After a few weeks delay, we’ve finally got our act together and go to Myall Lakes up North. The brochures about Myall Lakes were promising, and it’s near Port Stephens so it’s got to be good! The word “Myall” apparently means “Wild” in aborigal, so we expect to have a ‘wild’ day! Anyway, The Myall Lakes are a series of salt water lakes. So, when I think “lake”, it equals calm waters, which equals Kayaking!!
The day kicked off with a 2 hours drive up north. Our first destination was the tourist information centre near Hawks Nest, where we got a couple of brochures. Our primary interest in coming to the Myall Lakes is to kayak, so I thought we should look for some kayaking hiring companies. But, it turns out we need to book in advance. So I guess we’ll just have to find a place to hire and kayak ourselves.
After dropping by Hawks Nest a little (it’s just a beach), we started heading towards Bombah Point, where there is a ferry to take us into the Myall Lakes National Park. Along the way, we managed to discover a quiet little deserted beach where we took some photos. It was a bit like a mini version of the dunes at Port Stephens. It’s HOT, but the scenery were very beautiful. We almost forgot about that we were here for the lakes for a second.
Anyway, at Bombah Point, it turns out the river system here is pretty ‘calm’, and there’s kayaks for hire just over the ferry. So, for $2, we rode the ferry over and parked the car. There’s a new resort here, so we managed to have lunch too. An asian dude helped us with the Kayak ($20 for 1 hour, reasonable). Marissa was worried about tipping over the WHOLE time, and seemed to be the only thing that occupied her mind. A short while later, we were off. What appears to be calm water, soon turns into strong current and ripply water. Marissa was too scared, so we didn’t actually go very far upstream at all. After 1 hour, we returned with the only interesting sighting being the wild ducks swimming along the river, and perhaps a few wild birds pecking for food?? Marissa was still very proud of the experience and was thinking boasting how she kayaked at work tomorrow. *Sigh*
The other side of they river definitely did not seem as ‘developed’. We started heading up to Bulahdelah (about 15kms) along some unpaved road. The only interesting thing here, seems to be the ‘tallest tree in NSW’. So we went there and had a peek. To be honest, it wasn’t as impressive as I thought it would be. Given, I’ve seen massive tropical rainforest trees as a kid, this wasn’t that surprising to me. Nevertheless, I can see why it’s so significant. Comparing this tree and all the trees around it, it definitely was tall and BIG.
The day was not as ‘packed’ or full of surprises as I would liked it to be. Marissa didn’t enjoy the smell of the lake, and perhaps wouldn’t consider coming back here again, unless we really have nothing else to see. But, it wasn’t that.. It’s the furtherst North we’ve been so far. In fact, Forster was not far away, and that’s where it’s famous for Grey Nurse sharks. I’ll be back for some shark-diving… 😉
