Myall Lakes

We spent Australian Father's Day at Myall Lakes National Park, about 45 minutes northeast of Newcastle. Oh well ... just another eye-popping, astonishing Australian natural wonder. Sarah declared the beach at Dark Point the most beautiful one she's ever seen. The point is pictured here. In fact, Myall is listed in a book that I found in the library, "1001 Natural Wonders You Must See Before You Die." Fortunately, I've got about 998 to go.

One thing that made this part of the park so enthralling is the long walk across the sand dunes to get to the beach. You clamber up and down a couple of small dunes, first spotting islands in the distance, then the point, then at the crest of a final hill, the curved beach, dark blue water and crashing white waves.

The dunes go on and on. Nick and Pete could have gone up and down the biggest hill all day.

This part of the park is an Aboriginal Midden Site, a place where they dumped shells, bones, tools, etc.--a significant archaeological and Australian heritage location.

The creature below is a goanna. We happened upon it while doing a couple of mile loop on a rainforest trail along one of the lakes. It looked like a small fallen tree trunk when I first glimpsed it on the edge of the path. A couple of birds were harassing it, and in this shot it's headed up a tree with the likely intention of swiping a bird egg or two for dinner.