We did it! The Ballina to Byron Marathon Walk

I survived the marathon walk! In our team of five ("SCUrriers"), we hiked the whole marathon distance from Ballina to Byron Bay, crossing five(ish) headlands along the way. It was challenging, but great (I was hindered by laryngitis and bronchitis; Willa ended up with a trapped nerve).

Catherine, Kathryn, Betty and Willa at the start

Our beneficiary: our local Rescue Helicopter swinging over the Bay.

A closer image of our rescue helicopter who accompanied our start.

Boulder beach coming up to Lennox

A closer view of the lovely Lennox headland

 At the 20km mark we stopped for a break and some lunch. On my sandwich packet (delectable roast beef, salad and beetroot sandwich), made by Tess Hayley Mol), was written "xoxoxo I LOVE YOU! xoxo ♥ POWER ON!! xoxo YOU CAN DO IT!" ... and inside that on the interior wrapping, written in ink "I ♥ U" and "STERKTE" .... Others looked on and one of our team said "my sandwich is nowhere near as special and wonderful as yours..." (I must say, I agreed ....).

Footprints in the sand: this was about halfway

Until the 25km mark we were well up on time, but after that we slowed a little: Willa's trapped nerve was really slowing her up...  The last headland, at the 32 km mark, was "a killer" as one of our team put it...

Coming up to Byron headland

Looking back southwards, from whence we had come: our starting point is in the far far distance (I think ... it might be out of sight)

The gorgeous Little Wategoes headland: a special Aboriginal sacred women's site

 

SCUrriers at the Byron lighthouse

I don't have a photo that I can upload of us crossing the finish line (when we did, I had tears in my eyes anyway) but the one above was taken at the Byron lighthouse, about 2km before the finish.

We finished the 37 km walk in 8 hours 41 minutes...  I admire our team!! Thank you Betty, Willa, Catherine and Kathryn, for a walk of a lifetime.

And we are so so lucky to be able to live and walk along one of the most beautiful and pristine coastlines in the world ... 

Camping at Alice Flats

One of my favourite pasttimes: camping with the family. Bush camping, that is: not in a caravan park, away from roads and other people. The weekend after Easter John and I, with Tess and Yarrow (and Chicco our dog) set off with our dear friends Willa and Andrew (+ Myki and Liam), plus old friends of theirs (James and Mitti, and their two young sons) to spend four days camping in the wilderness on the banks of the Clarence River, some 30 km south-east of Tabulam. The locality is known as Alice Flats.  John and I put our gear into the horse float, which doubles as our "tent", and headed off cross country, well off the beaten tracks.

Yarrow and Tess in the foreground, Liam and Myki just visible in the tree behind. These are big old Callistemon trees, by the way. Check out the moss!

There is gently sloping sandy access to the river, which of course, is the focus of most of the activities: swimming, stone skipping, surfing (you tie a rope to the tree, and 'surf' the rapids on an ex-camping-mattress), fishing for yabbies, and generally lounging about.

John practising for the big stone skipping competition :-)

 

Chicco loves coming along ... and is not only good company, but keeps the campsite free of cattle and the odd brumby who might come wandering through, with her loud warning woof at their approach.

Evenings brought lovely campfire, music, and superb campfire meals ... delectable.

Here's a clip of Yarrow singing a campfire song written and accompanied by Myki on guitar (inspired by The Waifs). Just listen...

Mind you, some of the creative cookery done by the kids was a tad *interesting*. Here Yarrow and Myki have made salted crackers with melted chocolate and marshmallow fillings, toasted on the camfire hotplate... Do we say yum? No? What do we say?

 

The return journey was exciting indeed, as we had to get the Hilux (plus heavy horse float attached) through some deep sand and rock terrain, and got bogged well down to the axles several times. Some solid spade work by all of us helped, as well as John's excellent 4WD skills. I know, horse floats aren't meant to be 4WD vehicles... never mind. There was a *particularly* exciting bit which involved sliding the Hilux plus float down a large, 45 degree sand dune ("there's no way but down"). We finally got the to 'main road' (a dirt track leading away from the river); and when John said "Well, that's it ... bye, river!", Yarrow piped in with huge overtones of relief  "Oh...Hello, ROAD!!!"...

