Monday 26^th March

We didn’t manage to anchor off Three Hummock Island – there seemed to be no shelter for 2XS at all.  We went in close to shore, and saw the three pretty white houses, which are now, I think, abandoned.  It is a gorgeous island, with many inviting beaches, orange-lichened rocks, rolling green hills covered with bush.  It was getting dark by the time we realised there was no anchorage so we scarpered very swiftly across to beautiful Shepherd’s Bay on Hunter Island, where we had spent some time on the way from King Island.  It is a good anchorage, marred only by a particularly ghastly and annoying swarm of mosquitoes which swirled around our heads just after dark.  It was the worst lot of mosquitoes we have encountered on this whole eleven month journey and we were mightily annoyed with them as they dive-bombed our ears.  We soon put paid to their antics with a mosquito coil, fetchingly balanced on a half-crushed XXX beer can.  It meant sleeping with poisonous fumes but, hey, who wouldn’t rather have poisonous fumes than a swarm of whining mosquitoes?

We managed to cook up a very good dinner – mashed potatoes, steamed broccolini and carrots, mushrooms, and a very sensational piece of steak from the King Island supermarket.  It doesn’t sound very flash but it did look gorgeous on the plate and it felt gorgeous in the tummy as well.

Speaking of food, we had a wonderful dinner with David and Felicity on Saturday night.  David had rushed home a bit after four to defrost a leg of lamb.  Angela had told us that David Kay is famous for his roasts (Boss Man Roasts, as they are known on the NW Coast) but I didn’t think this one would be too flash, coming straight from the freezer.  I didn’t know David’s culinary skills… He managed to defrost and partly cook it in the microwave, then finished it off to perfection in the oven over a tray of boiling water, with perfect roast potatoes etc etc.  It was absolutely delicious; we were mightily impressed.  We had a lovely evening, with a few interruptions for me to trot off and hang out loads of washing. 

Sunday morning we rode our bikes back to their house to put all the clean dry washing (bliss!) in our packs.  (Felicity’s house, by the way, is for sale, if you want an idyllic Stanley life.  It is called Laughton House and it has four big bedrooms, each with a bathroom because it had been a B & B.  So if you want to live in beautiful Stanley and run a B & B…look it up on the internet!)

Before going back to 2XS, we rode up the hill (well, pushed our bikes up the hill…) to Highfield House.  It is run by Parks and Wildlife now, and it was all very pleasant and very interesting.  They have made a big effort to make it informative but not overwhelming.  I was particularly taken by the diary entries from various ladies who had lived on or visited this remote and windy farm in the early 1800s.  Mrs Rosalie Hare had walked up The Nut and had found it all very bracing, but coming back down had been quite an ordeal.  As well it might be, in her tiny little slippery silk sandals!  (I find it hard enough scrambling down in my solid German walking shoes!)  She also found the convict labourers to be coarse, ugly and full of annoying complaints about their lot in life.  “They only need to work from 6am till 6pm, and they are well housed and fed!” she fumed.

We are about to leave for Marrawah, and I hope to find internet connection somewhere out on the sea.  Anything is possible!  These islands, in the Fleurieu Group, are such a surprise.  So many of them, so expansive, isolated, beautiful, uninhabited. 

It is very cold but there seems to be no wind at the moment and the sea is calm.  There were some other people here in this bay in a catamaran, Gemini Lady, when we arrived.  They had just come up the West Coast and had very wild weather.  Their screecher blew out (no I didn’t know what that meant either… Pete says it means their big sail got shredded, not a good thing.)

Conditions seem great right now so - no screechershredding for us!