Home thoughts from abroad is a new series on Travel Words featuring a single photograph that reminds me of a country visited and showing something that uniquely identifies it as being ‘abroad’.
This pretty little restaurant is at Church Point 32kms north of Sydney and the large outdoor deck is suspended over the Pittwater – my son and his partner took me there for lunch and breakfast whilst I was visiting them in Sydney. The area is very beautiful and fairly quiet with a lovely walk around the water. An idyllic spot to watch the boats glide by. The Waterfront Cafe and Store is where the local residents of Scotland Island – mostly artists, writers and creative spirits – come to chill out, or pick up supplies.
The Everglades in Florida is made up of coastal mangroves, sawgrass marshes and pine flatwoods that are home to hundreds of animal species including ubiquitous Florida alligators. On a cloudy day we took a trip on one of the Airboats through the waterways to find those alligators in the water. Seeing one swimming lazily towards the boat, eyes just above the water getting close and personal is quite an experience. It is quite exhilarating as the Airboat picks up speed and heads for the river of grass heading into miles of wetlands – thoughts of Miami Vice or CSI Miami entered my head, hoping we didn’t discover a dead body in the reeds. Our tour ended with a bizarre Gator wrestling match and seeing baby gators (with their mouths tied up). It wasn’t something I would repeat although the boat trip was fun.
TRAVEL WORDS 