The impressive story of the "Scotch Bonnet"

While doing a training walk for my marathon the other week, on the beach near Brunswick, I chanced across an inspiring story ...

But first, let's go back in time.

In October 2011, a 10 metre yacht called the Scotch Bonnet and her crew were caught in a severe storm in the middle of the Tasman Sea: 1000 km from New Zealand and 1000 km from Australia. In the huge and heavy seas, the yacht's mast broken and the rigging destroyed, the crew had no option but to set off their EPIRB device (emergency beacon), whereupon they were rescued by a container ship.

They had no option, but to abandon the yacht to her fate. They were devastated.

Nothing was seen of the yacht and the assumption was that she had gone down, till in December 2011, a cruise ship with 2000 passengers, the Sun Princess, came across the yacht still floating in the Tasman. They sent out a rescue team but ascertained the yacht was abandoned. It was unclear what the legal status of the yacht was, whether it posed a safety risk to shipping lanes, and whether it ought to be scuppered. They eventually decided to leave it be, and it wasn't seen again...

Until, months later, it drifted calmly ashore on a long and clear stretch of coast just south of Brunswick Heads... where I just happened to be walking, and happened to have a camera.

This amazing vessel has survived, without crew, and relatively undamaged beyond her first storm (how many others has she weathered?)...

Salvage company has just arrived

So little damage on such a long lonely journey ...

The yacht survived some 22 weeks at sea on her own.  I don't wish to sound too anthropomorphistic, but I find this an inspiring and heartwarming story of survival ...

(Marathon) Walkies!

What with various family members in hospital, lots of driving and desk work, I've had a very sedentary year. Result: podgy unfit Mieke. Also, I started to have nostaligc thoughts about the long distance walks I did long ago with my siblings and my game and adventurous first partner, Cees: Offa's Dyke Path, Glyndŵr's Way, The Coast to Coast. There were also the adventurous horse treks: I crossed the Alps on horseback (no elephants available, sorry), and later, with Hans, rode around Sligo and Donegal in Ireland.

Anyway, I couldn't bear the thought of not ever doing something like that again. So, I've committed myself: I'm going to walk a marathon!

Together with some good colleagues we've formed a team to walk the Ballina to Byron Bay Charity Walk, a 37 km coastal walk. We're to walk this in a day, 20 May .... (despite all my walking history, I've never done 37 km in a single day, so it's a fair challenge).

I started training two weeks ago, with twice (or 3x if time) weekly walks of increasing length. I'm up to 12 - 15 km walks now and already feeling in better shape.

Stay tuned, people: I'll slug you all for sponsorship nearer the time, to be sure :-D


View Ballina to Byron Bay Walk ver2 in a larger map

Camels and eyes of needles

This is the sort of conversation one can have when discussing Council approval:

"Louvre windows won't be approved, you know...", the man says, looking sagely confident.
    "Whyever not? These types of Queenslanders always had louvre windows". John and I would like authentic, wooden-framed windows in heritage style, not the garish aluminium sideways-sliding ones.
    "Well the Bushfire BAL, flame zone, you know, not fire retardant enough,  bushfire prevention, gotta keep the flames out. Couldn't give you a glazier's certificate, and council won't approve without certification. BASIX.  Safety, you know." He nods, approvingly, of council regulations.
    John and I look at him with astonishment. "But, mate ... It's a wooden house..." In my mind's eye I imagine a pile of smouldering ashes with some perky aluminium frames peeking out of the debris. Well at least the windows survived, one could say. The man continues to look sagely at us, hands in pockets, rocking confidently back and forth on his heels. I can't resist adding "And even so, it's a ludicrous argument. We're on a high, cleared, clean, wet hill with several springs and creeks. This area has simply not burned, not in the last century, and not in the history of the house", I shake my head, shrugging my shoulders.
     He smiles smarmily at us, and waggles his eyebrows. "Ah. How do you know, hey, how do you know?" He makes the tut tut gesture, wagging his finger at me.
     "Like I said. It's a wooden house. And it's still here."

