Our Last Full Week - Beaches, Barbeques and the usual Navigation Errors

Our last full week – where has the time gone?

Pearl Beach is funny little village nestling in trees and set back from a sandy beach. There are probably a couple of hundred houses there but it seems much less as most are set back from the road and hidden in the trees. With relatively few permanent residents, many of the houses have been bought by well-to-do Sydneysiders to be used as holiday homes or to provide a rental income. Rod and Di are friends who have a house in Pearl Beach which they are trying to sell but, until it is sold, are happy to rent it out to friends. Well equipped, with two bedrooms, a big gas barbeque, a large deck and plenty of garden space it was an ideal place for us to hole up for a week, with Steven, Ana and the children appearing for a long weekend.

At the end of our year in Australia we have been trying sell, give away or, as a last resort, throw away the kit that has sustained us over the last year. With the tent and solar panel sold, the car on the market, the tables and chairs and going to Johann and Stretch, the beds and mattresses destined for Gill in Darwin (will she be able to arrange the shipping?) the question remained – what to do with the boat? The time in Pearl Beach was the ideal opportunity to convince Steven that what was missing in his life was an inflatable dinghy. Despite his reluctance for acquiring unnecessary goods and chattels, after a session on the beach where Steven, Ana and Lex had a great time in the dingy (leaving Anatalia wit doting grandmother) he agreed to give our “Titanic” a new home.

With several beaches (Pearl, Umina and Patonga) within easy distance of the house we managed to “beach ourselves out” with the only drama being Steven losing skin from his foot and hand, not to mention a bruised rear end, following a scooter accident on the way down for a late afternoon dip in the waves. As per usual Anatalia was the star of the show – dressed to the nines in her pink beach costume and sunnies – hard to believe she is only four months old.

With Johann and Stretch joining us for a few days we had a pleasant time (including possum hunting – see photo) and then, on Sunday when all our the family had headed back to Sydney, Sandra and I were left for a few days for a final bit of rest and relaxation before heading back home. At least that was the theory! As ever things did not take a restful turn and, as usual, I blame Sandra!

Sitting round having a quiet time, reading a book and lazing in the sun having the odd barbeque seemed the ideal plan for a bit of rest and relaxation. Sandra however had other ideas – we were going on a trip on the ferry from Ettalong to Palm Beach where we could walk around the shops and have lunch. After a pleasant enough 30 minute ferry ride we arrived at Palm Beach. Sandra, who had researched the trip (?), announced that the main town was a little way along the coast from the ferry terminal. We spotted a bus going to “The City”, which Sandra authoritatively stated was to Palm Beach City, and we agreed that we would walk into the city and get the bus back to catch the ferry home.

Any reader acquainted with the greater Sydney area will by now have alarm bells ringing in their ears – not least by the fact that there is no such place as Palm Beach City - the City the bus was going to was in fact Sydney! After several miles looking for a non-existent city Sandra agreed that she might have made a mistake and No! She hadn’t brought the map with her!

However after remembering that we were on a peninsula, when we came to a sign pointing inland and indicating Whale Beach, she reckoned that if we cut over the mountain we would hit the sea again and pick up our bearings – and anyway, Whale Beach sounded nice. So, under a blazing sun and with nothing to drink, we set off up hill and eventually hit the coast. Bumping into a friendly lifeguard we were informed that we were nowhere near Palm Beach and to get back to the ferry terminal we would either have to drive back the way we had come or round the northern side of the peninsula. Our announcement that we didn’t have a car and that we were walking was greeted with a look of incredulity. There was no option but to tough it out and keep on walking and several hours later, with my legs aching, Sandra’s hips creaking and both with a dose of sunburn we eventually arrived at Palm Beach. If we had turned left when getting off the ferry instead of right we would have saved a lot of shoe leather.

We had an excellent late lunch at a seafront restaurant called “The Boathouse” and walked back along the beach towards the ferry terminal – on the way spotting the unusual sight of a dog on a sailboard with his mistress (Lolly eat your heart out!)

After weeks of relatively little exercise, the next day I could hardly walk as my muscles had seized up and my face was bright red and peeling.

Then back to Sydney for a round of farewells, dinners, barbeques etc as the final countdown to our return to the cold and the snow began.