Monday morning and the Riverboat Postman's "Office" was open for business. I feared that 114 school children, lined up at the wharf, would join us until I heard they were headed for a camp at Palm Beach. Phew!
As we sat down for our huge ploughman's (or should that be postman's ?) lunch, I looked around and discovered that we were all "seniors", some more so than others.
The skipper and owner, Ben, gave a very informative and often witty narrative as we left Brooklyn (or what he called "the fishing village with a drinking problem"), dropped off some mail at Dangar Island and sailed past Long Island (Long Island - Brooklyn - New York; got it? anyway, it is a long island ☺ )
He told us of the sometimes amusing history of Peat Island and Milson Island and pointed out to us what little was left of HMAS Parramatta, before dropping off some more mail (and passengers) at Bar Point and then heading for the far reaches at Marlow Creek.
It was here where some of the shots for the movie Oyster Farmer were taken. This particular voyeur regretted the skipper's failure to point out the jetty on which the salacious encounter between Diana Glenn and Alex O'Loughlin took place ☺ - you can watch it in this clip.
I washed my regrets down with another glass of Chateau Cardboard from the well-stocked onboard bar and wondered what it would be like to live in one of these tiny riverside settlements. Then I heard a little voice inside me saying, "Hang on a minute! You already live on a beautiful river in one of the most beautiful places on the South Coast!"
Indeed I do, and I'll be back there again tomorrow!
Click below for the other parts:
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 6
