On The Road: February 2011

Day 34 Nubeena Monday 28th February 2011

Hello All,

Today officially started an hour earlier for me at 08:00 with the cooking of breakfast for the Indians. The meeting to discuss the plan was not held yesterday but things went surprisingly smoothly. I cooked mushrooms, tomatoes, scrambled and fried eggs. Ben was on bacon, Ilan toasted the pide bread and plated up while Julie and Jiwon collected orders and ran the meals out. After a few Laurel and Hardy moments (we can't escape them) a routine was established and all customers were served and breakfast and most of the tidying up completed by 10:15. Tomorrow we do it all again.....

These Indians can drink, not that I observed this occurring but the crate of empty wine bottles was testament to some serious imbibing, and to my advantage, as I am collecting bottles for the apricot wine. I now have the 40 bottles estimated for our brew. After vacuuming and moping the cafe and kitchen I continued painting and completed the outside of our unit, deciding it better to leave the other units unfinished until the Indians depart.

After out work hours were completed Julie and I ventured to the Aquatic Club to borrow Kayaks and paddle across the bay. Julie is an old hand at kayaking (her 3rd time) this was my first attempt. We shared the bay with a couple of dozen gulls floating on the surface and a lone albatross diving occasionally below. Oysters are plentiful just below the surface but are apparently are oily and unpleasant, the locals advise it is best to gather those that grow in Taranna a town about 20kms up the road. This could of course be a story to keep visitors away!

We did a workout on the free gym equipment at the exercise park and then undid all the good work eating a Magnum Gold on the way home. We inspected the "Grotto" a rocky outcrop with a huge gum growing through the rocks, and the slashing and mowing work done by the boys. The grotto will make a magical picture in the right lighting, back lit by sunshine if we ever see any more that is!

Once back I discovered Simon was missing, apparently fishing, see his story below.

The communal tea was off and on again, to farewell USA Ben and Marielle who leave for a WWOOF job tomorrow. farewell drinks in their unit turned into a lively affair with laughter and a preview of the "training" video completed by Antonin, bloody funny and well done, would put many training videos to shame, and I have watched 100's in my time. Ben kindly shared a CD of the photos he has taken around the resort and today's photo comes courtesy of him. Thanks Ben.

Cheers Susan, or Suzan as I am known here.....

Snook?

His Story,
I started the day cleaning the electric BBQ's and surrounds used last night. Including emptying a whole wheelie bin of bottles. After mowing the lawned area by the BBQ's it was down to the creek to do some clean up work, nothing overly strenuous but I did get to pull a large piece of timber from the creek with the tractor. Also spotted an eel slithering between the pools. I had been thinking of popping the yabby trap in but am wondering if I might end up with eels in there!

After work I declined the kayaking option and toodled up to White Beach rocks to do some fishing. A very inauspicious start as I managed to break about 50mm off the tip of my lightest rod. Looks like it will be repairable. Once again there were no squid in evidence but there were enough bites and fish to keep me there until 730. The final tally 3 Rock Cod (chucked back) a Chow (chucked back) and 3 Snook. Well at least I think they are snook. I kept two to eat tomorrow.

The forecast for tomorrow is what one would expect for the first day of autumn wind, rain and snowfalls down to 800 metres!
Since all the rooms will be vacated by the Indians tomorrow it is all hands on deck for cleaning so I am Mr Vacuum and Mr Mop. The good news is I don't have to start until 1030!
I also managed to chip a front tooth at tea last night so another trip to the dentist when I find one.

