Tapp's Travels

We haven’t seen my sister for many years.  The week before our last scheduled visit, she fell off a ladder and really, really hurt herself. Now, a couple of years on, she’s recovering well.  We haven’t even seen their new house which they have been been building for the last 6 or 7 years.  Their houses have always been largely self-built and delightfully quirky.

Bij has worked for many years drafting plans for alternative-style houses for other people.  On a scale of quirkiness from 1-10 their first house on 40 acres of dry bush with a leaky dam and a dubious borehole rated about 9.  Their second place, on a more sensible sized block had a stream running past the bottom of the garden.  Very pretty.  Score about 7.

Their current house is MUCH more conventional – say about a 6.

It’s more compact and sits on a tidy-sized corner plot with a fabulous view of Lake Wallaga.

It still has a lot of curvy features

and some work is still being done.  But it’s a really practical space – provided you don’t fall off the loft ladder onto wooden furniture and the concrete floor!

Chris has built a very professional pizza oven …

… and the deck is shaded by vines growing over a cunningly designed reinforced concrete structure.  The supports were built, in place, as catenary structures.  They look like parabolic curves – but actually aren’t.

A catenary curve is the shape that a chain would adopt when suspended from two points of equal height.  When inverted, this shape becomes optimally self-supporting.  Allegedly!  The trick is to determine the exact proportions and curve shape.  Well done Bij for designing and drawing it – and well done Chris for actually building it – twice – once at each end of the covered area!

At the bottom of their garden there is a boat launching beach…

… and a wide band of open access along the shore of the lake.  We wandered along this for about a kilometre before a couple sitting on their deck shouted at us to ask if we wanted a cup of coffee.  At least that’s what we thought they said!  Anyway, we were a bit busy tracking a pair of not very frightened kangaroos through the trees.  So we didn’t take up their offer.

For lunch we were going to have pizza.  So before we went out for coffee Chris lit a bonfire inside the oven.  Apparently it takes hours to get up to temperature.  So we had plenty of time for breakfast at a coffee shop in Tilba run by a French lady.  Excellent pancakes!

Back home and with the pizza oven up to speed, the lunch guests arrived.  Keith and Trish.  The same couple with whom we had been invited to have a walk-in coffee earlier!  Coincidence or what!?  Anyway the pizzas were probably the best we have ever eaten – anywhere.   Brilliant.

Next day, the place we were going for coffee at Cuttagee Beach advertised it would definitely be open.  ALWAYS worth checking!  The beach there was lovely – and deserted.

Well it is the weekend, so it’s going to be as busy as it gets around here “out of season” as it is.  And of course, the cafe with it’s panoramic view of said beach, was seasonally CLOSED.  Well, it is February and two weeks after the schools went back.  Welcome to the Sapphire Coast!  Still, we had a good tour of Bermagui including coffee at the harbour with this view …

… and a sticky beak at the “Blue Pool” – a semi natural coastal swimming pool.

Us on the viewing platform.

We visited a number of beaches while we stayed at Bermagui.  Each better than the last.

A number of years ago, on the recommendation of some locals, we had visited a small beach called Nelson Bay.  Here we could drift lazily down the creek behind the sand spit and out to the sea.  We eventually “re-found” the cove a few miles north of Tathra, about 40 kms from base.

It was larger than we remembered – and, we discovered, the drifting thing can only be done towards the end of the ebb tide.  This time we would have floated upstream!  However we still had the place to ourselves.  That day we hit five beaches, walked six or seven miles and saw a total of about six people!

Boring, boring.  Sorry!

Some of these magnificent beaches had the highly threatened Hooded Plover raising their young on the sand above the high tide mark..

We clocked three of the fledgelings – extraordinarily well camouflaged!  Camera Anne would have loved it!  But, the more I think about it, the more certain I am that the rest of you wouldn’t like it here at all!!?? ?

So – onward plans have to be made.  We chose a couple of nights at Nelligen in the Clyde River Cottage.  But that’s another story.

PHONE ETIQUETTE

After a tiring day, a commuter settled down in his seat and closed his eyes. As the train rolled out of the station, the young woman sitting next to him pulled out her cell phone and started talking in a loud voice:

“Hi sweetheart.  It’s Sue. I’m on the train”.  “Yes, I know it’s the eight thirty and not the four thirty, but I had a long meeting.”  “No, honey, not with that Kevin from the accounting office.  It was with the boss.”  “No sweetheart, you’re the only one in my life.”  “Yes, I’m sure, cross my heart!” 

Fifteen minutes later, she was still talking loudly. The man sitting next to her had enough, he leaned over and said into the phone, “Sue, hang up the phone and come back to bed.”

Sue doesn’t use her cell phone in public any longer.