Thought for
the day: To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the
world.
“What a good
day,” says Charlie as he fires up the espresso machine (his sign says
“expesso”, but we all know what he means).
“Charlie,” I
say, “Every day is a beautiful day.”
A tall
skinny French backpacker, who is camping in a tiny tent across the way, says to
me: “Pardon my bad English, but that was a beautiful thing to say.”
We
introduced ourselves: his name was Jordain (OK, I think that’s the spelling …
if not, sorry about that, young fella) and he’s travelling with just a small
backpack, tent and a bicycle. There’s a lesson in that for me: less is more.
I ordered
him a coffee too and we sat and chatted. He’d just made a beautiful day just
that little bit better. What a credit he is to himself and his parents. He told
me of his job picking fruit up near Healesville, other experiences he’d had and
the people he’d met.
He also told
me how a farmer he had worked for had taught him to shoot and butcher a rabbit
and a kangaroo.
“I had never
eaten kangaroo before. It was amazing. I am thinking I am the only Frenchman
there who knows how to do it,” he said, again apologising for his English.
“Mate [doing
my best Aussie accent],” I said, “I know a lot of Aussies who don’t speak
English nearly as well as you. It’s your second language … you’re amazing.”
We chatted for about an hour (and I bought him
another coffee) before we headed to my digs to show him my blogs and check some
photos … and, of course, being a good tourist he had to get a couple of
pictures of his new hippie friend (yeah, he called me a hippie) to show the
folks back home.
“I wanted to
stay in Australia longer, but before I left France I met a girl. I now ’ave to
see her again [I can relate to that],” he said, “I ’ave to go. Six more weeks
and I will go. But please give me your email address. I wish to stay in touch
with you and see your travels.”
Done. What a
great way to start the day. As someone near and dear said to me: “Every
stranger we meet is just a friend we haven’t made yet.” How right she is.
This trip is
a bit like the last time I travelled (2010) because it is taking me months to
actually get on the road. Yeah, I’m on the road and, yeah, I’m travelling … in
2010 I took about three months to get out of Skenes Creek. This time, it was
almost a month, but the truth is that Liam and I will be heading back that way
so that Liam can do some carpentry work for Charlie, who runs the campground
down there.
Not that
there’s anything wrong with that other than perhaps the fact that the weather
has turned too often to be on the wrong side of 20 degrees.
It’s still a
great campsite … right on the ocean and there are always people there that I
know … and generally a handful of backpackers working there, who, often in the
past as they do now, are on the receiving end of some largesse from Charlie and
myself.
Yeah, we
feed ’em and give them the odd drink or seven.
I decided,
because two of them are Poms, that I’d make them a curry … something to help allay
the homesickness. I ran it by Charlie, who said: “Shit, mate, I’ve got a leg of
lamb that I need to cook.” OK, I’ll do the veg. Roast potatoes, onions, carrots
and parsnips plus steamed cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini and bok choy. The
girls, Rachael and Charie (reckon it’s pronounced Sherie although everyone
calls her Kiwi) made the gravy.
Gotta say,
there’s something good about sitting 50 metres from the ocean with good company
(Liam had come down too), a big roast meal and several buckets of cheap red to
wash it down.
A couple of
nights before, we decided to have a barbie. Charlie got it fired up with beef
ribs, burgers, snags and lamb chops while I provided potato salad and a huge
tossed salad. We ended up feeding seven, including David, who plans to live
there in his converted ambulance for the next year. He calls his vehicle the
Arts Ambulance (painted appropriately) and he does all manner of arts-related
stuff. He has a video and audio studio set-up and has promised to lay down a
recording track of me singing a song for The One.
It ended up
a huge night with matching hangovers for all concerned the next day.
The Labour
Day weekend provided welcome respite from the rigors of life on the beach
(yeah, it’s tough) and I headed to the big smoke and some time with The One.
It was a
memorable reunion (we hadn’t seen each other in quite a while) and we kicked it
off with a bottle of Verve Cliquot to celebrate. We followed up with a
sensational Sancerre, a pinot gris and eased out of the night with some
chardonnay, all of which helped wash down the pizza we’d ordered in. It was my
first pizza in what seemed a very long time.
The next day,
after an eggy breakfast, I was treated to the passenger seat for a tour of the
Yarra Valley wineries, which included tastings (none for the driver) at
Balgownie Estate, one of our favourite places in the world and the source of so
many great and wonderful memories. The Balgownie viognier and sangiovese were
super and both came home with us, as did some Allinda chardonnay. The tastings
at Balgownie and Allinda put others such as Fergusson’s to shame … I reckon the
days of warm whites in plastic tasting glasses does nothing for the brands. The
only other real downside for the day was the slow (in the extreme) service for
lunch at Dixons Creek.
We lifted it
a notch when we got home and celebrated with a bottle of Moet followed by the
Balgownie viognier and Allinda chardonnay and some (I forget the name)
riesling.
All too soon
on Monday afternoon it was time to say farewell and hit the road for the long
haul back to Skenes, a drive that was made lots easier courtesy of the memories
of the previous two days. Reckon I was glowing.
Fishing is
always on the agenda at Skenes although the ocean is yet to give up any. The
past two occasions that I’ve wet a line (and these days the lines and rigs are
good because Liam has been giving me lessons) all I have managed to retrieve
are three sand crabs, the last of which was a decent (hand span) size. And what
a feisty bugger he was when I removed him from the bait. He had a red-hot crack
at my digits but there was no harm done and I got him back into the water.
So, with
fish not on the menu, Liam and I headed into town to shop for the night’s curry
feast. I was kinda cooking it mainly cooking it for backpacker Lewis, who was
in severe curry withdrawal. Sad thing was he was having the weekend in
Melbourne and would miss the night.
It was a
stupendous feed … lamb and spinach curry with rice, raita, apple and yoghurt,
and banana, lemon juice and toasted shredded coconut on the side and roti … yeah,
we ate very well. And the red wine played its part too.
Lewis didn’t
miss out. Because we’re decent folk (that’s Liam and me), we put aside a huge
serve for Louis, which he got as we were departing.
Colac beckoned
to get some solar work done on the trailer … Ben, the mechanic, is a
straight-shooting bloke who does great work. We’ll be back to see him for some
last-minute touch-ups.
Beyond
Colac, a home-cooked meal with The One beckoned. Be still my heart.
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