The iconic lighthouse above the Kiama Blowhole |
We've been here several times together and I had a visit with my brother and father. For several years after my mother died, my brother and I arranged a holiday for the three of us each year.
Our first port of call was the town most iconic feature, the blowhole. George Bass was the first white man to record a knowledge of the blowhole but of course Aboriginal people had known it as Khanterinte for longer than any of us could imagine. Under the right conditions, it can blow water up to 25 metres into the air from its underground chamber. This morning was the right conditions as it was a no-hole. We witnessed people climbing over the fences to peer into the hole and then again to get a view and a photograph of the vent which takes water into the chamber. Its a long term problem. In 1992, when there was no action in the blowhole, seven people from two families drowned when a freak wave washed them from a perch close to the edge - well over and past the fence. Staggeringly, two members of one of those families died in the same way five years later.
We stayed on the legal side of the fence.
Leaving the car parked at Blowhole Point, we walked around the shoreline and into town for coffee at Central Perk, which pays homage to one of my favourite sitcoms, Friends. Great coffee. We sat outside in the westerlies gusting up to 50kms/hr. Hoardings, chairs and signs collapsed and went past while we chatted about the stuff of life. Later on we ate a huge fish lunch at Saltwater.
After lunch we sought our some other features of the coastline and Kiama.
Boneyard Beach |
We moved on to the footpath at the top of the hill which is part of the Kiama Coast Walk, a 20km walk which runs from north of Kiama to south. This bit, which passes the Bombo Headland and on to Bombo Beach, need the grass cleaned up from its verges but it didn't stop the hipster with baby in a stroller from moving quickly along, carrying out an earnest conversation via headphones. Not long past the apex of our part of the track, a narrower side track led down to Boneyard Beach. Before long, we were at water length, still in among the trees and on a board walk. My striding ahead came to a sudden stop. A snake? A broken board? An angry crab?
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Today's photos |
We went looking for the Spring Creek Wetlands but Google sent us to a point on the Princes Highway as an entry point. What? This plan was abandoned.
Into town for groceries and then back to our digs at Easts Big4. Nice park and we are right down on the beach, modern amenities behind us and a level site. A few issues with neighbours but nothing's perfect.
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