Canberra - Au Revoir, Adieu, Until we meet again!

Our house found a buyer yesterday and we are anticipating being in Yamba after Easter - and that means before spending another winter in Canberra.

As much as I've loved this place for three decades this coming June, I am looking forward to spending my final years, however many or few they may be, in the warmer climes of Yamba.....where every day is just another day in paradise.

I can't wait!

Yamba - Au Revoir, Adieu, Until we meet again.

Well, my five-week sojourn comes to a close this coming weekend, when the owner of the house I've been taking care of returns from an adventure in South America and a cruise from Santiago to Florida.

The opportunity given to me to spend more than a month in Yamba has reinforced my urge to live up here permanently for the rest of my days so I am keeping everything crossed that the auction of our home in Canberra this Saturday (15th.) is successful.

Today I presented the last of my "Baby Boomer Radio" programmes for the local community radio station, TLCFM 100.3, who were kind enough to offer me a fill-in spot whilst I was here.
They have been wonderful and so have the listeners, several of whom phoned the station whilst I was on air this afternoon to say how much they liked the show and expressing regret that it has come to a close.
But hopefully, not for too long, because as soon as I return I'll be looking for a vacancy in the stations programme.

Below is a "selfie" I shot outside the studio today after I'd finished.
It was done on my mobile, so is rather low-tech.
The large object in the background is the water reservoir.
We members of TLC FM 100.3 prefer to think of it as the base on which our antenna is mounted!! :)

Here are a couple of final shots.
They are of Yamba Bay, behind Whiting Beach.........

So as the sun sinks slowly in the west we say "farewell" to paradise.........for the moment, anyway. :)

Yamba - Convent Beach

One of the five beaches located at Yamba, Convent Beach is popular with surfers.
It is sandwiched between Main Beach and Pippi Beach, the latter which extends to Angourie.

The landward side of Convent is fringed by Pandanus palms. At each end of the beach are rocky outcrops.

Below are some photos taken yesterday.
All photos enlarge when clicked.

First, looking north towards the bluff that separates Convent from Main Beach.
The Pandanus palms can be seen on the left of the photo.

Below, the southern end of the beach.

 

It's a hard life living in a beach-side town. A real grim existence!

A couple of shots of myself and my sister.

  

I have just a week left here before returning to Canberra, something about which I am not exactly overjoyed.

Fingers crossed that fortune will be kind and that our new home will soon be in Yamba.

Yamba - Turners Beach

One of the four "town" beaches, Turners Beach (click on the link for the location map) is bordered on the north end by the Yamba break-wall on the mouth of the Clarence River and on the south end by an impressive sandstone cliff, above which is the bluff on which sits the lighthouse.

These photos were taken yesterday. All enlarge when clicked.

The size of the boulders in the breakwall is hard to gauge....don't scale them by the size of the gulls, because the wall is about 30 metres behind them!

The two shots below.....

The beach in the background is Whiting Beach.

It's on the river side of the breakwall, not on the coastal side, and is therefore popular with young families.

The second shot is on the beach or coastal side of the wall.

The structure on the bluff is the water reservoir.

In the lee of the breakwall at the northern end of Turners Beach.

The wall stretches out some 700 metres from this point.

Lastly, a couple of fisher-females trying their luck at the base of the wall on the riverside.

I have no idea whether they caught anything or not!

Yamba - to Brooms Head

This morning I visited the beach at Brooms Head, some 4o kilometres by road south of Yamba.
Below are some photos, but first, a location map. The Satellite view gives a better indication of the size of the village.
Brooms Head

First up, the view north.
Beyond the pine trees is the Yuragir National Park; Brooms Head actually sits within the bounds of the park.

This is apparently a very popular holiday spot for families, with two caravan parks and a host of holiday homes and cabins. There is, of course, a permanent population of maybe a hundred or so people here.

There is a small shop (a"snack shop") and a community hall which also doubles up for Sunday church services, but that's about all.
No doctor, no general store, no fuel, no pub or tavern. For those things you have to go to Maclean, some 24 kilometres away.

The triangular structure (above) supports a fresh-water shower head and a couple of taps, for washing salt and sand off one's self when ending a time at the beach.

The next two photos were taken from Brooms Head itself.
The first is the view north, with the beach hidden behind the projecting rocky headland.

This next photo is the view south from the same location, with Red Cliff (local name) being the headland seen in the distance.

A beautiful view down the coast, with the storm clouds building up over the land.