South West Rocks - Saturday, 13 July

Another beautiful day. The Markets were on in Horseshoe Bay this morning. Horseshoe Bay is right in the town. We had a good wander round the different stalls but didn't buy anything. Allyson bought some jam and hand towels as well as a wooden train with a timber carriage attached for their grandsons to play with at their place. After that, we had morning tea at a café overlooking the Bay.

Near where we had morning tea, there is a craft shop which is open 7 days, and is full of different sorts of craft items for sale. There must be a large craft community here to produce such a quantity of items. Jewellery, woodwork, knitting, cross stitch, glass, painting, photography, etc. There was a great photo of a dog sitting in the driver's seat of a car with its elbow on the window frame. There was a caption underneath, saying 'Going My Way, Babe!'. It was so good. Allyson bought me a lovely framed cross stitch, which was very nice of her.

Next to the craft shop is an old cottage which is set up as a Maritime Museum. It was a very interesting Museum. There was information on the 44 ships torpedoed or sunk during World War II along the east coast of Australia. The attacks extended as far south as the coast of north east Victoria. The things you learn.

There was also information on how Trial Bay got its name. 13 convicts seized the brig Trial in September 1816 when it was in Port Jackson, Sydney, along with the passengers and crew. In December of that year, Aboriginies reported to authorities that a boat had smashed on to rocks on the mid north coast (present day Trial Bay). Apparently the 13 convicts had built a boat from the debris but had perished in the sea. The hostages had gone overland but were never heard from again.

After lunch, we all walked to Trial Bay Gaol along the road and back along the beach. We are going to have a look through the Gaol on Monday. Allyson and Ian haven't been through the Gaol before so are keen to have a look as well. Pretty cheap - $7.50 or $5 concession.

Allyson and Ian are pretty sceptical about how good our oven is so we said we would cook them a roast for dinner. Again we had our favourite meat, half leg of lamb, as well as roast vegetables and gravy. It turned out beautifully and they were so impressed they are going to buy one when they get home.

After we had cleaned up, we got out our card game, Scopa. We had bought it in Melbourne last year and had really enjoyed a game with Matthew and Katrina a few months ago. We thought Allyson and Ian would enjoy it as well. They had put us on to a card game called Rage which is great as well, but needs a minimum of 4 players. With Scopa you can play with 2. Anyway, they loved it and are keen to have another game. Bruce brought out the Drambuie, so there was plenty of laughter as well.