Got up early this morning and went outside to see it was far from sunny, a more accurate description would be ridiculously windy and particularly overcast. Jana got up at the same time and there was only one thing for it – internet!
We went to the main area where we sat and faffed around online before the restaurant opened and we had a bit of brekkie! After a lot more internetting we had to retreat to the computer room to escape the wind which was blowing a gale! Nikki got up and found us engrossed in our online doings, then it was her time to say cheerio as she was off to Cairns, so we gave her a hug before continuing our internetting!
It was then time to get on with the day and we suddenly realised that the weather was looking much perkier, so we might just be able to make it to the beach! However, seeing as today is very special and we are on the other side of the world, JJ and I each decided to do something special for our mummy, which took far longer than we had expected. Happy Mother's Day Mummy!
After sorting all that out, we made enquiries and decided to make a trip to a different beach to the one that our hostel backs on to. We followed the directions up the hill and then at the tip we asked a guy which was the way to Rocky Beach. He pointed us in the right direction although told us to take care in our thongs (flipflops) and we started heading through the trees. Very soon into the walk we saw why he had warned us – we were basically climbing down a steep, rocky, vegetated expanse of nothing. It was quite scary and we kept being attacked by big ants which were having a good attempt to eat us. After a lot of slipping and sliding about, clambering over huge rocks and sliding down sheer rock faces (seriously, how we managed this walk without a harness and rope, I will never know) we made it to the bottom, with one bloody knee and a firm vow to go back up a different way (his directions hadn’t quite fitted with what the lady at the hostel had said). Anyway, here we were on Rocky Beach! At last!
Now, here is the thing, Rocky Beach isn’t your usual common-or-garden beach, it’s a specialist beach, maybe one that kids don’t go to. Yes, a nudist beach! JJ and I had decided that our white bits were a bit too white. Well, in fact we needn’t really have bothered because the second we arrived the cloud came over and so it wasn’t particularly sunny. Either way, it was nice just laying on the beach and it was super quiet so we didn’t mind, as it made a change having a bit of peace and quiet. After half an hour or so the tide started coming in where we were based, so we moved along the beach a bit towards where we could see a couple of people.
At this point the sun came out, so we made the most of its rays. I then had a wander and found a rock pool containing the largest crab I ever saw in such a pool – seriously, it could have been dressed and sold in Sainsbury’s – needless to say whilst I was watching it, it decided to move and this made me run away shrieking (being scared of crustaceans is a bit of a problem when one is looking at a large crab!).
We spotted an old bloke down the beach doing what we could only assume was yoga and then a little while later he came past us and said in a very thick German accent that the way back up was up there, pointing towards a large hill behind us. We said thanks and then got back to our sunbathing, although watched him with one eye to check which way he went as we didn’t want to get lost. Shortly after that, he appeared back on the beach and then went back up the hill again. We thought that was a little odd but figured he was just a strange German man, so ignored it.
When the tide started coming in, we decided we should make tracks ourselves as the water was getting dangerously close to us. The way we had come from was now completely taken over the sea, but we figured it would be fine because that had been the wrong way anyway. So we started making our way up the hill that the German man had gone. Within seconds into the walk I started to freak out – a LOT of tall grass and scrambling up over rocks and through the tall grass was far from fun, especially in thongs. We carried on though, along a semi-path, which disappeared every now and then, before reappearing – kind of – but we figured the German man had come this way and we’d seen him right at the top of the hill so we should keep going. It was quite slippy and slidy, but I kept my mind on the task in hand – get up the hill and forget about the sodding grass, even though it was really rather sharp and hurt our legs as we trudged through it.
