Our final full day away. We chose to explore Crookhaven Lighthouse as our morning activity. It seemed short enough so that Oma Lulu could also participate. She did well in the end as there were more elevation changes and rocky sections than expected!

Lunch was a combination of Jim Wild's oysters and leftovers and dinner was a meatfest of beef and lamb with roasted zucchini, corn and sweet potato. 

The afternoon was spent enjoying the beach. It had been an increbibly fun 3 days away as a family and it may very well become a new annual event! Whilst it doesn't quite fill the void of an overseas trip, it was still immensely enjoyable and we were grateful that we could at least do this as a family.

With a vaccine around a corner, we shall see what 2021 brings us! 

Sunrise with less crowds

View from the outdoor area

Making our way to Crookhaven Lighthouse

Our resident movie star

The lighthouse was not much to look at! But the walk was pretty

some tricky bits for Oma Lulu!

More rocks!

Rest time to give Oma Lulu a chance to catch up

Rocks and crevices meant to the explored

A live creature in the water

Oysters. Lucky we bought 4 dozen

Family photo!

Beach time

Digging is a family affair

I would hate to be buried up to my neck...

There were a lot of family fun and silliness. The explorations were mainly local so I will keep the posts of the next two days rather brief in the format of photo essays. Enjoy! 

Yes I made it down to the beach with my DSLR and discovered that I had a HUGE learning curve with my camera and tripod use. 

The phenomenal view from our dining room

Oma's rock collection from her brief walk on the beach

She demonstrates what she plans to use it for. This one is for crushing herbs and spices

An afternoon excursion to the rock pools to the left of the stretch of beach

Looking back towards the beach

Fossicking for shells and rocks has become a whole family activity

The rock pools also had crabs and fish!

We went as far as we could

Quirky rock formations

Gotta love the grandparents! Washing the kids hair because they don't do it well enough themselves...only Elliot escaped the treatment

Dinner means Korean BBQ time!

Korean sister-in-law = freshly made Toppoki. One of my favourites!

Afternoon walk to the lookout. Looking down below at where we walked this morning

Evening activities of family face mask and poker

Murramurang Ticks a Box

We would drive to Culburra Beach today to meet the Bahari Clan so decided to make the most of our annual National Parks and Wildlife pass and explore Murramurang National Park. The drive to Dark Beach was along a dirt road that we wouldn't tackle without a 4WD even if it is only a Mazda CX9. It was a beautiful road through a bizarre landscape of recovering sandy based rainforest. We were rewarded for our early departure by a new sighting - an echidna! At Pambula we were in search of echidnas because only Malcolm had actually seen one in the wild. It turns out that all we had to do was drive through the Murramurang National Park! 

Dark Beach itself wasn't that dark (it has darkish sand) or that great a beach so we quickly moved on. We took a peek at Depot Beach before opting to jump in at Pebbly Beach where there was fresh water to wash the sand off prior to the remainder of the drive. It brought back fond memories of a trip we made whilst at university. Being in a national park, the beach remains natural and just as pretty.

We were a bit fish n chipped out so opted for Vietnamese rolls for lunch at Culburra which hit the mark. We were joined by the rest of the Baharis very shortly. We were all excited to catch up and grateful that this getaway was possible. The rental house was big, comfortable and had the most amazing uninterrupted ocean view with direct beach access to Warrain Beach. One could not ask for more...except for Asian parents! They had precooked a big batch of curry puffs much to everyone's delight and made Chicken rice for dinner. Yes!

With dinner sorted, we could all enjoy the beach with no time pressures. The surf was great, the beach patrolled, the visitors few, and equipment was provided by the rental point. The day kept on giving! Boardgames post dinner rounded up what was a fantastic day!

The scenic drive through Murramurrang National Park

Walking to Dark Beach

Dark Beach

View of Depot Beach

Down at Depot Beach. Another empty beach....

Why did the echidna cross the road?

Pebbly Beach where we eventually settled to swim

Kangaroos just off the beach

Culburra Beach rental home

How's that for a view!

The extended family

Yay for Oma and Opa's curry puffs!

Access down to the beach

Even Elliot wanted to get in the surf...gasp!

The rocky side of the beach

Gotta love an Asian mum!

She brought the rice cooker so she could make chicken rice. Mmmm...

Snacks. I don't think we'll go hungry...

Relos and Ribs

Today we had simple aims: to visit a new fishing spot, find a beach with bigger surf and hopefully to catch up with Aunty Rita and Uncle Noel.

The surf beach was first on the agenda. We parked at McKenzies Beach but barely made it onto the sand when we decided that, with no shade and no showers, we weren't that keen on slightly bigger waves after all. Elliot was very relieved!

We decided to abandon the idea of getting hot, sticky and sandy and went in search of the public jetty at Mossy Point. This was a much better idea. The tide was just right and there was a lovely cooling breeze on the water's edge. Jonah and his grandfather has some bonding time which incorporated a few bites, a small fish and a hook implanted in a warfarinised thumb. They came back smiling and the bleeding stopped so all was well.

Aunty Rita was kind enough to offer to drive up and meet us so we arranged to meet at a place called Smokey Dan's. This was just a random choice, but it ended up being fantastic. It was an informal restaurant that sold various slow cooked American BBQ offerings at good prices. You had to log in to a website to order and prepay from inside the restaurant which was something more common in Tokyo than in Tomakin. We thought it safest to not let the olds do any of the ordering. They had enough trouble trying to work out how to use the Covid Q-Code. Everyone enjoyed the food and on-tap drinks although staunch liberal voter, Uncle Noel, nearly choked on his last sip of his beer when we told him it was Bob Hawke Lager. It was a lovely catch up and will surely earn us some family brownie points.

We had a simple afternoon just enjoying each others' company over games, leftovers and cricket. 

McKenzie's Beach

Mossy Point

The specials for today!

A coke made just for me!

Very big ribs...

Brisket beastie