Sunday May 11, 2014 and it is Mother’s Day. Accordingly, Merimbula turned on the perfect ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ morning for the bacon and egg BBQ breakfast provided for the guests by Leanne and Rhys, the managers of Sails Apartments. It was very pleasant to gather around the BBQ area sipping sparkling white wine, with or without orange juice, and chatting with other guests whilst watching someone else do the cooking. And the breakfast was cooked to perfection; and then brilliantly served by the children. This is indeed what holiday apartments should be like!
After breakfast we made a sentimental journey to Pambula Hub Caravan Park for a coffee at the kiosk there. We had intended going to another, equally sentimental, café, but found it to be closed ‘due to family illness’, which was unfortunate. We hope they are soon restored to health, and can open their café once more. The second choice of café we failed to find at all, not really remembering where it was, and giving up after driving some 15k inland along a very narrow road. So the Hub it was, and I must say the coffee, whilst served in cardboard cups, was very good. Then, a short drive to the Mouth of the River Beach, and a nice stroll along the low-tide sand. The old boat sheds are still there. Goodness knows how old they mig
ht be, but each year they seem to get further from the water’s edge as the sand builds up in front of them. Finally, we drove to Wheeler’s Seafood Restaurant, opposite the Merimbula Golf course, to purchase some prawns and oysters ready for dinner that night. Dinner comprised the sea-food entrée, followed by a delicious steak and potatoes baked in their jacke
ts, and some very nice wines.
Shortly after dinner there was a knock on the apartment door, and Leanne appeared bearing a balloon whisk, having read my previous blog! Now there is service worth commenting on! Now, lest any of our readers think we are a bit precious about some trivial things, let us hasten to add that we regard the shape of a whisk or the colour of our whisky glass in our holiday accommodation as being ‘21st century, 1st world problems’. That is to say, if they are the only sort of problems we have, then let’s face it, we have nothing whatever to complain about. And that is true. We may not have millions in the bank, but we still have sufficient to live on, to have a glass of scotch, to have eggs to whisk, to have the occasional holiday away from home. And as we used to say of the young lady with very large knockers who worked at the local library when we were at school, ‘very nice, but really, any more than a handful is wasted’! Yes, we have no real problems living here in Australia, so you might occasionally find us ‘complaining’, with tongue very much in cheek, about some totally trivial ‘problem’ or other. Take no notice of it, it is just our slightly warped sense of humour.
Monday started as another perfect Pambula day. A crisp early morning, a still, warm day, perfectly blue sky, and a cooler evening. Beautiful. Just the day for a game of golf at Tura beach. This would have to be one of the most picturesque courses that we have played on. It is just a pity that our golf is not as good as the stunning views. There was the usual mixture of brilliant, mediocre and shit shots, but, w
e think, a very slight shift away from the shit end, toward the brilliant end, of the bell-shaped distribution curve. If only our wife would not laugh so much at those shots which, through nothing more than unbelievably bad luck, were unfortunate enough to hit a tree or to find the lake.
Tuesday was once more a perfect day, much like the previous three days. We had been told that there was excellent coffee to be found at the ‘other end’ of the Board Walk. We had started on this walk before, but had never persevered to reach the far end, a distance of only about 1.75km. So today, we drove to the ‘other end’, and found, on the way, some remarkable hilly roads with stunning views that we had not encountered before. We had our walk along the boards at the lake’s edge, meeting and greeting hoards of people, before actually going to the café for our coffee. Like the boardwalk, the café, which doubled as a boat hire shed, was very busy, so we shared an outside table, in the sun, with a gentleman who was evidently a ‘regular’ there. He was an interesting character, having been born and raised in Merimbula, and living his whole life there. He had certainly seen many changes in the last 70 years or so, with the increasing number of holiday makers. His wife had unfortunately died some 18 months ago, and it was clear that he was missing her very much. He was filling up his time with sailing his boat and camping, in solitary, around the lakes in this part of the coast. He did have friends who came on short visits with him, but he really missed sharing his experiences with more permanent company. We talked for about an hour, he telling us about his life, we comparing his relaxed living in Merimbula with our rather more hectic living in outer Melbourne. He told us how he had some minor repairs to make at his home, but was putting them off as he was now planning to take a rail trip somewhere, but he could not decide where to go. We rather thought that in days gone by, maybe his wife had been involved in those sorts of decisions.
We finished the day with a modest dinner of nachos and prawns, at the local Mexican restaurant, before sitting down to write this installment of Sketches of Merimbula.
Slingsby's Miscellany 