Where is Smiths Lake?

Biggest Wild Birds I've Ever Seen

I miss Labor Day Weekend. It’s that last weekend signaling the end of leave early Fridays, the halt of wearing white pants and the end of summer.


It happens here too - spelled Labour Day. No one calls it Labour Day Weekend, it's just 'the long weekend'. It's connotations also have nothing to do with the end of summer, but the start...living in the southern hemisphere in all.


This long weekend, Dave's colleague Jutta planned a group getaway to Smith's Lake. This was huge for Dave and I in our social lives. We had never been away with a group of friends since moving to Australia in June 2010. Our last sleep away weekend was perhaps Sokcho, South Korea in Fall 2009 and before that was a ski trip in January 2009. This was particularly exciting for me because I had been cooped up in my apartment waiting for my visa to process. Furthermore, it was one last hoorah before I started my new job at FST Media on the Tuesday after Labour Day, which happens to also be my 26th birthday!


Going away for the weekend, renting a house and a car and boozing is pretty standard for 20 somethings in Oz. Here goes assimilation.


'Where is Smiths Lake?' was a quite common question when asked what I was doing for the long weekend. I too had no idea, but was going with it.


There was more appeal to the trip than just having said you did something for the long weekend. It was a chance to get away, really get away from a city that is so comfortable. Why leave Sydney? You've got city, beaches, parks, fairly nice weather and it's all walk-able. But trust me, you can get cabin fever in one of the world's most livable cities.


So with one Facebook event created, a few messages posted among the 10 commitants, we were off on a Saturday morning.

Dave and I rode with his colleague Saskia and her partner Volker, two Germans who live on Macleay Street, our former home. With egg/bacon rolls in our bellies, we took to Pacific Highway and made our way North.

Watching the Pelicans in Swansea

We stopped half-way to Smith's Lake at Swansea, a coastal city with no meaning for our trip except to rendezvous with the rest of our caravan; two other cars filled with the 7 others. One memorable event was sitting at the park waiting for the other cars while watching flocks of Australian Pelicans feed off scraps from the fishermen gutting their catch.

Waiting for the Rest of the Smiths Lake Crew

Lunch Break at 'Uluru'

We continued our journey to the next rest area to get our lunch on because we weren't allowed to check into our house until after 2pm. Lo and behold, Uluru was right in front of our picnic table!


Not sure why this rest area decided it was a good idea to recreate this holy symbol on top of a Subway, except to draw attention. It did the trick. We were there, eating our Subway sandwiches, next to a kiddie playground.

The Great 'Ayers Rock'

After another 1.5 hour nap, we arrived at Smiths Lake. There was a lake, but not much else except for dreary skies ready to burst and pour. Our weekend house had a name - La Manda. It slept 11. With 4 bedrooms, Dave and I were bound to share our room and we did, with Jutta's new flatmate Chantal. Thankfully, there was a single and double bed.


The place had a huge kitchen a massive living area with long sofas in a perfect L, just right for weekend relaxation, chat or drinking games. 


Our group split, half to the grocery store 45 minutes away in Forster to supply our bellies for the weekend and the other half to Seal Rocks, a 20 minute car ride away and major point of interest of the area.


Being there resembled our time seeing lighthouses and lookouts on our Great Ocean Road trip along the Victoria coastline. It's amazing how years of variable weather and crushing waves can create a hole in a wall that makes your jaw drop and force your finger to click the camera.

Seal Rocks Cave Opening

Sugar Loaf Point Lookout

View of the Lighthouse and Seal Rocks

There's a famous lighthouse at Seal Rocks and at its base are a group of rock islands that do indeed look like seals. It wasn't the nicest day for a trip to the lookout, but we did see whales. Can't say that everyday.

Enjoying the View

Observing the Whales

Having a Good Laugh

Back to base camp La Manda, the Woolies crew had returned and we prepared a delicious barbecue dinner. The men braved the rain and barbecued on the porch while the ladies made salad, drank wine and chatted in the living room. This was my time to get to know some girls that I hadn't really known before - same with Dave with the two other guys at the grill.

We ate chicken, sausages, salad and garlic bread and were ready for a night of drinking games. We played the classical King's Cup where a bowl or cup is placed in the middle of a ring of cards. Each card has a rule/action. This group represented 4 different countries and we all came with different rules. One of my favourite ones I learned was if I pick up a specific card (I can't remember which one), I get to give a dare. Before I do, I close my eyes and the person to my right gets to pick 2 people from the group. I assign the dare to person A to do to person B. In this case, I made Dan do a sexy dance to Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing to Rachel.

In the end, Dan picked the last King card and had to drink the contents of the bowl. Three others had picked the other Kings and could pour as much or as little of their drink in the bowl. Dan was lucky that the other three Kings were drinking beer. It could have gotten ugly.

