Clear Place

Quiet morning. Casual ride to one of the boat sheds to book a Round Island tour for tomorrow, picked up a cheese, capsicum and red onion pull apart loaf from the island's only bakery and sat on our favorite bench overlooking the lagoon munching contentedly.
In the afternoon decided to walk to Clear Place where you can sit and watch the aerial displays of the sea birds which have colonies on the nearby cliffs. A much easier track than others we have followed through superb Banyan forest. Whilst there are Banyans everywhere the ones on this track are so much bigger. Muttonbird burrows everywhere but no sign of the birds themselves. The track came out at the far end of Middle Beach. The cliffs here are very high and steep and the steps down to the beach so numerous we didn't want to contemplate the walk back up so gave it a miss. Instead we sat on a bench and marvelled at the colour of the sea. Next to us wad a plaque commemorating 20 year old Jake who went snorkelling and was never seen again. Such a tradegy for a young man in a beautiful place.
Continued along the track to Clear Place and were delighted to realise that you can see Balls Pyramid from here. Rising 561 metres sheer from the sea it was an awesome sight even though it was 23 kilometres away.
With much patience and sharing of the binoculars we identified the Red tailed Tropic Bird, Sooty Terns and we are fairly sure the Providence Petrel. There is a story which says that if you call the Petrel it will land nearby. So the old geologist gave it a go and called to the next pair we saw. They swooped down low and ......... crapped .... on both of us! So much for that story.
We sat for ages watching the arial courtship displays but found it difficult to identify other seabirds although a lovely twittering flock of Lord Howe White Eyes landed in a bush close to us.

In the evening we booked a table at the Coral Cafe and had a great meal amongst the Palm trees. Although the sun had just gone down we ambled down to the Lagoon beach to watch the stars come out and were thrilled to see Muttonbirds flying in to their burrows. We could hear the plaintive cries of the babies which at times sounded almost puppy like.
Intetesting walk back to The Treehouse in the dark. No street lights on the Island and as the houses are all set back and surrounded by trees no visible house lights to guide us. Fortunatly we were advised to bring torches with us so we staggered stafely back up the hill safely. One thing I won't miss is walking up that hill!

Photos
Huge Banyan tree
Middle beach from above
View from Clear Place
Cave in the cliff
Island Post Office
Community Hall where we watched old Island films for the local school fund raiser.Read more