Hygge and bonhomie

Cape Kidnappers, Local, Saturday June 16, 2018.
Photos: Peter I, Marie D

What a picture-perfect day… clear blue sky, sunshine, not a breath of wind and mild temperatures. High tide necessitated a delay for coffee at Hygge (aka Clifton Cafe) and what a treat that turned out to be. No longer the tired, run-down cafe of recent times but a classy revamped model instead, complete with fire merrily burning, a spread of papers to choose from – and the food looked amazing… too bad we’d already had brekkie. Hygge means comfort and it was comfort indeed!

We noted a bit of storm damage from earlier in the week with a little more roadside crumbling away and the sea inching ever closer to the caravans at the camp, but they looked to have got off quite lightly this time.

Before long, the layers were coming off and some were down to shorts and t-shirts. However, the suggestion of a mid-winter’s swim was not taken up!

A couple of noisy quad bikes and a motorcycle came hooning past, dodging rocks and waves, much to my disgust. The bike was later abandoned and they didn’t get the whole way as the tide was still up. It turned out the biker was a woman at my work and this was her idea of fun. A family with two kids also abandoned their walk; the parents were keen, the kids less so.

We checked out a couple of “canyons”, admired geological features aided by Hannah, paddled round the rocks in a couple of places and clambered over a promontary with the assistance of a lovely Chinese guy, to jump down the other side.

The DoC picnic area was all ours and it got so hot we needed shade and sun block. The gannet colony was completely deserted (as was Black Reef) with no juveniles wintering over this year. Stunning views out from the cape kept the photographers happy and while a slippery path on the way down threatened to derail a couple of us, luckily we stayed on our feet.

Although birdlife was lacking, rabbits were not. We were horrified at how many were running around on the hillsides and wondered if any pest control was in place at all.

There was more cloud around on the trek back but it was still very mild and only really started to cool off not long before arriving back at the cars at 3.45pm.

A great day out… we couldn’t have asked for more!

Trampers: Hannah, Aoi, Mone, Peter, Marie, John B, John R, and reporter Jude Paton.