Cheers from the other "S"

Day 33 Nubeena Sunday 27th February 2011

:-)

Today started with the obligatory dark threatening cloud which gave way to the usual rain precluding any sanding of the deck. However anticipating the rain I bundled our wet washing from the line into the drier. The drier here is very good and excellent value as i had the whole lot dried for $3. Susan continued on with her undercover outside painting whilst I, suitably briefed on how to achieve the best bargains, leapt into the prancing Pajero and hightailed it 60 or so km down the road to Sorell to visit the Fruit and Veg market and Woolworths to purchase supplies for the breakfasts being provided for the Indian Motorcycle club members staying here this weekend. Packing it into one trolley was a bit of a feat 16 loaves of bread, 30 litres of milk, 24 litres of juice, 14 cans of baked beans, etc, etc. After a pie, an expresso and some complimentary fuel I returned to Nubeena. Susan was relaxing in the spa with Julie and one of the guests.

I strolled down the creek to see the progress being made on the clean up and noted the abundance of ripe blackberries. I am thinking tomorrow a big pick and make some jam!

For a change I cooked tea, an unimaginative meal of pork cutlets, carrots, sweet potato and mash.

I then spent several minutes repairing my glasses as one of the bridge pieces fell off. The design leaves much to be desired with a very small cross section secured by a small screw into the frame. What really peeves me is I replaced the lenses when I was home over Xmas at considerable expense and I don't know that it will be possible to fit them in another frame. Here's hoping the superglue (a miracle material) and silastic will prove durable.

We are thinking maybe not to have a day off this week and have 2 back to back next week. We will see.

Have enjoyed looking at the Indian Motorcycles and will try and get some pictures to post tomorrow.

I also have to ring Telstra as it appears they have stuffed up my requested plan change. I would have been really surprised if they hadn't. They are undoubtedly the biggest bunch of bozos I have ever encountered!

Cheers Simon

Day 32 Nubeena Saturday 26th February 2011

Hi Folks,

Susan uttered some fatal words as we lay in bed this morning to the effect that the sun was shining brilliantly through the window. We arose and after a quick breakfast started on our tasks. Susan continuing the decorating and me out the back sanding the second deck. I managed to get about 2 square metres done before being called away to observe the machinations of the tractor repair man who was actually very competent in my humble opinion. He fitted a new PTO shaft after trimming it with a nine inch angle grinder and returned later in the day to fit a new fanbelt so the boss could spend the afternoon discovering the lost tractor driving skills of his teenage years. He was slashing the paddock down the hill that the council has nominated as a fire hazard, which is a bit of a laugh really as everything is far too wet to burn.

I returned to the sanding briefly before the heavens opened up for an hour of soft falling rain with little wind. I rolled up the extension leads and put the sanding gear away. 2 hours later and the sun returned briefly before a cloudy afternoon. I decided to repair the 5 push bikes at the resort which needed a variety of work on them. Nothing too complicated so that even a plodder like me could do it. At the end of the afternoon they were all working satisfactorily although I will wait and see how many tyres are still inflated in the morning.

We had another shared tea tonight which was of a good quality. I had a beer, two glasses of white and two glasses of red so was fairly happy after tea. Susan is currently wrestling with a photo extra for the blog so this is being typed in word to be uploaded tomorrow. Skip back a few posts to see her photos.
Apparently my special task for tomorrow is to drive to Sorell and do the food shopping for the gang of bikies that are descending here tomorrow.

Susan has been nominated to run the bar with Julie when they arrive. Should be an interesting couple of days

Cheers Simon

Day 31 Nubeena Friday 25th February 2011

Howdee,

Another fairly regulation day in Nubeena. It was cloudy just about all day. Susan made up rooms and i painted the top section of the end wall that Susan couldn't reach the other day. Susan also did a small painting job on the front of the units.

I did avail myself of a free one hour massage today from Adey a helpexer working here. He comes highly recommended. I selected the hard massage and boy I found some sore spots I didn't know I had especially in the soles of my feet I just about jumped off the table. However it was excellent.

In the middle of the day three of us headed out to pick up (literally) a tonne of rocks for various jobs around the place. Giacomo started to do a mexican hat dance which was actually bought on by a bite from a jumping jack ant. They apparently cause more deaths in Tasmania than spiders, snakes wasps and sharks combined.

