Lennox Heads and Red Rock - NSW

Lennox Heads

Baby shark washed up on the beach - rescued by Geoff!

Following on from our two weeks at Brunswick - we moved down the coast a little to Lennox Heads- it was literally just about an hour’s drive down the road - so compared to some of the travelling we did in the earlier days - this really was “just down the road”.  Thankfully it was just a short drive because, unbeknown to us, wiring was burning through under the bonnet causing the lights on the car and van to behave very strangely.  If we’d travelled much further we could easily have had either a very serious accident or the car explode in flames!  Once we’d parked up sitting quietly outside the van … Geoff not quite sure how to tackle this next motoring problem … weighing up the ‘what might have beens’ and the expense of taking it to a garage to have it repaired  … me silently saying my prayers …. a ute pulled up at the side of us and hooted.  “They look familiar”, “I know them”, “What are they doing here?”  “the fastest answer to prayer ever!”  were thoughts that quickly went through my mind as I registered that it was Geoff and Janelle - come over to see us for the day.  What an amazing surprise and within 15 minutes the car was sorted!

 

The camp site was just over the road from Lake Ainsworth - a fresh water lake where I enjoyed swimming most days.   The water in the lake though was black - and I mean black in colour - not dirty black.  Apparently it’s stained black from the tea tree leaves.  It’s really weird, and a bit disconcerting, swimming and not being able to see your hands in front of your face under water.  It’s very clean and warm and I enjoyed swimming across the lake several times.  To see the children playing in the water - jumping out of trees and generally having so much fun was great - how long before health and safety bans their fun we wondered?!  One event though did open our eyes  to the every day risks when all of a sudden everyone left the lake - very quickly - apparently a brown snake had been spotted!  Thankfully I wasn’t in the water at the time but it did make it all very real to us the importance of being vigilant at all times.

Crossing the road the other way took us directly onto the beach - a lovely clean, sandy beach with great waves - which we enjoyed playing in - especially on the body board.  I took my morning walk along the beach most mornings - even at 7am it was so hot!  

Jan and Graham

 
While at Lennox Bay we met up again with two couples who we’d met at Brunswick Bay.  We were invited to lunch with Jan and Graham who we may do a house swap with in a few years time, and for an evening bbq with Kate and Bill.  What lovely people we’ve met while in Oz.  We also went to the Lennox Pub with Kate and Bill - ask Geoff about the chilli!!! 

On Sunday we went to Ballina Baptist Church - Ballina is the next town from Lennox about 10 minute drive.  We had the best welcome ever - people were so friendly - and we were invited back to one gentleman’s home for lunch.  And what a house it was!!!! 

 

We’ve now moved down the coast a little further to a sleepy town called Red Rock - originally called Blood Rock - following the massacre of some of the Gumbaynngir Aborigines who lived nearby
by the newly formed NSW Mounted Police way back in the 1800’s.

 

The caravan site is again just a 2 minute walk from the beach - I can hear the sea as I write.  Geoff has been fishing, we’ve both been swimming.  There’s a river which loops round a large sandbar… swim across, walk over the sandbar - get back in over the other side, and then float around to where you started!  It’s great!!!  Apparently just before Christmas the whole of the site was under water following the heavy rains and floods.  

As I write this blog, 10pm on Tuesday night, family in Cairns are awaiting the biggest cyclone on record - I just hope and pray that they are all safe.  I spoke with Kayleen this morning who told me that they had to batten down everything they could, have filled the bath with water, have candles ready as the power will be out, and, if the worst comes to the worst, they will go under their house to hopefully remain safe.  All patients from the hospitals in Cairns have been evacuated by air to Brisbane, hotels and caravan parks evacuated and closed, the airport closed, schools and shops have been shut and everyone has been told to stay at home if they’ve not already been able to leave the area.  The cyclone winds are expected to be in excess of 250km per hour in Cairns.  It’s hard to imagine what it will be like - the devastation it will cause - the feelings of helplessness as you sit and wait, not knowing if your house will stand up to the winds, all you have worked for may be wiped out in minutes. 

I’m also reminded that our original plan was to go anti-clockwise around Australia - which would have put us in Cairns region right now.   When we changed our plan we certainly didn’t know what was going to happen with the floods and cyclones - seems someone bigger than us knew though ……..



As a post script to this blog - it’s now the morning after the night before …. I’ve spoken with Kayleen in Cairns and she told me of the horrible night they’ve endured - BUT everyone’s fine.  No serious damage to the house although a tree or two have blown down - thankfully (and amazingly) not onto the house!  Family up on the Atherton Tablelands have also had a rough night, but again everyone’s safe and not too much damage to report.