March 8 - Beach, Estuary, & Downtown


THE BEACH, ESTUARY, AND DOWNTOWN
 
 Ahhh, yes, sunshine!  So Susan and I took a walk down (well, I guess up really since it's north) past Black Rock and collected a few shells.  We've been shell collectors since we've been married, and as you'd expect, those here on the east coast of Australia on the Tasman Sea are different from those on the Gulf of Mexico.  [Sidebar:  If you're interested in the oceans and nonfiction, I highly recommend 3 books:  Atlantic:  Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms,  and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories and Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers  by Simon Winchester and The Gulf: The Making of An American Sea by Jack Davis.  All are incredibly interesting looks at the history, understanding, and influences of these 3 bodies of water.]  I'm a habitual beach walker and find a beach to be the most relaxing place on the planet -- none more so than the beaches here in Nambucca Heads -- as well as a vivid exposition of the power and beauty of God's creation.  Later I opted for the secular and mundane by going with Keith to "Woolie's," Aussie for Woolworth's, a Kroger-like grocery store chain.  Got shrimp (in Aussiespeak prawns) for a shrimp and chicken dish I'm cooking for dinner tonight.  (Requests for recipes will be honored.)
 
My friend Keith is a regular swimmer.  He had been literally a world class runner until his hips began to wear down at nearly age 70, when he began swimming regularly.  There are a group of retirees (Aussies call them pensioners) here who daily swim from the estuary up the Nambucca River varying distances ... Keith swims about 4 km (nearly 2 1/2 miles).  They call themselves the Hi Tiders because they swim up the river at high tide so they're not fighting the current, then time it so they turn around and swim back downriver to the estuary as the tide begins to ebb and the current helps take them back.  Today high tide was about 3:15, so I walked down to the estuary with Keith and took a few photos of the estuary and the river.
Nambucca River
 


Estuary
 
Afterwards I wandered downtown, which as I mentioned earlier is like the Ellisville of my youth.  Here are a few scenes ... (Note that Aussies drive on the left side of the road and park diagonally by backing in rather than pulling in ... so that you drive into traffic rather than blindly backing into it  when you pull out.) 


Bowra Street (the main drag)
Art along Bowra St.




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