Joy in Everything

No surprise, it’s 8pm and I am showered and in bed, but what an exhilarating day!

Today, 26th November, is our 18 year wedding anniversary and it is as if the universe knew, so ensured our day was magical.

It started with a porcelain gift from Wade (18 years is porcelain, I had no idea, I am waiting patiently for it to be a big diamond year), he can be so thoughtful sometimes, and a lovely card declaring many more years of love. A long chat with Olivia to check in on the latest 23 year old news, an attempted FaceTime with Brad (he didn’t answer and has not answered my texts all day), a quick message to Ellis (he too has not replied) and am due to message Connor shortly to share a photo I think he will appreciate. Connor’s pic is of a giant axe, he pointed out to us that the Australians love to commemorate a town with an oversized landmark (think Lacombe’s fishing lure) and so far we have seen a banana, a shrimp, and now an axe.

Anyway, keen to leave Nambucca Heads, we did not even hang around to find a coffee and were on the road by 9.30am, driving for about 2 hrs to reach a small town called Hat Head. We arrived at yet another beautiful beach, small town and a warning that snakes have been sighted in the area. It was quite a magical beach area that had inlets running down one side of the beach, from a river heading into the sea with quite a current. Dogs were living their best lives, kids taking surf life saving lessons, families just enjoying their Sunday on the beach. A really great snap of normal Australian life I think.

By now it was gone noon and we were desperate for coffee, the incredibly small town did not seem to have a cafe. So we stopped at a small local (very run down) outdoor swimming baths (the council seem to have announced its pending closure, so there were many lawn signs promoting to save the pool) that offered coffee, we stopped and got a coffee to go before moving on.

From here, we drove an hour to Crescent Head. Another fabulous beach, a stop at a bakery for an Australian pie (not dairy free) and a small quiche for me, I could not resist the very British looking Vanilla Slice, entirely indulgent but we were already over 10,000 steps, so why not.

At the fear of sounding complacent, privileged, and ungrateful, I will share we headed to another beautiful beach and because it was a little rainy (and I was full from my Vanilla Slice), I did not get out the car to admire the beauty. Wade did.

We then made our way to our stop for the night in Kew (slightly inland), but prior to arriving were planning on another little beach walk and enroute to the beach, just at the side of the road in a green space backing on to bush, in a very small town, were a family of kangaroos! It was superb, I was a little over excited to see an entire family (mum, dad, child, and joey in mum’s pouch), just living their kangaroo life, munching grass and entirely not bothered by the humans who pulled over to capture video (attached). I found it positively overwhelming and quite beautiful. I was on a definite high for the next few hours, but things were about to get even better.

On discovering the next beach and going for a wonderful walk in the sun, we found another breakwater cove and decided to walk the length of the path, admiring a beautiful double rainbow over the open and unobstructed view of the ocean. At the end of the path, we noticed some locals off the path and looking over the rocky breakwater into a bay area. Wade asked what they were looking at. They were watching dolphins! Wade tried really hard to get it on video but they were quite shy and we only saw one come up a few times, which was incredible to see. A dolphin in its natural environment, another positively overwhelming experience that brought more tears to my eyes. What a wonderful few hours - kangaroos and dolphins!

Back to our hotel, we enjoyed a couple of drinks over dinner (Wade’s shrimp and steak arrived but the shrimp were enormous and still had their eyes, tails and legs - yuck), eating outside and reliving our day through the pics we had taken.

What a great way to celebrate 18 years of marriage.

Tomorrow, we head further inland to view the final Ellis and Connor recommendation - Ellenborough Falls. Who knows what the day will bring!Read more