2002-04-08

Its the next night and I am sitting here in the dark typing, while an onshore wind blows really quite heartily. The van shakes, and I look out over the sea and to the mountains on the northside of this little cove, watching the lightning in the distance. I am hoping it does not reach here, as I am a bit scared of being struck in this campground peppered with tall Norfolk Island Pines.

This morning I woke early, stirred by the sun shining in the window where my curtain had fallen down during the night. Quickly, I got up and opened the back door so I could wake up watching the waves break. After a coffee, I went to the beach - those 13 paces - and did some yoga. By then the sun was really hot, so a swim was a must. The water is so clear and so warm, it completely overwhelmes me when it completely surrounds me. A quick breakfast on the beach and it was time to go to my next stop, Sandon.

The road was marked as sealed, but it so wasn't, still Stripey went well, except on the hellishly corrugated bits when it felt like she would fall apart. Along the way were these road signs, the size and dimension of speed limit signs. On a white background was the "not allowed" symbol, like what you see over the cigarette in the "No Smoking" signs everywhere, but it was black. No what? What is not allowed on this short stretch of road? What has ended? What the fuck does that sign mean?? The village itself is tiny and even more untouched than Brooms Head. All the houses look deserted, but maybe they are all fishermen (its described as a tiny fishing village in all my maps) and they are all asleep during the day. Most of the village, however is actually on the other side of the estuary of the Sandon River and access, I think, is only by boat, according to the map and they big jetty over there.

By virtue of being on the estuary, there is both river and beaches at Sandon. It was low tide, so I could walk across to the island just off the beach. Its pretty small, but tall, so I went to the top and felt completey surrounded by the ocean which stretched forever in most directions. There were worn foot trails all over the island, and signs of erosion around them. It made me think that humans should be banned from the island, we can't be trusted and will destroy it.

After traipsing around the island, I was hot, so naturally went for a swim. There must be a sand bar just of Sandon Beach, as the waves break about 100metres out and then roll all the way into the shore, so its nice and calm and flat. Its and amazingly wide sandy, beach and hardly anyone was there even though I decided not to camp there as there were too many people. More like the camp ground was really quite small so everyone was quite bunched together. But the toilets were very cool in that they used recycled waste water in the septic system and they were very new. Exciting stuff in the sticks.

The lightning is still raging in the distance and I am trying to gauge if it is getting more frequent or closer but I can't. There are some serious forks coming down.

I had a delighfully simple lunch of boiled broccoli and vegemite on bread that was shared with a very confident bird that sat on the picnic table with me, eyeing off my food. It was a bird I'd never seen before, with a blue patch on each eye with a black crown surrounding its head. Remembering the National Park rule of not feeding the animals I told it to naff off.

On this trip I have seen kinds of birds that I have not encountered before. Its a refreshing break from magpies, starlings, willie wag tails and seagulls which we all see in our towns. There are the hordes of red and blue rosellas that attack the banksias each afternoon and the strange, brooding black birds that perch on the rocks amongst the seagulls, airing their wings. The long legged birds that stroll over from the wetland and walk oh-so-casually around the place, and the large variety of terns - I saw a family of them today, including one baby one that was old enough to be out of the nest. When I found myself surrounded with all these strange birds around the rock pool, I couldn't help but think they were the lucky ones to even be here. Once, most of the species bred easily and survived heartily in the natural ecosystem. Now it is all fucked up and the ones that are able to breed are just lucky and could be knocked off by any number of human incidents without our even noticing. It could be being hit by a four wheel drive, or poisened by tainted waters. Who knows. Or even more, who cares.

On Australia Day, there was the usual crowning of the Australian of the Year and this year it was tennis player Pat Rafter. Who gives a rat's there. But they also give these runner up kind of awards, like 'you aren't famous enough to be Aussie of the Year but we need to give you kudos'. This year, one of the runners up was a lady who had been scuba diving for 40 years and is mad keen on sharks. Upon recieving her award at the swanky dinner thing, she made a speech that included the comment that "the natural environment that was under the water when I started diving fourty years ago simply isn't there anymore". This tiny soundbite was only played on one channels coverage once over the day, overshadowed by Pat's musings on earning heaps for playing tennis, or whatever. This woman had spoken an undeniable truth that was deemed to boring or factual to be quoted in the press, instead we just heard about how she was mad keen on sharks. As I hopped through rock pools today I couldn't help but think about how they must have teemed with life once, now unable to survive in a world that is just too toxic. Other nature-fest sightings include the kangaroo and joey and Red Cliffs camping area and the angel fish in the rock pools at Sandon. Fucking choice.

Out to sea, the lights of the fishing boats are visible, flashing in and out of view as the boats bob along. Today I read in the paper about the reminiscings of an old man from Newcastle, about his childhood and how easy it was to catch a fish around the town back in his day. Dragging hession through the water would bag you and some mates a feed of prawns, and corralling mullet as the tide went out, to be caught by hand. Nowadays, you'd be lucky to spot anything. And still it is ignored as we praise our beautiful land, as it bravely clings to life as we pummel it into submission.

Also, why are those boats out there when there is a storm? Maybe their equipment tells them something I can't possibly know peering out the windows of my van. By day I have seen several yachts sailing up the coast, and I think about how fragile their little boats are and how I could never really imagine being out in the open sea in a boat. The power of the ocean overwhelms me, and I may be overly in awe, but I don't see how you can predict the sea enough to go sailing and not be stricken by fear of some heinous storm suddenly setting in. Getting past the sheer enourmity and volume of the ocean is impossible for me, I just see so much water and think about how heavy it is and vast so that you can be lost for days and not be spotted or even missed. Even the strength of gravity comes in to consideration - what a mighty force to make the ocean stick to the earth. If the sea levels rise, as many predict, and there is more water in the ocean (due to melting ice caps and the like) can gravity keep up? We don't have anything to measure it against - what is larger than the ocean?

THere were a couple of tidbits in the paper today, revolving around Johnny Howards's Job Network (the heinous privately run thing that replaced the increasingly heinous government run Commonwealth Employment Service). First, it would seem that the Australian Defence Force has hit upon the idea of recruiting through this fabulous network, in addition to their existing recruitment centres and spiffy caravans. Those who will be drawn to the ADF product placement will be the poor and vulnerable who have been through the Centrestink/Job Network ringer about eight times and are attracted to the promises of stability and a decent job. Rephrase that to say that those drawn will be those who can't get jobs despite being given money by the Network to buy a tie, cuz they don't have any skills and are shit poor. The unemployed as cannon fodder.

The other article I saw referred to the fact that the Samaritans, a charity group (most of the Network is run by charity groups, often religious ones) was withdrawing from the governments fabulous job placement service. It claimed that if there was money being payed for finding people jobs, then emphasis was going to be on those people who had marketable skills and would more easily be found work. Those without skills are constantly placed on the backburner, unable to move up in the skills food chain.

Well the moon's out so that can only be a good thing on the storm front. And never have I ever been so glad for the little bumps onthe keyboard 'home' keys!