Two Tickets to Paradise

After our nostalgia tour, in which Tom generously participated, taking a certain vicarious pleasure in our reliving the past, Bill led us out of Canberra in the late afternoon and we drove 100 miles to the south coast of New South Wales.

Canberra sits at the foot of the Australian Alps at almost 2000 ft elevation and we had enjoyed a very warm sunny day there, but as we approached the coastal mountains that would take us down to sea level, we drove into a massive fog bank that enveloped us, obscuring the beautiful forest scenery and instantly bringing the temperature down about 15 degrees F.

We were headed to Rosedale, a small settlement south of Bateman’s Bay, an area that had been ravaged by the terrible bushfires of the summer of 2019-2020 but has recovered remarkably well. The burned areas are noticeable for a few skeletal trees and many bearing tell-tale blackened trunks, but for the most part their foliage has returned and the many months of heavier than normal rainfall in eastern Australia recently have brought an abundance of greenery that is unusual at this time of year.

Bill has lived in Rosedale for about 20 years, in a house on a cliff overlooking a sheltered bay that was thankfully spared in the fire, though many nearby homes were consumed and have been rebuilt. Bill’s partner, Catherine, has a son living in England, so they have travelled there every year or two for the past decade to visit and take various multi-day walks, as they are inveterate trekkers. Tom first met Bill in 2014 on one of those trips, and they quickly became friends, bonding over their mutual love of literature, philosophy, poetry and other esoteric subjects.

Over that decade, Bill has asked us innumerable times when we were going to come and visit him ‘in Paradise’, and this year we finally took him up on it. We arrived in the dark, so could not assess whether or not Bill had oversold his abode and its surroundings, but when we awoke the next day, even though the sun was obscured by a thick overcast sky, we could tell he had not been exaggerating.

The house is spectacular, and Bill renovated it to take full advantage of the stunning views from every room, including all the bedrooms.

Catherine is an extremely talented artist and Bill has filled his walls with her varied and original paintings bringing bold color into the light filled spaces. Even on a dull day the views of the sea are mesmerising, and when the sun finally shone a few days into our stay, it was even more magical.

We spent our time taking walks to neighboring beaches and bays, often with Mildred, Bill and Catherine’s gorgeous chocolate lab.

We enjoyed several lunches out, visited Moruya, a small quaint town on the river of the same name, strolling through the market, where I bought a hat, went to Moruya Heads and admired the beach there, and walked along part of the Bingi Dreaming track, an ancient pathway of Australian First Nations people where we were very excited to spot our first kangaroos in the wild.

On the drive home, we saw many more, grazing unconcernedly in far less wild places.

Happily for us, our visit coincided with Catherine’s birthday, and we were able to meet many of their friends at a party Bill organised for her.

On one of our last evenings together, Bill and Catherine took us to an outstanding restaurant where in addition to having a fabulous meal, we were treated to the sight of dozens of kangaroos, including one albino, grazing in the restaurant’s expansive grounds in the early evening dusk.

We loved every minute we spent with Bill, Catherine and their friends and neighbors, getting to know the area a little bit and appreciating its unique and special beauty.

Bill and Catherine were the most thoughtful and wonderful hosts, and we felt completely relaxed and comfortable there.

In fact, we were so reluctant to leave Rosedale that we opted to make an eight hour drive to Melbourne, our next port of call, instead of breaking the journey into two days as we had originally planned, just so that we could spend just one more day Paradise.