Friday 19th March (Lini’s Journal)

Brindabella's Web Diary
Simon Williams
Mon 29 Mar 2010 17:18
It was as well we weren’t as early as planned setting off for a
hike to the fort above the town. The sun was already rather warm when
we arrived at 8.30am to a sign saying they opened at 9am. The stunning
view over the bay and town and out to the other islands kept us well
and truly occupied however, until, with the creak of a large wooden
door, we were allowed inside. We crossed the moat and two foot thick
walls into gardens planted with cacti and a series of rooms housing an
eclectic mix of exhibits. They had the most amazing old photographs of
the island, fishing boat construction, tropical fish and steam boats
as well as models of the battle ships of years ago. As usual I lost Si
who flies round museums at great knots but was lucky to be approached
by the gardener. Well, its not often a girl is invited outside to
photograph a guy’s iguana! The dear old chap spent some time pointing
out these amazing creatures which were dotted around the edges of the
gardens in the shade of the shrubs. I managed to get quite close to
some and zoom in on a prehistoric face or two. It was then a good time
to be leaving as on the ferry dock sat a couple of boats and through
the gates were swarming hundreds of day trippers. We had a job to
fight our way out as they barged in, then on the hill we passed
zillions more……. I did a spot of provisioning before returning to
Brindabella!
Crunchy baguettes were filled for lunch and soup prepared with the
top of the celery which resembled a small tree and needed serious
pruning to fit in the fridge. Si then took a lengthy afternoon snooze
waking when I had deleted probably a few hundred of the not so good
photos and conveniently just in time to fix me a G&T in time for sun
down. Perfect! Nicely scrubbed up in fluffy dress and tidy shirt we
then bounced our way ashore for dinner arriving somewhat salt
encrusted as normal. We took our waterfront seats in Le Genois
restaurant and ate watching a smiley moon slowly rising over
Brindabella.