Tomaree - tall mountain (D9)

Tomaree is the Aboriginal word for tall mountain. Coincidentally there's a tall mountain over looking Shoal Bay called Tomaree. It' a steady rise of about 631m from the bay and takes 20 minutes or so. We are helped by steps and walk ways. The locals call it 'heart break hill' as the more energetic ones run up it.

At it's summit there's a wonderful view of Shoal Bay and other surrounding bays that make up Port Stephen. You can see the beaches exposed to the Pacific Ocean directly and the ones protected from it's power. Some of those waves are awesome even from the safety of a mountain top.

Shoal bay is one of the gentle ones. The story goes that the area belonged to the Woromi Aboriginal tribe. Belongs or belonged, I'm not sure. Anyway they would climb Tomaree from where they could see shoals of fish entering the bay. They'd then rush down and catch them. Can you imagine their faces if, when they got back down, the fish had gone?

We did the climb in the late afternoon before dinner. It was cooler by then.

In the morning we'd been on the beach. We began with a stroll, dragging our feet in the, at first, cold sea. This place is so Mauritius and we resolve to definitely visit there together. Marilyn & Viv's children have never seen the Island and Marilyn hasn't been since coming to Australia age 9. She's never been back. Mind you, I've only been back once and that was interrupted by a call back home. I went with my own brother and sisters and our children.

On that occasion we'd hired a Campmant or beach villa, just like in the old days. Each family had a separate one. The kids played amongst themselves and the adults did their own thing either together or separately. It was just as our childhood was, a huge extended family.

A cousin relationship is different from either close friend or sibling relationship. You can choose or loose your friends, and as time goes by they come and go. Siblings are just always there whether you like them or not. You'd trust them with you life and rely on them in times of need. You grew up with them wherever the family went.

Cousins are somewhere in between. They can ask questions friends wouldn't know to ask and sibs wouldn'd dare to ask. Cousins can be gone for 40 years and you can pick up with them instantly. Cousins know the dark family secrets that no one talks about. Cousins can be irreverent. Well these two can anyway.

Earlier, lunch had been a bit of a drama, well a minor drama anyway. I had asked for a ham sandwich. $8.50. It came as two bits of white sliced bread with a piece of boiled ham in between. I would have just silently moaned about it, but the girls took it back, got the money back and we stormed off 'disgusted'. The trouble is everywhere else was closed. In the end we had to get in the car and went to the neighbouring Nelson bay. Apparently all the men in the family are useless, so it's not just me.

In the evening there appears to be a gathering of conference goers. The exiled white male tribe of old England are in town. In the only bar around it's good to see that the ancient drinking rites have been preserved, handed down from one generation to the next. They are dressed in their national costume of course. Shorts, snugly fitting T shirts with witty sayings on them , and trainers.

I guess they're getting ready for the run up Tomaree. D'ya reckon?