Pebbly Beach Arrival

Driving to Pebbly Beach took us through a marvelous forest of eucalypts. A truly special drive over a hill and down to the beach. And the hill completes the blockage of the cell signal and leaves you in place that is near, yet utterly isolated. The first thing we noticed upon arrival was the lawn full of kangaroo.



Due to a programming error, we failed to cross the bridge near Sea Crest that swings out over the Pacific. Instead, we found ourselves wandering through mountains and valleys in the Shoalwater Region. We drove through stretches of road walled with trees that seemed to touch the sky.

We drove in and out of valleys framed by switchbacks and breath-taking views. My apologies for having none of these magnificent views to show you but the drive was fairly harrowing in the traffic up and down the mountain. This made it unlikely that I could compose, focus, and snap without throwing up.

In the valleys at the bottom, we found towns from the one store wide spot to the tourist havens.

Keeping the kangaroos company when we arrived at Pebbly Beach were several wood ducks enjoying the evening promenade.

We stopped for lunch at Fitzroy Falls and took in the view. There will be more on this in a later post.

After more winding through farmland with the occasional glimpse of the sea in the distance, We entered the Murramarang National Forest and found ourselves on a road with little traffic and nothing to either side but trees. When we turned on on Mount Agony Road, it was 8 km to Pebbly Beach.

Here, we entered a magical land. A long, slightly winding, narrow road. Loned on either side with an old-growth forest as afar as the eye can see. Tall trees with substantial girth, well separated, were unadorned by undergrowth...only a spread of ferns filled the spaces between these towering trees.

Opening the windows let in a blast of cool air and the pungent smell of eucalyptus. Driving to the bottom of the forest, we headed to the gate to the "shack" road.

The place we stayed was a interesting one. After making the reservations via the web, we had to make a last minute change due to shifts in our travel timing and this required a phone call. This was the one, strictly unnecessary bit of human interaction in the whole process.

We arrived at a gate that said only cabin residents allowed. No one was around, so I opened the gate and E drove through. I then closed the gate back. It was at the point we had our first sighting of the Superb Lyrebird. A whole post on this animal is coming soon.

When we got to our cabin, we had a code to enter in a key holder. But the key holder was open and the key was sitting there. In we walked. Imagine: no lock at the gate and no real lock at the door...consider this happening in the US!?

The kangaroos (the specific kind, I do not really know) were everywhere and quite tame. They came up close to the shack where we stayed.

Once we unpacked, we took the short walk down to the beach and simply sat for a while enjoying the sound of the waves and the serenity.

Our view of the beach from the cabin is below.

Even when seen from our front porch, the kangaroos are happy to pose for us.

I hope to convince you, after a few more posts, that this is an amazing place filled with wonder and delight.