Mixed Emotions

Monday, 12 July, 2004 by Donna V. Whitmore

I got up early to make Damper scones for breakfast. I think Auntie Molly would have been pleased at the result. Auntie Pauline brought us flowers for the breakfast table and all sorts of fruit — pineapple, wild plums and sweet lemons from her tree — and joined us for breakfast. She also brought each of us two bands woven in the traditional colors of the Aborigines, red, black and yellow. Red is for the earth; black is for the Aboriginals; and yellow is for the sun. She also explained to me that, though some folks don't like to hear it said, the red is for the blood shed by the Aborigines during the uprisings many years ago. Auntie Pauline also gave each of us a shell from the ocean and to a few of us, a second, very rare shell from the Island.

Our goodbye to Auntie Pauline was sad and tearful. She is a knowledgeable, interesting, lovely person. I kept seeing Auntie Pauline sitting on a rock wiping tears from her eyes. I hated to leave her behind.

We packed everything for our return trip to Hervey Bay and headed for Lake McKenzie for a swim (it was crowded!!), then stopped at another smaller lake which sits to the side of another huge sand dune created the same way as the first one described earlier. This lake is a 45-minute walk in from the beach (you can see the ocean behind the lake); you can go for a swim, and when you are ready to go back to the ocean, you jump in the little stream at the end of the lake and float back out! Awesome!

We ate lunch at Kingfisher — I had the best curry beef I ever ate!!! We caught the ferry back to Korrawinga and unloaded the vehicles faster than a streak of lightening! After dinner, most of us went to do laundry and hoped for an early night! Bless Cheryl! She did our laundry while I slept!

Still see Auntie Pauline sitting on that rock.

Word for the day: M T E N O I S O (translates to "mixed emotions")