This evening Susan played backgammon while I tried out the Samsung plasma in the helpers den. It is possible to plug your hard drive straight into it which is more convenient than my WD media player at home. It doesn't support as many formats though. The "kids" here were impressed by the quality of my bluray rips on my drive. I started to work on the bikes here tonight. It is now apparent why the Giant bike was left behind across the road. It has a fairly large crack in the frame under the seat post which is pretty disappointing. Might be able to do something with it we will see.

We have a full house Sunday/Monday with the Indian Motorcycle club in town so will be a busy couple of days.

Hope you all have a nice weekend.

Cheers Simon

Day 30 Nubeena Thursday 24th February 2011

Hello to the few hardy people that still read,

I must admit it has come a little bit routine compared to the travelogue of last year.

Today was a routine day in some ways frighteningly like a normal working day full of sidetracks and unplanned extra jobs that went on far longer than they were supposed to. Susan started by cleaning four rooms and then under the guidance of Bob "racked off" the 3 containers of apricot wine, emptied the pulp and replaced the wine back into the containers along with some pectin killing enzyme as pectin makes the wine cloudy. We are now collecting wine bottles for the final bottling. After this she went on to some filling and painting work.

I started off watering. Sidetrack 1 dig rings around grevilleas and collect mulch. Newish wheel barrow falling to bits, go to hardware buy fasteners and repair using loctite. Sidetrack 2 sent to rental house to collect lawnmower unwanted by ex tenants to change blades. After much skinning of knuckles old blades finally removed. I did have the fore sight to make sure the mower started before i did this job. It wasn't running very well. Clean air filter, spark plug, change oil, rejig governor spring. Moving the hose at the same time. Then check air filters on other mowers and then them as well. Get part numbers for new springs and plugs. Then go back to moving the hose. Sidetrack 3 collect bicycle from house bring back here to repair. New project to get all bicycles here up to scratch for helpexers to ride.
Just like the real world our 2 o'clock finish became a 5 o'clock one.

Susan had a sauna and spa while I went to town to ring Telstra to change the mobile broadband plan. I know this is going to go wrong as last time I did it, it took them 5 months to get the bill right.

We are failing at three of our resolutions at the moment. Finishing work at 2 and doing touristy things, going to bed at 1030 and getting up early and walking.
We must try harder.

The damp weather returned here tonight with continuous drizzle.
A little bit of trivia. Being further south we actually have around 20 minutes more daylight than Adelaide at the moment. That is of course when it is not cloudy!

Cheers Simon

PS well done Jonathan on getting the Moke on the road

Day 29 Wednesday 23rd February 2011

Hello,

Today was one of those balmy summer days that you wish you could bottle and keep.

Susan sprang up early and and collected some blackberries from the back paddock to take to Bob and Helens where she was helpexing this morning. She was rewarded with an anthology of verse that Helen had edited.

I took the opportunity to finish the varnishing and painting of the rear deck. Susan on her return completed some more painting jobs and received a complimentary one hour massage from one of our other helpexers Adey who by all accounts does an excellent job. Another little bonus today was that Julie swapped her queen bed for one of our singles so we no longer have to worry about falling down the gap between the two singles we have pushed together. The changeover occurred while Susan was out so it was a surprise for her when she returned.

We had another excellent communal tea. With the return of the hierarchy and a couple of guests there were 15 of us in all.

We have indicated our desire to extend our stay so hopefully that will occur.

cheers Simon

Video from our day at Port Arthur

Photo extra - Port Arthur

Day 28 Nubeena Tuesday 22nd February 2011

Bell inside the Separate Prison - take a close look hmm

The Asylum

Inside the hospital

Gum trees planted by convicts

View of the prison from shipyard road

The church

Sunset at Nubeena from Eagleview Road

Howdy folks,

Today started as you always want your day off to start, with sunshine!

