Rainy Day at Easy Cafe

I awoke to discover, rather annoyingly, that some little critter had discovered my porridge oats overnight and had been helping themselves to them, along with my chicken stock cubes! The ragged hole in the plastic bag housing the oats didn't give too many clues to the culprits, and there were plenty to choose from, including rodents, marsupials and a range of birds including two scrub turkeys who were jousting for territory on my front doorstep. I threw the rest of the oats away, just to be on the safe side and resolved to find something more substantial for breakfast in recompense.

After a hot, powerful shower (= the two most important aspects of any shower experience), I put my electrics in a rucksack, added a raincoat and wandered back down the hill into town. This time I found the town beach and some promising patches of blue sky, although these were mostly being mobbed in an intimidatory manner by sizeable, threatening columns of cumulonimbi. I made a point of hunting down the bus-stop so that I knew where I'd be heading to get to Shute Harbour the following morning. This, however, proved to be harder than first expected, as most of the town's streets were in the process of being dug up for prettification. The main street was partly one-way, partly governed by the Stop-Go lady (what a shite job that must be…especially on a blustery, rainy day such as it was. I eventually found the bus-stop, which was cunningly disguised as a non-bus-stop - i.e. there was not the usual yellow sign to indicate it's purpose. The giveaway was the other sign that said 'No Parking - Bus Stop', which you literally had to be standing in front of to see.

Rain, rain, go away...

Airlie Beach

Having toured all of the little back-alleys and shopping centres, I plumped for the Easy Cafe and Deli to enjoy breakfast - it looked pretty relaxed, had free wi-fi and access to power points to charge batteries and laptops. I ordered a long black and pancakes with crispy bacon and maple syrup before sitting down at the window and watching the heavens open outside. Coffee arrived first and was the best I'd had so far in Australia - rich, smooth and bloody strong. This was the beginning of a beautiful relationship and I continued to be impressed with arrival of my pancakes: fluffy, chewy confections with just the right amount of crisp around the edges, accompanied by a boat of maple syrup, fresh  butter and bacon that was done to perfection - all the fat crisped up nicely but the meat still tender and succulent. I savoured each mouthful (not my usual style, I know!), washed down with delicious coffee and decided to treat myself to lunch in the same establishment.

Outside the wind blew and the rain fell, inside I was entertained with live music and making good use of the internet connection to add photos and stories from Karijini and Litchfield. In reality, I had wanted to travel out to Hook Island and stay there for a night by myself before Dave arrived. But with the shitty weather and lack of available boats, I had been semi-forced into staying on the mainland. Having such a productive day blogging was ample recompense…and the food was about to get even better.

Initially, I'd got all excited about the calamari salad, only to have my hopes dashed by a lack of calamari. Determined to enjoy seafood whilst on the coast, I opted instead for the garlic prawns. At only 15 dollars, I expected a starter-sized portion but was pleasantly surprised to be served up an enormous, mouth-watering bowl. On the side, were four chunky slices of toasted brioche and a smattering of salad. In the centre was a heaped mound of smaller prawns, accompanied by finely chopped shallots, garlic, parsley and a cream and white wine sauce - immense! On the other side of the plate were five gargantuan tiger prawns, cooked to perfection and with shells that came off without the slightest trouble (thus avoiding splashing the laptop screen nicely). I felt that I couldn't have chosen better food if I'd tried, the staff were friendly and helpful without being in any way pushy and, all in all, for a day lashed with wind and rain, I don't feel I could have done any better for myself. I ambled back to the campsite via the supermarket, where I bought ingredients for risotto once again, with a mind for something easy to cook that night and the following day out on the island with Dave. I spent the rest of the afternoon booking travel options and doing research about activities for Dave and I. 

Later that evening, I used the excellent cooking facilities in the kitchen and got chatting to a group of girls while I ate my risotto. There was an English one, a Welsh one and an Irish one…no, this isn't a joke…and we just exchanged the usual traveller info (Where've you been? How long are you here for? What do you do? etc. etc.). They were all lovely but I had common ground with the Irish lass, Sorcha (pronounced 'sir-ka'), who was also a teacher on her summer holidays. They were playing cards and I didn't want to gatecrash so I made my excuses once I'd finished eating and went off to do my washing-up. Some of my fellow backpackers' kitchen hygiene left a lot to be desired and I had to empty out the plughole and rinse the sink before I could do the necessary - but this was a small price to pay for being able to use a sink and not needing to boil up my own washing-up water ;-)

I headed out to the Shed and sat out to one side so that I could use the bench and the wifi, without stopping other people from having fun.

I'd barely started typing when I found that I had company - Sorcha had wandered over with a bottle of beer and asked if I minded me joining her. I was quite keen to get on with my writing but she was both attractive and interesting and I'm not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth…well, not too much anyway. We spent a good hour and more gassing about our travels and, inevitably, ended up doing what all teachers do: talking about our jobs. This was all well and good (if you love what you do, it's never a bind to talk about it) until we started to mentioning kids that we were going to be working with the following academic year…before we knew it, our travelling bubble was in danger of being burst by being forced to remember that we'd soon be heading home.

Judging by the forwardness of her approach, I was guessing that Sorcha might be keen on me - although I really wasn't sure. I didn't want to have a late night before meeting Dave the next day - it had been a long time since we'd been able to catch up properly and we'd no doubt be talking late into the night - so I didn't have the luxury of asking her to come out somewhere else for another drink to test my suspicions. In the end, I made a pretty blunt reference to bed-time and, somewhat deflated, we both went our separate ways. I had managed to glean from her that she'd be back from her Whitsundays boat cruise in a few days and I knew that I'd still be around then, after Dave had returned to Melbourne. I figured we'd have another chance to bump into each other if it was supposed to be so.