Probably more of interest to the Aussies on the forum, the following is a cruise report of our June 2015 cruise up the Tweed. The videos will deffinately not be to everyone's taste, but anyone going up the Tweed should find them helpful.
In 1823, Captain John Oxley sailed his cutter, the Mermaid North from Sydney, in search of a suitable place for a new penal settlement and on this trip he discovered a river meandering its way through some amazingly fertile and beautiful land in Northern NSW. Reminding him of the River Tweed which runs through the border region of Scotland and England, he named it, The Tweed River. Northern NSW and the Tweed Valley area in particular is surely one of the prettiest parts of the country. Towering above everything else in the area is the ever present Mt Warning at 1156m.
Late one afternoon on the 16th of May 1770, Captain James Cook was sailing up the East coast of Australia and managed to avert disaster when he spotted the shoals to the East of what is now known as Cook Island. He ordered his crew to heave to for the night and the first thing he saw in the morning was the sun’s rays hitting a towering peak inland which he named Mount Warning. Mt Warning is a volcanic plug - the central vent for the largest ever volcano in the Southern Hemisphere – a giant Shield volcano which stretched from Byron bay to Nerang and was likely 2kms high. The aboriginal name for Mt Warning is “Wollumbin” which means ‘Rain Maker’. Mt Warning national park is now Wollumbin national park and I fear that sooner or later we will be made to forget the name Mt Warning altogether, (in fact I doubt my grandchildren will even know who Captain Cook was) - seems a great shame to me that we have to forget everything that has made this country what it is, which to me is everything that binds us together as Australians, but what do I know I guess..
Enough with the history and vulcanology lessons! We arrived at Fingal Head ramp at 11am on Friday of the Queen’s birthday weekend. We were under way by midday and enjoying the glorious winter sunshine. Initially we planned to stop at Tumblegum (the locals don’t like it if you pronounce it that way - just say Tumby and you will be okay!), but decided to keep going, happily chugging along at about 5.5knots. We ended up going right to the end of the navigation, a lovely little anchorage a mile past Murwillumbah and here we had a fantastic evening. With Sundowners and a Roast Beef BBQ We were treated to a sun shower and a magical light show created by the suns rays shining through the low cloud and water vapour. I don’t do photo shop – the video\photos are as it was!
Next morning we went back to Murwillumbah and pulled up at the public jetty. The public pontoons on the river all seem to have ‘one hour limit’ signs but there was no sign at Murwillumbah so we locked up the boat and went for a walk around the town. A major fire went through the town in 1907 causing a lot of it to be rebuilt. There are quite a few quaint art deco style 1920s buildings there which make for a pleasant stroll around the town. The Westpac bank there, was in 1978, the scene of the largest ever bank robbery in Australia ($1.7 million), a crime which has never been solved. We went shopping at Coles which seemed expensive and then walked back to the boat.
Back up the river we went and this time past the end of the navigation and right up to the Bray Park weir. This part of the river from Murwillumbah up is most certainly the prettiest. The countryside is beautiful. We had a bit of a walk and messed about with our kayaks for the rest of the day.
Sunday we pulled the kayaks up into the fresh water and went up the river another mile to the Byangum bridge. When I first planned this trip, my plan was to make it to this bridge for a picnic. Well we made it all right but with one problem - In my haste, I had left the picnic food in the cockpit of Little Annie! When we arrived at the bridge, I went through the backpacks and found nothing but a packet of cheese and bacon rolls and a bag of salt and vinegar chips. And So we had a great picnic, of chip rolls with no butter mmm and after a bit of a walk, kayaked back down this lovely bit of river to the weir.
It was now the afternoon and so we motored back down the river to Tumblegum. We had planned to have a look at the pub which is apparently quite famous for its Sunday sessions, but decided to stay put on the boat and have another BBQ and let the kids watch a movie. Next morning the Son and I went for a Kayak up the Rous river for an hour or so. After that we went over to Tumby where the wife and I had a slight disagreement. She wanted Tea and Scones at the little Tea shop and I wanted a Hamburger and Beer at the Tumby pub! Not having time for both, we bought the kids an ice cream and went back to the boat. Off down the River again and back to the ramp to pack up. We were home by 4pm and everyone was exhausted and fell into bed by 8pm.
A Few tips:
It was a great cruise but of course would have been a lot more enjoyable without the engine. You could sail it, but you’re looking at taking your mast down three times for bridges and a couple more for overhead wires which you need to watch out for. There are taps to restock your water at Tumby and Murwillumbah. It’s a pleasant half mile walk to the Coles at Murwillumbah and there is an IGA close to the water on the other side of the River. There is a toilet near the Murwillumbah public pontoon and one behind the community hall at Tumby. There is a toilet with shower in the lower level of the shopping plaza at Murwillumbah. There are good pubs by the water at both Tumby and Murwillumbah. The river is apparently big on wake boarding but we were fortunate enough to not see any of it until Monday morning when a few wake boats started to arrive with one seemingly attempting to impress us by doing a couple of doughnuts quite close to us at about 08:00. The best part of the river for us is the weir - just a lovely safe relaxing peaceful perfect place where one could easily spend a few days or more. We did have it to ourselves though - In summer I’m not sure it would be so peaceful…
Thanks for sharing the pics, video and description. Very nicely done. What's home to you is very exotic to those of us in the US Pacific Northwest. It's nice to see Mac boats poking into beautiful places like the Tweed. Your kids are lucky to be experiencing such fun times.
Didn't get a chance to watch the video yet (I'm at work) but the pics and write-up are fantastic! Thank you for sharing with us, I don't have to be an Aussie to appreciate beauty.
thanks guys, Ris, the last frame of video 2 shows a pic of the cameras used - nothing too flash. Basically its just a combination of a Fujifilm XP60 and Panasonic HX-WA30, both shockproof and waterproof cameras. I just got the HXWA30 and am quite pleased with it. The video quality is fantastic when played on my TV (much better than my old Sony video camera I payed twice as much for).
It is so interesting to see how Macs are used all over the world I may never see the Tweed but through your adventure I know it exist. Thank you very much.
Paul, try and guess where Marissa and I are taking our Mac this weekend?
We have four days up our sleeve starting Friday so it's off with the mast this week
Good stuff Barry. I hope the weather turns it on for you because you need a bit of sun to see how nice it is up there. A few showers are forecast but it looked about the same on weatherzone for our weekend and we had plenty of sun http://www.weatherzone.com.au/nsw/north ... weed-heads
We only took a bit of food for the first day as we knew we could go shopping at Murbah and that worked out well. Well worth a walk around there if you hav'nt been down there in a while, and the boat seemed safe enough left at the pontoon.
If you are planning on spending any time at the Tumby pub, you will need to take something for a tender as its a one hour limit (boats not to be left alone) pontoon.
Looking forward to some nice piccies - Have a good weekend ya lucky so and so
