Back to Mallacoota

In between saying goodbye to my dear ol’ dad in Shakytown, NZ, and shivering in the Berra, 5pm today, there’s been a wonderful week of Mallacoota-ing.

Maallacoota! Maallacoota! (sung to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus)

Oh it was lovely… A lot of the time, after a cool start to the day, it was t-shirt weather – I had to keep pinching myself to remind myself that it was actually midwinter.

My daily routine was simple – a walk into town to buy a hot chocolate; a nice sit by the lake, reading a book, drinking hot chocolate and talking to the seagulls like a crazy old bird-lady. 

My noisy buddies the seagulls, who snuck up on me from all angles to see if I had anything worth eating.

 On the way home, collect a bit of kindling for the evening’s fire. Fill in the day with gardening or reading. Light a fire in the evening, pour a glass of wine, fall asleep in front of the telly. Nice.

 And then there were some highlights: delicious, delicious curry night at the Golf Club (the courtesy bus came to pick me up from home!) with Peter & Margaret and a group of their friends; communing with nature in a variety of places:

Hot choc spot by the lake, near the main visitors' wharf

Bastion Point

  Showing my woodwork teacher Derek, some of the scenic delights of the area on a bushwalk on my birthday (yay, happy me, another highlight - I’m Old!) 

Fiddling about in the garden, tidying up some shrubs, pulling out some weeds, pruning the roses. The lawnmower died after doing half the lawn. But you know what? I just shrugged...Mallacoota has that effect on me. Yes, me, the great worrier.... what a magical place!

And then this – on Monday – a picnic at Allan’s Head with Peter and Margaret. I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends. (Quick aside: Peter & Margaret were formerly my hosts at the Adobe Mudbrick Flats, where I went holidaying every year, sometimes a couple of times a year. We’ve become friends, and they helped me a lot when I was buying my house down there.)

We zoomed across the lake in their boat, with me pretending to be the maidenhead, or whatever it’s called, at the front of the boat (no I did not follow tradition and take off my shirt, but I did a nice Wagnerian ‘Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!’) We watched pelicans sunning themselves and listened to the black swans singing on Goodwin Sands, 

  then carried on to Allan’s Head, where we had a bbq picnic. It was lovely! (A little challenging, getting into and out of the boat – remember my unco-ness….) Great food, great company, beautiful scenery…The lake was like a mirror – look at the reflections of the clouds in the water!

 It being midwinter and all, we had to put on some layers after about 3pm – it became quite chilly on the water, rather quickly, despite the continuing sunshine. I almost lost my hat on the ride back.

 Even Peter put on a sweater for the return journey:

 

Oh what a lovely day it was. In fact, what a lovely week it was. I feel recharged and refreshed. Thanks to my Mallacoota friends for their continued hospitality. Gawd it was hard to leave there this morning!