My first 24 hours in
Dunsborough have been absolutely heavenly! I’d like to think that the way I
spent them is a taste of things to come; it’s so nice to finally chill out
after months of work. I’d been here about ten minutes yesterday afternoon, just
enough time to dump my stuff at Jess’ and say hello to Maggs and Terry, before
we decided that the weather was just too beautiful to not go to the beach for a
swim. We drove to Eagle Bay, a little local spot undiscovered by tourists
(imagine Tintagel in the height of summer and that’s how busy Dunsborough is
like at Christmas) and spent the hours before Jess had to work alternating
between sunbathing and cooling off in the gorgeous clear water. It felt like an
age since I’d last seen Jess, so we did a lot of catching up and she filled me
in on all the fun we’ve got planned for my stay. Back at home, Jess got ready
for work and left me to have dinner with her parents. They made a gorgeous stir-fry
and we ate on the veranda by the pool. It was lovely to get to know them
better; Maggs has a huge family like my Mum and Terry showed me the garden and
all the work he’s done on the house. Despite numerous offers, I declined a
glass of wine without mentioning that just the smell was making me feel
physically sick. After watching some Rick Stein and flicking through Better
Homes for Christmas food inspiration, I retired to bed for a much-needed sleep.
 |
| One happy girl! |
This morning, Jess and
I got up early and drove down to Yallingup for a morning swim. We worked up a
sweat walking through the dunes then jumped in the water to cool off; despite
it being a cloudy day, the water was lovely and warm and the reef made it
shark-free: Bonus! We bumped into a group of Jess’ friends in the water,
including Emma, a local girl who works in the town, who invited us back to her
place for breakfast with everyone. We drove to her place, which was a gorgeous
wooden building just up the road overlooking the ocean, and set about chopping
up fruit for a very healthy brekky. There was such a ridiculously interesting
mix of people there that you just don’t get in England and everyone was so
lovely and chilled. Amongst the surfy bunch were Craig, an Aussie lifeuard
who’s just come down from Geraldton and is good mates with Jess’ boyfriend
Pete, Ana and Flo who used to work at Malt with Jess and are now back for
another summer and Helena, a very eccentric fashion designer. Out of the 12 of
us, we figured out there was a grand total of 7 nationalities; Aussie, English,
French, Italian, Swedish, Brazilian and Scottish. Jess was the only person
originally from Dunsborough! It’s evident that it’s the kind of place that
people just keep dropping back for a few months for work or just to hang out,
which I love. By the time we left Emma’s, I’d met so many nice new people who
I’ll hopefully see again before I leave.
From there, we
returned home to help Terry and Maggs with the Christmas preparation. This
mostly involved coating the macaroons Jess made yesterday in chocolate and
decorating biscuits with everyone’s names for the Christmas table, both of
which mostly consisted of singing along to Wham, eating and making a mess. We
then rode the bikes into town to browse the shops pick up the ingredients for a
pomegranate punch we want to make tomorrow; yum! Coles was absolutely packed
with manic Christmas shoppers and I was reminded of Mum dragging me along to
the annual Christmas shop back home. The abundance of gorgeous jewellery and
clothes is just too much; I need to go on a shopping spree here! We’ve just got
home and the plan for this afternoon is to go and visit Pete at the beach he
lifeguards for a swim and Candice, Chris, Chloe and John should be back from
their camping trip in time for dinner. I am having the best time!
One sleep ‘til
Christmas!
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