Monday 25th January (Lini’s Journal)

Brindabella's Web Diary
Simon Williams
Fri 12 Feb 2010 14:56

   There’s a big swell blowing into the bay now and life at anchor is a little uncomfortable. As long as we remember to think we’re at sea and use non-slip matting everywhere and hang on with one hand, things are a little easier. Tying the dinghy to the dock for a spot of shopping was a bit of a challenge though with waves breaking either side of us and the dinghy bouncing up and down. All secure we hit the shops. Now when I say shops we’re not talking big city shopping mall; this is one street Charlestown where we found the supermarket, about the size of your average corner shop back home, and rummaged through the shelves and freezer for provisions for the next few days. I have learnt to be cautious of anything without a price as it’s usually four times the price of local produce. However when it came to meat we looked through the frozen slabs of offal and mystery meat with no labels, chickened out and chucked chicken breasts into the basket- price unknown. Cluck, cluck! There was no problem buying beer, coke and tonic and what they didn’t have in the way of fresh vegetables we were able to buy at a market (two small tables) that we spotted on the way back. What a shame it wasn’t visible heading into the town as I’d normally shop there first. A few houses further along, the ‘town’ seemed to come to an end. Si was happy as a quick shop is a happy shop and they don’t come much quicker than that!

   Back in the bay things had come to life with the usual array of boat boys touting for business in interesting boats. The best today was two surf boards taped together with an office chair attached in the middle. You can usually tell the locals from the visitors as they often stand in their inflatables and many wooden fishing boats have interesting names. In these very religious lands these have included ‘Psalms 35/36’ and ‘The Family Who Prays’. We accepted business from one boat when we arrived and paid 5ECD and a bottle of Coke for garbage disposal. One man was swimming continuously round the bay with his dog and asking for money to be photographed.

   We had a quiet afternoon swimming, using the internet and reading and after supper started preparing Brindabella to move on.