A bit of before & after

Not that we're finished restoring the back of the house, not by a long shot...  but we're nearing what we call the end of "Stage one", whereby we hope that Council will sign off on the Complying Development Certificate for the "addition of deck and replacement of roof section". Actually getting to the "tick off" moment may be more difficult than getting a camel through the eye of a needle (more on that later), but here is what's been achieved in these past three months:

Prior to starting, Sept 2011. The stairs were 'condemned', the roof leaked, the guttering was shot (by hail)

 March 2011. The walls and windows are not finished, but the deck and roof are!

Yarrow does some modelling

... for Rodney Deane Photography.

Mind you, she still wants to be a paediatrician when she grows up ...

The Grange girls ...

A fetching foursome ...

Clockwise from the lollipop: Bella, Briony, Tess and Yarrow

John's birthday present

John loves motorbike riding, and he's a good rider, but what with work and family commitments he doesn't get as much riding time as he'd like. For John's birthday last year I bought him a voucher to spend a day on Eastern Creek racecourse, on the outskirts of Sydney, riding the racetrack on his own Triumph (a Sprint GT 1050).

Getting two (full-time employed) people plus bike 1600 km there and back, turned out to be harder to organise that we thought. But, just in time for John's birthday this year, we managed it: we borrowed a trail-bike trailer (thanks Trevor ...) and with the help of local Bangalow palm fronds (totally pliable and totally tough!) re-shaped the wheel slots to support the fat tyres of the Triumph. And so we set off to Eastern Creek: we took two days to get there and had a lovely time (great meals en route in the most unexpected places). 

John and I both had a super day at the track. I enjoyed the novelty of watching 'live' bikes on the race track; chatted with all sorts of people; and took lots of photos.  John was given a couple of advice sessions by a "California Superbike" instructor, and had six sessions on the track; each a maximum of 30 minutes long (about as long as ultimate concentration will last).

Here he is enjoying a corner at fair speed. His top speed, by the way, was 219.8 kph (and no radar traps to issue a speed infringement notice...).

The trip back was good too: Lots of ABC Radio National, reading out loud (me to John that is), good spicy meals en route, and the wonderful Australian landscape unfolding before our eyes.

What a lovely adventure it was! Thanks John for having a birthday! :-D

Just in case you forgot what the front of the house looked like ...

What with all the work going on on the back... here's the front, again:

I love the external cross-bracing which, interlocked, holds the house together better than any bolts & nuts possibly could.

You can see our big dog, Chooks (a black and tan rhodesian ridgeback x) lying on her bed.

Busy times but here's an update

Lawdie lawdie, times are busy right now. Lots of (good) work happening at university, busy family, and so on!  But here's an update of where we're up to with the house restoration and deck/verandah building:

• the roof is nearly done (wahay! no more interior dribbles!);
• a fair bit of the exterior painting is done (guess who goes to lectures covered in paint spots); 
• the gutters are nearly functional (but not quite: we had 70mm last night  which went everywhere except in the tanks);
• the side louvre windows are in and looking fantastic (locally made by fenestrating joiners / craftsmen ...);
• At the local recycled building material Co. I found a C19th oak door to fit the back door space  ...  alas it's been ravaged with 1970s vigour (eugh: it has to be seen to be believed: put your mind in the frame of psychadelic flowers, purple, green, afro and flares, but then in a 'door' context) .... but at least it's restorable...
• the temporary railings are down in preparation for the installation of the real railings which have been crafted and delivered (by said fenestrators)... the temporary ones are the green diagonals you can see on the photo.

Sorry the colours of the roof are a bit washed out. It's usually green. The blue around the side room won't stay like that: it's insulation, and will be clad with hardwood. (Oh and someone remind me to take the horse feed drum off the fence post :-/  )

Flood time again!

This Australia Day finds John and myself marooned by floodwaters, the Wilson River having risen nearly 10 metres in 48 hours and broken its banks, flooding the valley (well it would). Mind you, I'm not complaining: here we are, marooned on a subtropical hill in paradise, the village store only a minute down the road and a bit further on the Eltham pub with the floodwaters slipping quietly just under the bridge. We might nip down for a beer and to listen to some local music later. Here are some photos:

BOM river heights data for the Wilson River shows the rapid rise in water. How many m3 I wonder?

Large camphor laurel trees standing in their own reflections down near Boatharbour Rd

A view of Eltham village heights from the valley on Eltham Rd

John brings the Hilux to a halt upon hitting some low floodwaters

Looking on the railway bridge and the valley from Johnston Road

This is where you can hire a tractor. But not today.

