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Published: June 22nd 2017
Geo: -34.3333, 150.917
Bulli beach is a good place for a walk, first along the cycle path in order to look at the huge houses overlooking the sea, some very weird architecture for the huge amount of money that must have been spent on them, and then back along the beach which has some lovely rocks to clamber over as well as long sandy stretches. Parking is easy and free and we were lucky to get a bright warm day on March 19th as the day before had been very windy and rainy.
That evening we were in Wollongong for Robbie's 40th birthday surprise party and BBQ. He is red haired of Celtic descent so the theme of the party was red. Helen and Wildy have a dressing up box so they had no problem. Stefan wore a pink shirt and a pair of red horns, while Tiz had red top and red hair dye. Wildy did all the cooking for the BBQ and it was a good party- mostly the sky diving crowd, who are all very friendly and chatty.
The following day we set off for Berry on another fine sunny day. Berry is a pretty town with lots of twee gift
shops, which unfortunately were also rather expensive. Our aim was to have lunch at a lovely restaurant called the Hungry Duck. Disappointingly it was closed as were all the other restaurants in Berry, so don't go there on a Tuesday. Heading back down the coast we tried Gerringong, which also had several closed restaurants. However the SeaVista cafe which is BYO was open so we had a tasty seafood lunch on the terrace overlooking the sea and lunch washed down with a couple of bottles of Rose wine.
Back home it was sunny and warm enough to sit in the garden and read. Sadly Wildy and Douggs had to leave to work offshore on the rigs for 4 weeks. Douggs had presented Helen with a "coffin table"- a real coffin and I don't know how he got it but with my old med school skull –Egbert- on top it serves as a very fetching table. I took a picture of Helen vacuuming the inside as I thought that is a sight you don't see every day! She intends for Wildy to keep his skydiving kit in it.
Another pleasant walk we did was round a bit of Lake Illawarra, which is a
huge lake and people do sail on it but on a Wednesday it was very quiet except for Pelicans and other birds. Lunch was back in Wollongong at the Lagoon restaurant. The salads are huge and we could have shared one. Stefan had oysters as usual. Locally here they are served with a sort of rosemarie sauce which is fortunately on the side so can be avoided. We did find one restaurant, the Dune's Brasserie near the harbour which presents them properly with a vinaigrette dressing. It turned out the chef was from London so knew how to do them. The soft shelled crab here was good too. Another place which does excellent soft shelled crab is the Pai Tong Thai restaurant in Woonona. The crispy duck here is fabulous too and it is also BYO with only small corkage fee. Wished we had BYO in the UK, it would save a lot of money.
On our last day in Bulli we finally managed to get to the Nan Tien Temple, which is the largest in Australia and possibly in the southern hemisphere. A path leads up to a beautiful Gratitude Bell which you can ring to honour your parents
and family. The temple area is very peaceful and contained in very pleasant grounds and is well worth a visit. It also contains a museum and shop as well as a dining hall selling very cheap vegetarian food but no alcohol. Needless to say we headed back to the Gong for lunch! Have just realized that most of my blogs are about food but that it what we like on holiday.
Sitting out on Helen's deck of an early evening the wild parrots came down to feed out of our hands. We have also seen a Kookaburra a couple of times on the tree in the back garden.
As I sit here typing this blog, Stefan is cooking paella and showing Helen how to do it. There will be 7 of us for the dinner party and yet more wine will be consumed. I cannot believe we have been here for nearly 2 weeks, just do not know where the time has gone.
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tricia
non-member comment
it is v v macabre -not sure I like it cos I'm so superstitious...but it looks useful...