Yamba Day 12

On the whole, a pretty fine day, especially as Sue and I spent most of it together.

Before sleepy head rose, I drafted the first stanza of "Susan Island", the poem I am creating about the 13 cub scouts drowned in 1943. I sat up late into the evening story boarding the poem into a structure I want ... sort of like erecting the scaffold. For these sort of poems, you need a structure to carry the ready through what is likely to be a long and emotional ride. Structure keeps them holding tight. It also helps me put flesh on the skeleton and so it proved this morning.

We went on a long walk - longer for Sue who is insisting on walking hills. My knee and now my ankle are misbehaving and are quick to show their displeasure at walking down hills. Going up I can still accelerate away from the old girl but going down I'm all hobbles and complaint. Therefore, we walked along the relatively flat Yamba St, on the town side of the big Yamba hill and as we approached town, I sent Sue up every hill to Clarence St and met her on the down side return. Naturally enough, after a few of those she was ready to walk the short flat distance to coffee at Bean Scene, now one of our two favourite coffee hangouts. The other is the kiosk at Main Beach who not only remember our order but pop out to ask if we are ready for it.

After returning home we sought the company of the beach where Sue did her walking laps, I read my new edition of Overland whilst listening to Abbey Road and we had more coffees.

Home for lunch and then out to Angourie to "check out the point" and take some surfing pictures. What a beautiful spot this is. Those who might make the drive out to Angourie mostly go to the Blue and Green Pools where giant sandstone blocks were quarried during the late 19th century to build the southern break wall at the opening of the Clarence. The rocks were quarried here and placed on low loader carriages on a specifically built rail line which rain from the quarry back along the Angourie Rd and then swung out across the big roundabout where Angourie Rd meets the junction of Yamba and Wooli Roads. It went across the parkland which is there now and then along Harbour St and terminating where ever the break wall had reached. Those two quarries filled with water - according to legend, overnight and drowning machinery in the process - and became swimming holes which the township of Angourie grew beside. 

The real beauty is out at the point, where a wicked left hander throws up a constant stream of good waves regardless of time and tide. One of the prominent rocks there has "Locals Only" written on it in accordance with the famed inhospitality offered to visitors here. Its also the place where surfing legend and neo-local Nat Young  had his face rearranged by a young surfer's father unhappy with the superstar's belligerent surfing style.

We took some snaps and then wandered on over the headland to see both sides until we got the Point. Despite the partial cloud cover, it was beautiful.

We drove back in to Yamba for a late afternoon look through the shops. I called in on a local business who had be previewing five of my framed photos of Yamba spots and from whom I had received encouragement earlier in the afternoon. Strangely, they had lost all interest when I picked them up, giving me five no sales. Disappointment become upset when I realised the frames had been tampered with and the photos removed and then replaced (I could tell without doubt because of a number of factors including how I mount them and marks I put of the frames). One of the frames had been damaged. My suspicion is the photos were removed for scanning in order to help themselves to my work. Unfortunately I can do little but learn from the experience as I didn't invoice the photos out to them. Never the less, a pretty low act, especially as it was a professional business Sue had used three times during our stay at a cost of nearly $200.

I was only up for another coffee after that and then retired from the human race to have my first long hot bath of the holiday. For the cleanliness is next to Godliness crowd, I have had showers every day. My bath was short lived. As nephew Jack's personal first aid attendant, I was called to make a home visit after a rumble with Joel went astray and he copped a foot to the eye. Bruising a small cut to the eyelid and an inevitable shiner are the consequences.

Pies in the oven and Sue gone to baby sit Jack and Ava whilst Mandy and Joel have some time out at the movies. My responsibilities done for the day, its some writing while Bruce Hornsby heads across The Range and then TV.