Day at the beach...

Well the weekend was for exploring our new home. On Saturday we went for a walk around "The Corner", which is what the locals call the town...well village really. Since there is only about 60-70 permanent residents on the Island, you can't really justify calling it a town.

"The Corner" is a collection of buildings, mostly on the "Esplanade" (only used on maps and by the Post office, no streets REALLY have names here).

Overlooking the beach is the post office, the "store" and the Aboriginal Association office.

Up the hill a bit on the left is he maintenance depot, which includes the Fuel dump. (Diesel is more than $2 a litre, good thing I don't have to pay for it!) Up the road and perched on the side of the hill to the right is the school, a building for the Primary (with 6 students) and the High school (currently with one, but s couple more are due to turn up). Each with their own teacher, and a teachers aide for the primary school. And the building they use for the library, which is part of the old school, or so I am told.

The lady that cleans the clinic once a week is also the librarian...it opens for one hour on Tuesdays, and yo can order books in.

Behind the school is the Hall. I haven't been in there yet, but they had bingo on there yesterday, and we half considered going. (no! Really!!!)One of the locals stopped around today and told me to let Mauro know that they have a game of 8-ball there on Thursday nights. (Cause the weekend is for drinking!)

Behind the hall, on the same side of the road, is the church.

WE met the priest/ vicar...what ever she is called, last week. Funnily enough her surname is Chick...so does that mean we can call her Vicar Chick?

Or the Chick Vicar?

She seems very nice, but definitely living the delusion. She reckons that she was "called to minister" on Cape Barren by god, signified though a series of coincidental meetings.

Oh my lordy!!! For some reason I keep picturing Dawn French, but unfortunately she looks nothing like her, and isn't half as funny.

Well I'm afraid I won't be going to HER services. Prefer bingo.

So, we had a walk. And it was nice. Though I managed to scrape my leg on some rocks.

On Sunday though we went adventuring in the Beast...the 4 wheel kind. Turbo diesel V8 Totota Landcruiser 70 series.

Ouch! Bit of a change from my little Daihatsu Charade.

Found a track and followed it down to the beach on the southern side of the island till the track stopped. And then had a walk around. Collected some shells. There are cuttle fish shells EVERYWHERE, and I picked up a massive one, long as my forearm.

Rafts of seaweed actually prevent the waves creeping up the beach. But it was a fairly sunny day. Mauro found a pair of sunglasses just lying on the sand, and he had just been talking about needing a pair.

The universe will provide, eek, I'm sounding like Vicar Chick.