Day 4: A Rich, Full Day

Kilometres walked today: roughly 15
Pictures taken: 193
Beers drank: 4
Well, I’m actually writing this from Day 5, because I couldn’t be buggered writing yesterday. But it’s that early in the morning that I can’t write about much today, so I’ll recap while I wait for the coffee to filter.
So. Woke up at 8:30. It’s starting to become a habit for us to wake up, un-alarmed, at 8:30 on the nose. I blame society and the fact that we can draw blinds on every window except the ones in the door. We decided that we were going to walk along the beach up to the lighthouse, which we did, with me snapping away like mad with my camera, taking a bunch of pictures that probably won’t look as good once I get them home. We get around to the approximate end of the beach (called “the Pass” for those of you playing the home game) and casually noticed some people walking on water. Huh? Upon closer inspection, we saw that there was a narrow causeway-style sandbar about 15 feet out from the beach that had maybe an inch of water on it. Tanja and I rolled up our various leg-coverings and waded out. Despite slight soakings and the near-wetting of a mobile phone, we soon found ourselves in (seemingly) the middle of the ocean. It was almost an optical illusion as the water was so reflective that it looked like all the rest. Very cool.
At the end of the beach, there was a promontory (I don’t know if that’s what it’s called... a big thumb of rock separate from the cliffs) with stairs built into it. I ventured up, snapping like mad. It was about 2 or 3 stories high, so the view was fantastic. At one point, I put down my camera and started using the panoramic mode on my mobile phone camera and garnering funny looks from passerby. After a light lunch of fish burger, salt and pepper squid and homemade ginger nectar, we continued our trek up to the lighthouse. Tons more fantastic views, I snapped more photos, all uphill. Get to the lighthouse. Tanja is appalled at the cost of $2 to use one of those pay-telescopes. Views, views, photos, photos, ducking tourists right and left, talking about how we’ll never treat our kids that badly. Let me paint you a picture. The top of the cliff the lighthouse is on just out like a huge V with the lighthouse standing at the fat end, and the trail following on edge, like so: V/. Well, in the non-lighthouse part of the V, there are bushes and trees and native flowers and thousands of butterflies and dragonflies. And I mean thousands. Every glance has at least 20 in view. They’re not bothering people, being too high and all, but it’s like watching an insect re-enactment of the Battle of Britain. It made me wish for a high-res video camera to just sit on a tripod and record the whole thing. Oh, and we saw the most easterly part of the Australian mainland. But the dragonflies! Wow!
We walked back down into town, seeing a caravan painted with Bender, among other things, and plonked ourselves down on the main beach with ice creams because damn it, we had just walked a bit over 12 kilometres, and you need a Magnum after that. Walked back to the hotel along the beach, and, since the morning clouds had blown away, defying Tanja’s portentous “The news says we’re to have crappy weather for the rest of the week!” It was hot and sunny and the water was warm on our feet. Once back, changed into swimmers and went for a lie on the beach. We passed two hours eavesdropping on a group of ludicrously fit backpackers (4 from Canada, 3 from Germany, weird, huh?) and watched the incredibly obvious body language of a Canadian guy trying to pick up a German girl (“So, um, you got a boyfriend, you know, back in Germany?” “Nein. Do you has girlfriend? In Canada?” “No. Not really, no.”). Quick dip, back to the hotel. I realised that despite application of sun block, my elbows have been sunburnt. Tanja posits it may have happened during the walk, despite cloud cover. Get togged up, head into town again for dinner.
We find a Thai/Japanese place and attempt to decipher the badly spelled and badly formatted menu. Does this come with rice? Can you have this with that? We were saved by an incredibly helpful Greek (?) waitress who complimented Tanja’s top and provided us with the key to the menu: just ask for what you want, menu be damned. We got steamed spring rolls with satay sauce, a green curry with salmon and prawns, and a dish of honey-chilli prawns with rice. All very good. The prawns had their tails cut off, but the heads still attached, so you ate them backwards. Finished up, left only a dollar as a tip because we had no other cash on us, grabbed some wine and a six pack of Amber Ale from the bottle-o and wheeled home, but not along the beach as there are no lights at all along the beach (this will be important later). Marvel at the stars, which are a fully Milky Way of 190 degrees. I muse on the way that it would be lovely to grab two of the beers, sit on the beach and look at the stars. Tanja decides that’s what we should do.
We grab the half-bag of Tzaziki chips, and two Amber Ales and head to the beach. We get down there and it’s pitch black. You can see the stars and the beam from the lighthouse but that’s it. Tanja is getting way wierded-out and worried due to no lights and shadowy figures down the beach, I’m worried because I saw an Alcohol-Free Zone sign and by nervous consensus, we decide to go back and sit on our jetty at the beach-house and look at the stars. Which we do. I discover that my new Hawaiian board shorts have an attached bottle-opener. However, this is not perfect, as our jetty is tiny, and the chairs upon it large. There’s maybe three inches between the back legs of the chair and the edge of the jetty i.e. watery grave. So now we’re sitting on the lawn looking at the stars, and it’s worth the wait. The water of the creek/lake is smooth as glass so it’s like we’re seeing two skies. Finish beers, go inside. Watch some Angel, have more beers, trip over things, tell each other that the other’s drunk, protest that the other isn’t, head to bed.