Today was our complementary trip to Port Arthur to view the ruins of the penal settlement.

Before we left Susan was inspired to remove a vast quantity of crockery and plasticware from out unit and return it to the kitchen. Apparently gathered here when the chef for the resort used the room. That taken care of we toodled the short distance up the road to Port Arthur pausing only to post mail and grab coffees.

Port Arthur has improved since my last visit in 1978 in the areas of building renovation and information display. We spent a pleasant day wandering the large hilly site so not only did we see the attractions we exercised too. Our peregrinations were interrupted by the boat trip around the bay to view Point Puer (latin for youth apparently) and the Isle of the Dead. Tours were available of both of these for extra cost. There was a large swell rolling into the bay courtesy of the gales blowing in the last few days which made the trip unpleasant for Susan.

The penal settlement was established around 1830 and the English influence in the grounds was quite evident with enormous gnarled oak trees over 150 years old. An avenue of gums planted by the convicts near the shipyards are now over 130 years old (see picture).

Unfortunately much of the heritage was lost after the colony closed in 1877 as there was an effort to erase it's stigma by the general population. This was followed by bushfires in the 1890's plus general looting by sightseers. However sufficient remains to give a good impression of what life was like for those living there. As dusk approached Susan suggested tea in Felons Restaurant located onsite. The food was excellent. After perusing the gift shop returned to to Nubeena to catch up on the days news at the resort.

Back to work tomorrow with the return of the hierarchy from points north. Looks like the weather is fining up so maybe some more sightseeing once our chores are done.

Cheers Simon

Day 27 Nubeena Monday 21st February 2011

G'day Icebergers,

Apparently the south western part of the continent is unseasonably cold at the moment, That is certainly the case here. I have had to resort to long trousers tonight!

This mornings inclement weather meant the planned deck varnishing could not proceed so I meandered down to the back paddock to fell branches blocking the access across a sleeper type footbridge left over from the days when the back paddock was a golf course. I had a small handsaw and secateurs so progress was slow. I did have an interested audience of the neighbours on the other side of the fence. 20 cows who broke off there nibbling of the blackberries to keep an eye on my progress. After the cutting, before I dragged the branches 50 metres to the fire pile, I did some exploring along the fence line with the cows trooping along on the other side. After I had pulled the branches away and waited under a tree for a line of showers to pass through I thought I would take their picture seeing as it looked like being the most interesting thing that would happen today and they had all disappeared, nowhere to be seen, very mysterious.

After Susan had finished her mornings housekeeping and painting we took a trip to Hobart with Julie to visit Hardly Normals so she could buy a netbook. Anaconda is in the same estate and i had a refund voucher burning a hole in my pocket.

Julie after some deliberation bought her netbook and I bought a combination Camelbak water bag/hike pack plus squid jags and floats. We returned pausing at Sorell for W/W diesel, the hole in the wall money machine and supermarket.

The day finished with another lovely communal tea in the staff dining area.

Tomorrow is our day off and since Susan's blister has not healed a big walk is out so we will visit Port Arthur which I believe we get to do for free! bonus!

Better take the gloves and beanie.

cheers Simon

Day 26 Nubeena Sunday 20th February 2011

Здравствулте! читатели,

A mild windy start to the day. However the north westerly swung around to the south west and strengthened. According to the Tasman Island station we had gusts up to 100km/h. It was certainly windy. I managed to get all the back deck sanded and a bit of varnish on, finish tomorrow hopefully.

Susan did housekeeping and painting of a wall at the end of the unit block. The wall isn't finished since the top was out of reach. Chores completed we had a sauna and spa. After the spa the wind picked up again and we had a little hailstorm. There is a bush walkers weather alert for snowfalls down 800 metres. Ahh summer in Tasmania. I cooked a simple tea while Susan honed her backgammon skills playing Julie. The main skill she is honing is that of losing gracefully. I don't play since I am useless at it!

