Despite my efforts to shun all Christmas responsibilities, I still received a text from the boys in London; ‘ how do you cook parsnips?’ Never mind looking on google or You tube;  ‘we won’t have to bother with either if we text Mum. Then we can watch that well known Christmas favourite, Die Hard. Job done.' Funny and some use after all.

So no rain or snow on Christmas Day, nor any of the storms that are causing chaos in Europe. Instead it was muggy and warm. A short walk down to the beach then.

There were a few people about, picnicking on the grass in the park and on the beach, wearing paper Christmas hats, and no, not one of them was wearing moon boots or a Christmas jumper.

The skinks and lizards were having a good time too, out in force, sunning themselves on the warm rocks, and idly watching the humans with their weird head gear.

I do sometimes wonder if animals actually do notice when human behaviour changes. They are instinctive and perceptive, so why wouldn’t they be able to notice changes in us? Do they have their equivalent of a laugh at us or think we’re ridiculous? I reckon that they do but that we’re so arrogant that we underestimate them. Skinks and roos cope fine with nothing except a bit of sun and some food, are quite happy doing what they do; we are the greedy ones who struggle and constantly want more.

South West Rocks started life relatively recently as a coastal pilot station for shipping sailing up the Eastern coast of Australia, and approaching the Macleay River. And despite the beach now being fine sand, it used to be a rocky beach, and was then known as Cobble Beach. But the rocks disappeared - no one is quite sure how - leaving the sand that’s there today.

But apart from the rocks, nothing much has changed.

Smokey Cape       (Boxing Day)

It rained hard this morning, real pelting rain. We were planning on going for a ride but neither of us fancied getting soaked, so we wallowed in the room, playing on the net and editing photos. But by mid morning, there was no more water left in the sky, so out we went.

Smokey Cape just south of here sports a lighthouse and was actually a lookout used by Captain Cook who stopped here whilst sailing north on the Endeavour. You can see why too - unrestricted views in both directions and out to sea from up on high.

Its also a good whale watching point, Humpbacks and Right whales but there were none about today.

The name Smokey Cape came about because of the fires of indigenous people were burning along the coastline. Heavily forested and thus rich in timber for burning, it still retains much of the same appearance as two hundred years ago.

The road out there is a dead end through the rain forest. By the time we rode through it, the sun was out, drying up the recent rain into a tantalizingly fresh olefactory bonanza of eucalyptus; similar to a Radox bath but without the bubbles.

Then we chanced upon the little cafe at the end of the road, hidden amongst the trees, serving coffee and food. That was a good find, especially as it wasn’t all Christmassy and was just doing normal stuff, rather than festive left overs creations.

There was a pet bird in a cage there too. I’m not sure if he was some some of parakeet that looks like a galah or he actually was a galah, but he likes to chew anybody who tries to pet him, hence a cage and warning sign. But he is quite chatty and greets anybody who walks past.

Trial Bay gaol is just down the road too. A former work prison where convicts worked on a breakwater designed to offer ships travelling the eastern seaboard between Sydney and Brisbane shelter during storms, it was the only gaol built specifically to supply labour for a government project. 

It closed down closed down when ships became more efficient in the early 1900s, only to reopen again in WW1 as an internment camp housing German men.

The internees were mostly academics, craftsmen and other professionals, labelled ‘enemy aliens’,  and came from all over Australia and south east Asia. Some were Australian born but to German parents or parents from countries allied with the Germans. It sounds odd now to think that they were coralled and locked up, but I guess in times of war and heightened national security, that was a solution to what could have been a very real threat, the enemy within scenario. Hindsight and eventual outcome are two things decision makers rarely have when they need to act.

I many ways it was a similar concept to the homegrown terrorist threat that has emerged in the last twenty years, people born and belong to one country yet place their alleigence elsewhere, often to damage the home country. But they no longer get imprisoned for just having a different background.

The internment camp continued as such for several years before being abruptly shut after a German ‘u’ boat was supposedly spotted off the coast. The internees were transferred to Sydney where they sat out the rest of the war.

It rained again later in the afternoon but we missed another soaking as we saw it coming.

So with Christmas over and done with, and although it had passed me by without me hardly noticing, we planned to pack up, intending to move northwards towards Nabucca heads. But then Nadine called and invited us to Kempsey with her family. I am very aware that this time of the year in particular is family time, and was initially a little reluctant to accept for fear of imposing, but she was clear that that would not be the case, so off we went. And it was a good call, as well as a kind offer.

Her parents have a small farm with a few cattle and goats, and much flat grass on which to pitch tents. Her aunt, uncle and two cousins also stayed and camped. We had met them before in Sydney, so it was nice to see them  all all again.

Although I think that Australia does lack the atmosphere of a northern hemisphere Christmas, it has other advantages and is much easier to do stuff here around the holiday closures and seasonal annoyances. Whereas in London or Paris or Amsterdam, when you get fed up with the eating, TV or visitors, and venture out, whatever you do will always be limited by the cold and dark. But here its summer of course and the festivities don’t really affect anything otherwise.

So on that note,we took a drive up into some of the countryside round here, all nine of us comfortably accommodated in two 4 wheel drives. We didn’t go far in distance terms, but we did go up some pretty remote dirt tracks to Collombatti  lookout, with the Ocean, South west Rocks, Hat Head and Crescent Head, all laid out in the distance, separated from us by kilometer after kilometer of gum filled bush, undisturbed or interrupted by any visible settlement. 

The space and the remoteness is remarkable, although in Australian terms, this part of the country is relatively highly populated.

The corollary to the remoteness of course is nature, and blimey, is it noisy. I’ve been in cicada land many times before but the cicacadas that hang around here are something else. Their combined efforts make for an overall and extreme case of severe tinnitus, bombarding your ears with such a level of noise so that it becomes difficult to hear people speak. 120 decibels is not uncommon for a combined effort, and at a certain resonance they can damage human ears.

The noise is the mating call of the males who bang drum like membranes to attract females. Then they mate, and drop into the ground where they live under the surface for up to nine months before emerging, developing wings, then starting the whole process over again. The noise ceases too, which must be a relief. Carcases of newly adult cicadas adorn fence posts and trees, the tell tale split down their backs indicating where the fully grown creature has emerged into the world. They really do look like uber creepy monsterbugs, and now I’ve seen a few flying from tree to tree, I’m confident that they do actually exist.

One of the great things about camping is that there is only you and a wall of nylon between the open world, not great when its cold or you can hear strange creepy noises, but great when you can wake up to the sounds of a new day starting.

I woke at about 0430, just as it was getting light, to the sound of frogs, croaking away like emphesmic old men, then various birds came to, testing their voices for a day of sqwarking  and trilling ahead, then cows and goats, more bids, and finally cicacdas, which topped everything. 

The light changed too, from a cool grey to a pale blue, then various shades of ever lightening orange which twinkled through dew drops on the grass, until finally, the whole sky was blinding white with the sun above the horizon, drying the dew and masking the little delights that make early morning so special.

It’s hot now though, a relentless 37ºc, dry heat and too hot to be outside for long. A wind is building and with it, bringing a few clouds and a bit of a haze. But its sorted the bugs - no more biting horseflies or smaller housefly things that nip you when you least expect it. 

Later on, same day.

We drove down to Crescent Head for a swim in the ocean. But the wind was so strong and  was blasting everything with so much sand, that we gave that a miss and took a dip in the creek instead. A pleasant way to cool down.