Delightful Dangar Island 3rd August

Dangar Art

 

One of the problems with attaching Rene to a mooring for the night is that often she spends half the night butting up against the float as wind and tide work against each other. Very annoying, in fact drives you mad! We had no such troubles off Brooklyn. The current was so strong here that the rope and mooring were stretched out tight in one direction. At some time during the night I heard the gurgle, bubble, slap of the change of the tide with a sinking heart, but all that happened was that she bumped past the float and then stretched out tight as a drum in the other direction. Peaceful sleep.... 

 

The view from our courtesy mooring this morning takes in an inviting looking island to the north east, Dangar Island. It is quite high and forested and ringed on the lower slopes with houses, jetties and numerous moored craft. We read that there is a coffee shop/general store on the north side near the public wharf and that is an undeniable magnet for Peter. He likes to indulge in a flat white once a day. Off we went, Lily battling the strong current flowing down the Hawkesbury River. There was a small beach near the public jetty so we hauled Lily up the golden sand and decided to walk the island in order to earn our morning coffee.

Getting the shopping home Dangar Island style.

What a beautiful island! There are no cars here. Locals have dinghies that they take to the mainland marina near Brooklyn where there is a dinghy dock. From here they either have a car or can take a train from the nearby Brooklyn station. The streets are marked as usual with street signs, but are much more walker friendly paths circling the island. People here indulge their artistic expression by dressing up the street signs and light poles and adding delightful characters and art to their gardens.
Back at the coffee shop we sat on the waterfront and sipped away as we looked at the beautiful views across the river towards the railway bridge. We decided to look into the possibility of taking a ferry trip up the Hawkesbury as Rene is too tall to go under the bridge.