Tomorrow we might pop to Hobart for some shopping after we finish at 2. My EFT card hasn't been used for 12 days and is feeling unloved :-)

Cheers from a wintery Tasmania!

Simon

Day 25 Nubeena Saturday 19th February 2011

Hello All,

We have now recovered from our hike and had planned to start today with a walk. On this trip it is our intention to do the Cradle Mountain Overland hike for 8 days, but we have realised that we are not fit enough for that yet, so our training regime commenced yesterday with a 40 minute walk before breakfast. Today's was cancelled on account of the weather a force 9 gale with non stop rain. Thanks SA for sharing!

Simon has been out of sorts all day, because he had to have toast for breakfast. He is back on soy milk but the last carton was found to be opened and put back on the pantry shelf. Heeding my food safety advice he did not try it, so he missed his daily 7 weetbix with brown sugar! He is such a creature of habit.....

Today's special projects jobs assigned to Simon and Giacomo were not able to be done due to the weather, so Simon pottered about for most of the day achieving not much at all while I worked like a trojan cleaning rooms and finishing the office paint job. Simon and UK Ben were on dinner duty (only 9 tonight) Ben and Jiwon had a visit from a friend and went walk about for awhile so Simon commenced food preparation early. I did take the afternoon off and had hot chocolate and marshmallows while watching a movie and skyping with my girls.

Simon has had his new boots for a week or so now and was polishing them up yesterday and cursing that they are scratched already! At the Mountain Designs shop I remarked that he has had several pairs of boots and my original Hitec boots are still going strong after 10 years, that was until I looked down and noticed they have both come away from the soles!! Still they do as work boots.

At one of the camping shops I happened to overhear a conversation between a sales assistant an customer about tying laces, she had suggested looping over and down on the second to top lug to anchor the laces. I have done this each day since and it works a treat and have not had to retie my laces since. This got us talking about laces and in true Simon form he Googled and found Ians shoe lace site who would think there was so much to know about laces, its worth a look.

Below are some variations on the usual lace pattern.

Ohh I should add tea was excellent - baked fish with butter, garlic, paprika, parsley and lemon, roast sweet potato and pumpkin and steamed peas and corn.

Living well :-)

Susan

Day 24 Nubeena Friday February 18th 2011

Zeus!

Zeus doing something weird with his teeth!

This is Ella not as strong as Zeus but sillier

Γειά σου αναγνώστες
The intrepid travellers had a fairly normal day at the resort. I continued on with sanding and reviving a rear deck. Susan did the room cleaning thing.
My day started with a rope burn to the back of my right knee courtesy of Zeus. No not the Greek god of the sky and thunder but one of our resident goats. They are leashed on ropes in their enclosure and led out and staked in the paddock to perform weed eating. The opening of the gate is a signal to them to bolt in all directions and when the rope is wrapped around your leg, ouch! I was watching them the other day and they just nibble the flowers off the top of the dandelions so they are not overly hot at weed control. I think for this size property you would need 20. What a nightmare. Anyway the goats appear in pictures today.
Tomorrow the forecast is rain so hopefully a reprieve from sanding.

Cheers Simon

Day 23 Nubeena Thursday 17th February 2011

Close up of the Hub Cafe wall

Amel and Julie

USA Ben capturing the sunset

Olá! leitores,

I awoke this morning to bright sunshine which was a bit of a surprise given the fact a change was supposed to sweep through. By the time we started our jobs for the day it was quite warm but clouding over. I had intended to do more sanding of the deck but trying to calibrate the new sauna timer to run between 10 and 20 minutes was a minor nightmare especially the waiting for the cycle to complete to assess any changes. Throw in another small repair that had to be done to render a room serviceable and the continual packing away of the extension cords and tools for the sanding due to showers it was one of those busy days where at the end you don't achieve much.

Susan was on housekeeping first up and then undertook the big task of organising the kitchen. At the end of her day it did look as if a significant progress had been made.