Dan Hesitant to Drink the King's Cup

The night went on for only five of us. The other seven went to bed. We continued to play another round of King's Cup and even rekindled our love for Uno. We stayed up till almost 4am.

The next day was even more dreary than the day before. The group split up into three. The five Germans took a drive towards Forster stopping by each beach. Rachel and Mel, two English girls stayed back, watched movies and walked around Smiths Lake. Dan, Dave, me and Lacey (Dan's girlfriend) went to Forster to pick up some rain boots for Lacey. We stopped by a few beaches on the way. Forster seemed like Small Town, USA. It was a country town, but had all the shopping conveniences including Target, a mall and a bowling alley. We ended up sheltered from the rain in the mall. Target was having a homewares sales and I bought a Tefal wok for $25. Score!

We drove back towards Smiths Lake and stopped by every beach. Although the weather wasn't ideal, the beach looked amazing. Strong winds, created strong currents and waves crashing onto the beach and ebbing back in the the torrential waters. Even if we weren't swimming in it, the look of the ocean made the trip worth while.

We returned to La Manda just as everyone else did. We made spaghetti bolognese and played a long round of Pictionary ending the night by midnight. We were too hungover from the night before and weren't going past one or two drinks.

The next morning, everyone was up by 8am. Our contract was up at 10am and so at 8am all showers were taken. I woke Dave and persuaded him to go running. Our neighborhood is quite hilly. The roads go up and down, then around and back up and down again. We wanted to go for 20 minutes in one direction and then retrace back. We instead went 20 minutes in one direction and took a street we thought would head back to La Manda. Instead, it weaved around to a completely different area of the neighborhood. It began to rain. This wasn't a Nike ad or a film snapshot of The Notebook. We were drenched, lost and nervous that we wouldn't be back by 10 for the clean up and checkout. We ended up retracing our entire journey and were back to La Manda 20 minutes later than expected. At least the showers were free now.

We cleaned up and packed the cars. It was too early to go back to Sydney, so we decided we would hopefully do a couple of things pending on weather; go hiking, view Whoota Whoota Lookout and visit Seals Rocks again for the other half of the group that didn't get to go to on the first day. The rain had stopped by the time we piled into our cars, so we decided to go hiking. The National Park was closed due to flooding.

Whoota Lookout was next. There were two entry points. We took the road less travelled and found a flooded road. Katja, the driver of the car up front decided this wouldn't hold her back. She backed up her little white car and gunned it. All of the sudden, we saw this flash of white and splashes of muddy water. She was across! We looked at each other in astonishment and she came out of her car fists in air like Rocky Balboa beating the unbeatable. I was wondering how Rachel and Mel felt being driven through without their input or a sanity check. The last two cars followed her lead until we were all on higher ground. She stopped again because she encountered another submersed road. We weren't going for this. It was a rainy day in a place nobody knows - this would be a very bad idea. The last two cars backed out. We thought Katja followed us, but she ended up going forward yet again. We waited for her. We called her. No answer. After a few minutes of waiting, we saw her white car backing out of the road towards us. Her adventure was over. It would be just too dangerous.

Going through Murky Waters of Unknown Depths

We drove through the second entry point and drove 10km towards higher elevation. We finally reached Whoota Lookout. The sun had finally come out and it kissed the horizon. The grey skies were clearing and we could see the entire outline of Smiths Lake - the lake poured into the ocean. This was the sunshine moment of 'the long weekend'. We took pictures we were meant to take all weekend, but couldn't because we were trapped by rain. Jump pics are always requisite.

Dave and I at Whoota Lookout

Lacey, Dan, Dave and I Enjoying the Sunshine

Jumping Pic Take 1 & Take 2

Group Shot

Smiths Lake Long Weekend Group

Front: Jutta, Chantal, Me

Back: Rachel, Mel, Lacey Dan, Dave, Volker, Saskia

Our last stop was Seals Rocks. It is the sight to see when you're in the part of the area. On our way there, we noticed a few beaches with people actually in the water. We hadn't noticed this before because of the damned weather. After Seals Rocks, we stopped by the beach. We watched kids playing in the sand and Dan surf among the other locals. The sun was fully out and I was actually getting a tan. Save the best for last right?

Enjoying the Beach Before Heading Home

By 2pm, we decided it was time go. We all hugged and made plans to get together again as it would be my birthday party the following weekend. We had been together for over 72 hours and in less than 5 minutes, we were all back on the road for a 2.5 hour journey to our separate lives. Although it was a rainy weekend, it was a well spent weekend with good friends enjoying the wilderness and making the best of it all. I'm excited to plan the next 'long weekend'.