Panboola: Not Just for the Birds

When I was staying down in Eden this year, I drove up to the town of Merimbula to catch a movie and check the town out - 
Independence Day Came a Little Earlier This Year it Looks Like;-)

Main street of  Merimbula

I forgot about that little shop not far from the cinema in Merimbula named Abraxas, which I had a peek in, because I thought it may have been a bookshop like the one I used to love in Byron Bay, which was also named Abraxas, and long since closed.
But it was more of a New Age nick-nack shop, than a bookshop.
“The Twelfth Insight”?

Seeing that photo of the Chinese restaurant in front of the Abraxas shop in Merimbula reminds me once more that 2017 is the Year of the Rooster and of the post I wrote a few days ago -

2017: What Comes First, the Chicken, the Egg ... or the Monkey?

Merimbula

Looking from Merimbula to
Pambula/Panboola/Eden

Merimbula jetty

According to this sign on the Merimbula
jetty the Killer Whale Trail starts here

Merimbula jetty

The bones of 'Old Tom' in the
Killer Whale Museum in Eden

Eden: The Unintended Garden
I'll have another post soon about my stay in Eden and my trip to the Killer Whale Museum.

The paintings for sale in the art gallery
 in Oaklands Barn, Pambula, NSW

On the way back to Eden I stopped in at Oaklands Barn for a look around and bought a few paintings/prints in the art gallery there.

I bought a nice print of a Sacred Kingfisher and a small fridge magnet painting of Merimbula night lights reflecting off the sea from Pambula.

'Merimbula Nightlights' by Kathryn Hede

 I liked the painting of the Merimbula lights, because when I flipped the magnet upside-down it reminded me of the Melbourne nightlights when I was leaving the mainland for Tasmania, which I took photos of in this post -
I Sat by the Ocean

The 'Merimbula Nightlights' painting
  flipped upside-down

I told the lady who sold me the painting of the Sacred Kingfisher that one of these little birds crashed into my living room window once and that I had never seen a live one since.
She told me that the little fellow in the painting resides in the town and would often be seen sitting on a post in town along a walkway.

Panboola

I think I may have got where she told me the bird could found mixed up in my journey back the way I had come from and ended up in a place for birds called Panboola, an old, reclaimed racecourse and other land making up 82 Hectares. 

This place is a wonderland for nature lovers, walkers/joggers, bike riders and families.

A fresh water billabong in Panboola

Once you get off the main cement path which has all those lovely bird mosaics scattered along it, there are a series of grass paths that can be used as shortcuts, if you don't want to follow the cement path back.
They are also used to as paths into other habits in the reserve, but I was using them as a short cut back to my car, but decided to take the long way round soon as I crossed paths with this big roo pictured below.

I wasn't going to risk getting my ears ... or other tender parts ... boxed by a territorial roo, so I turned around and tried to find the part of the park reserved for chickens.

The closest I came to finding a place for chickens though was the Purple Swamp Hen part of the park, and I never did end up spotting a Sacred Kingfisher that day, either.

But I did find Nimo, the famed Chinese restaurant of Eden on the way back to my motel room, so I ducked in to get a meal on my last night in Eden, but this was the day of the week that the restaurant is closed.
Doh!