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Cliff
CHARLESWORTH (47B) & his wife Pauline [Reporter: Gerry PECK] Day Three – Wednesday 20th April For
our next piece of Australiana, a trip was made to In the
past, the little island bus has always been there to greet each landfall of
the water bus that plies between Coochie and the
Point. Unfortunately, the lady who has been running this service is
indisposed and thus we missed out on the excellent and informative tour that
she usually provides for a paltry five bucks. The bus is apparently up for
sale, so it looks as though she is not going to continue with it. Pity,
because she was a good historian and a fine narrator of anecdotes on the
islands development and the characters that it produced along the way. Despite
the bus being AWOL, we enjoyed a bit of a walkabout and a leisurely stroll
along a pristine and quite deserted beach, with plenty of seashells and
pieces of coral to indicate what a populous body of water The
weather showed signs of deteriorating, so we decided to return home for a
late lunch rather than eat at the island's cafe. Once the threat of rain
petered out, we drove along to see if we could arrange a hire car for Cliff
and Pauline’s run to the
Cliff, Pauline & Gerry (Photograph: Margaret Peck)
(Photograph: Margaret Peck)
Margaret & Pauline (Photograph: Gerry Peck)
Strolling on a Crowded (Photograph: Margaret Peck)
Cliff & Maragret (Photograph: Gerry Peck)
Cliff, Looking Windswept and Interesting! (Photograph: Margaret Peck) Day Four – Thursday 21st April Pauline
wanted to take in some of the local shops and shopping malls, so that was the
main theme of the next day's schedule, first there was some washing and such
to be done though. We drove around our local area of
Pauline & Cliff (Photograph: Margaret Peck) Later
that afternoon, Cliff and I had a session on my pool table and enjoyed some
good games, plus a few glasses of Maggie’s home brew. (She makes it, I drink
it). Day Five –
Sanctuary Cove, Gold Coast Friday 22nd April Friday
we decided that a trip to Sanctuary Cove was on the agenda and we set off for
the very select locale where the rich and infamous dwell in unabashed luxury.
There is a famous and well-patronised golf course there and also a very swish
shopping complex. However, Oz being Oz and to prevent the locals getting a
swelled head, the shopping complex is clad in corrugated iron. Also,
surprising as it may sound, the prices at these shops are very reasonable and
indeed pretty competitive if the truth be told. Pauline found some nice opal
jewellery and bought it for herself. We checked out the marina, with its
opulent boats and even had a look over a large houseboat that can be hired
out. There are many kilometres of sheltered canals and rivers threading their
way all through the Gold Coast, so there is no shortage of places to take a
boat or to moor up for a night. It is a bit like the Norfolk Broads except
that many of the man made canals have luxury homes along the banks.
Originally the whole area was one huge mangrove swamp that followed the
coastline and extended inland for some kilometres.
Pauline We
ordered a table at "Georges" Restaurant, which does an excellent
lunch at a very reasonable price. Alas, something went awry and after waiting
for forty minutes for a table, I "gripped" the nearest staff
member. This produced a table within sixty seconds! Whilst we had
been waiting for the table, we had ordered three glasses of the house
red and a glass of As we
left the shopping complex, Maggie spotted a battery powered talking parrot,
which she just had to buy so we can have some fun with it when our little
granddaughter comes here to be baby-sat. We
made our way to Surfers Paradise for a look around the area by Cavill Mall, once again there were signs that the weather
was about to break and indeed we had a shower or two as we made our way along
the Mall. We soon got ourselves into one of the Published: May 2005
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