Art's Farm - Day 9: Kiama

The Minnamurra River runs beside
the rainforest track

We've been to the wonderful Minnamurra Falls rainforest national park a couple of times, the most recent probably ten years ago. It never disappoints and it certainly didn't today. Before we had stopped the car, a large road side sign like the ones you see giving bad news of traffic ahead, was informing us the track to Minnamurra Falls was closed. Even before the wild weather of the past few weeks, rock falls and trees collapsing have made it unsafe. The high winds of the last 24 hours can only have made it worse. Its saved us from ourselves as we had debating all morning if we should give the Grade 4 track a crack.

We started badly, when I failed to read the fine print and self-paid a fee I need not have. I'm learning to shrug but it took a few minutes.

The track itself is about 99% reconstructed plastic grating as a slightly elevated boardwalk, which takes away the fear of snakes and makes for easy walking. On a previous visit, it had been the old fashioned forest floor and rocks and roots and scrambling on the steeper slopes. This change make the walking easy and allows you to concentrate on looking.

We weren't far in when lots of bird calls caught our attention which meant Lyrebirds and almost as we realised it, there they were  fossicking in the shaded undergrowth. We could so easily have missed them! Instead, we started recording the experience, personally and on devices. The best treat of call came soon after we sat, dangling our legs over the boardwalk, when one of the birds started calling. They are brilliant mimics and a parade of birds we might expect to hear were all reproduced by this very clever bird, while his mate kept fossicking for tucker. Along with kookaburras and currawongs and a bevy of others, it also did a perfect rendition of the "shutter" noise which is programmed into modern phone cameras! We were entertained for twenty minutes. Other people appeared on the track and the Lyrebird fell silent and wander off to harder to see places. Apparently, the show was just for us.

I had to return back to the car to fetch something I should have been carrying and the whole way back I was feeling very special and very blessed to have seen not one but two of Australia's great stage performers up close ... when I got to the car and a third was standing beside the driver's door!

The rest of the walk was delightful but in truth, after that, it could only be an anticlimax. We had our sandwiches on the deck beside the information centre.

We had intended to make the Illawarra Fly Tree Top Walk our afternoon activity but the Jambaroo Mountain Road is currently closed and a detour via Macquarie Pass meant a 45min single direction drive to get there and we deemed it not worth the effort.

John Warren memorabilia covers
every wall

Jambaroo is a hinterland village to the west of Kiama, with a population of about 1,600. The Jambaroo Pub is the central attraction for passers-through. A Tudor-esque front façade gives way to a dark halway which runs away from the front door and through to a large dinning room. A function room is to the right and the bar to the left and a wooden staircase disappears into the gloom above. The bar is a treat and must buzz when the local fill its relatively small space. Their is a shady beer garden behind the pub which must get lots of custom in the summer months. It was the dining room which caught my attention. I have never seen four walls more crowded with affection and accolade for one sportsman, in this case former Socceroo and the original guru of the sport, Johnny Warren. Staggering memorabilia, as detailed as it numerous. Every moment of an outstanding career is captured in photographs, news clippings, medals, trophies etc. Little wonder when you find out that the Jambaroo Pub has been in the Warren Family for a very long time.

We soaked it all up and reluctantly left for a cuppa back up the road at Tart & Co. I did eye of Guinness on tap in the bar which made the decision difficult. The mocha was nice but ...

Its a nice little village with a street library where locals leave books in a box and swap titles. A shady park needed a mow today but give was to a great village green cricket oval, complete with fence, sight screens and a turf wicket which is clear doted over. The butcher's shop shows signage high on its façade as having formerly been the chambers for the early council.

Today's photos

The rest of the afternoon included a partial headlands walk: Sue was partial to it but I wasn't. The only positive from this small stroll was sighting a Red Whiskered Bulbul. You don't see them often but two of them poked out of the lantana and showed themselves.