Yamba Day 4 - Christmas In July

It was another beautiful day in Yamba. Sue disappeared as the sun rose to pat a labrador on Main Beach and share conversations with the older locals down for their morning swim. She followed this with another balcony breakfast and then we both went across the road to have pancakes with Chris, Sam and Amy.

After some shopping, it was coffee in one our usual haunts. Very disappointed to discover that it no longer has its eclectic CD range which usually allowed me to back catalogue during July.

The headline event of the day was our Christmas in July dinner, which is in its second year. This year we had it as a lunch. Everyone chips in with contributions toward the dinner and presents appear for the children with a new Santa every year. This year, Amy was Santa with Sam as her assistant. Judy's husband Russell joined the mayhem briefly by Skype from Venice but the noise and the every changing sea of faces coming past the webcam to say hello proved too much. As the afternoon wore on, attendance dwindled and the core family members were left to talk.

I made my apologies about 4pm and headed for the beach and headlands via the unit to pick up my camera. I spent about an hour in a relatively short traverse but gathered some nice shots of a heron on a food run among the green and brown structure in the wash zone. I ended at the Pacific Hotel to watch the fishing fleet go out to work in the last golden light of the afternoon. A cold beer was my reward.

A big family day today - probably the most family dominant day of this first week, the week in which all of the family are present. Come the weekend, things thin out to just a few of us and a more laid back second week.