Hello from Hamlyn Bay (OJG)

Hi all (makes a change from everyone),

We have just spent a couple of magical days in a very small place called Hamlyn Bay. I think we were a little lucky with the weather as both days were gorgeous, but it really was an idyllic location for a break. The bay itself is 16km North of Augusta through beautiful National Park forests.

On our first day we got there quite early, so we decided to have a nice long bike ride in the afternoon to the 3rd bay along. After a brief walk in the water we headed back and Emelie thought it would be a good idea to take the bikes via the "Cape to Cape" path which should in theory be a more direct back to our camp site. More direct it was, however we had endless hills going up and down, and often with sand underneath us. As anyone will tell you going a steep hill on a bike with sand is no fun (brakes make no difference at all), and going up a hill with sand is even worse.... well basically impossible. I can't remember how many times Emelie moaned to me that she was "not having fun anymore" but it was a lot!

We did see some amazing sites (including a couple who thought they could get naked on a deserted beach, then suddenly see us and get dressed very quickly), and I am sure we got an amazing workout from all those hills, but after the 3 hour ordeal we were both completely drained.

Back at the camp site we were able to relax, as can be seen in the picture to the left. Yes those are my feet! And that is the view as taken by me whilst relaxing in my chair with a glass of wine and some of that Belgium chocolate! (Yes I decided to have my first bits of chocolate since arriving in Oz, and it was great).

I made friends with a few of the birds in the park (no, not those type of birds), and we sort of got to an understanding very quickly. They land on the bike handle bars, and I throw them a piece of bread. And so this carried every 30 minutes, until half way through day 2 Emelie saw how much bread we had gone through and had a small fit. So there was only one thing for it, top notch oatcakes imported from Scotland! And I can only judge that they frequency change to 20 minutes was a sign of how much they appreciated the new food.

Not sure what else to say about Hamlyn Bay, it was incredibly relaxing, and easy going, and I for one could easily let the days just drift by whilst enjoying the scenery, sunsets, wildlife.

As a final testament I share with you this picture of sunset (taken with a high zoom). When Emelie saw this on the computer she asked what effects I had applied to the image, I replied that I had done nothing at all, and in fact the image we were looking at was still the raw file on the camera memory card! And even then, the image does not do the sunset justice.

Oly