Wednesday 29 May 2024

Morning Tea

Traversing the “creek”

Karen, Joan and Pat can’t wait to get onto dry sand

Gladys, Sean, Karen G and Karen M wet footed.

Ian, Lorraine, Rodney, Mary, Jeff, Simone and Moira on the bridge, Bengello track

Most of the group at the end of the walk

Photos courtesy MaryT, KarenG and Helen.     Walk report courtesy Walk Leader Helen.

On a bright sunny morning there was a good turn out for a 7km walk at Bengello Beach Broulee.
Who would have thought such a straight forward innocuous walk would have been so exciting.
For those who did not join us but have a fear of missing out, well, you did!

Just the logistics of arriving at the right parking area caused problems, the loss of a road sign, no Google Maps to help out and a typo on the programme did not help, so next time I lead this walk I will include a map of Sandmines car park Broulee. (Not Google Maps preference for Sandbanks car park in the south of England, as that is a tad too far out of our area!)

Then the numbers of walkers fluctuated like I have never known. We set off with thirteen, two others caught us up, another two met us from the opposite direction and one more wandered along with us near the end. You might expect to lose a walker or two, not gain five.

Finally, and I did warn you before we set off, there was the excitement of Bengello Lagoon being full and open to the sea. Was this the first time BBBW had a creek crossing on an “Easy”
walk? Yes, it required removal of boots and paddling through chilly ankle deep water and included lots of muttering. But isn’t that why we like to get out in the bush, to become one with nature and live a little dangerously?

After all the “to do”, morning tea was relaxing watching the waves in warm sunshine as we let out feet dry, while the dappled shade of Bengello track was inviting and easy going. It wasn’t all bad, at least the visitors who joined us were keen to join us again and I got the timing of the walk right!