beach walk

4WD Tales

4 Comments Posted on October 15, 2021 by Snoskred

snow road street winter — Photo by Sinitta Leunen on Pexels.com

The Other Half has been wanting a 4wd to use as his camping car for a while. At first I was very anti this idea. An extra car rego to pay, tyres, every year a pink slip to show it was roadworthy, it just seemed to me like a money pit we really did not need to throw our money into. There are better things to spend money on especially when camping with the boys was a once every 3-6 months thing.

And camping with ME is a NEVER thing. I do not camp, except at 5 star hotels. And those can be reached with a normal vehicle which we already own two of.

I told him he could have one providing he saved up for it out of his own monies, and he did that. He bought a secondhand old 4wd locally and has been spending his Sundays working on it for the last few months. He finally convinced me to go for a drive in this thing. I actually loved every minute of it. And here are some pics.

This is part of an area which was affected by the bushfires in 2019/2020. You can see the effect it has had on the trees. They all look very weird.

After we had explored here for a while, we went back home and switched cars and headed out to Jervis Bay for a 5k walk. By the time we got there the weather had changed a little but was perfect for our purpose.

It is still just as gorgeous out here as it ever was. And we’re making more of an effort to get out regularly now whether separately or together. We need some nature time. ;)

beach walk, country life

A Beach Walk

2 Comments Posted on October 16, 2017October 13, 2017 by Snoskred

Recently I have put myself through a “30 day bootcamp” of sorts. Generally this meant getting out to run and walk as many days as I could. On the first Monday after my bootcamp, I did my usual 5km run/walk, then decided I would “reward” myself with a barefoot beach walk for my remaining 5km.

Remind me never to reward myself with a barefoot beach walk again! I discovered exactly why I like walking the path next to the beach and not on it. There are a few reasons.

1. Sand. 2. Water. 3. Sandflies. 4. Sea Lice.

5. Dead Fish. 6. Jellyfish. 7. Unrecognizable Objects Washed Up On The Beach. 8. Sand.

Did you notice how I mentioned sand twice there? Sand is really hard to walk on! It slowed me down significantly. My time for this 10km was more like my time for a 15km walk. I was on that beach for an hour and a half, using muscles which apparently do not get used in my regular workouts, the way they screamed at me.

I do enjoy the occasional sea shell, I do like the occasional wave washing over my feet, I do enjoy the scenery.

But I think barefoot beach walks should be limited to around 2km, preferably on beaches which have a shower or some kind of tap arrangement where I can wash the sand off my feet.

I will wait till my next 30 day bootcamp is over, before I “reward” myself with a beach walk again!

Speaking of rewards, I finally made it to my goal weight. I had some ideas of things I wanted to do once I saw that number on the scale – horse riding – indoor sky diving – some kind of adventure course. I may do all three. We will see! ;)

beach walk

Beach Walk Day

2 Comments Posted on May 30, 2016May 23, 2016 by Snoskred

Unlike the protected beaches of Jervis Bay, Seven Mile Beach gets the full force of wind and waves. Some days the sea spray appears like a hazy fog blanket. We only walked just under 6km here on the 22nd of May and by the time we were done, my glasses were completely covered in sea spray, not to mention my eyeballs and face felt like they’d been sandblasted. Hey, some people pay big money for that kind of effect!

Still, it was an absolutely gorgeous day out there. 24 degrees C (75F or so) and the wind was warm, not cold.

Each beach here has their own character, their own different kind of sand, different shells that wash up, different sea items. This beach has a sparkle to it which is difficult to capture with the camera. It is like someone hid glitter in with the sand.

That was our best attempt. It does not do this glittery beach true justice. For that you need to go there with your own eyeballs, I think. :)

This area here is sometimes opened up to the sea. This photo looks back towards the Shoalhaven River. If you look at my track of this walk, it looks like we walked on water for much of it. However we were quite safe on the sand. :)

beach walk, New South Wales

Weather Wonder

5 Comments Posted on May 9, 2016May 7, 2016 by Snoskred

It is unbelievable to me that I took this photo last Friday while on my 10km walk. There was almost zero wind. It was 22 degrees, which is about 3 degrees higher than usual at this time of year.

I could have done with some wind during this walk, but the dolphin boats, boaters and kayakers were massively enjoying the lack of wind. As would we have been, if we’d had the kayak out there. There are some kayakers right in the middle of this shot, might be difficult to spot as they are behind the tree. :)

We did take the kayak out last weekend – normally at this time of year I would be rugged up in my sharkskins, but they were not needed. I just wore my socks to keep my toes warm, as they tend to go in the water when we get in the kayak. I also wore my rash vest and compression leggins – without those I would have been sunburnt!

