This week saw us going into the Australian capital Canberra, a most odd place. Like everywhere here, there is so much space with vast parks areas and roads that easily accommodate the traffic but it has a strange “we’re closed” vibe. We went on a Monday but it felt like Lymington on a Sunday. It’s formation might give some clues. The area has been inhabited by Indigenous Australians for up to 21,000 years and was chosen as the capital in 1913 following a long dispute over whether Sydney or Melbourne should be the national capital. A compromise was reached and the new capital would be built in New South Wales, so long as it was at least 100 miles from Sydney. Unlike most capital cities that have developed over time and for which people congregate for a reason, Canberra is not a place people flock to. What’s more it was also designed by architects. As such it’s a bit like a large Milton Keynes….without the traffic. After a week by the coast, it did however mean we got to see more of the inland and our first sight of the Snowy Mountains. This is a beautiful area which for a large part of the year, as the name suggests, is capped in the white fluffy stuff. We even went so far as to watch a film that night of the same name. I wouldn’t recommend adding it to your watch list but it had horses, so Lottie was happy.  

It was Lottie’s birthday this week, something we hadn’t celebrated with her since her 18th and which now feels like a lifetime away. In a rare case of self-confidence, we decided we would show the locals how the English do BBQ’s, so Lottie invited some people close to her around to the Airbnb for the evening. It was a great success and whilst we couldn’t provide any rain, Stuart did manage to burn all the food and with the guests exhausting our booze supply and falling off chairs and into fires, it was just like being at home, so all’s well that ends well. An outcome of the party was that one of the guests, a guy called Cameron Williams mentioned, he did pottery. Well that was it, Fran wouldn’t leave him alone all evening until eventually after being pestered continuously he asked us if we wanted to come and have a go on the wheel!!!

Now to say that Cameron “does” pottery is a bit of an understatement, the guy is a Master Potter specialising in the larger constructions and creates some of the most amazing big pots Cameron Williams Pottery (@cameron_williams_pottery) • Instagram photos and videos.  Of course he wasn’t going to have us wasting any of his 10 tons of clay on something so difficult and instead we were shown how to throw simple bowls. Considering Stu’s newfound ability to break most of those contained within our Airbnb’s it might prove a useful skill for us both have. We had a hilarious afternoon being taught by a true master of his craft who can throw a complex 1m high urn blindfold. Whilst the results varied, with Stuart’s masterpiece actually looking like he had been blindfold, we all managed at least one bowl we could  use to replace those we broke at the house.  

We had another go at fishing this week and hired some rods and our own “tinny”, a little flat bottomed thing, and went out into the waterways of Tuross head with the deluded expectation once more of catching our supper. All we will say about the trip was we saw some amazing wildlife and topped up our tans. However, another outcome of meeting Cameron the potter was that after hearing about our fishing “expertise” he invited us out on his boat at the weekend for a spot of fishing. We were a bit reluctant as we’d run out of sunscreen but he assured us that this time it would be different. Let’s see what next week brings.