When I left off I was staying in the most expensive (yet most rip off) of bunkhouses in Lake St Clair. I had decided I really didn't want stirfry chicken pasta again for tea and thought I would go to the restaurant at the main hotel for dinner - but when I turned up, it was all closed. I don't know how the patrons at the hotel got on!
I hopped in the car and headed back into Derwent Bridge looking for a restaurant, or a shop, or something which might enable me to buy some different food - but alas, there literally wasn't anything there! Even the pub which had the cheaper accommodation (which I probably should have gone for in the first place) didn't have anything of a food nature open at that time (and to be honest, didn't look like it was open at all - there weren't any cars there or anything) - so I headed back to the campground and set out to cook up my meal in the bunkhouse kitchen. It was a cold evening but at least the kitchen had a woodfire store in the middle, which was quite warming.
As I began to prepare my meal there was a knock at the window, and looking up in surprise, I saw the reception chick there. She wanted to know if I could open the kitchen for a couple with a child who were staying in a campervan but who wanted access to the kitchen. Their key (for the showers) did not have a kitchen key on it. I agreed, and suggested wedging the door slightly ajar with a wooden door wedge I found there.
I then headed off to the shower, hoping that by delaying my chicken stir fry pasta it might hopefully taste better. Alas, once I got to the shower (having paid my exorbitant room fee) I discovered that it, too, was a paid shower - and this time it required $1 coins, not 20c pieces. And hardly stayed on for very long (nor was it terribly warm). Halfway through my shower the amenties block lights turned off - so I was in the dark, standing there with lukewarm water running down my body - and not a chance of running to the door to turn the lights back on. I finished off my shower in the dark.
After this, I headed up to the kitchen to prepare my meal. The other family were in there preparing theirs (using up all the clean pots and pans too). I tried to potter about making my meal with the implements I could find - but these people were not used to shared kitchen etiquette, and had filled the kitchen sink to the brim with burning hot water - and started to use it for their washing up - but as there was only 1 basin I couldn't even clean some of the pans to then use them. Eventually they realised my dilemma and agreed I could use their washing up water.
Actually it turned out to be a very pleasant evening, as we both sat down to our various meals and had a really lovely chat. They were a lovely couple, having quit their jobs in Perth and sold their house, they were travelling around Australia en route to their new life in Noosa. They had many amazing stories about places they'd seen and I really enjoyed talking with them. Their young daughter, Chelsea, was a bit of a character too and it was nice to enjoy the family atmosphere after almost 2 weeks on my own.
All too soon though it was time for bed, so I bid them farewell with the hopes that we might see each other in the morning at breakfast. This did actually happen, but as they needed to get on the road, and I needed to get cracking, it wasn't really a long time that we spent together the next morning. But I had really enjoyed their company.
Wonder how it has all panned out for them, their new life in Noosa?
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