We’ve had a nearly unbroken stretch of glorious days for the past 2 weeks. There was one cloudy day, that day we went for a bushwalk. I’m writing a separate post on that one. Every other day was so gorgeous, knowing it might not last much longer, I had to get outside and walk instead of stay inside on the treadmill.

Speaking of weather – for those of you looking to go to the snow this year, a small heads up, Aldi has their snow gear coming up this Saturday 14th of May. Anyone in Adelaide who is new to Aldi shopping, their snow gear is highly sought after, excellent quality, and very good value. You have one Aldi store thus far, at 400 Churchhill Rd, Kilburn. Best get there early though!

beach walk, Jervis Bay

Coincidentally, Speaking Of My Favourite Road

6 Comments Posted on November 15, 2007June 2, 2015 by Snoskred

Today we went for a lovely drive. We visited Surf Beach which is near Batemans Bay.

Then we stopped at Kioloa on the way home. I’d heard it was beautiful and it was stunning. Then again we’re a bit spoilt for stunning beaches around here.

On the way home we stopped on my favourite road at one of the most fun bits to take a photo. You can click on the picture for a larger image.

beach walk, country life, photography

The Oracle Knows All.. At Least Some.. Well Really Just One Thing.

11 Comments Posted on September 12, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

So, you’ve moved to the beach? You’re going to need an Oracle. What is an Oracle, I hear you ask? It is the God of the Ocean. It is the one thing you must consult before heading off to the beach. It is vital and important, not just for beach walkers but for boaters and for fishermen..

I do not believe in any One God, but I do believe in the Oracle. And now I am going to show you the Oracle. Are you sitting down? Paying full attention? ;) This is *important*!!!

My Oracle is a simple piece of paper with important things printed on it. Some people have an Oracle that comes in book form. Some people who are highly advanced creatures consult the Online Oracle.

As always, I hear your thoughts. Why is an Oracle necessary? Why is this important to someone who wants to walk on the beach? You see the above photo. That is a local creek. There is no bridge over this creek, and at certain times of the day where I am standing to take this photo I would be about neck deep in water. So the Oracle can help me work out when is the best time to take my beach walk and be able to cross this creek.

What the Oracle cannot tell me is what I will see when I get to the beach, if there will be any dolphins there, if the weather will be ok, and a multitude of other things. It simply tells me when the tides will be high or low. Someone tells me this has something to do with the Moon, but I am not sure about this.

(image courtesy Google Earth)

As you see there are a couple of creeks on my beach walk paths. If the Oracle has not lied to me, I am able to walk a very long way on the beach. If I go when the Oracle has said “Don’t Go” I cannot walk very far at all.

All beach photos in this post were taken by me earlier today – I saw two different pods of Dolphins today. I walked a long way but managed to lose my pedometer sometime after 4,256 steps. :( and I still had a long way to walk when I last checked the meter! I walked for over an hour and a half on top of my 20 minute short walk this morning when I foolishly did not listen to The Oracle and could not cross either of the creeks.

This post has been a Hump Day Hmmm. Feel free to write your own Hump Day Hmmm, it is simple and easy to join in! The topic this week was –

Take a topic, any topic, something that is weighing on you, bothering you, troubling you…and find the humor in it. Write about it from a humorous angle. It can be general or personal, just take a troubling topic and bring out the humor. FWIW, sarcasm counts. Letter style, onion style, Shakespeare style, prose, any style you want.

I suppose The Oracle is not a troubling topic for everyone, but it has become a new troubling topic for me this week. I am now joined at the hip to a piece of paper because someone could not simply say – High tide is at midday and midnight, and low tide is at 6am and 6pm! No, they have to make it *complicated* and *ever changing* just to confuse poor little me. :( As much as I love the moon, I believe Juliet was right when she said –

O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circled orb, lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

beach walk, beaches, country life, Hump Day Hmmm, New South Wales, NSW, photo blog country NSW, seachange

This Snoskred Update May Come To You As A Surprise.

9 Comments Posted on September 7, 2007June 2, 2015 by Snoskred

Is it possible to have the best week in ages and yet still be moving house? The week did not start out quite as we imagined, we discovered that these places have been refurbished, they’re not new, they were lived in before and the state of the appliances leaves a LOT to be desired. Major fail whale!

In fact I’m not cooking in that filthy oven. I refuse. Either the landlord replaces the oven, cooktop and rangehood – all of which are filthy and the cooktop is actually rusted or we will just replace them ourselves. We didn’t spot it on inspection because the electricity was off, it’s dark in that kitchen without the lights on, it said *clearly* in the advertisements that these were brand new, and we made the mistake of assuming that meant the appliances would be brand new as well. Note to self, remember that rule about never assuming? :) We did feel a bit like we’d been lied to, though.

