We headed out of town on the Princes Highway today, a road running south from the city, which goes under the runway at Mascot and across Tom Ugly's Bridge into Sutherlandshire, or The Shire as it's known.
About forty-five minutes out of the city you arrive at the Royal National Park, which covers a massive 15,000 hectares of land along the coastline, including some of the coast along the Port Hacking inlet (like Sydney Harbour but without the deep water chanels, which is why it wasn't chosen as the site of the first colony).
We stopped for lunch and a laze on the beach at the little township of Bundeena on Port Hacking. The road through the park felt so much like Wales or The New Forest, it turned out we'd both been imagining there would be a tea room at the end of it, but alas no, just a few cafes and an IGA supermarket (eye-jays), which sold a range of goods from tinned ham to yard brushes but nothing you'd especially want to eat (I've no idea how they manage out here when the causeways in the park get flooded and they're cut off, though spam fritters have a certain retro-cool I suppose).
In the cafe I narrowly avoided a full-blown arguement with a local man, who took one look at me reading the front page of the paper and announced
"The parents did it"
"Sorry?"
"That Madeleine story - it was the parents"
and then he started sniggering like either Beavis or Butthead and I felt forced to defend the McCanns because I don't believe they are involved and I sense an enormous miscarriage of justice brewing in Portugal, though perhaps I just don't want to believe it.
"No they didn't do it. And it's not even funny" I snapped
And then he shut up and didn't dare look at us again, especially after he registered the British accents, which suited me fine.
Anyway, we returned to the city under the runway and marvelled at the weather back in the city, which had been copping it all afternoon; the sky scrapers still shrouded in sheets of rain. Then a British Airways 747 thundered across the top of the road tunnel just as we were about to go underneath. When the weather's like this I wish I was bound for Heathrow too.
It's raining on Mr Howard's parade this week, but at least it's kept the protestors at bay. They believe in climate change alright, they just don't want to be out in it.
2 comments:
You should have reminded that man about the Australian baby who was eaten by a dingo (Azaria Chamberlain). The mother was imprisoned after the Australian police bungled the investigation. It took many years for them to admit the mistake and re-open the case.
Hmmm, I don't see how it could have been the parents. Since they've been unable to even fart without the press reporting it, I don't see how they could have quietly snook off and re-buried their daughter's body without anyone knowing.
Tragic story, I doubt she's alive but can't we just leave the parents alone and give them and everybody else a break until we actually know something for definite rather than just speculation? It's turned into a worldwide freak show rather than one family's tragedy.
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