I took my time packing up that morning because it was drizzling a bit so by the time I left at 8am, it was just off into the wind. Across another farm and then back onto the cliffs trying to stay upright in the wind. I was really starting to enjoy myself as my bag was lighter and I was meeting more day walkers as I got closer to the town of Vistor Harbour.
By 11am I’d come to a car park was full of cars owned by the people out walking themselves and their dogs. I still had another 5 or 6km walk into town and a coffee and a shower was sounding good.
So I approached a man who was loading his 2 dogs into his car and told him that he couldn’t possibly let this poor old lady eat a lunch of fish wrap for her 5th day in a row. He could give me a ride into town so I could enjoy a decent lunch. The dogs were very excited, so I made a big fuss of them as I loaded my pack into the boot of his car.
The poor bloke hadn’t uttered a word and just looked at me as I climbed into the front seat of his car. The little dog curled up on my knee and the big dog began to enthusiastically lick my neck face, up under my glasses and my hair. He obviously loved the sweaty salty taste of 5 days of unwashed kiwi. I am not really keen on dogs licking me, but a ride is a ride.
By the time we reached the centre of town the nice man had got over the shock of having unwittingly picked up his first ever hitch hiker and offered to buy me lunch.
I declined saying that there was no way I could go to a cafe smelling as I did. I needed to have a shower and a change of clothes first . So off he went with a story to tell!
I bought a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a sweat shirt from the 3 for $5 rack at the Charity shop next door to the hotel, which meant I had some clean clothes to wear after my shower. I had booked into a historic hotel that was mentioned in the trail notes for $65 a night with a shared bathroom down the hall. That would do me.
They nicely let me check in early and I headed off to have a shower. There i got the fright of my life. There was a big poo 💩 in the bottom of the shower.
I went off and found the manager, telling him that there was something in the shower that shouldn’t be there that he needed to see.
Poor man was as surprised as me and very apologetic. I know most people would have up and lefthowever I was too tired for that. It would have been noticed very shortly by the cleaner , but, ofcourse, I had checked in early. He showed me to another shower block and I enjoyed feeling clean again.
I found out that “my” footie team lost the grand final over a coffee ☕️
I have spent 4 days here in the retirement mecha / beachside resort town allowing a couple of blisters to heal and doing some online work with my employer. Being school holidays there is a lot of families around and the restaurants are filled with Grey haired people.
The streets reminded me a bit of English beachside villages with shops selling shell ornaments, plastic kids toys and sandals and lots of cafes. The main differences were that the streets and footpaths were wider, there are veranahs above the shops and it was warm.
I have filled my pack with food again and head out tomorrow, 1 October, moving away from the coast towards Myponga.
