Blood Red Rocks

I spotted this moth outside our room yesterday afternoon and I thought that someone might be able to email it to David “Moth” Brown to see if he recognises it. David was the first, if not still the only, professional Lepidopterist in England and is part of our “Wednesday night crowd”, although he doesn’t come as often these days as he has moved away from Milton Keynes. I went outside because I thought that someone was being strangled, to see what all the commotion was about, but it was a flock of noisy Parrots in the trees outside. I think that they fly from tree to tree all day, on the same route, checking out what has ripened since their last visit as they were back at a similar time today.

In the early evening, we decided to have a walk to the closest and probably only pub in town but we had only just got there when the heavens opened; boy did it come down. Claire remembered that she had left her 3 books in one with 1244 pages outside but it was too late to go back. Within 30 or 40 minutes the rain had stopped and the clouds went a funny colour and we could also see a bit of a rainbow. The rain brought everyone undercover and we started to talk to Wooda who had brought his owner “Trev”, I think. I am so useless at remembering names I should take a pencil and paper around with me, or at least a pen and write it on my arm like we used to at school. Wooda is a lovely dog and Claire and I gave most of our meal to him which he woofed down. We talked to Trev over several drinks and he had been in Australia for most of his life. When he first came here, from England, he joined the Australian Army and is now retired living on his pension but he still owns a motorcycle shop across the road. He also spends his time picking up rubbish from the beach because he said that he is a born beach bum and likes to keep them clean. I guess Wooda helps him where he can.

We did book in for an extra night here as we feel so comfortable both in our accommodation and the town so we could have an extra easy day without packing again. I didn’t think that I would find much to write about today so maybe it would be time to show “The Lost Blog” but I seem to have taken plenty of photos’s again somehow so decided to bullshit a little around them. Yesterday, we noticed that this blog had gone up to number 114 in the top blogs list but its gone back down again today; maybe it was time for the lost blog after all.

We had a quick drive up the coast to Red Rocks and there is an inlet from the sea that is very pretty. We tried to find the waterfall walk that Trev told us about but the road turned into a gravel track and you can’t take hire cars onto an unsealed road. Perhaps we could have parked up and walked but the road split into two and we didn’t know which one to take. At Red Rocks we walked quite a way around the inlet and it is very pretty but the clouds haven’t completely cleared yet so it was a little cooler but still very humid. They have built some board walks over some of the marshy ground so it is more accessible. I love board walks and every time we walk over them I can’t help singing, “Under the Boardwalk” to Claire. The boards ran out and the trail got a little tight where trees and bushes were constantly brushing you so Claire bottled out because she was frightened of the spiders, snakes and ticks. However, she promised to walk around the other way towards the sea, so we turned back.

It is a lovely little coast line and we found out how Red Rocks got its name with the bright red rocks going into the sea; there are also islands off the shore which are part of the Solitary islands that run along this coast. Trev told us that this area has the most temperate climate in all of Australia and the weather varies little throughout the year. It certainly is a lovely spot and we are not so far from Byron Bay now where we will be travelling to tomorrow. Even though Lynn has to drive down to Coff’s Harbour tomorrow to work, they have still invited us over for a BBQ; what a great couple, we do appreciate it. Mind you, I bet we will be feeling a little worse for wear the following morning when we have to drive back into Brisbane to hand the car in. I have a feeling it won’t be the last time we see this family and anyway we will be going to London in April to see their son Jeff Ling playing lead guitar for “Parkway Drive” during their new world tour; check them out, they are a great band.

From the top of the red rocks that we climbed up via a path you could see the inlet that we had walked part way around earlier so we could see that we had quite a good walk. There seems to be nice beaches all along this coast and of course no stingers. When we got back to the park area I spotted a little waggy tailed bird that kept jumping down to the ground and flapping about, then flying back to his perch where he ate his prey whilst wagging his tail again; he reminded me of Wooda with my rissoles. We also spotted one of those Juicy campers that we had talked about earlier with a tent on the roof; I’m not sure if they are all like that because we have only seen them driving around in the past, never camped. It looks like you use the camper to live in and you sleep in a tent on the roof; or maybe it’s a guest bedroom.

We headed back to “Woopi” for a late RSL lunch special, priced at $10 which includes a drink of your choice. I wish we had discovered these places a little earlier on in our journey as it would have saved us a fortune. I had chicken Schnitzel, chips and salad while Claire tried the Lasagne; excellent value for money, that’s why all the oldies always come here.

The final shot is of a memorial plaque by the indigenous people of this area, which is on top of the red rocks, and tells the terrible tale of the second way that the rocks got their name.