Port MacDonnell

It was a windy, wet and cold day today and so when Warren suggested we try out the local seafood that was on offer, I was out the door.

We went to a cafe on the waterfront. Warren suggested that we take a walk out the jetty but with the door being almost wrenched from our hands as we left, and the rain was coming down we went for a drive instead. Driving along the coast road, we called in here.

Getting fifty metres down the track, the heavens opened again and it was cold! we headed back to the car and went out to Adam Lindsay Gordon's cottage.

With a closed sign on it.

Using the GPS, we found there was a martine museum in town.

A mural on a building in the main street, too cold and wet to find out more.

This was one of the exhibits just inside the door, an outdoor wooden dunny complete with a red back spider on the seat. 

I have been to many museum but this one was very different, it had small alcoves featuring one aspect of the area. It has had many and varied industries such as soap making, tanning, beer making, boat making and of course cray fishing/lobster catching.

One exhibit was on rabbits and their fur and making akrubra hats 

In amongst these was an area dedicated to churches in the district and this beautiful pipe organ, it is the small I have ever seen, not that I am any sort of expert but it was stunning. There was also the damn, I cant think of the word but where the minister delivers his sermon from, lectern? and a church pew.

As someone walked into this alcove, the Lord's Prayer played softly. In many of the alcove, there was music or speeches about the display.

Dalby

We stayed there for two nights. Excellent caravan park, best showers and toilets that I have experienced, $27 a night and no extra because of school holidays. Check out the size of the showers!

There was a Pioneer park opposite the caravan park and after we had finished our shopping town we wandered over to have a look. It was a self discovery park with a donation box, $5 for adults so put in our $10 and wandered around.

There were several small cottages and they all had a theme. the first one had various sewing machines and knitting machines. Outside there were several out buildings with tractors and farm equipment.

I remember a tractor like this on our farm block, it was parked under a tree and as a kid I spent many hours climbing over it and pretending to drive it. I was three when we moved there and I don't know if it was ours or it had come with the property. It has steel rims for tyres. Years after I left home two young guys called on Mum and Dad and asked if they could buy it, they wanted to restore it. I think Dad told them they could have it for nothing if they wanted to move it. Many of the exhibits didn't have dates on it so I have no ideas when this tractor was first made. I dare say that the museum is run by volunteers and they can only do so much.

This was another one that interested me as dad had bought something similar but a car and he cut it down to use as a run about for years. Definitely not a second car but Dads work truck. Note the crank handle at the front, ours did have that but Dad soon changed it to a key start, he was a mechanic. 

With Warren and I both growing up on farms there were many things that we knew and had used from our childhood.

 

A day out in Hong Kong

This morning, after a leisurely breakfast spent chatting with a couple at the next table, they were Brits and having a couple of days in HK after touring Japan, we walked to the water front. There was the Clock tower and lots of ferries crossing between Kowloon where we are and Hong Kong Island. It took us awhile to locate it as some of the roads had to be crossed by going under and through a tunnel called subways. We have used them before in some of the bigger cities in China. We ended up at the Museum of Arts the prices were quite high before we realised that the sign was for yearly tickets. Tickets for one entry was $HK10 or $5 if over 60, ($2 or $1) Warren didn’t have his card with him but the lady at the ticket office asked if we were over sixty and we said yes so she gave us the reduced price.

Very well laid out plenty of space and everyone was pretty quiet, there was a mixture of Asians and Westerners. We did three floors and our feet needed a break as it was a bit of a walk back to hotel.

We opted to go to Maccas and check emails etc can get 20 minutes of free Wi-Fi each day there. Starbucks offers 30 minutes on one device.