Almost exactly a year has passed since we last visited this part of the world, and we wrote Sketches One, Two and Three. During that time, our granddaughter has spent seven months studying in England and visiting several places in Europe; our niece in Melbourne gave birth to a second daughter; we were visited by our sister and brother-in-law from England; Ann has had a knee replacement; Brian has had a coronary artery stent, Helen has walked 71 km in 20 hours on a charity walk; and Phil had a trip to Sydney to collect an award on behalf of his community radio station! So, here we are once more in Merimbula for a few days of rest and recuperation having left Melbourne last Tuesday, and spending one night at Lakes Entrance on the way here.
You may recall that last year we stayed at Aquarius Resort, and enjoyed it all very much, even though some of you maybe thought otherwise. This year, in a bid to spread our patronage around a bit, we have moved next door to Sails Apartments.
We are still at the busiest intersection in Merimbula, and still directly in the flight path for the airport, but we have a wonderfully uninterrupted view across the lake. The block of twelve apartments (six at ground level, and six upstairs) is neat and tidy, with new managers who are clearly maintaining the very high standards set by the recently retired managers. Inside, we have two very generous bedrooms, one with an en-suite facility. There is a separate bathroom with a spa bath, and a very large kitchen/dining/lounge area. The kitchen is well provided with cooking utensils, even a wooden spoon, but regrettably, no balloon whisk! There are glasses the right size and shape for our scotch, but we would have preferred them to have been colourless glass, rather than pale blue. I guess we are among those people who are never satisfied!
The end wall of the lounge is wholly glass windows and doors, through which we have the view of the lake, and beyond which we have a nice sheltered and paved patio with a table and four chairs, and lawn. There is a heated pool, and a couple of gas fired BBQs toward one end of the garden away to our right. A couple of flowering gums (angophora?) attract rainbow lorikeets, and it is all very pleasant indeed.
Our first fishing trip was rewarded with a large dusky flathead, which provided ample dinner for us. The second trip yielded a slightly smaller one, but still very nice to eat. Today, (Saturday) the weather being less settled, we headed north through Bega to Cobargo. The countryside is stunning. The gently rolling hills that have been cleared of most of their native trees are covered with lush green grass, with splashes of the brilliant red/orange/yellow colours of deciduous trees displaying their very best autumnal foliage. The rest of the countryside is still covered with its native vegetation, and very pleasant to drive through. Cobargo has not changed much in the 25years since we last visited. It is almost like a pioneer village museum, with a working forge, a potter, a leather worker and so on. Public transport appears to be horse and cart, and the service station that seems to have closed through lack of modern business, has been converted into a curious sort of art gallery.
The current exhibition is of various decorated brassieres! Almost next door is a very good second-hand book shop, into which, of course, we had to go. There were a few ‘market’ stalls with homemade cakes, locally grown fruit and vegetables, and handicrafts scattered along the foot-path of the main street. The old Grain Store café has changed its name to Salt and Pepper, and that is about the only change in 25 years. Fortunately unchanged, the coffee there is just as good as it was before.
Leaving Cobargo we returned south, detouring to Tathra, where we had a very pleasant lunch in the old warehouse on the wharf. There were quite a number of people, young and old, male and female, fishing from the wharf, and whilst they were all having quite a lot of success, we regret to say that most of them were keeping fish that were definitely undersized.
Then it was back to the apartment, where we had omelettes for dinner, made without the aid of a balloon whisk!
Slingsby's Miscellany 