Father's Day, Aussie Style

Just to get it clear straight off, that is NOT James fishing.


Mik has recently bought himself a Ute and Zara for father's day (which is the first Sunday in Sept here) had bought him a pass to all the National Parks. They decided to make the most of this and planned to go the Black Rocks beach, just south of Evans Head, in the national park of Bundjalung. and they invited us to come along, which we duly accepted.

it was a bone jangling ride through the park once we turned off the highway onto the unsealed road, leading to a drawn out conversation along the way about the 'necessity' of buying a Ute for ourselves.

we had arranged to meet them there as we had not got off to such a quick start as them in the morning, distracted by a cooked brekkie. it was therefore with just a little trepdation that we kept driving for about half hour along this unsealed track with Caitlin adding to the joy by asking every 5 seconds if we were there yet.

eventually though we arrived at the barbecue area they had described, with the hippies milling about after a party that they had also described. we parked up and made our way over the sand dunes and were happy to spot Zara's large green bag she had left in conspicuous spot to reassure us that we were on the right trail. the tide was just going out, so we made our way over the black rocks (coffee rock) to a lovely little sheltered spot next to rock pools and staked our place there. we were, i'd like to point out, the only ones to be seen on that stretch of beach.

we all got into the water, with occasional glances back at the kids to make sure they hadn't been swept away or fallen off the rocks in a climbing misadventure. the waves were pretty fast, esp for an inexperienced midget like myself and i gloriously managed to be 'dumped' by a wave just by trying to jump over it!! i think i swallowed a copious amount of salt water on the way which created interesting tummy feelings!

james had a hoot on the boogie board as you can see!

we had a nice wander up the beach and i loved being able to look back along the expanse of beach and only see our 3 sets of footprints snaking back to our camp.


hunger soon set in and we collected up belongings and kids and returned to the barbecue area to cook up yet more suasages whilst the 3 children ran about collecting a variety of bumps,bruises and cuts. reluctant to let the day end here, we all agreed to meet back at Maclean and hit the dirt trail again...luckily more peaceful as Caitlin was worn out!












we rendezvoused with Mik and Zara at the river side (Phil joined us for a beer too as he had popped by to drop off a crate of ale for James) where we sank a couple of beers and watched the sun set over the river.

then it was off back home, to relax on the sofas, feeling warmed through to the bones by the day and full of sunshine and fresh air.

the whole album is here