Currumbin, Australia

A travellers view of Currumb in Queensland Australia: Yesterday I had the pleasure of lunch here at Currumbin Surf Club, as you can see from today's pictures the Surf club itself is built directly on a large geographical feature of the area, Elephant rock.

Why anybody would choose to spoil such an interesting feature let alone for a council to allow it, is beyond me but there it is. I have visited this venue before, Father's Day 2007 and so I have inside information that the lunch will be excellent regardless of the positioning of the club.

The rock, is of course the more interesting, I think rocks are sort of interesting because they are what they are, where they are and shaped the way they, are all of which would seem at random, at it doesn't matter what you or I think, they have plonked themselves down and that's that as far as the rock is concerned. We humans need to put in a great deal of work with hammers or explosives to make a difference in their rock world.

This big rock looks to be igneous in nature and the result of an angry volcanic eruption (can there be any other kind?) and has been vomited from the earth to solidify in the hilly area inland of the seafront, which of course at the time eons ago may well have been somewhere, anywhere about here. The monolithic boulder possibly rolled from its perch above the beachfront where it came to rest on a platform of brother rocks who no doubt welcome it in a civil happy and certainly not with a stoney silence. Rocks, stones, boulders etc speak in a frequency not heard by mere human ears.

Elephant rock and the table it appears to rest on seem very new geologically speaking because there appears little erosion from the wind, salt air and wave action and if we look north we can see another rocky sibling jutting proudly from the beach in an area known as Currumbin Alley which I gather is a name generated from the surfing culture which as you can imagine is very prevalent here.

Within a few miles of this very spot the local district claims ownership of several World Surfing Champions including current hero and world ranked No. 1 Mick Fanning and current Women's champion Stephanie Gilmore who was born around the corner or at least a short distance from here up the Tweed River at Murwillumbah I will be doing an entry on Murwillumbah in the next few days.

Currumbin Alley marks the southern edge of the entrance to Currumbin Creek which is a tidal waterway fed by the Salty Ocean during high tides and mountain fed fresh water during low tide. This leads to brackish water quite close to the outflow adjacent to Currumbin Alley and is apparently an area in which it is possible to encounter the notorious Bull Shark. This estuary dweller seems to prefer brackish tidal depths and is very much adapted to seeking its food in murky water.

As we proceed up the creek the clarity declines as the leaf and earth stained fresher water becomes predominant. The use of fresh water seems a little misleading here but of course I mean non salty water. When it first trickled down from the wonderful Border Ranges far above in the catchment area, the water was as almost as fresh as water can be. As we get to know each other better(reader and scribe) you will find I do not enjoy swimming, lolling, floating, soaking, wading, splashing or generally getting wet in water that is not clear. Like most things there is a reason but that story is for another day.

So lets about face and retreat along the murky parts of Currumbin Creek and be dazzled by one of the loveliest stretches of yellow glowing sand in a nation of lovely yellow glowing beaches. Even the erstwhile British tourist does not feel the need to wear a handkerchief with knots tied in the corners on a balding or even hirsute pate. Why on earth our British cousins allowed Aussies like me (I was born in the UK incidentally) to have this image of English manhood I will never know. Imagine a latin lover boy with the Andalusian accent of the Spanish gigolo emerging from the sea, brown muscles glistening from the crystal clear waters of Currumbin Beach with his daggy trousers rolled above the knees and wearing a four corner tied handkerchief plastered to his head.

Oh Dear! could this be the beginning of an international incident. As if we Aussies are never portrayed in foreign press as anything but fine upstanding incredibly great looking young people. "Where the Bloody hell are ya's". Ms Lara Bingle or her former paramouror cricketer Michael Clarke, are fine examples of what all Australian look like. Well that's the portrayal we wish to believe, not that Stephanie Gilmore or Mick Fanning are hard on the eyes to their respective opposite sexes or of course in some cases, same sexes.

To the north of Currumbin Beach is the commercially named Palm Beach which although it has much of the aforementioned glowing yellow sand and sunshine liberally applied to tanned and less tanned new arrivals alike, there are few Palm trees to be seen other than in the occasional suburban backyard. Nevertheless the atmosphere is generally holiday plus, for the family lucky enough to visit this part of the world. Here there's a little extra bonus for folk like me.... the water is a perfect temperature and generally beautifully refreshing, no Irukanji stingers here, no stone fish, sometimes ablue bottle will appear and best of all....few bull sharks nosing around, the waters too clear.