We wandered across the road at about 4:30 and in 20 minutes had secured a kilogram of fresh blackberries for Susan to prepare a pie for the communal tea. Our USA helpers prepared another terrific tea of Moroccan chicken with rice and salad. Susan's pie was the best yet with great flavour, the right amount of tartness and full of a coulis like liquid. In a few short days she has also perfected her pastry as until now she had always bought the frozen variety. It was a happy little crowd at the communal tea which is one of the enjoyable experiences here.

Cheers Simon

Day 22 Nubeena Wednesday 16th February 2011 & Postscript

It's a long way down there

The Stern

The Bluff!

Hallo Leser,

Today was a day spent walking! We arose at a reasonable hour but labored slowly to get our gear together. Finally we travelled a short distance up the road to the starting point for the Shipstern Bluff Walk. I was kitted out in my new boots and Susan in her frillneck brand hat, purchase last year in Kurumba. Oh we were also wearing other clothes just in case you thought we had gone hippie style.

The day was warm in the mid 20's with a fairly fresh northerly breeze which in our location was blowing off the land over the water. Shipstern Bluffs main claim to fame is the huge waves for surfing, view some video here . The walk started with a medium grade upwards until we reached a lookout point on top of the cliff with a view of our destination a descent of around 300 metres. The more concerning factor given our age and condition or lack of it was the fact we had to come back up. However we ambled down the hill pushing through the bushes that reached over the track.

We encountered a fearless echidna which appears in the video and were soon on the last section of steep descent down to the base. The flat rock and the precipitous bluff were amazing as were the size of the boulders that had dropped off the cliff! We had a wander around and ate our lunch before facing the return journey. On the way back up we encountered another echidna.

We returned to the vehicle and reviewed the statistics as captured by the GPS. Distance 12.8km, 6.5 hours travel time with a moving average speed of 3.1km/h. We will definitely return here as there are a couple of more walks to do that share the starting track. On our return we hopped into the spa to relieve our aches and pains. Susan also hopped into the nurofen and the semillon sauvignon blanc.

She also knocked up a nice tea of pasta with ham and bacon which we ate as the sun set over the horizon.

We have tried to make a rule that we are in bed by 1030 and have failed at the second night due to the quantity of pictures and video required for the blog.

Back on the HelpXing tomorrow roll on the next day off.

Cheers Simon

Shipstern Lookout

Flat Rock at Shipstern Bluff

Echidna on the track

POSTSCRIPT......

In case you are wondering at the salutation Simon has decided to use a different one each day, goodness knows where he gets them and what they say (well I do know "Google is your friend" - a favourite expression of Mr Harris').

Cheers Susan

Day 21 Nubeena Tuesday 15th February 2011 & Postscript

The expert fisherman

The second rock cod caught before being set free

Ciao lettori

Must be some sort of record, 2 warm sunny days in a row with a third to follow tomorrow.

This morning I started sanding and varnishing a deck at the rear of the motel block. The surface was badly weathered so a fair bit of sanding was required. I ended up doing a quarter of the deck and applying the varnish so that a portion was finished although in the end it wasn't because i didn't have time to put the second coat on.

Susan was on housekeeping detail and worked with Amel finishing their assigned units in record time. Followed by office painting and baking a pear pie.

We both have ideas on how things could be done better here but have decided to pull out heads in and just be workers.

About 5 we headed out to do some fishing intending to catch squid. I was trying to get a barbless jag to put a pilchard on plus a foam float to hang it under due to the kelp adjacent the shore. No floats at all in Nubeena, no barbless jags and 2 packets of pilchards in the 3 shops that profess to sell fishing gear. Anyway it was windy so not overly good for fishing. There were no squid but I did manage a couple of rock cod. Anyway the rods and tackle boxes are now out of the roof bag and ready for action.

Tomorrow is our day off and we are having an early night today so we can go walking tomorrow!