A row of pecan trees fetlock deep in the water

Eltham and Booyong valleys, where a small river can suddenly become very big ...

Holiday visitors: dear friends

You can't make new old friends. Good old friends, are infinitely precious. Kate and I have been friends for about 35 years ... Many precious shared memories! Kate and her husband Graham and the two younger children dropped by for a visit (Kate's oldest, Maddie, is best friends with Tess). As of old, we sat till late on the deck, talking, laughing, and playing music. Kate did much lovely singing, Graham played guitar (he's a fantastic player, and in open tuning at that!) as well as woodwind; and I played anything I could get my hands on (ranging from my 18th century flute, through tin whistle, recorder, clarinet, to guitar). We went through as many O'Carolan's tunes as we could remember: lovely! It was one of the nicest musical evenings I had for a long long time.

Sadly they could only stay a short time but it's a lovely thought to know that there WILL be a next time!

Here's hoping we see each other soon again Kate!!

Holiday activities

As our John was on call all holidays (he occasionally takes on the temporary role of airport manager for Lismore regional airport) we couldn't go far away, or go camping, which we all would have enjoyed. But our days were pleasantly filled in and around home nonetheless. On many days John would have to inspect the airport and the runway to check for damage or incidents (a fence down and an ensuing cow on the runway would play havoc with Rex's Saab turboprop, I can tell you).

Some days I would accompany John, just for companionship. And it's interesting. I particularly enjoy spotting wildlife (all wildlife sightings have to be recorded). If I can I take photos, of course! Here's an example:

Who's that hiding in the hedge? (click for bigger)

It's me!!

Building update

Trevor our friend and builder had committed himself to getting the deck on before Christmas "so you and your folks can have Christmas lunch on the deck". Bad weather prior to the holidays made it seem unlikely, as there was much to be done. But the Thursday before Christmas Trevor turned up with a broad smile and a veritable gang of carpenters he had drummed up: five experienced woodworkers and a couple of young apprentices, who all worked like Trojans for us. It lifted the spirits to see these craftsmen working fluidly, good music playing on their portable sound system, and watching the deck come to life.

And sure enough, the deck was laid and we had a lovely Christmas lunch on the back deck, overlooking the valleys and hills of our Northern Rivers home.

Here's a photo of Tess doing some gentle calisthenics on the deck :-D. The wood is spotted gum, by the way: a native Australian hardwood.

Today (Thursday 12 January) two of the lads have returned from their holidays. Robbie and Slim have just started working on putting up the verandah roof structure. Stay tuned for more updates soon!

Brief intermission

An unplanned hiatus in the blogging due to ongoing computer / internet connection problems ... coupled with malware afflictions as well. As the university was closed during the Christmas break, I couldn't access our IT support desk, and the whole situation tried my patience (very frustrating when everything freezes time and again). Despite our IT guys' best efforts this past week, attempts at repair failed, and it all culminated in the crumbling demise of my sturdy SCU laptop which had been serving me so well these past years  :'-(

I'm working with a small loan laptop for now. I'll try and catch up in a few posts.

The rain in Spain ...

... may fall where it may, for we have a roof over the back quarter of the house! Yay!

It needs gutters still. By the way, the new gutters, alas, will be the wrong colour (upon delivery they turn out to be too light in comparison with the older guttering which is in fact Heritage Red). This is because I chose the incorrect colour. Me. Moi. (I nearly chose Heritage Red. Nearly. But I changed my mind at the last moment. :-X ). So, in time, if you come and visit the house, make sure to point out that the gutter colours don't quite match so I can squirm a bit and shuffle my feet on the ground a little and mutter things about not being that good at colour matching ...

I now know that all Queenslander houses traditionally have Heritage Red guttering. Knowledge is a great thing.
:-D
.

Happy Birthday Briony!

Eighteen summers young :-)
And of course, what Briony really wanted for her birthday was an authentic Indian headdress. Which she received! Here she is larking about with Yarrow, who is resplendent in her white dress (a present from Sinterklaas).

Happy birthday darling Briony!

The rain in Spain ...

