Yamba 2014 - Day 2

It was chilly during the night: chilly enough that the heater needed to make a return at sometime before dawn.
It was enough it was needed, so that knowing the exact details of when seemed irrelevant. Asthma always comes visiting on cold camping nights and the insulated walls of the Avan buy us a few degrees of comfort only.

We were in no hurry to get the day rolling - a familiar refrain of most days on the road. Hurrying is for the kilometre burners and our only distances planned for the day would be covered at a lazy man' space and on bicycles. As it turned out, this suited the unsuspected circumstances of our companions for the day, Markus and Virginia Richardson, as one of their fold up treadlies had a flat tyre and then a rim damaged in effecting the repairs.

Eventually, we rode into Yamba via the cycle way which follows Yamba Rd until detouring to the water line past the marina and then follows the shore on past Calypso Caraban Park and on to the break wall car park behind Turners Beach. For Sue and Virginia, this was their target as the rode for the local markets, held every Wednesday in the car park. Markus and I detoured into the village and a bike shop to secure a new brake cable for his bike. The old one had snapped during the trip in.

A brake cable turned into coffee as neither of us like markets.

We eventually caught up with our wives as they were leaving the markets and looking for us ... and wanting a coffee. For Markus, it was his third double shot of the morning!

After coffee, we continued out past the museum and through Beachside to Pippin Beach and some local knowledge shared about Lover's Point, before coming around onto Clarence St as far as Main Beach. Skooting down the hill at a great rate of knots, we met up with family for short while and were back on our circumnavigation of the Yamba hill. Our final leg too us back to the bike tracked home to the caravan park.

Lunch was taken by the lagoon. Among other things, theories were pondered as to why spoonbills stand on one leg and tuck their beak under their wing.

Sue and I spent the afternoon exploring the immediate surroundings and ended up watching pelican and silver gulls between the Yamba Oyster Company and the Clarence Fisherman's Co-Op. A dragon boat launched from the wharf there, crewed by an enthusiastic group of older ladies and one rogue male. We age ice creams, held hands on the return walk and Sue wrapped herself about a street sign on Susan St.

Tonight, Sue will attend her family's annual Christmas in July event and I'll go to dinner with the Richardson's. Split loyalties will be catered for by split attendance. No one will be happy and everyone will be accommodated.

PostScript - dinner with Markus and Virginia was memorable ie full of memories ... and stories about our kids, our lives and how we are going. There definitely is something about time spent with old friends ... both the time spent making the memories and the time spent reliving them.