Day 17 – Storms in Paradise

There was a little girl

Who had a little curl (or several thousand in my case!)

Right in the middle of her forehead

And when she was good she was very very good

And when she was bad she was horrid!

Very appropriate that little ditty from my childhood ….. today wasn’t the best day I have had, even though we are in paradise!  Remember how I said Coral Bay hasn’t had rain for three years?  Well the temperatures have plummeted to an all time low and it has been pelting with rain all day – honestly, we might as well be in Melbourne!  And I have just put away all my winter clothes and the feather doona!   And you know my attachment to my hair dryer … well it blew up this morning (no …. this is not an exaggeration – we had to throw it away … so indeed, not ONE CURL BUT SEVERAL HUNDRED …..I nearly cried!)  And then I got news of a REALLY BAD MARK for a psychology essay that I handed in before we left -  so I did cry!  I felt much better after that, even with a head of curls!  Then the TV won’t work – Rich is being very patient with it, but I was really looking forward to a good movie tonight – given that it is pelting with rain – so now I will just have to study because I have forbidden myself to get any novels until after exams! 

My psychology revision today was dealing with emotion – big discovery!!!  Apparently women express emotion more readily than men – duhhh!!!  I think Rich could have come up with that thesis based on his experience with me today – it was no co-incidence that he went off for a three hour long ramble – leaving me ‘to study’ and came back bearing chocolate … clever boy!    

On the up side (and there always is) I was having a huge laugh today (only because I have been there and done that!) at a couple who were hitching up their van to their car -  it was very early and they were trying not to make much noise out of consideration to the neighbors, so everything was being acted out.  She was reversing and he was directing – I was going to say that this, based on my experience, is not the best way to go, but heck, neither way really is best – it is always a fiasco waiting to happen – sometimes it comes together so sweetly and other times …….. anyway, he was miming and she was misunderstanding.  Maybe she didn’t have her glasses on, but basically everything he gestured, she did the opposite.  The steam was starting to come out of his ears (luckily steam doesn’t make a noise) as they were STILL trying to be quiet.  He was gesticulating with the biggest and grandest gestures his arms could make – dramatic flourishes, frantic swinging of the arms, accompanied by desperate attempts to make eye contact with huge googly eyes aimed at the rearview mirror, followed by much head shaking and silent moans.  She was just very slowly, but surely reversing, reversing, blithely reversing.  He resorted to jumping-jack-type-leaps to try and get her attention and communicate what he wanted, but alas, she just inevitably kept coming at an angle that was only going to end badly.  Still, he maintained silence, and finally, in desperation, deserted his post near the hitch, sprinting around to the driver’ s side, and rapping on the window just as she slowly edged the back rear light into the hitch.  As I said … been there done that in both roles but I wasn’t quiet!

 Then we met the most delightful grey nomad couple aged in their early seventies.  He looked like Popeye the Sailor Man with a baseball cap on backwards and his largish ears and nose quite endearing under it.  She was a round, grey toughie – with very kind eyes.  They are ex-beef farmers from Lismore in NSW and have been on the road for eighteen months.  When they started out, they had planned to go north towards Darwin, but heard about the fires in Victoria and instead headed south where they spent three months re-fencing for homeowners and farmers in Traralgon South (for the overseas people – Traralgon is about an hour away from where we live).  Their philosophy was …. ‘ so often people help straight after a disaster, but often the victims of such an event need help a long time later’  – so there they were fencing for three months!  Did I mention that they travel around Australia on a motor bike – with a small little trailer that carries all their worldly goods and a tent that they camp in.  They belong to the Ulysses Bikie Club and so after Traralgon, made their way to Albany (that’s the other side the country – almost coast to coast) for the Bike Club’s AGM!  (Is it just me, or does this strike you as a bit odd … a Bikie club having an AGM!?)  We look the Ulysses Motor Bike Club up on the internet and their motto is ‘Grow Old Disgracefully’.  It is specifically for people over the age of 50 who are not ready to sit on a porch!  You can join if you are 40 but will be considered a junior member until you get to 50! 

When in Albany this feisty pair decided to house sit and stayed on a small hobby farm owned by a disorganized local artist and her husband – during the three months they were house-sitting, they re-roofed an outside building, fixed up the windows, electrics as well as the various fences around the place and when the owners returned, they were so delighted they invited them to stay!  Which they did for a while, but eventually the road called again and they hopped back on their bike and headed north.  Wow!!  Can’t imagine camping at 70!! 

 The other highlight of the day was another opportunity to snorkel – this time we walked up the beach a way and then hopped in the water (I was a bit nervous this time so Rich held my hand the whole time …. Ahhhh!!!  It was cute and I did feel safer!) and floated with the current down and around the point for about an hour.  Fortunately the rain doesn’t make any difference when you are in the water - I got to see all those lovely fish that Rich told you about yesterday - the electric blue tiny ones, the zebra fish, those with green stripes, yellow stripes, yellow dots, red splothces, some with electric blue around the edges, sea cucumbers, giant clams, the occasional small reef shark and ray, and then the stunning coral, all different kinds with my favourite looking a lot like giant pink roses.

 Tomorrow we farewell Coral Bay and head towards Exmouth – not too big a drive – those are still to come.  Maybe we can outrun the rain! J (Can you believe it – it has not rained in Coral Bay for 3 years, but it has rained now for 2 days since we arrived. This happens so seldom that locals get outside and jump around in the rain. It is also amusing to watch all the campers who set up their tents confidently ignoring the possibility of rain (we are in a desert region after all) and are now digging drainage channels in the sand to curb the ‘flooding’. No matter to us – it is warm and the rain just means the temperature stays in the mid-20’s and does not reach the 30’s.

PS:  after hours of fiddling with the TV aerial on the caravan roof (in the rain) Rich brought it into the van in frustration only to discover that it works best stuffed throughthe door handle!  Go figure …. All I know is that I am very grateful to be able to watch the Cats play the Eagles tonight!  Go the Cats!  (they are after all my third team!).

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