After a week of heavy showers and grey skies, the weekend was back to normal with blue skies, warm sunshine and a crystal clear sea. It’s very easy to be lulled into a false sense of security by all this.
Carl and I were surfing at the point at Arrawarra on Sunday morning. Unusually, there were few others out but Leroi, a gnomic figure who has apparently not missed a day’s surfing since fibreglass was invented, and possibly before that, was there. He is even older than Carl and me. We noticed a large number of boats further out and, ominously, several helicopters, sweeping the ocean.
Leroi told us that they were looking for two fishermen who went overboard from their boat during the night. Suddenly, I felt less blasé about bobbing up and down on my board so near the rocks of the point and so far from a safe shore. Later we found out that there had been four in the boat. One, wearing a life jacket, had swum ashore and another was found clinging to an empty oil can. It appears the boat had struck a whale.
Watching the humpbacks as they migrate north every year at this time is a stirring experience, whether from the shore, or from one of the whale-watch boats but, having seen a whale beating the water, apparently in irritation, with its tail, I have wondered whether I’d want to be anywhere near them in a small boat, whether they felt malicious or were just going about their business and you happened to get in the way.
Those fishermen were not doing any wrong or particularly stupid, with the exception, possibly, of not wearing lifejackets. They probably had not thought they were taking a risk by going out in their boat. Perhaps their mistake was taking nature for granted.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Monday, July 24, 2006
Planting Thyme...
This is what all that lurching around the Pacific Highway in an overloaded ute was about (see She'll Be Right, Mate below). Now we've done the planting and we have lavender, coriander, chives, parsley, rocket, thyme, chillies, oregano turmeric and basil. At least we will have if the slugs don't get them. It is raining frequently and Australian slugs are voracious.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Latest Visitors
Llywelyn has just arrived with his university mates John (centre) and Dean. After a morning's surfing at Arrawarra, during which all three of them managed to stand up on the boards, we walked over Mutton Bird Island in the hope of seeing some whales, which Sara, Dean and I did but, sadly, John and Llywelyn were just out of sight. Fickle, those humpbacks. We'll be out in the whale boat on Thursday.
Monday, July 17, 2006
She’ll Be Right, Mate
You frequently hear Australians using the phrase “she’ll be right, mate” in the context of some risky or dodgy activity or a repair job that isn’t perhaps quite all it should be. It’s indicative of a laid-back attitude and, I think, a sunny optimism. It appears to be catching.
Saturday morning saw Carl and I at the England’s Road tip, home of a vast compost producing enterprise and vast mountains of compost. Unfortunately, the man who operates the JCB to load the compost into your hired ute, or whatever, was nowhere to be found. Not to be deterred, we started shoveling after I’d wandered off to the recycling depot and negotiated the loan of a $2 dollar shovel.
After a while, Carl decided to turn the ute round to make it easier to fill and I distinctly remember saying “she’s looking a bit low.” To his credit, Carl distinctly remembers me saying this as well. He also remembers ignoring it. Some shoveling later, it was obviously full. Also obviously, it wasn’t going anywhere as the back mud flaps were bent back whereas the front wheels had only a tenuous relationship with the ground.
We looked at each other and started shoveling out, until some sanity had been restored. It was at this point that the phrase was uttered and buoyed up by this, we crept over the entrance speed bump and wobbled off the nearest garage to get the back tyres pumped up.
It was an interesting drive back to Sandy Beach. We were remarkably slow pulling away from traffic lights, much to the amusement of a lorry driver. Corners were a challenge and only to be taken slowly. In Coffs, we spotted a police car outside the Plantation Hotel so took a detour which unfortunately involved four 90-degree turns. We were sweating at this point. A fine queue built up behind us on the hill by the Big Banana. Various responsible citizens glared at us when they eventually overtook.
Half-way home, at Moonee, another police car lurked and there was no escape. We stared straight ahead, striving to be nonchalant, and all was well. As Carl remarked: “If he’d had his radar set for stupidity instead of speed….”
Anyway, we got home, slightly frazzled (“I was cacking myself there, mate”), and did another three, smaller, loads that day with the ute on an even keel to top up all our vegetable beds and lay the foundations for a three household veggie cooperative. There’s nothing like optimism when it proves to be justified. And the man with the JCB turned up as well.
Saturday morning saw Carl and I at the England’s Road tip, home of a vast compost producing enterprise and vast mountains of compost. Unfortunately, the man who operates the JCB to load the compost into your hired ute, or whatever, was nowhere to be found. Not to be deterred, we started shoveling after I’d wandered off to the recycling depot and negotiated the loan of a $2 dollar shovel.
After a while, Carl decided to turn the ute round to make it easier to fill and I distinctly remember saying “she’s looking a bit low.” To his credit, Carl distinctly remembers me saying this as well. He also remembers ignoring it. Some shoveling later, it was obviously full. Also obviously, it wasn’t going anywhere as the back mud flaps were bent back whereas the front wheels had only a tenuous relationship with the ground.
We looked at each other and started shoveling out, until some sanity had been restored. It was at this point that the phrase was uttered and buoyed up by this, we crept over the entrance speed bump and wobbled off the nearest garage to get the back tyres pumped up.
It was an interesting drive back to Sandy Beach. We were remarkably slow pulling away from traffic lights, much to the amusement of a lorry driver. Corners were a challenge and only to be taken slowly. In Coffs, we spotted a police car outside the Plantation Hotel so took a detour which unfortunately involved four 90-degree turns. We were sweating at this point. A fine queue built up behind us on the hill by the Big Banana. Various responsible citizens glared at us when they eventually overtook.
Half-way home, at Moonee, another police car lurked and there was no escape. We stared straight ahead, striving to be nonchalant, and all was well. As Carl remarked: “If he’d had his radar set for stupidity instead of speed….”
Anyway, we got home, slightly frazzled (“I was cacking myself there, mate”), and did another three, smaller, loads that day with the ute on an even keel to top up all our vegetable beds and lay the foundations for a three household veggie cooperative. There’s nothing like optimism when it proves to be justified. And the man with the JCB turned up as well.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Sunday Stroll
Iwan and Steph are visiting and took a Sunday afternoon stroll over Look At Me Now headland, where they saw many kangaroos and two surfers fighting their way out through big waves accompanied by some some large marine life, which thankfully turned out to be dolphins.
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