SONG TO A SEAGULL
Dear Alice,
Tasmanian holiday – Part two
On Wednesday Julia and Mike visited us on Bruny Island just for the day. Prior to their arrival however I’d awoken the boys at 6am to go fishing. It was just glorious; mildy warm, sunny and calm but most importantly, the fish were biting! Actually so were the seagulls, as Elliott was about to find out. A lone bird circled above us as Elliott skillfully cast in his line. The seagull suddenly swooped for his bait and somehow managed to get all tangled-up in the line. We tried winding it in, but the bird was too strong and flapped about madly as it fought for his life on the surface of the water. It was soon clear it was losing this battle and now in serious risk of drowning, so we decided to cut the line to at least give it a chance. All this commotion and his squawks for help had attracted the attention of a flock of about 80 other seagulls. I was instantly reminded of Hitchcock’s The Birds as they circled menacingly above us. Once they realised there was no food to be had however, they all disappeared again. The tide eventually washed the helpless bird up on to the beach and so we downed our rods and ran to its assistance. Using my recently acquired chicken handling skills, I was able to pick it up and try to untangle the mess. I couldn’t get it all off though and he was now also cut under his wing. Eventually I did free him enough, and he was able to fly away which made Elliott feel a whole lot better. It also allowed me the opportunity to release a barrage of ‘Dad’ jokes ever since. Things like “What’s Elliott’s favourite band? A Flock of Seagulls!” and “Hey Elliott… pulled any birds today?” He’s not amused.
Later in the day, along with Julia and Mike, we caught a 40-seat speedboat eco-cruise down to the Southern Ocean. It was rough as, and a few people were feeding the fish with regurgitated breakfast – our party were all okay though. We saw hundreds of Australian fur seals, but sadly no dolphins or whales. At the point we turned around and headed for home, there was no more land in front of us until Antarctica, which was 2500 kilometres further south. To say it was cold would be an understatement. It was probably even colder than where you are at the moment. Much fun though!
After Julia and Mike left we… yep… we went fishing again. This was our last chance to do so on Bruny Island as we were leaving for Hobart the following day. Teacher Mum opted for the sofa and settled into her fifth novel of the week. We caught a few small Flatheads and were just thinking about leaving when I got a strong strike. This was no flathead and required all my skill as an angler (such as they are) to keep it on the line. When I finally landed it I was very pleased to see that it was a 35cm Australian Salmon. The fish now resides in our freezer but as it’s not quite as nice to eat as Atlantic Salmon, I plan to turn him into luxury fish cakes – something the boys are more likely to eat anyway.
After leaving Bruny Island we headed south to visit the Tahune AirWalk. This attraction gives you the chance to walk among the giant trees of the forest and take in amazing views from an elevated walkway through the treetops. We also made the boys walk the one-hour return circuit to the swinging bridges. They loved frightening Teacher Mum on these by jumping up and down, but the walk to and from them required the inevitable ice-cream bribe to facilitate a reasonably moan-free journey.
Back in Hobart we did yet more fishing while Teacher Mum went out for lunch with Grandma. Friday evening at 8.30pm the boys and I headed into town for our Penitentiary Chapel Ghost Tour. Built by convicts in the early 1830’s it also later became the Hobart gaol, courtrooms and execution site. We toured the mysterious courtrooms, tunnels and gallows by flickering lamplight. We heard stories of strange happenings, murder trials and grim executions. Sadly for us however, all the ghosts appeared to have taken a night off and we didn’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary, which made the whole tour rather amusing really. Even so, Tristan was still in our bedroom at 3am having had a bad dream! He did take this picture below of the gallows which you will notice has mysterious orbs all over it. Personally I think they are just out of focus dust specs caught in the camera flash, but he’s not so convinced.
After doing Salamanca Market and celebrating Grandma’s 75th birthday on Saturday night at one of Hobart’s nicest restaurants, we found ourselves at the end of our holiday. Now back home in Sydney, life is steadily drifting back to normal. Monte Dog was ecstatic to see us of course, Janice had cleaned the house from top to bottom and done all the ironing – a lovely treat. It’s back to school this week – hip hip hooray, but also back to work for me and Teacher Mum – boo hoo. For now though, the Simpsons are once again droning on endlessly from the tv, several loads of washing have been done and Mum is currently doing a supermarket run. Me… why I have fish cakes to make!
: Dad
