0305 Monday, sunny Monday

AND NOW IT’S MONDAY.

This was the day we went for a trip on a real Chinese Junk. Here’s the junk at the wharf.

The junk runs two or three times a day, but there weren’t any spare seats on the junk for the lunchtime trip.

So we went to a micro brewery and bought some beer.

Then it was lunch time, so we had our lunch at home and, at last, we went down to the wharf again. This time we got on board.

Where does a Chinese Junk come from in Port Macquarie?

It was built in Hong Kong years ago, and was shipped to Australia for advertisements for Levi jeans. After it was brought to Port Macquarie, the people who now own it bought it and started running trips along the river and around the bay.

Here are pictures from this trip, which lasted around two hours and took us to some of the points of interest around the bay. This was the afternoon tea cruise.

This is what the junk is like inside.

These two ladies had come down from Queensland. We also met a couple from Geelong in Victoria on their first coastal trip further north than Sydney.

But you probably want to see members of the Green family, So here's the first one of these: Chris at her seat in the junk...

And here's Peter, showing that he has excellent sea legs when the boat is still at anchor in a sheltered spot.

But remember that the trip was about things to look at, so here are pictures of what we saw.

I was impressed at some of the clouds. They towered upwards, suggesting that there may have been strong up currents below them -- perhaps caused by ploughing (which exposes dark earth, which is warmer than the surrounding vegetation.)

There are several man-made canal systems in the area, with quite expensive developments fronting them. The NSW Government has recently banned such developments on ecological grounds.

It was just good to look at the various uses of the waterway, ranging from these fisherfolk

...to the sports users who probably leave a trail of wreckage behind them.

But you can't go past the beauties of the environment. It is hard to convey the extent of this harbour.

In the evening, we went to the lookout over the beach, and we took some photographs of the clouds over the ocean.

After this we were glad to settle into our little room for the evening.

We didn't do many things on Monday, but it was a good and full day.