I took this video of Judy and girls on Pottsville Beach the other morning. While the day was overcast, it was still wonderful to play along the beach and watch the breakers crashing in.
We arrived in Pottsville last Saturday (May 17th), and have been busy exploring the local area and surrounding region. We are staying in a lovely townhouse a two-minute stroll from Pottsville Beach. The sandy path through the scrub to the beach almost perfectly matches the shot on our "Pottsville Page" that I found online back in Montreal. The beach is gorgeous (of course!), and we have all had fun exploring both it and the creek that reaches the ocean. The girls in particular have had a blast playing on its banks at low tide and splashing around in it when the tide has come in. The town is a quiet, seaside town that is developing perhaps too quickly for locals, but is still quite peaceful compared to other towns along this spectacular coast.
We have found the Tweed region to have a fantastic blend of stunning coastal beaches, rolling farmland, and mountains covered in lush rainforests. On Tuesday, after a few days sticking close to Pottsville, we headed inland about 30 minutes to Wollumbin/Mt. Warning National Park. Wollumbin is the Aboriginal name given the mountain by the local Bundjalong people, for whom it is considered a sacred site. For this reason, the Aboriginal people never climbed it, and today visitors are asked to consider not climbing the mountain.
After Judy asked the mountain for permission, we set off on the 9 km return hike that was very demanding. Teaghan and Rowan were awesome! We took three water/snack stops on our way to top up sagging energy levels, and they seemed to get stronger the closer we got to the summit. The final 400 metres is up a very steep rock face that has a heavy chain anchored into it every five metres or so to assist climbers going up (and even more on the way down, as we discovered!). Our biggest adrenaline rush on the climb turned out not to be the marvellous vistas we glimpsed through the foliage, but the two snakes we encountered near the top on this steep section. The first one, a tree snake about 1 metre long, dropped to the ground just behind our leader, Teaghan, and just in front of me. Though not very big, he seemed quite ornery, so we gave hime his space until he decided to slither into the bush. As we were waiting for him(her?), a couple climbing up behind us shouted, and we turned to see a much larger (over two metres) coastal carpet python - non-venomous, but pretty scary for these Canadian hikers! After a few more tense moments, we continued to the top and were able to drink in spectacular views of the region, which is actually the caldera of an ancient, massive volcano. In fact, we could see all the way to Cape Byron to the south - the focus of the next day's outing.
All in all, it was a terrific experience, and the longest, most arduous hike yet for the girls - just over four hours. The last shot is of our intrepid gang in the parking lot after the hike down. Needless to say, we all slept soundly that night!
We have found the Tweed region to have a fantastic blend of stunning coastal beaches, rolling farmland, and mountains covered in lush rainforests. On Tuesday, after a few days sticking close to Pottsville, we headed inland about 30 minutes to Wollumbin/Mt. Warning National Park. Wollumbin is the Aboriginal name given the mountain by the local Bundjalong people, for whom it is considered a sacred site. For this reason, the Aboriginal people never climbed it, and today visitors are asked to consider not climbing the mountain.
After Judy asked the mountain for permission, we set off on the 9 km return hike that was very demanding. Teaghan and Rowan were awesome! We took three water/snack stops on our way to top up sagging energy levels, and they seemed to get stronger the closer we got to the summit. The final 400 metres is up a very steep rock face that has a heavy chain anchored into it every five metres or so to assist climbers going up (and even more on the way down, as we discovered!). Our biggest adrenaline rush on the climb turned out not to be the marvellous vistas we glimpsed through the foliage, but the two snakes we encountered near the top on this steep section. The first one, a tree snake about 1 metre long, dropped to the ground just behind our leader, Teaghan, and just in front of me. Though not very big, he seemed quite ornery, so we gave hime his space until he decided to slither into the bush. As we were waiting for him(her?), a couple climbing up behind us shouted, and we turned to see a much larger (over two metres) coastal carpet python - non-venomous, but pretty scary for these Canadian hikers! After a few more tense moments, we continued to the top and were able to drink in spectacular views of the region, which is actually the caldera of an ancient, massive volcano. In fact, we could see all the way to Cape Byron to the south - the focus of the next day's outing.
All in all, it was a terrific experience, and the longest, most arduous hike yet for the girls - just over four hours. The last shot is of our intrepid gang in the parking lot after the hike down. Needless to say, we all slept soundly that night!