Day 19 - Manning Point
Awoke early, the waves were crashing and my bed was a bit lonely so after my coffee in bed, I dressed and headed to the beach - all before 8am! It was beautiful down by the water at that hour, so I paddled and wandered and tried to take artistic photos like this one.
Back to the van for a shower and then I was sitting having breakfast in the sun just after 9am. There were a lot more clouds about than the last two days - possibly a sign of things to come over the next few days (predicting a bit of rain in these parts this weekend). We had planned on walking through "town" along the river this morning before elevenses and then doing a longer beach walk later but as we approached the cafe/restaurant where we had thought we'd have dinner and Neill went in for "have a chat", he then decided we could have coffee and caker there for elevenses. We sat on the deck over the river and enjoyed that very much, and heard stories from the owner of the massive floods last year that destroyed the oysters beds and ruined his jetty. As we left we spied a small park at the end of the street and decided to explore, as there seemed to be a path through the trees. So feeling very much like intrepid explorers, we wound our way through thick bush, up hill and down dale, coming out over a sand dune (difficult for short people like me!) at this.
Back to the van for lunch, and a quiet afternoon reading. The wind picked up which made it a bit cool but we chased the sun and sat between the vans which sheltered us a bit. We had our pre dinner drinks and nibbles in the same spot but decided jeans and long sleeves might be in order for dinner, given we were to be sitting on the river.
We arrived at the cafe/restaurant, were greeted by Chilli the dog and took our seats on the balcony. Tonight was pizza night so we pre-ordered our seafood pizzas and they soon emerged hot and smelling delicious.
It was a very enjoyable evening and we discussed how small towns like this would often be overlooked by many visitors, aiming for the 'big name' coastal locations. But we really like this place - great weather, laid back, no commercialism, a stunning beach, friendly locals - we'd come back.
As we left the cafe and were saying our goodnights to the chatty owner - and who knows how we got onto this - but his girlfriend lives in the same place as my brother and of course, Andrew knows her! What a small world.
posted by Tracey @ 9:02 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home