Helen is visiting her mother in Ulverstone and Adrian is supervising the hanging of new blinds in the house. It’s a gloriously sunny day without a cloud in the sky; perfect for a walk on the beach and to explore the neighbourhood. Shearwater on the tidal Rubicon River estuary. It is a popular holiday village which is seeing a considerable amount of new development and there are plenty of plots for sale. Colloquially known as ‘shacks’ the properties here are anything but, sitting on their private plots many either on the shoreline or with views of it, there is plenty of money invested in week-enders and holiday properties here. This morning is low tide leaving a huge expanse of beach and on closer inspection there are thousands of small red crabs which curl up into small balls as we walk amongst them.
After lunch we take a walk along the estuary foreshore to the sea. The shoreline is lined with one and two storey houses built to capture the views and there are some lovely sandy beaches and secluded coves along this rocky stretch. We walk on through the nature reserve as far as Carbuncle Island, which can be reached across the sands at low tide, but not this afternoon. This is a great place for wild life probably because there is no road beyond this point; we spot two wallabies, several rabbits, and a snake slithering across the path into the undergrowth.