The Wait.

It has been two weeks since we bought the van and yet we are still waiting for delivery. It has also been two weeks since we gave back the rental car and thus our independence. Being without a car in a country that is rarely without rain and excessive wind is hard. We have done everything that we can think of that we can get to by foot. We have walked the coastline just about every day and while it is very beautiful it is starting to get mildly monotonous. We have been making the most of it of though and I must say that I am becoming quite the avid rock hopper! 

Rock hopping is rad. Rich is a rad rock hopper, he just flies across the rocks like he’s running on a path. Lowen is not. If I look up or pause for 2 seconds Rich is all of a sudden about 50 meters ahead of me, but I’m getting there. Obviously, the tide comes in and goes out here every day, but I’ve never actually been so affected by tides. We’ve not been able to climb yet as the crag here gets almost completely submerged at high tide so you not only have to wait for the tide to drop, but for the rock to dry, and ‘dry’ also happens to depend on if it’s raining or not. Unfortunately for us, we’ve not yet been able to catch it dry. 

So we have been rock hopping. The tides just make this fun. Some days we can run low, others we have to stick to the top. Sometimes we just go as fast as we can, others we take our time and forage in the rock pools and zawns. There is so much seaweed of so many different shades of green. I swear one of them is wakame and I really want to eat it but I’m too scared! I don’t think it helps that you literally can not get sushi anywhere here so I am totally craving it, but I’m very very tempted to eat it straight from the water. It would be just my luck though that I would get some hectic bacterial infection and that would be the end of my great adventure. 

Our rock hopping missions have been a great way to pass the time, overcome boredom and provide a little bit of time to reflect on life back in Oz. When I was a child, my dad used to always have a smooth rock with him that he called a rest rock. We were exploring the other day and came across this little bay area that was literally all rest rocks. Thousands and thousands of small, super smooth rocks and handfuls of bright green sea glass. It was so beautiful, like a playground of rest rocks. Funnily enough, it was called Rest Bay. 

We have been having fun and enjoying our time here with Lara, Rich’s sister. We went to Nash Point the other day to do the lighthouse walk and visit a traditional pub that brews it own cider. Having become quite the cider addict, I was very excited. Typically, as we had planned to do something outdoors, it was raining and super windy and very cold. So the walk got cut short which was a shame as it was a very pretty area and would have been lovely to walk down the hillside to the shore below. So, off to the Plough and Harrow we went. I had ask La where we could go to have a real ‘pub experience’ and this certainly didn’t disappoint. Made completely of stone, with all wooden interior, it had low set ceilings and a fireplace just as I had hope. Add to that home brewed cider on tap and Lowen is one happy girl! La order the Welsh Warrior, a traditional apple cider of 6.0%. I got the Perry which was a pear and apple mix and was 6.5%. Both were super yummy but all agreed that the Welsh Warrior was the better of the two. Rich got an ale, the Gower Gold, also very impressive. All the drinks were still which was weird I thought but they were still really good. Already a little tipsy, Rich and I decided to try a pint of the 7.2% Black Dragon. It was so good, but needless to say, dinner couldn’t come quick enough! It was a great night, heaps of fun and I think I may have made the waiter giggle as I was pretty much talking gibberish by the time we ordered! 

Hopefully our van will be here by Wednesday so then it is heads down bums up. We will be working around the clock to get it insulated and fitted out so we can be on our way.