Maianbar -New found gem in Royal National Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have visited Royal National Park so many times over the years mainly for walks but this time we stayed at a not-well-known place to people doing nothing much.
It’s an eye opener to me which gave me a different perspective to places about where I believed I knew too well.

1. Definition of ‘smart’

As planned we packed and drove to our Air B & B house in Maianbar inside Royal National Park Friday late afternoon after work.

Several months ago Suze was using a mobile phone holder for the navigation when she was driving.
I tried to set this up for Eddie while he was driving.
Apparently I had to hook one set of foot of this gadget onto the soft two walls at the vents in the car but it wasn’t that easy.
I didn’t pull out my glasses from my bag and instantly gave up trying since I was getting dizzy and tired while I was trying.

But Suze couldn’t understand why I didn’t do it.
She said I’m smart enough to invent them and then how I can’t put it there?

She was not happy that I did not fulfill my duties of seating at passenger's seat.(eg assisting the driver etc)

 

In fact it’s not that I didn’t do it but I couldn’t do it with its location so close to Eddie for fear to interrupt him driving.

(And yes I made time for this yesterday while I was sitting at driver’s seat at parking lot. With two hands aiming gingerly at two fragile soft lubber partitions in front of me, after one unsuccessful trial it clicked easily and successfully.)

 

2. Initial disappointment

Due to a construction on the usual road as per Eddie we had to detour via a small winding forest way which took 30 minutes longer and it was dark and looked dangerous at night.

Finally we arrived at our destination around 7:30pm.

Before we got off the car I saw a big chubby deer nonchalantly standing in the middle of this residential area.
It turned its gaze to us unfazed as if it was nothing special.

Our three day house was far down from where we parked our car so we carried bags and packs via a very narrow winding alley in the dark.

When we opened the front door with a big expectation we found that the second bed room was a makeshift-closet sized space without actual door located just next to the bathroom.
The gap(??)into the room was so small it made me feel even claustrophobic only by looking at it.

Suze ended up sleeping with me and Eddie volunteered to sleep there.

 

 

 

3. Chilling out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a little overcast and humid Saturday morning.

We knew we would not have a good weather for the weekend and in fact it turned out betther than we thought

it to be.

I set up breakfast with french toast ,a few vegetables( asparagus,tomatoes and mushrooms) and fruits( berries and apple).
Eddie fixed coffee.
It was a very nice breakfast indeed as always.

Around 9 am we casually drove to Wattamolla and we strolled into beach.

At the beginning of the track Suze was screaming involuntarily to spot a big echidna.
It was a nice feeling to come across wild animals from time to time.
It tried very hard to hide from us with its slow wobbling gaits.

It was disappointing to find the waterfall near lagoon dried up to a shockingly thin line of water though.

However cool and pleasant breeze comforted us there which was good enough at the moment

After lunch we walked past a small residential area of Maianbar into a trail to Bundeena.
Our goal was to walk to Jibbon Head at Bundeena.
The trail was soon leading us to a spot where Mangroves trees were abundunt in the lazily streaming sea water that we were ecstatic with this view.
A couple of people were fishing in floating kayaks and from there we had a glimpse of wide open tidal mud flats exposed by low tide.
Our short extreme happiness was soon gone when we realized this beautiful track was too short.

Bundeena was crowded with people who enjoyed bbq or swimming and by the time we were there it was getting too hot as well.
So we turned back from crowds and heat.

If only we could reach via a quiet bush track straigt to the destination without walking in the busy area.

On the way back we passed a huge hidden pond covered with green filmy algae in which cranes, ducks and birds were happily residing.

 

 

 

We tried to go see a small wharf in Maianbar.
We were able to enter the house from the sea side thanks to the low tide.

A few small boats were stuck on the exposed muddy flat and millions of small crabs crwaling from and to their holes.

Once back at home we rested feeling cool breeze at the deck listening to noises from big branches of palm trees lightly hitting the roof.
It was so serene and peaceful that we really liked staying at the house by then.

After dinner all of sudden we heard big stormish rain strike the roof with a sudden force and before we went to bed we knew our power point was not working.

It was such a relaxing day for three of us.

4. Everyone fell in love with the house and the area

In the morning Suze announced she had a good sleep and she didn’t want to go home.
Everybody laughed out loud happily feeling the same.

It was not a dream house at all at first but we genuinely enjoyed our time there.
Just relaxing and chilling out like everyone else’s definition of holiday.

We had breakfast outside at the deck.
It was one of the cool moments in our stay in Maianbar.

My mind was full of gratitudes that we were able to have these kinds of quality family times from time to time.

We forgot about all our stupid squablble in the beginning just like simple minded children.


5. Mountain high waves and quiet picnic lunch

 

We got our power back by the instruction from the owner in the morning but I had to throw away some meat from the fridge.
Lucky we didn’t have much left in the fridge.
We packed and prepared to go back home after a long leisurely breakfast.

 

We dropped by at Garie Beach briefly for a short walk on the sand and photo shoots.
There were millions of surfers enjoying high waves.
The wind and waves looked pefect for them.

We stopped our car at a picnic area where there was this picnic table from there we could have a wondderful view overlooking the sea.
We enjoyed our early lunch already reminiscing our short stay there before we headed back home.

All’s well that ends well again!!!!!