Over breakfast, (prepared in a real kitchen, eaten at a real table), we chatted with a few of the current guests, Benny, + John, an English doctor, with Uta, his German girlfriend. We then strolled with these last 2 into town, splitting with them to visit the town yacht club. They at least had a noticeboard, so we stuck up our note on that. The evidence we have suggests we are too late, but we can still try. Also obtained directions for the Cruising Yacht Club, a different organisation, but decided to save that for the afternoon, as it was quite a way out. Spent the rest of the morning shopping + wandering round town.
In the afternoon, we were on our way to the CYC, when John + Uta drove by – they were headed to the same place, so offered us a lift. They have a Valiant station wagon, even more battered than ours was – it boiled over 5 mins after we got into it. The CYC also had a noticeboard, so we slapped our note on that too, but not a mention of a boat heading anywhere, let alone north. Ah well.
Drove then out to Marriott’s beach. I don’t know if we took the right turning, but our road ended at a dead halt, + we had to scramble down a bank + across a small river to get to the beach itself. Fortunately, there was a huge tree trunk to serve as a bridge for most of the way across. Spent a pleasant hour or 2 swimming, playing, lazing. The water was incredibly warm, but useless for body-surfing, since the waves broke virtually onto the beach. All I managed was a grazed stomach.
When the time came to return across the river, it was really quite a task, since the tide had come in + converted a fairly gentle stream into a very powerful torrent. We were in no danger to life, but had to get our camera + Walkman across, + keep them dry. We made it alright, but were thoroughly soaked for our pains – quite a little adventure.
The good news was that we had a double room. A really nice room too, with our own key. And for $10 a night. Unbelievable. In the evening, there was a barbecue, which was remarkable value, at $1 for sausages, salad, bread + butter. All washed down with the big bottle of wine I’d bought. I got rather drunk, I must confess. But had a very enjoyable chat with Paul + Linda, 2 travelling Scots. They were very nice. I could have sworn they were smoking grass – I’ve never known people smoke a tobacco roll-up so far down – they almost needed a roach-clip. With any luck, we could run into them in Asia.
Still searching, though withpout a great deal of energy, and, it seems, without much in the way of hope, for an alternative way of travelling from Australia. But combining that with some leisure-time too.
