The white Renault van we had borrowed to tour Australia, needed to be returned much as we had found it, to a parking spot in the Warriewood suburb of Sydney. (Coincidentally close to my brother and his wife’s Bayview home and our destination).
We now had two or three days left of our journey and could probably fit in a few more cousin visits.
The first of those was to a lovely young woman who had recently found me on Ancestry as a result of our having a very close DNA match. She was clearly a first cousin but completely unknown to me, or any of us!
As we were coming to Australia from London, and passing near her home town we decided to swing by. The child of a very young single parent Mum, she was largely raised by grandparents and is now searching for her biological father, who had never been identified. Indeed he would not have known she existed.
And by chance, she had found a group of us, who had submitted our DNA to Ancestry, that appeared closely related.
TD,whose name shall be suppressed, gave us the opportunity to swing by Mittagong near Bowral where she was raised, and call in. There we met a delightful woman and her nursery aged child, with an interesting back story.
She has yet to connect with her biological father, but in the age of DNA testing, we are sure that she will eventually be connected to half siblings if not her Dad. In the meantime we wish her and her little family well.
We found ourselves with a day to spare and realised we were in striking distance from Vincentia where my Cousin, Barbara Peattie lived. She and her husband Ian had moved out from Nowra to a property they had newly commissioned and whilst we had seen the vacant plot 5 years ago, we had never seen the finished article.
What I had not realised was that between Bowral and Vincentia was the Great Dividing Range and the very long steep downhill descent towards the coast via Kangaroo Valley. This we had done before 5 years earlier, and the views over the lower valley through the trees were stunning. Roadworks to treat subsidence made the going slow and it was amazing how much height we had picked up before our descent.
We arrived at Vincentia having driven through busy Nowra, and we were impressed by how settled their new estate, property and gardens were. We were also amazed at the extent of evidence of kangaroos on the close cropped grass. The property bordered the forest and the Roos helped themselves to the garden vegetation at night. The price you pay for an untamed rural outlook.
It was good to see Ian and Barbara and we were fed and watered and sent on our way the next morning. (Ian is well remembered by us for his recent visit to us in France where he lugged quite a lot of stone around to improve the planting of our farmhouse property!)
I was due to see Barbara again at the end of our trip when we set off together for Norfolk Island. But she is here with her dog Lily, looking after her daughter Jemma’s dog!
The next day was a short hop from Vincentia via Nowra back to Bayview, Sydney. The car needed to be cleaned, the fridge emptied and everything needed to be packed. We had spent our last night in the van and Jim’s trip in Australia was at an end.
My brother and his wife were welcoming us back to their home in Bayview for Jim’s last night and Ford was on early airport duty for Jim who was flying to New York to link up with his own family. By now we had sampled about 31 of my Australian relations over two months and I guess he was now doing something similar in the USA but over 3 weeks!
Having handed the van back a day early, I had time to explore a bit more on foot around Mona Vale and Bayview on the Pittwater Peninsula, before my own departure for Norfolk Island.
I had a bit of time also to explore my brother’s amazing untamed rainforest garden at Waterfall Cottage.
On my last day in Pittwater, I walked from Bayview Beach down to Church Point along the waters edge. The area was popular with leisure boats and many vessels were moored and bobbing about gently in the light breeze. I cannot deny that I was envious of those with views over the water and the balmy Australian climate. This was still winter and the sun was shining and people were out surfing and some were even in shorts and tea shirts.
When I reached Church Point I decided to hop on a local ferry to Scotland Island. My brother had recommended this and had recently got married to his wife on the Island just off shore. I had no expectations but it was a $10 boat fare for a round trip and promised a walk.
What I had not reckoned on, was just what a friendly experience I had. Starting with the ferry boatman who advised on a walking route, and the two women, one English, I met who were resident on the island and were returning from a local shopping trip for basic provisions.
It was possible to walk around the island in less than an hour and to pick up the ferry boat in the same spot an hour later, and complete the journey and return to Church Point.
This is clearly an enchanted place. I wanted to stay forever. I was hooked. I was looking at For Sale boards as I picked my way around the path, deliberately getting myself lost so that I could penetrate more forested paths. Every now and then glimpses of the water appeared through the trees. No property overlooked another and the wild vegetation clambered over and around the gardens.
Out of the blue a man, also English with a French wife, appeared on the path and cheerfully greeted me and announced that there were quite a few English refugees on Scotland Island. He had an architect designed property hidden back in the trees and he showed me photos on his phone. About 10 minutes later I had got the gist of his life story and went on my way!
As I was completing my circuit through the beguiling bird and plant filled forest, I realized that I was in danger of missing the return ferry and I pushed on down the track as I could hear a throbbing boat in the distance. I ran along the track and saw people disembarking below me. I nearly gave up, resigned to another hour or even a lifetime on Scotland Island, when people who passed me said, he is waiting for you! I reached the boat and the skipper said, he had been looking for me as he knew I would be wanting to get back! (Little did he know!)
I met two more Islanders on my return, one of whom was an £10 Pom. I told them how friendly I thought everyone was, including those I had met on the way out.
She enthused about her book group, as had the previous English woman I had spoken to. I showed her a photo of the friends I had made on the outward journey and it turned out they belonged to the same book group!
On our return, the ferry dropped in to Lovett Bay. The Islanders told me that there were great walks there if I wanted to disembark. It was on the mainland but only accessible by boat.
I had walked enough for one day, but will make it out there if I return. This time I stayed on till I reached the disembarkment at Church Point, next to the little General Store and Waterside Cafe and I realized now, how important the little ferry stop was for those coming back and forth from the Island. People working in the City crossed back and forth and left cars in a reserved mainland car park.
When I got back to Waterfall Cottage enthusing about my Scotland Island experience, my brother capped it off by pressing a book (Salvation Creek, Susan Duncan) into my hand, written by an author who had chosen to buy a property in Lovett Bay and had ended up also living on the island and finding herself. For the author, the island had given her something important that was missing in her life and in my short visit, I had a glimpse of that. What a fab way to end my trip.
Thanks to Ford, my brother and Yasmina for our stay and for taking us to the airport so early in the morning. I departed for Norfolk Island and hope perhaps we will stay in touch now we have all met up in this magical place.
