Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Turtles, tourism exhibits and tummy

On Sunday, we went for a walk down to Paradise* centre as there was a gathering called "Joggers for Loggers" - not about timber, as one might imagine, but Loggerhead Turtles, one of the turtle breeds that chose a beach just up the coast for laying eggs (and therefore hatching).

There could even be a few under the water in this picture!

Of course, the term "Fun Run" is a bit of an oxymoron as far as I am concerned, and so we were more going for "fun swim" and "fun catch up with girlfriends" reasons than the free grub if you got all sweaty over the 8km on offer!!

Paradise* is a fairly elderly beach village (well, elderly in local terms which is fairly recent in other parts of the world), and still has some of the origial beach dwellings along the esplanade. While this wall is not a true "Kanaka Wall", it emulates the style found throughout the area.
"The Kanaka Wall is a well-preserved piece of history. Kanakas were Melanesians from the South Pacific Islands who were indentured to work in Queensland cane fields during the period from 1879 to 1904. Part of their work was to clear volcanic rocks to allow cultivation of fields. The rocks were packed together to form fences and these could be seen all over the district."

What the above fails to mention is "indentured" actually means a form of slavery - one of the nastiest pieces of local history is that of blackbirding, where many were stolen from Pacific Islands and brought to the region for cane cutting and land clearing purposes.

Of course, Paradise*, like many other beachside sleepy-towns, is growing more and more of these things as it uproots the old fibro shacks and grow with fertilising words such as "luxury" and "resort". If you want a few hundred apartments for your investment portfolio, I could even do a whole post on the "For Sale" signs.

This is the hustling centre of tourist activity of Paradise*. The Ice Cream options are fantastic at the Scoopery, not our favourite Fish and Chips outlet (but apparently does a roaring trade in excellent Pizzas) and a rather swish cafe - there is more activity around the corner, but I don't have a camera that takes shots around corners!!

This part of the beach has been developed beautifully for tourists, with shady picnic spots, a fantastic Turtle Park and a pedestrian/cycle path that goes for about 10km (part of the day was the opening of the new section that goes right around to Mon Repos). This is the boardwalk section.

Notice in the background the volcanic rock walls used to create beautiful safe swimming spots.

While there were organised Turtle Sculpting activities further along the beach, 'Salina (nor her friend, Mad') is not really a follower of organised activities (especially when there is some serious splashing or sandcastle building on offer).

I sat in the shade and dozed built my own air-castles while these two frolicked.

On our walk home, I contemplated showing you just how suburban Paradise* can be, but I could find no outstanding examples of mundane - those that fit were not really something I felt the requirement to photograph, and those I felt worthwhile of photographing would not have been an average enough representation. So instead I give you a street I walked.

I was knackered by the end of that morning.


Of course, this is what I was lugging around.

* Please note, Paradise is the term I use for this blog. My town isn't really called Paradise. No, really, it isn't!

10 comments:

Debby said...

Holy cow Jeanie! It looks like you started growing another baby in there from the last pictures. This baby is due in what? 6 more weeks?

Melody said...

Ooo look at that bump!

Thanks for showing us around your section of Paradise. It looks so Australian! I *love* it. Oh how I miss being able to just walk down to the beach - you know how lucky you are? I think you do. It is little things like that you take for granted; even when life can be a little shitty at times you must remember how lucky you are to live where you do. Can you tell I'm missing my little section of Australia?

Hope all goes swimmingly leading up to your final weeks of being up the duff. It is an exciting time!

BTW, my word verification in 'scheme'.

Leenie said...

Love your trip to the beach. I agree Fun Run is an oxymoron. Finish line photographer is my job. Thanks for the history of the Kanka Wall. Seems like there was a lot of that kind of inhumnaity and still is, I hope to a lesser degree. As a Yank I am unfamiliar with the term "swish cafe" although I know what "knackered" means from friends from the UK. Air castles is my kind of beach activity. But what is a Turtle Park?

ELIZABETH said...

As the days grow cooler here it's nice to spend time looking at beach scenes.

katef - www.picklebums.com said...

What? you mean you don't really live in paradise???? I'm sooo disapointed!!

Tamsyn said...

Loving the baby bump!

I just realised that I spent quite a bit of time in your part of the world when I was growing up. It is a beautiful place :)

Mooselet said...

Looking at those pictures I know exactly where Paradise it - we've been there twice and just love it. I have pictures to prove it, too. ;-) Don't worry, I won't give it away.

Jayne said...

Love the pics and that BUMP...!
Always irritates me when Aussies proclaim "we didn't have slavery here", a very over-looked part of our history.
Love the wall, was not aware of them before.
We have similar walls, made by convicts, in the Western District of Vic, from volcanic rocks cleared from paddocks.

Maude Lynn said...

The picture of you is the best of them all!

Don't tire yourself out too much!

MissyBoo said...

Paradise looks like a wonderful place to live :)

Love the bump!