
few minutes later there came a noisy plume of spray and then a
smaller one only about 30 metres from the boat port side.... a mother
and calf! Oh.... my.... gaaaaaaaawd... whales, whales, whales!!! (can
you tell I was a teensy bit excited?) We snapped as many shots as we
could but they only stayed a few minutes before once again taking a
massively deep breath and buggering off. Noooooooooooooo!!!! I felt a
little gutted that they'd stayed for so short a time yet again but at
last my faith that we'd see more was restored. One day they'll hang
around a bit longer.
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| Cliff-top house at the entrance to Gunnmatta Bay |
I was still on a bit of a high
when we approached the relatively narrow channel into Port Hacking.
Turning in along the cliffs into Gunnamatta Bay (seriously.... that's
the name. It's almost as if someone said one day.... it's not a
problem if you stay in the channel but if you stray outside, it's
gunnamatta! Nyuck, nyuck!) I was struck at how constrictive the
approach really was. At one stage the water shallowed off to the
point where, when another boat approached us from the opposite
direction, I was worried that we may run aground on the edge of the
channel as we both passed by. It sure looked like a lot of water but
obviously looks are deceptive. Though not a large bay, there were a lot of boats moored and anchored. This was promising for a still water night. I was glad to finally tie up in the
Cronulla Marina.
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| Cocky on the wind vane. |
The following morning came
bright and sunny. Though not warm, it wasn't freezing either so we
made the decision to get the bikes out in the afternoon and take a
look around. In the meantime, a visit to the showers and laundry were
in order. The marina didn't have the best facilities, with unisex
showers and toilets but they were adequate and the water was hot,
which was all that mattered. While we were waiting for the washing to
finish, we sat on the boat and watched flocks of cockatoos having fun
with boat bits. They picked and pecked and chuckled and screeched
their way along the marina and no, even our boat didn't come away
untouched. I saw one of them land on the wind-vane and although I
took a photo, I didn't realise that it was actually bending the vane.
(the repair is coming up in another blog post).
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| Passenger ferry on GunnaMatta Bay, pulling in at Cronulla. |
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| Helicopters we have seen buzzing around Port Hacking |
After
the mundane stuff was done with and the cocky shenanigans were over,
we donned our helmets and hit the road. Up and down the mall we went
and then wend our way to Cronulla Beach on the opposite side of the
Peninsula. We stood by and chatted as we watched surfers trying to
catch some waves and also spent a moment of quiet at the Bali Memorial which honours the 7 local women who died on that day.
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| Though a pest, I do love these miner birds |
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| View down Cronulla Mall. |
The
'bike' path was brilliant, even though it actually wasn't a bike path
and pictures of bikes with a large red line through them and “No
Bikes” were painted all along the path. We rode anyway as the paths
were pretty much empty and it seemed as though a lot of locals also
ignored the signs. We felt so rebellious, I almost felt obliged to
get a tattoo or something. Part way along was a very interesting
memorial obelisk to Matthew Flinders and George Bass. They seem to be
very big on obelisks on the east coast.
The
path was directly along the foreshore and the wide beach and
beautiful rock formations made the journey an interesting one.
All
along the beaches were sea pools which I could imagine were hugely
popular in summer, particularly since even in the middle of winter we
saw at least half a dozen people swimming. Rather them than me but
more power to them if they have that kind of constitution. It made me feel cold just looking at them and i decided then and there that I'd never be an 'iceberger'. We stopped
often to traipse over rocks and read snippets of information along
the way. At one stage a young tourist asked me to take her photo in
front of a tiny waterfall that was trickling down rocks next to the
path, and she then returned the favour by taking ours. I hope she's
enjoying her holiday.
We
parked the bikes in one of the lovely park areas and ventured down to
look into rock-pools in the hope of seeing creatures such as crabs or
starfish scuttling or lurking about in the clear water but sadly we
didn't see a single one, though we did see many sponges, squirts and
tiny corals.
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| History of the 'Ladies pool and dressing rooms' at Cronulla |
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| Not sure but I think this may be a poignant memorial to a couple of drowned surfers. |
The little snippets of history were very interesting indeed, particularly with the surfing culture that's developed in the area.
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| Awwwwwwwwwww. :D xx |
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| The view back towards Cronulla. It's a lovely spot. |
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| Gorgeous little waterfall that ran down the cliffs that lined the bike path. |
Many
of the houses along the foreshore cliff area were hugely
ostentatious, particularly one, an enormous white monstrosity which
had a sign on the gate claiming that, because of the view “This
house is Blessed by God. Don't believe me? Then turn around.” I was
almost tempted to go to
the door and inform
them
that I'm pretty sure that nature and millions of years was what
produced the view and that if there was such a thing as a god, he or
she wouldn't appreciate the pure pretentiousness and gaudy nature of
his property. :) There was one house though that had the most
awesome wooden chair in the front yard, which Dave and I immediately
coveted. It was huge enough for both of us and all the grandkids all
at once. How wonderful would that be?!
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| Awesome outdoor sofa! |
We
followed the path for as long as we could, going from a wide paved
path, to a more narrow paved path, then to a narrow hard-packed dirt
path to an abrupt rocky end and then turned around and did most of it
in reverse before taking another road back to the marina. All in all
we cycled about 11 or 12 kilometres. Not bad considering I have
problems walking 100 metres nowadays.
Despite the highly negative
reputation Cronulla gained during the riots, we found the area and
the people to be really nice.
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