Cheers Simon

POSTSCRIPT......

The local chanting group was organised to meet at the resort, the "barn" made ready over the preceding days. Simon had agreed to attend but chickened out at the last minute.

Tea was a shared impromptu affair initially a sharing of food between those attending the chanting, but due to the low numbers of chanters and the abundance of food the other helpers joined in.

The chanting was led by Kate (an ex South Australian) and was actually a powerful and positive experience. The fact that my singing is akin to a wounded cat was irrelevant, it was intriguing to experience the effect of the harmonics created by the group. I have planned attend next Tuesday also. It seems chanting groups are quite popular in Tassie, as I have seen notices on several community noticeboards.

Cheers Susan

Day 20 Nubeena Monday 14th February 2011 & Postscript

View across lagoon to Roaring Beach. Wedge Island in the distance

Roaring Beach

Potential squid fishing location at White Beach with Wedge Island in the distance

Hola lectores,

At last a proper summers day in Nubeena, warm mid 20's and very little breeze.

My job today was the watering, a very slow inefficient process lugging 100 metres of hose around the resort with the water at quite a low flow. It was so boring I actually mixed up some roundup and poisoned a heap of weeds out the front. It's a pity dandelions aren't a cash crop this place would make a fortune. It has 2 goats Zeus and Ella to keep the weeds down. I was watching them today they just nibble the flowers of the dandelions so they are next to bloody useless for weed control. They get tethered on ropes in a different location each day. Zeus is bloody strong and it takes a lot to hold him on the rope. If he pulls really hard it is better to grab him by the horns to control him!

Susan was on housemaid duty this morning. After we were both finished we drove to Lucky Ducks in town and had a nice coffee. On the way out they gave me a free tulip to give to my Valentine, nice touch, mind you at $4.50 for a large mug it is almost included in the price!

We drove down along 8km of gravel road to Roaring Beach. After parking we completed a walk over the soft sand hills and then up and down the beach which was very pleasant. As the tide rose over a fissure in the rocks at the east end I was able to see a school of moderate size mullet so possibly a return for some fishing. We drove back to Nubeena and had a bit more of a drive around town and then out to White Beach which is the holiday home end of Nubeena. At the end of the road we walked down a short path to the water. Big granite boulders dropping into dark deep water looked to be a prime spot for fishing especially for squid. Mind you there were some pretty big tackle grabbing kelp outcrops there as well.

We arrived back at the resort around 7. Finding tonight's communal tea cancelled I was nominated to cook tea for us. Food is in short supply in the larder so dipping into our stocks I whipped up bacon, eggs, onion, tomato and toast which while being hardly "gordon blue" was tasty. Susan is finding the disorganisation of the food supplies a bit off putting since it is easier for us to pop down the IGA and pick stuff up (with our $) which is not how it is supposed to work. It will probably be a major deciding factor in whether we stay longer or not. However if the weather stays the same as today it will be very hard to leave.

A very enjoyable day. Now to dust off the fishing gear and get into it!

Cheers Simon

POSTSCRIPT......

You can encounter some interesting sights ans sites "on the road" today's find included a pile of once loved (maybe) and now lost (definitely) footwear, an isolated cemetery, rock formations and sea critters. All this in a short stretch of 5 kms on the way to Roaring Beach, which by the way is only reached by crossing "Stinking Creek" which it does!

The cemetery was dedicated to the Stacey family, husband, wife and children; 3 of them died during childhood, the graves are decorated with crushed sea shells.

"Starfish 1" was found in various colours from grey, blue, pinkish purple and orange, I will have to research the variation in colours. Likewise the anemonies varied from light green through to plum coloured and black. "Starfish 2" was the only one of its type the underside of the "legs" are a lovely pink. Similarly there were interesting colours in the rocks on the beach and lining the cliff faces, fancying my photographic talents (limited) I snapped away hoping for a perfect shot (eat your heart out Rob!).