After a fair way, I turned and looked towards the beach – we had climbed up really high, but we knew we had to keep going. When we got to what had looked like the top, there was nothing more to see than more scrub land. The semi-path was long since gone. Long grass, no path, rocks, rocks hidden by grass... snakes... spiders... my mind raced – this was a sodding bush walk far more real than the one I went on with Chris the other day. This time there was no Chris, no guide to show us where the hell we were going. OMAG. Jana was thinking the same, she mentioned the possibility of snakes – I told her to stop thinking about it – not thinking about that, taking lots of deep breaths and also not thinking about the grass was the only way I wasn’t having major palpitations (breathe, breathe!).
We decided to keep going – heck the German guy had come this way. We really wished he was lurking in a bush somewhere, at least we could then ask him which way to go. But no, he was nowhere. Where the hell had he gone?? We carried on going, even though we had NO idea where we were going or what was ahead of us. The bush was so thick, there was nothing to see other than grass, rocks, tall grass (like taller than me sort of tall), trees with spiky bits, grass, rocks, grass and more grass, oh and mosquitoes – LOTS of mosquitoes and they were seriously hungry for our blood, correction, my blood – I was leading the charge so they decided to all munch on me and left JJ more or less completely alone! Thankfully she kept whacking me on the back so as to splat them before they did too much damage, however for every one that got squished I’d guess that at least 3 managed to bite me.
We didn’t know what to do, the beach looked soooo far below us and the tide was almost all the way in, plus the sun was starting to go down. All I could think of to do was call the hostel. They couldn’t really help, I tried explaining where we had gone but they could not work out where we meant and just kept telling us to get back on the path. What path? There was no path? Had there ever been a path? We didn’t know now. The best bit advice they could give was to keep climbing upwards, however that might be and that we had 1 hour 10 mins left of sunlight. If all else failed, they told us to climb back down to the beach as we’d be easier to find!?! Climb back down? In the dark? We decided that was not the best option as we’d spent so long climbing up. I climbed over some rocks and looked as far as I could into the distance – I could see something white! I called to Jana – I didn’t know what it was, but it certainly wasn’t grass or rocks – it must be something linked to civilisation!
With a new target – albeit far in the distance – we kept walking, this time down-hill, sliding over rocks and falling in holes that were hidden by excessively long, spiky grass. I tried my hardest to push to the deepest recesses of my mind the thought of what might be in amongst the grass which made me increase my pace. I stamped as hard as I could as I walked, trying to make lots of noise – remembering what someone told me about most snakes scarpering if they heard something coming (this would work for most snakes except the brown snake – the most venomous, but I decided to think positive on this one!).
Then, after what felt like an absolute eternity, suddenly, the ‘something white’ looked a lot closer – a roof. The closer we got, we could see it was someone’s house with a small wire fence separating us from it. We shouted and called, hoping someone would hear us and come out – nothing. We tried again. Nothing. We decided all we could do was climb over the fence, which we did, calling the whole while. Now in the garden, we followed around the edge and I now had visions of being eaten by a dog or shot by the owner for trespassing. Then I heard a voice, so we started calling once again, then a voice called back to us “Hello?” and it was the best thing we had heard ALL day! We called back saying we were really sorry, but were lost and the friendly voice said it was ok. The lady guided us around and down into her garden, then took us into her house where we profusely thanked her and her husband! Apparently we were not the first lost people they had rescued – the first this weekend though! Lol!
She directed us to the REAL path and showed us the road we needed to go along. We were so grateful and couldn’t thank her enough! With the tarmac under our feet we began to appreciate just how much we (well, in particular, I) had been bitten and we walked back to the hostel feeling glad to be alive and somewhat impressed at having survived a very scary bush walk. It had taken an hour, but had felt a lot longer.
On arrival back at the hostel, we confirmed that we were alive and then decided it was definitely time for a drink – we’d handily arrived back at 6.30, half way into the free bubbly hour, so we sat and quaffed a few glasses of that before smothering ourselves in afterbite and having some well deserved dinner. Tired, bitten to death and covered in general bush walking and climbing grime, we felt on top of the world to have survived the ordeal and decided to shelve our original plan of popping back there tomorrow before we head off to Cairns!
No comments:
Post a Comment