With this morning’s activities having been nailed down last night, we all appeared ‘around’ 8 for a beautiful walk on the beach for mums and some old man footy for kids and dads. Sad to farewell the Kings after this, their time has gone so quickly. We fortified ourselves with coffees and headed out for a trip to Central Station via the famous bakery at Eurong - who strangely were fresh out of pies. Then back on the inland sandy tracks again, surrounded by the beautiful cool forests. Lunch stop at Central Station picnic ground for everyone who hadn’t managed to score a pie at the bakery. We joined the throng of truck tour participants to walk along the floor of the forest by Wanggoolba Creek which involved a stunning boardwalk amble under some giant trees and so peaceful - once we let that noisy bratty group of children past. The water was so clear I couldn’t even see it- I thought the sand was foam on top of the creek. There were two giant stumps left behind from the logging enterprises of a century ago- which must have dwarfed any tree we saw on the walk. After gifting the island ‘back’ to the aboriginals as a reserve, it was revoked only 2 years later as the value of the trees for logging became apparent. Was interesting and sickening at the same time to read the history of the island, and the usual story of the original inhabitants being killed, ‘integrated,’ forced off or blackbirded into labour. Incredible to think the island was covered in tram tracks to transport the logs around.
We drove a bit more (with the Whalans and Passés considerately polishing the middle of the track for other road users) to Lake Birabeen. Andy giving Bec heart failure as he put the cruiser almost on 2 wheels getting over a large log. Bec also holding down her lunch expertly as Dave - following a 2-way request from the Whalan car got the hilux sideways around a corner heading precariously close to a tree- never in doubt! I digress- Lake Birabeen was another pristine white sand and crystal turquoise water lake, from a distance the sand could have been snow - it really felt like an alpine lake. A few crazy kids swimming, but the day had cooled off and adults were getting tetchy, most likely withdrawals as it was heading towards wine time.
The drive back felt quite long, even without Stu, who had managed to score himself a back seat video berth in the Passé mobile. Driving in the dark on the beach trying to keep up with Ranger Dave in the Lux was keeping Matty very busy, he nearly took out the diff on a few rocks at one point, but we were lucky and made it back in one piece. We all vowed to have an early night and failed dismally - again.