A STATION BREW AND A BEACH FULL OF ROOS

Almost everyone who has picked up a post card of Australia will have come across one, of the Roos on the pure white sands of Cape Hillsborough Beach. So I made my way there in a state of high anticipation. Have to say it didn’t start too well though. I had decided not to go all the way back to the Bruce Highway and then go up again to the Cape, but instead to come from Shoal Point and head for Habana, then follow the road down till it met up with the Yakapari -Seaforth Rd . It was going quite well, even though there were roadworks  half way down, and the woman with the stop/slow sign actually said she had SEEN ME two days earlier on the Bruce Highway!

 Well there's a roadworks on every single road I’ve been down, so her being here too didn’t surprise me. Her recognising me surprised me! She seemed a little surprised herself when I said I was taking this road. “You are going down the back road?” she quizzed. “Yes” I said stupidly “I like different roads”. “OK” she smiled and waved me on. What she didn’t do was tell me that this road turned into a rough, rocky track and wound in and out for a damn long way. I was so glad to get to the Yakapari-Seaforth Rd and turn towards Seaforth on the Cape of Hillsborough!

This is quite a pretty road as it turned out and was a pleasant one to journey down (or maybe I was just so grateful it was smooth and tarmacked). But Seaforth was not such a pleasant surprise. There is really not much there apart from a large caravan Park as you enter, which looks more like a showgrounds or grassed parking, a petrol station/shop and another post office/ shop on another road. Give it its’ due though the esplanade is nice. Lovely grassed areas and walking paths, a neat road through with a smart little café in the middle. Not bad. Not great. I left.

Somehow Ball Bay, the next beach, did not grab my interest and I continued on to Cape Hillsborough and the hope that this would be much better. But I had forgotten the most important thing! I hadn’t eaten yet. I had intended to stop in Seaforth, but the café had not enticed me in. My stomach was now complaining bitterly at my selfish disregard of its needs. But sometimes, sheer luck is the only way to describe what happens next. As I looked to my left a small sign said ‘Station Teahouse’. I almost missed it. 

As I turned down the path I noticed there was one car parked on the grass in front of what looked like  some wooden steps in the middle of trees and bushes. Coming closer I saw there was a building in there. However there was also a sign outside. Cream teas, cakes, coffee and teas and more. I was hooked. And it turned out to be the most unbelievable café. An old Railway Station House (obviously no railway there now) in gorgeous repair and the decore carefully added to match. Old china pots and tea sets, old tables and chairs, worn leather suitcases of various sizes, other old but lovely bric and brac dotted around the place. I went in and ordered my cake and tea and sat in happy bemusement on the high verandah overlooking the rambling garden. I had stepped back in time. Absolute magic.

Full once more, and deliriously uplifted, I headed on to Cape Hillsborough Beach.  First impressions were good. There are some marvelous parklands as you enter, with direct entry onto te beach. Then you get to the Main Beach access. Well, actually, then you get to the Caravan Park at the Main Beach, as this dominates the parking area there.  But you can only get as far as the café as the rest  of the Caravan park is cut off for the Caravan Park users, which was fair enough. However the cafe was just a little kiosk really and not pretty. And there were kids. Lots of kids. Yep. It was school holidays.

I actually like kids, but in a place as natural and beautiful and environmentally friendly as this… I'd have liked a little bit of tranquility. So I took myself down to the Beach. Yes there was a path there, and that beach is stunning! A small sheltered cove of pure white sand and the bluest of waters. It actually was as beautiful as the post cards!! There were no kangaroos, but I could understand their reluctance to show themselves at this time, and just went off to enjoy a walk along the sands in their absence. As I neared the rocks at the left side of the beach I saw some lines, so out of place, in the smooth sands of the beach. Walking nearer, the lines came into focus.

 Now,  Anyone who knows me knows I am not a prude. Probably more leaning the other way. But I was annoyed. Not at what had been ‘drawn’ in those virgin white grains, but at the fact it was drawn at all. In another place I would just shrug and say it showed how juvenile they were. But this is an Australian Icon. This is a Beach where other, smaller (hopefully more well mannered) children will play. I hoped to God their parents would be with them and shield them from this sight. The parents of these boguns obviously hadn’t been with theirs. I left, disappointed at the desecration of Cape Hillsborough. But I will go back again because it really is a stunning place.

That night I found myself back on the Bruce Highway at a Hotel called ‘The Leap’. This is a fabulous Old Aussie Pub. A real vintage piece with a real heritage. The story is that in the 1860s, the first decade of European settlement in the Pioneer Valley, an Aboriginal woman, Kowaha, pursued by the Native Police (from an enemy tribe bent on vendetta) chose to leap off the precipice rather than face her tormentors; and that her baby survived, caught on a bush in a shawl, rescued and brought up by some early settlers. as a result of the Europeans using warring factions to police each other there are now no remaining aboriginal survivors of this area. I think  the Europeans may have done this deliberately. But the current publicans are great people too. They allow free camping in their grounds if you just grab a beer or a shower at $2.50. For me it was the shower first. When you are on the road you really appreciate that hot water when you can get it! Then myself and another traveler felt we needed a well cooked meal to round off the day with. Which, for me, meant not cooking it! The Roasts and Vegetables were fabulous, and despite some of the downs of the day, it definitely ended on an 'up'.

Nature paints the greatest works of art .

The Grey Chihuahua