While our Canberra was deluged with a month's worth of rain in a little over an hour yesterday, we headed south, over Clyde Mountain, to beautiful (and rain soaked) Rosedale for our annual lobster lunch .......
This is what a lot of (North) Canberra looked like yesterday not long after we left .....
.. but beautiful, fresh, in season, South Coast lobsters (Finer Foods Bateman's Bay) wait for no man (or woman) ..... (Thank you for the pic Judy L)
We were on our own again this year (the 12th year of lobster lunches we think! see here, here, here, here, here, #here, here, here, and here) - our "Slick" caterers Jane and Louise have closed their gourmet business and nothing will persuade them to do it all again for us... sigh!
Fiona and James made the trek from Melbourne for this. They were in charge of first course oysters (Bernie's at Bateman's Bay).
We had to set up inside the beach house this year, due to the rain. Jennie and Wayne are missing this year (the siren call of the crows in the vineyard) and it's not the same without them!
Maxie's grilled peach salad was devine (Love Yotam!!), a perfect pairing with the lobster (best ever lobster we think) ....(Thank you for the pic Fiona)
And another Yotam O. salad: "Tomato Party"
It was this special lady's birthday today - how lucky we were to share it with her. Judy's spectacular surprise dessert inspired us all - the deconstructed Bombe with mango and passionfruit!!
Thankfully the parrots were prepared to brave the showers and front up for their feed after our lunch was done (but not the kookaburras today).....
Thank you Judy and Jurgen for hosting these wonderful lobster lunches - you've been doing this at least 12 years for us, inspiring us to appreciate food and friendship and your very special Rosedale location to a whole new level...... always unforgettable!
A few pics from our early morning beach walk yesterday .....
These narrow fishing boats (powered by an outboard motor) come into shore at a great rate of knots - but there's no jetty or mooring point here. The boats have to be physically lifted up onto the beach before the day's catch can be unloaded.
It's hard work, inch by inch ...........
But it looks like a good day's catch .....
It's been a perfect end to a fabulous holiday to have a few nights here on the beach at Hikkaduwa. It's like Kuta Beach in Bali must have been 30 years ago, but no touts, no traffic jams and not too many Australians either. No doubt the beautiful Villa 46 with its smiling, well trained staff has made it extra special for us here too.
We fly out of Colombo at 12.20am tonight and get back to Canberra a bit before 7.00pm tomorrow EAST. The flight home after a holiday is never something to look forward to but we'll take some wonderful memories of this holiday back with us.
The popular beach resort town of Hikkaduwa is only a bit over 20klm from Galle so it was a short drive yesterday morning before we were travelling through the small fishing villages that line the coast - and catching a good look at these ginormous water monitors, scavenging the fishy remains from the day's catch in the boat harbour.
The beaches along this coast are home to marine turtles and exotic fish, but the turtles in particular are under real threat because so few of their eggs survive. We visited a small scale turtle hatchery which is doing a great job in addressing some of the challenges, but probably too little in the grand scheme of things.
These little cuties had only been hatched a day. They will be released in the sea when they're not much bigger!
We saw a very rare albino turtle.
This area was devastated in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. Over 20,000 lives were lost in Sri Lanka and 12,500children were left orphans. We talked to a number of villagers today in the process of visiting little makeshift museums and memorials who'd lost whole families (as well as all their possessions) on that terrible day.
There is a very humble memorial to this earth shattering event, by the beach ......
This much larger one was built by the Japanese government. Both memorials commemorate the over 1,700 fatalities that resulted when a crowded passenger train (families heading for a day at the beach!) was struck by the second wave of the tsunami (estimated at 7.5 - 9 metres high).
After this sobering experience it was a complete change of pace to arrive at our Hikkaduwa accommodation - the beautiful Villa 46. It's a boutique hotel on the beach - only four bedrooms so it feels like home - but with a number of very well trained staff and our own chef. It's owned by the Sri Lankan cricketer Marvan Atapattu. Beautiful!
I've never met a palm tree I didn't like and the sound of crashing waves is bliss to my ears.
We had to catch the sunset over the Laccadive Sea ........
After a sunset walk this is what awaited us back at Villa 46 - the table set for dinner (which was wonderful) and Moon River on the playlist! Does it get any better than this?
There's not much to do in Galle Fort other than go walking, take pictures and SHOP. So being the good tourists we are that's basically what we did this morning.
These pics are of our hotel - the adjoining villa where our rooms are ....
.. and the reception area of the main part of our hotel, The Fort Printers ........
After a bit of jewellery shopping at the venerable Ibrahim's on Church Street we set out walking .... past the Dutch Reformed (Groot Kerk) Church (1755),
and then through a passage opening in the fort wall, past the famous Galle International Cricket Ground where the busy, bustling real city of Galle starts ...
There are fish markets spread along the edge of Galle Harbour ......
We re-enter the fort by the old gate.
The fort area is really very photogenic when you look past all the shops and nicnackery for tourists.
We are all feeling the heat here. The fort walls seem to block the sea breezes and the dark grey cobbled streets absorb all the heat from the sun. It's humid too.
We managed to find a lovely spot for lunch - A Minute by Tuk Tuk, upstairs in the converted Dutch Hospital building facing out to sea (with lovely sea breezes) near the Aurora Bastion. I was game enough to try my first salad in Sri Lanka (not advisable usually in Asia) - so nice!
Only thing missing (tragically) was a glass of beer. Today is election day in Sri Lanka and alcohol is banned on election days!!!!!
.. but beautiful, fresh, in season, South Coast lobsters (Finer Foods Bateman's Bay) wait for no man (or woman) ..... (Thank you for the pic Judy L)
We were on our own again this year (the 12th year of lobster lunches we think! see here, here, here, here, here, #here, here, here, and here) - our "Slick" caterers Jane and Louise have closed their gourmet business and nothing will persuade them to do it all again for us... sigh!
Fiona and James made the trek from Melbourne for this. They were in charge of first course oysters (Bernie's at Bateman's Bay).
We had to set up inside the beach house this year, due to the rain. Jennie and Wayne are missing this year (the siren call of the crows in the vineyard) and it's not the same without them!
Maxie's grilled peach salad was devine (Love Yotam!!), a perfect pairing with the lobster (best ever lobster we think) ....(Thank you for the pic Fiona)
And another Yotam O. salad: "Tomato Party"
It was this special lady's birthday today - how lucky we were to share it with her. Judy's spectacular surprise dessert inspired us all - the deconstructed Bombe with mango and passionfruit!!
Thankfully the parrots were prepared to brave the showers and front up for their feed after our lunch was done (but not the kookaburras today).....
Thank you Judy and Jurgen for hosting these wonderful lobster lunches - you've been doing this at least 12 years for us, inspiring us to appreciate food and friendship and your very special Rosedale location to a whole new level...... always unforgettable!
