First off, it's not that easy to drive with 2 very excited dogs - Mac, who is 70+ lbs. kept trying to jump in my lap as I attempted to control the car and operate a stick shift. They practically pulled us from the car to the beach, so we just let them run wild. They were in heaven, swimming and playing with each other. It was so fun to watch. We only lost them for about 15 minutes as they were running back and forth between the beach and the bush land behind the beach. We finally found them as they jumped out from the bushes and promptly came right to our side. We decided it might not be a fun drive back home with how Mac was before, plus add wet, salty-water dog to the mix....So, they got an extra long walk home and we skipped the car ride.
Another cool thing we saw were the sand crabs that burrow down and push perfectly circular sand balls out of their holes. Check out the pictures - it's quite an art and they make really cool designs!
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We started hearing from a lot of people this week how cool it was to climb Mt. Larcom, which is about a 45 minute drive away and supposedly has a great view of the coast. We of course had to see what all the fuss was, so we set out at about 8am on Wednesday morning for the mountain. We had a general idea of where it was, and as we came to the town of Mt. Larcom, we quickly noticed that there was no mountain anywhere nearby. After running into some Americans that were traveling in a campervan and had no clue what we were after, we talked to a convenience store clerk who directed us to drive another 15 minutes to get there. So, we finally arrived and still weren't sure where we were going because they don't have very good signage here. It's easy for locals, but when you have absolutely no idea, it makes it very difficult!
We found what we thought was a grassy parking lot, parked the car and got our water and granola bars together. At first, we were following a well groomed road, but then we came up to a Y in the road. Immediately upon coming to this area, we saw a brown snake scurry back into the bush. I thought, "Oh my, we haven't even gotten to the real path and the snakes are already coming out." We decided to go right first and came to a path that was completely overgrown and looked like it didn't go anywhere. After seeing the snake already, there was no way I was going to walk in waist high grass and every step have to guess what was down there. Usually I'm not a "girly girl" about this stuff, but all of the warnings about Australia having the 10 most deadliest creatures kept coming back into my head and I just couldn't do it.
So, we headed back to the Y and took the other path that looked a little more safe. This had some knee high grass, but nothing as bad. There were lots of butterflies around, hundreds of crickets on the ground and we were enjoying the hike. Then came another Y. Great, we thought. Why don't they have proper signs? And plus, we were heading away from the mountain and knew we probably weren't going the right way. We took the path to the left and again came to a dead end. We turned around and took the other path and came to what was left of a house and yard. The foundation slab was still there (including blue kitchen tiles), but that was it. At this point, we were completely confused and wondering if we were even at the right mountain. There was no one in sight the entire time we were there, so we couldn't ask directions. After eating our granola bars on the house foundation (we were clearly ready for a snack after the 15 minute walk), we decided to chalk it up to experience and head back to the car. I mean, what else could we have done? I wasn't about to walk in snake grass and we had stumbled upon a deserted house foundation...pretty weird.
After talking with some friends here about our experience, we were assured that we were in the correct vicinity, but that we should have taken the first path with the waist-high grass. I think I'll just have to skip seeing the magnificent views for now...until I can muster enough courage to go back and face the snakes!
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