Thursday, 1st June 2000

Having arrived safe and sound at Merimbula, my first thought was to go and check out some of the local sights. I zoomed off to Bournda National Park. Indeed I zoomed a bit too fast cos I went past the turnoff (but it wasn't my fault - they didn't actually signpost the turn saying that it went to Bournda, I just sort of inferred it from the scratch map). I drove up to North Tura beach and left little chops all alone in the car park there.

The walk up to Bournda island and around the lagoon and back again was 6km long. Just a nice walk I thought. Not too difficult, shouldn't take too long. Ha! I had forgotten that only two days before I had failed even to complete even 15 minutes of my gym program after battling a virus for a couple of weeks. Joy! I walked for about an hour, explored the beaches and suddenly decided to sit down before I fell down. I had walked, what maybe four k all up with all my little diversions. How on earth was I do a 10k walk like some of the ones I had seen on the map if such a short distance half killed me?

The walk was definately worth it, after the first kilometre, which was under melaleucas. All I could see was grey, twisted trunks, like the legs of skinny old men with some horrible disease. It was like walking in a ghost forest - dark cos the trees block the light, the ground soft underfoot with all the fallen needle-like leaves, hardly any birds, very few ground plants....yuck! And all the time, the surf booming off to my right, tempting me but out of reach due to the close spacing of the trees.

The coast all along this part of NSW has sandy beaches and rocky headlands sticking out. Whilst I was there, the surf never stopped beating in on the land. Big waves came one after the other bashing into a magnificently wild coast. Bournda beach, island and lagoon all offer excellent photo opportunites.

The walk around the lagoon along Sandy Beach creek is worthwhile, passing as it does through rainforest and then onto drier, sunny north-exposed ridges. I found a Dendrobium speciosum, an orchid, clinging tenaciously onto a large outcropping of rock above Bournda Lagoon only about 100m from the beach. Didn't know orchids were that tough. Getting the pic was fun. I had to shimmy on my butt down the side of a boulder to get close enough to frame the shot whilst tyring not to scrape off too many lichens and not drop the camera. Oh and not fall off the side of the rock. XXX, where were you? You seem game to do stupid things to get pics of plants! (you know who you are :-)

The only problem with the track is that it sometimes was not as well marked as it could have been. At one point there is a creek crossing, but I didn't realise this and blundered upstream on the wrong side of the creek. I simply had not looked at the scratch map for a while and also misinterpreted the sign on the side of the path. I sorta figured that something was wrong when I reached a huge boulder that completed blocked the path. It stuck out into the creek and was about 8-10 metres high. It was also covered in D speciosum. Yeah, I eventually figured out that the track crossed the stream, but I wasn't the first to have made that mistake. If I had been, why was there a path to follow?

The last part of the walk was the easiest but I was ready to collapse by the time I got to the car. I disturbed a roo having its afternoon tea in the scrub. It bounded away before I could get a pic of it.

I found a couple of nurseries to visit on the way back to Merimbula, and also discovered why my little boy was so sluggish on the climb out of Merimbula. The hill is bleeping steep! Couldn't find a good spot for some sunset pictures, so I dealt with the bad spot I found instead then didn't take any at all.

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Dr Bunny's trip to Merimbula and Mallacoota/email me/last modified 30th August 2000.