However that has been the only cloud on our horizon this week, other than real actual clouds, which there’s been a few of as well as some rain and neither of us mind real clouds or rain, so that’s ok. ;) We’ve contacted the real estate agent and asked them to let the landlord know we’re not happy with the appliances and we’d like him to replace them or reduce the rent. I’m not going to let it bother me because either way they are being replaced. We’ve never used the oven in this house because the first time we turned it on, the smell! Ugh!

You’ll note I put pictures from my hour long beach walk on Thursday in between the above. This is meant to demonstrate how appliances are of little importance in the face of so much beach beauty. ;) Yes, I walked for an hour, after spending an hour vacuuming and cleaning the new place, then I went home and packed more stuff before returning to the new house with the other half, to carry potplants upstairs to our balcony.

I would have been walking on the beach every day, but I have been getting more than enough exercise packing, moving boxes, and carrying heavy things up the stairs. The beach walk on Thursday was actually a reward for myself for all the hard work I’ve been doing over the past couple of weeks but soon enough it will be a daily event, rain or shine..

There’s a reason they have stair climbers in gyms. I have missed stairs while we’ve lived in two houses without them. Carrying heavy potplants upstairs was surprisingly fun for me as well as being great exercise. That sounds like I have gone completely round the twist, but I have found every small thing I do is one step closer to being moved in and ready to start new things – a new business, a new lifestyle, and much cookery. ;) I’m excited and getting stuff done fast!

The ute ended up being pushed into a table we had in the garage quite by accident. My parents came to visit and I asked my Dad to back the ute in so I could close the door, but he thought it would be better to push it. I was told to pull the handbrake when they said to. Unfortunately it didn’t do anything like.. well. braking. The ute kept going and there was a crash.

There you can see some of the glass left on the table. I would have taken pics of the ute but odd people are having a party next door and I was a bit.. freaked out. So, I just have the above for now.

The pool table successfully made its way up the stairs on Monday. As you see. Below is a photo looking back towards the kitchen from near to the balcony door.

I have one other thing to mention in this update. Below is a screenshot of my desktop as it looks now, today. The cluttering up as mentioned in this post – Snoskred Is Getting Organised – Are You? – is a thing of the past and this new system is so simple and so easy that I don’t even have to work at it. It magically happens all on its own.

If you are like me and want to get your desktop organised, I have to recommend the article that started it all for me – How to Keep your Desktop Organized (without getting insane) – if you take the time to put the system in place, and learn how to use it believe me this will work for you too. I am stunned by how well it has worked for me.

beach walk, customer feedback, Fail Whale, moving on

Snoskred Has Massively Huge News

14 Comments Posted on August 22, 2007 by Snoskred

We’re moving! YAY! My to do list has 15 things on it which aren’t related to blogging, so more as soon as I have time. I’m just completely overjoyed. The other night when we drove to our soon to be new town, we saw one kangaroo, one fox and then two bunny rabbits on someone’s front lawn in the main street. Then we drove past our new place and all was quiet.

Peace. 10 minutes walk to the beach. Daily beach walks. Dolphins playing within my view. Taking the camera with me so I can grab photos for ya’all. Living in a community. All about 3 weeks away.

Don’t ya’all worry, I am pre-blogging like there is no tomorrow. At worst you’ll still be getting a thought a day but most days you’ll have at least one post from me too. I may not be commenting as much as usual, I hope you’ll forgive me for that.

beach walk, moving on, seachange

Our Humans went out today..

7 Comments Posted on July 30, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

Hi, this is the Big Kitty typing. The Little Kitty has the attention span of a goldfish and is too busy stealing my Tuna and the warmest spot next to the heater so don’t expect her to be posting anytime soon. The Humans are busy looking at this funny website they found – Daisy the Curly Cat. I laughed at that funny cat too, but I was inspired to say something myself! Here’s what I look like, in case you forgot. If you Humans reading this want a bigger view you can click your mouse on the photo. I like mouses, too.

I have to tell you something. Our Humans are going out more and more, and leaving us at home without the heating on. Ever since they got that new car they take off for hours at a time. When they found out we could turn the airconditioner on from the remote control with our paws they hid the remote in a drawer. Now we’re having to find warm places to curl up instead of hanging out on our cat towers, which is where we really want to be..

People say we’re spoilt kitties to have so many cat towers – these are only two of them. We have more in other rooms. Today when they got home I found these photos from when they were out and I thought I would post them so you can see what kind of fun those Humans are having while they leave us kitties alone.. cold.. with no laps to sit on.

What side of the road are you supposed to drive on in Australia? Or doesn’t it matter, can you just drive in the middle? I think that is really dangerous and my Humans should keep away from cars like that, right? Do you agree?

Maybe you can change sides as long as there’s nobody on the other side, I don’t know. This driving stuff looks confusing. I don’t like cars. I don’t like those cat carrier things the Humans always put us in when it’s time to go in the car either. Why can’t we just roam around the car and find a nice warm spot to sit?

