Yet
another day out of the box; how lucky we have been of late with the weather.
After spending most of the morning attending to domestic matters, we set off
for a walk to explore our immediate surrounds. The name of the camp alone
suggests that we are close to a lake, and while this is true, the lake is
“closed” and accessible to wildlife alone. Lake Gates is a ten hectare
artificial lake that was excavated then filled with water from the adjoining
Wilsons River in 1971. Three islands were constructed in 2004 to provide havens
for the seventy five species of birdlife.
The
camp here is, or was, a council camp and is immediately adjacent to both the lake
and the river, as well as a manmade shallow pool that is perhaps cleaned and
filled with water during the summer months. In the meantime it is a bit of an
eyesore.
There
is a boat ramp on the river bank, close to the rowing club, however the water
did not look very inviting; a great mud coloured channel.
After
lunch we headed back north along the road we had come back on yesterday, up
through Dunoon, which is known as the Macadamia
Capital of Australia. We learned earlier on our tour that macadamias are
native to Australia. New Caledonia and Indonesia should be added to that list.
It
was interesting to read that the first commercial orchard of macadamia trees
was planted in the 1880s twelve kilometres south east of Lismore. Today it
seems the concentration is twenty kilometres north at Dunoon. From the road,
the rows of macadamia trees of differing ages stretch for as far as the eye can
see. There are numerous factory setups for the extraction of oil and whatever
else they do with the crop.
Just
a few kilometres northeast we found Rocky Creek Dam, the primary water supply
not only for Lismore, but also for Ballina, Byron Bay, Evans Head and
Alstonville. The dam was built in 1953 and the reservoir covers an area of just
two square kilometres or 478 hectares. There is a wonderful picnic area along
with a few walking tracks we decided to explore.
Soon
after setting out, we spied an echidna snuffling about a pile of sticks. Once
he realised he was under scrutiny he decided to play possum. We came up close
to this creature burrowing under the wood, and did get a good look at his long
multi-coloured spines. It was the first time I had seen a live one in the wild;
naturally I found that quite exciting.
We
continued on, crossing the dam and on to the spillway where we had to rock-hop
to cross the creek. We scrambled up the other side of the steep bank but were
unable to find the track. Twenty minutes
later after pushing through regenerating bush, nearly falling into brush turkey
nests, getting caught up in nasty bush lawyer vines, we were still lost; well
not us, but the track. We gave up, scrambled down a muddy overgrown bank, made
our way back up river to where we had crossed previously and headed off on another track, this time down to
another creek backed up and beautiful under palms and other trees standing tall
over the water, reflected in the deep pools that hid platypus. The track
continued across the creek on a bridge closed for safety reasons which we
crossed one at a time with caution, uneventfully, and finally arrived back at
the picnic area, unscathed and marked only by mud.
We
decided that was enough adventure for one day and returned to camp where Chris
washed the mud gathered from the last two days off the cruiser and we sat over
travel literature to consider our next move.
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