This time last year, that is to say June 2012, we were preparing to leave for a 12-week trip to Europe. The toll that trip took on our finances—already somewhat diminished by the Great Financial Crisis of a couple of years earlier, led to our decision this year to re-visit one of our favourite Australian holiday destinations, Pambula/Merimbula. For many years, when the children were still at school, and Victorian schools had holidays in May, we stayed in on-site caravans on the Pambula Hub Caravan park. Those old on-site vans have long since been replaced by modern, some even luxurious, cabins. A heated swimming pool has been installed, and the name changed to “Pambula Beach Resort”. As the children grew older, and no longer wished to holiday with their parents, we relocated ourselves to some nice log cabin accommodation in the bush a little to the north of Merimbula. However, whilst there were some nice walks to be had, they were a bit too far out to walk to the cafés, shops and the beach, so this time we decided to stay right in the actual town, but of course we wanted a room with a view of some water. We were recommended some very nice units at the top of Fishpen, but we thought they were just a little too far from the shops for comfortable walking, so we opted for the Aquarius Resort, and booked our ten days there. We knew exactly where it was, nicely situated at the intersection of the road to Fishpen and the causeway over the lake. Thus it is on perhaps the busiest corner in the town. Further, it is wonderfully placed right under the flight-path of the twin-engine Rex Airline planes which come and go every few hours, at an altitude of about 50 meters, or so. As it was dark when we arrived, we missed the place completely, even though we knew where it was. The reason for this was simple. The huge, fifteen meter high sign announcing its location no longer lights up at night. We get the feeling that it is somewhat embarrassed about shouting to the world the appellation “Aquarius Resort”, when really, let’s face it, it is a collection of holiday flatlets. Sure, there is a small out-door pool, a smaller heated indoor pool, and a tennis court, but we do not think that constitutes a ‘resort’, which should have, in our view, at least a restaurant and a bar. And presumably the sign board shares our view, and refuses to shine at night.
Those who have read our blogs of our European trip will recall, perhaps, that we usually managed to stay at shabby-genteel hotels. The Aquarius Resort is perhaps a little shabby, but it shows no signs of gentility whatever. Our apartment is large, and very oddly shaped, and may once have had pretensions of luxury, complete with a spa bath in the bathroom. But the furniture is now rather tired, and the wall-lights, designed to accommodate small soft-light incandescent globes, now look ridiculous with the hideous helical fluorescent globes our government insists we use, protruding several inches out of the bottom of each fitting.
However, we do have a view of the water. If we stand in the lounge area, close to the window, we can see, through the treads of the stairs leading to the upper apartment, the lake and oyster beds for which Merimbula is famous. The view disappears if we sit down. But we can sit outside, sipping our chardonnay in the shade of said stairs, and admire the ankles of the patrons inhabiting the upper apartment as they come and go.
The kitchen is well appointed, but not quite so well equipped as our tent kitchen. For example, there is no wooden spoon, and despite an adequate number of glasses, not one of them is appropriate for our scotch. A trip to the local op-shop, and the expenditure of 50 cents remedied this latter deficiency. We decided that perhaps we could manage without a wooden spoon, so left it at that. The DVD player does not work, and the portable oil-filled electric radiator in the bedroom is missing one of its four casters making it more difficult to push than the average Safeway trolley. But having said all that, the apartment really is not too bad; it is clean, serves our purpose, and is relatively inexpensive.
We have now been here for five nights, and the weather has been perfect ‘Pambula weather’. That is to say, cool misty mornings, clearing to still warm sunny days, concluding with cooler evenings and clear skies at night. Perfect weather for a game of golf on the picturesque Pambula/Merimbula Golf course. Picturesque? very. Expensive? ditto. A round of golf is $40.00 for 18 holes, $25 for 9. A motorised buggy another $40.00. No reduction for seniors. Merimbula frequently being referred to as ‘God’s waiting room’, everyone here is a senior, so reductions are out of the question. We played on Monday, being a quieter day. There were a good many ground staff going about their work, but to a man they were grumpy, and gave the impression they would rather have been somewhere else. We acknowledge that ground staff have right of way, but when a tractor driver actually deviated from his spraying route to squash my ball into the ground, I was a trifle miffed. We usually play at Garfield, Lang Lang, or Trafalgar, where a round of golf is of the order of $17.00 for 18 holes, the staff are cheery, and the courses every bit as good as the Pambula/Merimbula course. It was not as though the golf was any better. We had the usual mixture of brilliant, mediocre and crap shots, distributed on the usual bell-shaped curve, but with, we are disappointed to say, a definite skewing away from the brilliant, in favour of the crap.
But the fishing has been good. Using Captain Google to inform us precisely when high tide would be, we succeeded in catching a flathead exceeding 40cm, which was more than adequate for the two of us to dine off this evening.
We are not particularly interested in the night-life of Merimbula, and as far as we can determine, that does not matter very much as there does not appear to be any at this time of year. Even most of the shops are putting up their shutters by 4.30, and the book shop closes at 3.00. But the wildlife is fascinating. It was very nice to watch a pair of white-breasted sea eagles wheeling around just above our head; to watch a large seal swim slowly under the causeway bridge as we walked along; to watch two different species of ray flop along on the sandy bottom of the shallow lake, as we walked along the board-walk.
Tonight we shall dine out somewhere, and we shall report on that, and the rest of this trip to Merimbula in a later blog.
Slingsby's Miscellany 