So…we rode along our lovely country road, for seven kilometres. Pete wasn’t as fast as I was, but he was spending a lot of time communicating with the lovely black cows in the paddocks. They were fascinated by him and galloped hither and yon in response to his cow-calls.

I didn’t actually care where I was going – I am ON HOLIDAY. I could see signposts which said Whitemark 26 kilometres – well that was fine by me… But we got to an intersection and turned off to – oh bummer I have lost the address – Lackrana, something like that… - and kept going another few ks. Lovely, sunny, all was groovy. And what was my treat for the morning? Why, to meet Dave Madden at his newly re-jigged Flinders Island Abattoir! No I wasn’t horrified; I am all in favour of small country abattoirs, and wish all farm animals could be killed close to their lovely green home paddocks. At this very moment there is a cattle yard on the wharf, full of Hereford cattle waiting patiently for the boat to take them to the Tasmanian mainland for “processing” tomorrow. How much nicer if they could just amble down the road to meet their inevitable end?? Poor Dave…at the very minute we wheeled up to the drive, along came a tractor arrangement with a newly slaughtered cow dangling from its – um – crane-like arrangement on the front. He must have thought I would FREAK – poor old hippy/city-chick… He swiftly explained that this cow had had an accident, hurt herself very badly, and they had slaughtered her in the paddock rather than trying to make her walk the kilometre or so to the abattoir. I said, “Well, good thing too. No pain!” and he looked very relieved and said, “No, that’s the last thing we would want, for her to suffer!” So we were, after all, hearts that beat as one!

And how did Dave want to spend his morning? Well, driving us around Beautiful Flinders, showing us this & that, talking animatedly to Pete about cattle, the wonders of Flinders (he has been here 6 months and is wildly enthusiastic,) Days Gone By in the rural life of Tasmania. I sat happily in the back of the car, enjoying the scenery, gazing at geese, grass, cows, beauty all around.

We went to Whitemark and had coffee in a thriving little café (very nice it was too!) Dave then took us, very proudly, into the butchers shop, which is his, also newly re-jigged and full of fancy products and cheery people. He said, “What would you like? Anything at all!” Well just about everything looked delicious, and just about everything made me happy because I knew it was all produced locally. (Product Placement #3 – buy Flinders Island meat!!) And he picked this, that, the other and GAVE it to us! I said, “Dave, this is wrong. This is supposed to be A SHOP!” He said, “Well it is still a shop, isn’t it??” So now our freezer has some very special Flinders Island Treats waiting to be turned into Very Special Meals! That Pete – everywhere he goes people want to give him things! Dave drove us and our bikes back to 2XS then took Pete off to some store room nearby, to get some muttonbirds, cryopacked. They are also in the fridge for Pete but - ummmm – not for me… I love shearwaters, flying over the water, but really, muttonbirds – everyone tells me they are SO DELICIOUS, so strong and gamey and fatty…but do I like strong and gamey and fatty??? Maybe not…

A funny thing… When we were in the butchers in Whitemark, I recognised two Hobart Boys, Jim Everett, and Richard Bladel. I said hello to Jim, who looked TOTALLY blank, then Richard came over, beaming, to chat. He is doing The Happiness Project, on Flinders, Cape Barron, Oatlands, Huonville. (I told Pete later and he said, “What is the Happiness Project?” I said “Well I don’t know but it sounds GOOD!”) Jim stood around, blinking faintly, then he came over to be introduced. I said, “Jim, you know me, from the Republic: Marguerite. Friend of Pauline Shelley’s. You know Pauline, don’t you?” No he didn’t. Not a clue. Blink. Blink. Then… “Pauline??? Me old mate!!! How is she!!” (WILD enthusiasm!) “And yes OFCOURSE I know you too, mate!” Richard and Jim wanted to know what we were doing, had been doing, etc so I told them we had been on Cape Barron, for a lovely walk. Jim, who lives on the island most of the time, stared at me, and said, “Yesterday? You were on THAT yacht, moored in the bay?” I admitted to this, a bit nervously, and he said, “Oh yes, I heard some LOVELY people had been walking on the inland!” Lovely??? How did they know we were lovely?? And really…we only saw the lady watering her veggies, the young couple with their toddler in a ute, the bloke hosing down his car… All we did was wave from a disance!

Dave brought us back to 2XS, admired it to our satisfaction, then went off to his busy new Flinders Life. We spent the afternoon playing with our technology – Pete has a new printer and it took a bit of time for it to be recognised by his computer… Then we went for a walk to the local shop. We are now well-recognised as locals. The same big barking black Labrador has been driven past us on his ute about ten times, sometimes when we are riding bikes, sometimes when we are walking – and the Shop Lady knows our every detail.

Tuesday…we are leaving here and going, I think, north to Killiecrankie. But maybe not; it is very cold and windy and we have been spoiled by the calm and balmy weather…