When someone asks me to name my favourite movie I always panic. I’ve got so many – and I’ve enjoyed them all for completely different reasons – Team America because I almost chocked on my popcorn while watching that puppet sex scene, xXx as it was while watching this that I had my first intimate moment with a girl, and Dot and the Kangaroo which still haunts me with its eerie music years after I first saw it as a four year old. And I feel the same when it comes to favourite holiday places; if I want excitement I would chose half way between a light plane and the Maitland skydiving club, if I want culture it would have to be the Cygnet River yoghurt factory, but if it is relaxation then I cannot go past Crowdy Head.
Like any good larrikin nickname, Crowdy Head is heavily laced with irony. The only place less crowded would be wherever the Shannon Noll tribute band happens to be playing. There are only seventy houses on the headland, one fish shop and twenty-six kilometres of beach. It’s like this place was purpose built for relaxing – because a relaxing beach holiday should just be about you and the beach – nothing else. If I want to be crammed up with people swanning around wearing next to nothing, I’ll just join Kevin Rudd on his next ‘diplomatic meeting’ in New York. There is actually a patrolled beach but it is so stark that you would have trouble rustling up enough players for a two a side netball game. I’m in no way a supporter of public nudity and have never tried it myself (except perhaps after a very bad table tennis loss) but just knowing that it’s possible to have a skinny dip, or go for a 5km nudie run ,without anyone seeing is a very satisfying feeling.
Once, while I was going for an amble along one of the deserted beaches, fully clothed of course, I noticed a dorsal fin poking out of one of the waves. Being a country boy I almost soiled myself on the spot, but when the foam cleared I noticed that it was a dolphin and not Jaws 3. As I continued walking along, the dolphin swam lazily among the waves in the same direction I was going and was soon joined by several of his mates. It was as if he’d called out to them ‘yo team, come and check out this fella, he is mega chilled’. And he would have been right.
Crowdy Head forces you to chillax whether you want to or not. There is quite literally nothing else to do. A typical day would go like this; wake up – not too early, mind you – stroll to the beach and frolic in the waves, have some lunch and read a book, lay some footsteps again in the damp sand as the sun sets, return home, watch a DVD. And repeat again the following day. Should you decide to really turn it up a notch you could test out the tennis court, but certainly not every day, you wouldn’t want to over-do it.
Despite seeming completely isolated, Crowdy Head is only four hours from Sydney and a ten minute drive from the budding metropolis of Harrington – where you can find all of your essential holiday ingredients – DVDs, fresh fruit and ice-cream. Apart from its phenomenal beaches, Crowdy Head has absolutely nothing to offer and for this reason it is nigh on unbeatable as a relaxing getaway destination.