[06 May 07]
Rhony & i know our time in Australia will soon be at an end. New adventures await on new horizons, but before we left i just had to show her Brooms Head. Summer was quickly fading away, so this truely was our last chance to go camping. The trip South from Brisbane would took approx 4 hours, and arriving about midday we quickly setup the tent on our little patch of grass.
The campsite was located between Lake Arragan, North & Red Cliff (no points for originality), South. With the excellent bonus of unlimited firewood, always a plus. Lake Arragan was visible from our Northern campsite, with wooden boat ramp for those whom bring canoes or kayaks. I believe it is fresh water, though it come very close to the sea at high tide, only a stretch of sand, i have never seen the two meet. Here is a shot of it early morning from our campsite.
After setting up camp & gathering wood, we scanned over a nearby map of which way we might travel while we still have light. We could either go North across two beaches & a rocky outcrop to Shelley Caves, or a short distance South across half a beach & a cliff edge to Red Cliff. We decided we could relax tomorrow, today was Shelley Caves.
We took of expecting the caves to be about 3km away at most. But quickly realised that the beaches were longer than they appeared when the things behind us faded into the distance, but the things infront weren't getting much closer. But found it a good time to talk about personal things. All the way along we encounterd seaweed randomly washed ashore & many many crab burrows & tiny clear jellies. And with a keen eye we even noticed a few of the little crabs scurry away to safety in the distance, they were a pale sandy colour.
You may wonder what those little balls are, well as you may guess they are from the crab digging its burrow, but thats not all. Crabs eat algae, amung other things, and nutrients are available throughout the sand. So as they dig they filter the sand and throw the clean little balls up over their back.
But continuing our trek we aventually arrived at the rocky outcrop, fortunatly it was easily passable by just going right on over, unfortunatly it was rocky & i did not bring thongs, so i had to tred carefully. But never the less it is a great little spot, and well worth a few shots.
Then apon crossing this divide we gazed on & saw how the next beach was longer then the last, but with our goal in sight we soldiered on. You truely notice the isolation at the halfway mark, its a great and wonderous thing on a warm day like the one we had.
But when we eventually arrived at the caves the tide was rising & we only had a little time to explore. They were very interesting, & i wonder how long it took for them to form. The sound of the sea was bounced back at you, & it gave the feeling of great depth & strength. Tiny sea snails & other shelled creatures clung to the rocky walls, & algae hung from where water dripped up high.
The rocky area around the caves became submerged at high tide, and the clustered crowded plants that grew on them made it look like an island paradise. The few rock pools that could still be found countained crabs, waiting for the fresh tide.
We stayed a short while, enjoying the spot, resting our tired legs & re-suncreening. Then headed of back to have a well deserved pasta dinner. Cooked of course over a campfire we made ourselfs, & enjoying the warmth the flames provided as the cool night settled in. Thinking back on our days walk we concluded we had most probably actually walked a total of 10km on sand & not the expected 6km. Rest assured that night we sleep well, with dreams of what the next day might bring.