... falls mainly on The Grange. The past few days the skies have bucketed rain onto our village, while just on the other side of the valley where my parents live in Eltham, nary a drop fell (!!). This hasn't boded well for The Grange building project because it is now, precisely during this drippy time of course, that the old section of roof has to come off and the new section is in the process of being fitted. The boys (Trevor, Robbie and Slim) have done what they can with tarpaulins these past few days but even so the interior rear section of the house has occasionally looked like the interior of a waterfall. Progress is slow: the boys are doing their best but it is impossible to work on a slippery wet roof in the rain. So once the rain falls, work stops and the boys pack up and go. Here are two photos taken today:

Heavy skies; the boys racing to cover the roof...

They nearly managed, before the rain fell and work had to stop for the day.

Building progress

Building has been delayed by heavy rain the past week, alas. And there was a bit of a setback when the key cantilever beam, which is to support the deck roof and hipped roof, was placed incorrectly. Sigh.... Even though I *reminded the boys beforehand*. Mind you, the roofing represents a fairly complex engineering structure, so I guess it's understandable that errors are made ... after all, they're only men ... ;-). So, the beam had to be taken down and re-placed: a hefty job as it weighs more than 100 kg. Unfortunately, once the old skillion roof was removed, the skies opened and we had a torrential downpour ... So I brought out the buckets, mops and towels ...

But today the sun shines and work seems to be progressing steadily. Here's a very recent photo of the current  happy chaos :-)

A brief intermission on Stradbroke

Claudia (Briony & Bella's mother, Dr C. Catterall, environmental scientist) kindly invited us to her holiday house on Stradbroke Island for the weekend, to catch up with our McAdam girls B & B; Claudia's sister (this being Professor C. Catterall) and Carla's daughters (both also doctors, of the medical type though). John's good friend Geoff Nette (also a Dr, a marine biochemist who runs the research station on North Stradbroke Island) and his lovely wife Jo Kaspari were there too. And a lovely weekend it was too: along with the excellent company and really interesting conversations, there was plenty of good food and drink, and lots of sun, sea, surf and soft squeaky sand beneath the feet.

The headlands are gorgeous!

Lovely walks to be done on Stradbroke.

This is a previous photo of a Straddie wallaby, which I took last year . But we did see plenty this time round too.

Home Beach: a nice easy beach for children who can play safely in this tidal gully. Mind you we did some very good body surfing here too, out where the breakers are.

Building the back deck: project started!

It's taken months of frustrating negotiations with our local Council to finally get building approval for our proposed back deck. The deck is designed to complete the 'wraparound' of the verandahs of this house, and would enable us to enjoy the best views that this property affords. As was common in the early days of house design, the best view from the house was hitherto from the dunny window. (And why not...  ;-) ) .

Complying with Council requests and bureaucracy was a long, torturous and expensive process which I hope never to have to do again. Each step was fraught with costs: they requested not a plumber's report but an "On Site Sewage Management Consultant's Report" (cost: $1400 for the consultant and $900 to put the ensuing development approval through Council). They requested not a Rural Fire report (Neville Battistuzzi who is our local fire chief and who grew up here on the farm could have knocked one together for the price of a beer)... but a  report "By an accredited BPAD engineering consultant (cost: $550 for the consultant to walk onto the property and look and say "Hmm, not much fire danger here")... Anyway....

On the positive side: the deck and roof have been designed in conjunction with my friend and old neighbour Charles Howden-Ferme of Bangalow Heritage Building, using Burra Charter principles for the Queenslander House. The architectural drawings were drawn up by Michael Skinner, local artist and friend. The engineering was done by the excellent Steven Tilley from Greg Alderson and associates. I found these intelligent and flexible people delightful to work with and would highly recommend their services. On the sustainability / ethics front: all the timber comes from locally sourced, sustainable sources, milled locally (much of the timber is spotted gum, a local hardwood).

So now work has begun. It's very exciting.Our good friend Trevor Gale (Kel's Dad) is now our builder and he turns up at 7 am with his two workmen (Rob and Slim) and there is rapid progess: a delight after experiencing the geological pace of Council (Cf: it has taken18 months to get the plans through Council, but only a proposed 6 weeks from start of building till the deck is standing and roofed). Here are some early pics, after only a week of building:

Footings have been poured. Old stairs still there.

The uprights in position, held by braces. Lovely view!

Joists and bearers in place and some of the painting done.