Tweed Heads and more...

I wrote most of this entry on Thursday evening, but due to phone reception cutting in and out it will probably be some time later…
During the course of Monday morning a couple of campervans with young families arrived and it didn’t take Esther and Arthur long to find the other children and make friends- a welcome change for them from the “grey nomads” who tend to be our neighbours in most places.  Towards dusk, when I went in search of them to tell them it was time for dinner, shower and bed,  I found them in the camp kitchen with several other children playing “craft shop”. They had collected some long tough leaves and were weaving and knotting them into a variety of things such as balls, hammocks and machines for making cupcakes.  Their parents were invited to come and buy gifts from the shop, and the children stressed how special the things were as they were all handmade.

Arthur was happy to come and have dinner but it was not easy to drag Esther away!  The next morning she woke me at dawn, saying, “Mum, I think it’s starting to get light outside. Does that mean it’s daytime? Can I go and finish making things for our shop?”  Not wanting to wake Arthur I got up, too, and decided I might as well keep her company and plait a headband!

The rest of the day we kept busy around the caravan.     As the children were playing with the little girl (Nikita) most of the day, we invited her Mum to come over and have a cup of tea with us and later they also joined us at the campfire. She is a young woman who has been through an incredible amount, including bringing her little girl up alone as her partner died when she was only one month pregnant.   We had been quite impressed to watch her interacting with her daughter and when we told her so she got tears in her eyes and thanked us for the encouragement as she had actually been feeling at her wits’ end that day! 
On Wednesday we drove into Tweed Heads to visit Michaela.  Squeals of delight greeted us when we knocked on the door!  She had tidied her room in honour of Esther and Arthur’s arrival but while the grown-ups had a chat over a cup of coffee the three children emptied out her entire collection of toys before deciding to play with the dress-ups (leaving the other toys scattered all over the floor.) 

They wanted to show us some of the local sights, so after we’d finished the coffee we headed for Rainbow Bay.  The forecast was for storms later in the day but although air was heavy and humid and the sky a threatening grey, we had a lovely time morning on the sand and in the water.  Ironically- after avoiding “stingers” in the water until we got to “safe” beaches further south- I was stung by a bluebottle jellyfish! These are fairly harmless (unless there is an allergic reaction) but until the angry rash and little blisters eventually faded it felt as though I had a nasty burn on my arm! 

At lunchtime we had fish and chips followed by a walk along the Tweed River, and then drove to Danger Point.  Usually Mt Warning stands behind the Point as a beacon, alerting ships to the Danger Reefs off shore, but today the storm clouds obscured the mountains from view.  While we stood on the cliffs admiring the view, we noticed a pod of dolphins diving and playing among the surfers below. 

We had dinner with Michaela’s family and the children were fast asleep before we left.  They didn’t even stir when we put them into the car or carried them to bed, nor did they notice the heavy rain that had started to fall!

This morning it was still raining. The ground outside was wet and soggy.  The children’s thongs were floating like rafts in a small lake just outside the door.  The creek was flowing rapidly and noisily over its stony bed and the children soon discovered that the dry ditch behind our caravan had turned into a muddy “river”.  In between showers we explored the miniature rivers and waterfalls that have appeared everywhere, but for most of the day we had to stay inside except when Philip ran out of reading and we visited the second hand book shop in Murwillumbah to add to the ever-growing collection we have accumulated during the trip!

Not a happy camper! You hardy ever see a cane toad during the day, but this one appeared to have a broken leg and was slowly making his way down towards the shrubbery.

This evening we were sitting outside again, our feet up, listening to the cicadas. Philip was reading and I, of course, was blogging.  As I finished typing the previous paragraph I suddenly felt something land on my toes… and looking at me over the screen of the laptop was a kookaburra!  He tipped his head to one side and said “prrrp?”  We have, of course, been feeding the kookaburras every evening and this particular one is usually the boldest, but until now we’ve had to coax him to come gradually closer until he feeds from our hands. This visit was quite unexpected, especially as I didn’t even have any food for him.  He even let me stroke him a little, and hopped onto Arthur’s hand when he brought some food out. 

Later in the evening I walked into the forest behind the caravan a little way as I had heard that there were glow worms there.  I managed to find them and got the children to come and have a look, too.  They were delighted.  Esther pretended that they were shining through the windows in Fairyland.  Arthur liked the idea too, but was keen to see a what they look like  up close and wanted to know how they glow.  I’d google it for him but reception is so poor here…

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Today is Saturday again.  Michaela's family have taken us to a lovely spot on the Tweed River where we're going to try some fishing and have a picnic.  I'll try to update again soon!