Dec 27 2008
Day Trip to Dangar Island - Part Two
After our lunch, we walked up the hill, past the community hall and a small children’s playground, to a small alleyway between two houses that leads to a golden sandy beach. I was struck by how English sounding the street name was – Grantham Avenue sounds like it should belong in an English village!
We spent a couple of hours on the beach, walking, paddling, enjoying the views and playing in the sand.
Here is one view from the beach. The houses you see on the opposite coastline are at Wobby
Beach, one of the many river communities on the Hawkesbury. Houses are built on the water’s edge and are accessible only by boat, because there are no roads behind the houses. In fact, there is nothing but unspoiled bushland.
Dangar Island is very peaceful and tranquil. Although there were several other people on the beach, it was by no means crowded. It was a beautiful day and the views of the river and coastline were picture perfect.
Visiting Dangar Island is like stepping back in time. No vehicles are allowed on the island, apart from a couple of electric buggies, which are like golf carts that transport heavy items around the island. When you step off the ferry, you see a collection of adult’s and children’s bikes, which the residents leave as they get on the ferry and pick up when they arrive back on the island. Beyond that, a collection of wheelbarrows are parked in a line. The residents use these to transport their shopping and other large items back to their homes.
Many of the Dangar Island residents have their own boats, moored up at jetties outside their houses. Others rely on the hourly ferry service and a water taxi service. Many residents commute into Sydney everyday using the ferry and the train. In fact, when we were house-hunting earlier on this year, we looked at a few rental properties on the island but decided that it would a difficult place to live, especially with a baby.
We walked back to the wharf, only to find that we had almost an hour to wait for the next ferry. We admired the decorations in the shelter, which were on the theme of “the 12 days of Christmas, Dangar Island style” and included 8 dangling octopuses, 9 naughty mermaids and 10 crawling crabs, as well as many brightly decorated mullet fish suspended from the ceiling. Once we were back on the mainland, we went to a kiosk selling fish and chips and had a delicious meal of freshly-caught dory fillets with salad and chips, before taking the train back home.
