I am well on the way down the NSW South Coast.
I had a long chat with my neighbours in the Bulli Caravan Park. One were a middle aged couple from Taunton in Somerset. The others were a young Welsh couple. Both couples were travelling around Australia by van.
The English couple had travelled from Darwin down to Alice Springs, across to Cairns and down the Queensland and NSW coast.. They really impressed by what they had seen so far, but less impressed by the AUD/GBP exchange rate. The husband turned out to be a ‘cricket tragic’ and we chatted for sometime about the Somerset and other teams. During the late seventies and early eighties Somerset had the privilege of having the Vivian Richards and Joel Garner as ‘foreign’ players and Ian Botham, one of the all great English all rounders on their playing list. Richards and Garner were members of West Indies team that dominated world cricket in the late seventies and eighties. My West Country acquaintance was at pains to point out that man for man that West Indies team was far better than the Australian team at that time. He went on to claim they were better than Australian teams before a since. He had all the statistics at his disposal. In deference to his wife, whose ‘eye rolling’ suggested that she had heard all of this before and had had enough, I was forced to agree.
The young Welsh couple ‘ listened’ to the cricket discussion while playing very close attention to their iPads. I suspect they were not checking the claims being made on the West Indian statistics. When the conversation opened up, the Welsh couple said they desperate to stay in Australia. They had been getting unskilled jobs, but wanted to find an employer that would sponsor them for permanent residency. They said that “despite having university degrees, they didn’t have the skills on the Department of Immigration’s point list”. They seemed to be precisely to sort of migrant that Australia needs.
The route from Bulli took me down the bike track that hugs the coast to Wollongong. The beach shacks along the path are rapidly being demolished and being replaced with mansions, some with architectural merit, others less so.
I stopped briefly at the City Beach which, as it name suggests, is adjacent to the Wollongong CBD. This is similar to Newcastle, the other ‘steel city’, which is the north of Sydney. It is not surprising that both cities seeing a resurgence based on their proximity to the beach.
The bike path was clogged with riders, runners and walkers mainly over 50 years old. Wollongong and similar Australian towns and cities such as Newcastle, Byron Bay, Noosa, Geelong and the Gold Coast must have the fittest 50 plus population on the planet. This does not bode well for the nation’s health care costs in the future as will not die young.
A couple stopped to chat with me on the path near the City Beach. Seeing the bike, the bloke said: “See that Jan it’s a Cannondale, single fork – nice”. I did point out that it had two front forks because it was old. Even Cannondale’s technology had not extended to the ability to carry two front panniers on one front fork.
Leaving the beach, the path passed the WIN Stadium, one the home grounds of the merged St George and Illawara Rugby League team. The team was training on an outside ground next to the stadium. The forwards were down one end and the backs at the other end. With only a cursory look, it would not be easy to workout who were the forwards and who were the backs. They all look the same – very big. This is huge contrast to the 70’s and before when the forwards, e.g. Arthur Beetson were big, and the backs e.g. Changa Langlands were skinny. It seems something has made all the players the same. The couple that chatted to me at the beach rode past when it was watching the practice session. The bloke said; “if you want any steroids, just call out” to the trainers”.
Just south of the Wollongong CBD, the path leads into Port Kembla the site of the former BHP, now Bluescope, Steel Works. BHP Billiton was exited the steel business and is now that world’s largest mining and energy company. Their CEO has announced this retirement at the age of 51 this week. Comments on that at a latter time.
Leaving the Bluescope Plant area, I came across the ‘Steel Works Hotel’. A sign out the front promised great things for Friday; ” Waitress from 4pm to 8 pm and a Meat Tray Raffle and 7.30 pm. Looking around at the customers at lunch time on Monday wasn’t sure which of the forgoing would have been the greater attraction.
I ended up in Kiama. I will talk about the fire at the IGA store later.
billrider2013 