My Humans are smart. It looks like they pulled over in order to get away from the scary drive all over the road Holden car. My Dad Human has a joke about Holdens – they’re just holden together. But I seem to remember he drove one once. That was a long time ago.

My Mom Human likes cows. I remember when they took us to see the EVIL Human with the BIG NEEDLE and we drove past some cows, and she was yelling “Hi Cows! Hi Cows!” at them. The Dad Human tells me she does this anytime she sees cows. I told him I know where the earplugs are and maybe he should use those in order to concentrate on the road better. But look at the view these cows have from their field? I don’t have much of a view here. This house only has one level so I can’t sit in an upstairs window and survey my kingdom.

Wow, it looks like those Humans were going fast!

The Humans keep the car in the Garage. I like the Garage. It’s the only room in the house we’re not allowed to go into but I can’t understand why. Whenever I get in there they say GET OUT to me. I like to hide in between the boxes so they can’t pick me up and carry me out. These cars look like that car they keep in the Garage, and look, they have that XR5 Turbo thing written on them too, just like that one in the garage but I don’t think these are theirs even though it is hard to tell what color the car is when it is inside. Is it possible that three of the five XR5 Turbos within a 50km radius were all parked in the same car park today?

Wow, look at that! Why can’t the Humans get a house with that kind of view where I could look out and dream of catching fish out of the water with my claws all day, and lazily watch the Humans on the beach with one half closed eye?

I’m not a beach cat. I don’t like sand in my paws. But if you could make me a special pair of kitty socks that keep the sand out, I’d like to roam around this beach and put my paw prints everywhere.

Do cats have to be on a leash at the beach? I don’t do leashes. Those are for dogs. Intelligent animals who can bury their doings don’t need to be on a leash, but I wouldn’t want any dogs to chase me. That silly dog next door, he barks all the time at nothing. He just stares off into space saying woof, woof woof, woof and disturbs my napping. I have to go sit on the windowsill and look down at him all superior like.

When the Humans got home, they put all this stuff on the pool table so we could sniff it and check it out. I think they should give the money cards to us. Clearly they can’t be trusted. They go out for a drive and bring home a new car, and then they go out in the new car and bring home.. stuff.

What is this stuff useful for? It’s not tuna, cat towers, toys for us to play with or kitty safe milk. We don’t need it! The Humans tried to get us Kitties to stand on those scales but we refused to put all four paws on at once. We don’t want them to take our Tuna away. Even though that Little Kitty could be considered plump, I keep telling the Humans she is just fluffy. Bye for now from the Big Kitty!

Australia, beach walk, kitties, photo blog country NSW, photos

Photo Blog – Currarong and Huskisson

5 Comments Posted on July 26, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

Tomorrow it will be two weeks that we’ve had the new car. I still have not posted a photo of it, I’m sure some of you noticed. As usual, I won’t be lying to you – the truth is I feel a little uncomfortable about doing that since we found out it’s a bit of a rare vehicle around these parts. I didn’t post a photo of my Dad’s car because you could spot it a mile off – we did yesterday when out driving and he went the other way – and there’s less than 500 of them in Australia. So at this stage I’ve decided not to put photos of it on the blog. Yes, it is killing me. Yes, I want to share it with ya’all. Yes, I have photos right here ready to post. No, I just can’t do it. I may get over it soon, but until then if anyone would like a pic, shoot me an email.

What I can do is let you know – the novelty has not worn off. The Other Half has had 5 days off since we got the car. We’ve clocked up 1274kms as of putting her in the garage tonight. Yesterday evening we went for a little drive ending with a beach walk at Currarong at sunset. Today we drove down to Batemans Bay and dropped in to Huskisson on the way home. Just because we could. ;) So here’s some pics from our outings. Click on any for a larger image Below – The beach at Currarong

Below – the bridge across Batemans Bay.

Below – Looking out across Batemans Bay. It was a lovely calm day and the water was like glass, beautiful.

Below – Looking out to Point Perpendicular from Huskisson.

Below – Looking back towards Huskisson. I have seen dolphins swimming in this inlet before, they often go quite a way up the river.

Below – Looking towards Myola and Callala Beach from Huskisson and you can see the now empty swimming pool which is filled with sea water in summer.

Below – looking down to the beach below the point where I have been standing taking these photos.

Below – The dolphin and whale watching boat heads out, looking for the whales. We’d seen a pod of dolphins out in the bay while we were taking these shots. We’ve been out on this boat before and it is a brilliant day out, most of the time Jervis Bay is just as calm as you see in these photos.

The red stuff you can see washed up on the shore in some of the pics is actually red algae, which isn’t too pretty nor does it smell great but it is totally normal at this time of year. In the summer, the beaches will be pure white.

Australia, beach walk, photo blog country NSW