This morning was again bright and sunny, and once we’d packed up our 2 suitcases and numerous bags (they seem to multiply by the day!) into the car, we drove all of 200m to the Naval and Maritime Museum for the first visit of the day.
This small museum is a treasure chest of memorabilia and includes the original La Balsa raft, Aztlan, from the expedition of 1973 from Guayaquil, Ecuador to Ballina, NSW. Three rafts, Aztlan, Guayaquil and Mooloolaba, were built of balsa wood logs roped together with sisal – just as the original native boats would have been built – and 3 crews of 4 men on each made this 9,213 mile journey in178 days from May 27th to November 21st, 1973. They should have landed at Mooloolaba in Queensland, but lack of wind allowed them to drift further south, and they were eventually towed in to Ballina Harbour as they had drifted into shipping lanes off the east coast. We watched the video of their journey. You cannot help but wonder at man’s quest for reliving history and to prove that native boats did make journeys like this and with none of the navigational aids of the 1970’s, never mind the advances since then. Awe inspiring stuff.
We also watched part of the film made about the sinking of HMS Glorious by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during WWII and how the truth about this has never been acknowledged by the senior officers involved at the time nor by the government of the day. It's a catalogue of stupidity, by the captain of Glorious, who was getting ready to go back to port, so had packed away his aircraft, so had no advance warning of the presence of the two pocket battleships until they had opened fire. The mayday message was received by the Admiral on the cruiser, HMS Devonshire, which could have intervened, but they were on a covert mission carrying the King and parliament of Norway to exile in UK. Because of his passengers, he chose not to engage the two pocket battleships, nor to break radio silence to relay the message. So no-one knew of the disaster until Devonshire reached port. Over 1,500 men died when the ship was sunk most of them from exposure in the icy waters of the North Sea. Only 41 survived. It was a very moving account.Did you know that John F Kennedy, while a midshipman in the United States Navy, was rescued from Kolombangara Island in the Solomon Islands by Sub Lt Reg Evans of the Royal Australian Navy? An organisation called the Coast Watchers, rather like our Royal Observer Corps, was set up to report on Japanese naval movements round the northern shores of Australia and in and around the islands to the north. They had no service status, so they were not taken as POW’s but were executed if caught. JFK was one of those 1,000’s rescued as a result of information given to the RAN by these Coast Watchers. If not for that rescue, history would have been so different.
It’s amazing what you learn from these little museums – I love them.
After all that learning, we had to have some sustenance so we called at the RSL Club, yet another enormous one,
for the usual coffee and ……. you know whats! The whole of the upstairs floor was being set up for a Wedding Extravaganza tomorrow – it’ll be some fair. Downstairs, there’s a big bar, huge dining room and a coffee bar, with 2 areas out on the terrace built out over the river, and the inevitable gaming machines – loads of them!We then went for a walk down the main street
and couldn’t work out why the shops were either closed or closing. It’s Saturday, and they all close at lunchtime! But the local shopping mall was still open, so we hopped in the car, dropped off our bags at the motel and hot-wheeled it to the mall. It’s open till 4.pm (big deal) so we were able to do some shopping. I got a new pair of orthotic sandals, them that re-align your body properly. With all the walking we’re doing, we’ve both been getting hip and backache. These sandals are meant to work to support your feet correctly, let’s hope they work. Tom also got a pair of orthotic insoles for his trainers, so we’ll both be walking properly from now on!!Since everything was now closed, we came back to the room and while Tom played with his gadgets, I went for a lovely swim. This is the biggest pool I’ve been in so far – it’s a pity we’re only here for one night. We went back to the RSL Club for dinner – lovely – and there was live music - two C&W singers/guitarists who were very good and played a selection of all kinds of music. A group of disabled people came in part way through the evening, and they really enjoyed the music getting up to dance and clap along with it. Everyone was smiling at their obvious enjoyment. We can’t get over how everything closes so early here. By the time we walked back here at 10.00pm, all the bars and restaurants were closed or closing.
Anyway, we’re off to stay with Lorraine and Paul tomorrow, so there’ll be no blog for a couple of days. Have fun while we’re gone. Night, night!
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