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July 25th – 27th. Agnes Waters
-A tired reintroduction to sea, sand, fish, chips and the year 1770
We arrived in the small seaside town of Agnes Waters in a rather sorry state, so much so that when the minibus sent by the hostel to collect us from the bus stop completed this epic 2 minute journey I’d have been hard pressed to tell you how to get back. Tired, in a word. (Censored) tired, in two. Still at least the hostel turned out to be good, ace in fact.
Despite the somewhat lame name of ‘cool bananas’, which brought to mind unwelcome images of battery farmed teenagers drinking goon and emptying their stomachs onto the person sleeping on the bunk bellow, it was in fact a small, actually rather beautiful, hippish place – with artwork plastered all over the walls, plants and flowers liberally splashed around (especially in the garden...who’d have thought?), odd ‘is it cool or utter rubbish?’ kooky statues and hanging things and, mercy, an whole assortment of hammocks. All this was nice and all, but upon arriving the first thing that was called for was a shower...thankfully the place also had plenty of these!
Oh I almost forgot, most important of all in the hostels respectably long list of positives was the FREE tea...actually this isn’t too rare a thing in hostels...but it was pushed up to the next level by the addition of free milk too...I admit I took full advantage of this most kind offer!
Clean and not feeling as tired as we perhaps should anymore we shot off for a quick circuit around the town. This didn’t take all that long but was pleasant enough, a few decent (if probably pricey) looking cafes and food places plus the occasional temptation creating shop...keeping the thought in mind that anything I buy I’d have to cart around on my back for the next 3rd of a year allowed me to boost my resolve! There were a large number of tourists (including ourselves!) around but it didn’t totally ruin the place as that sometimes does...yeah, it was a pretty decent place really.
After a tea pit stop back at the hostel we strolled down to the beach, as we turned the final bend onto it I was somewhat taken aback by the sight of, Liz reckons this is an exaggeration but I’m sticking by it, hundreds of people lounging around on its sandy shores and what looked like half that many again in the water, most of those with surf boards. Apparently surfing here is a big deal...maybe I should have a crack at some point before I leave...that’ll have to be leave the country as opposed to leave Agnes Waters as I never got round to it there...still, much time left I suppose! Any initial concerns of overcrowding were easy dashed when I turned my head 90 degrees left and saw that the beach went off beyond vanishing point, we walked for a couple of minutes along it and sat ourselves down in a relatively quiet spot. Perhaps I was just unhinged from the previous night but I really felt the beach was particularly picturesque for some reason I can’t name...I was enjoying myself so who needs justification really? Over the next couple of hours I read, played some uke, wandering up and down the beach a bit, did some poi and, I admit it, slept too. Occasionally I talked to Liz too. Someone has to.
All that exertion took it out of us and, even after even more tea (I think personally I had two cups in rapid succession,) we were feeling that a very, very early night was likely on the cards. However we were saved the indignity of falling asleep before the sun set by some of the hostel staff offering to drive us up to the town of 1770 to watch the sun do just that. The place is only 10 minutes up the road and, yes, it is an extremely preposterous name. They didn’t just pick the figure out of thin air, that’s the date that Captain Cook landed on the continent... (Can you see this coming?) at this very point. It’s possible the town has been known by a different name at some point...or perhaps was built on mass one day to take advantage of this selling point...I direct you to Google. I can’t really comment on what the place is like, but can say that if you want to watch a sunset there are certainly worst places than sat on the rocks down by the sea. It wasn’t the best sunset I’ve ever seen by a good measure but there’s no such thing as a terrible sunset so it was a half hour well spent. Possibly overshadowing the sunset was the action going on behind us, as literally (even Liz agrees) hundred, possibly thousands, of rainbow lorikeets flew in to nest on some trees overhanging where the minibus was parked. It was loud when we arrived and only got louder and louder...as we left it could almost have been used for some sort of noise torture. Very memorable though...and very, very odd!
Slightly invigorated by our mini-journey we threw all caution to the wind and had takeaway for dinner, the height of extravagance in light of our budget. Fish and chips by the sea (well, in the hostel five minutes’ walk from the sea), it was all very English really, though a cup of chai (rationed from packs we’ve taken to occasionally buying) added a certain exotic flavour I suppose. And all that was left to do after that was to head off to bed. It must have been, oh, 7.30, maybe 8 at a stretch. Long overdue.
The following day, our second and final full one, started off as a wet one but by the sneaky plan of refusing to leave bed until it cleared up, at least a little, I was able to avoid seeing any actual heavy rain. Plenty of grey skies but no actual rain. Clearly this was absolutely perfect weather for a long wander down the beach...at least it was nowhere near as packed as yesterday...indeed the fickle masses seemed to have all but deserted it, only a handful of devoted (AKA nothing else to give their lives meaning) surfers adding a small dollop of human presence. In spite of the weather it was a pleasant walk up the beach...the walk back proved more of a struggle but at least we got some exercise. We celebrated via a bakery and an extremely sweet caramel slice, which I couldn’t quite finish so carried around the final tiny mouthful in my pocket until the late afternoon, at which point it provided a welcome snack.
There was also wine in the afternoon.
Sleep followed and the only notable thing about the following day in which we left was that we left.
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