But this story is about the continuation of a contact that started in Bali last March -- with typical "traveler" connection kind of conversation.
It's always a bit of a "dance" to discern the seriousness of the "come see me," or "let's stay in touch" invitations I've gotten during my travels -- but for many reasons, including his assertive way of making sure I had his email, I felt the invitation by "Gary" during a short poolside conversation was genuine. And with my usual "what's the worst that can happen" attitude, I followed up the meeting with email exchange that probed his seriousness. Of course the emails gave him lots of opportunity to shut down, or defer, the invitation -- but that didn't happen and I embarked upon the trip with tentative plans to visit him. Tentative? Yes, of course. After all, I knew about as much about him as he did me. And in this case, it wasn't an easy -- pop by and visit. He lives on an island about an hour south of the Brisbane airport.
On Halloween, I flew from Cairns to Brisbane, picked up a rental car -- and following his guidance, proceeded to a small motel in the town of Redland Bay (here) he arranged. He had encouraged me to say hello to the owner -- who also owns a villa in Bali (made another "friend") -- and after that proceed to a nearby locals' restaurant. All went smoothly.
The next morning I proceeded to a nearby residence with gated parking (he had left a gate remote at the motel for me) -- where I met up with Gary and his wife Sonia, who was visiting the residence (home of one of their 4 children) to pick up their newest grandchild, a four month old, for the day. All prearranged by Gary, who had to proceed to a business meeting, I accompanied his wife on a ferry ride
to their home on Karagarra Island (here). It's worth remembering that until arrival on island, I just thought I would be staying in a unit/room near or in Gary's home. I quickly learned that I was staying in a second, waterside guest home about 1/2 mile away from their residence. After showing me around, Sonia gave me the keys to their SUV and I arrived at my accommodations - a fully equipped home. And this was the place:
And this was my view from the rear:
And that night I returned to their place for a delicious lamb shank dinner:
As you might imagine, all my trepidation about the genuineness of the connection from the brief Bali-poolside conversation 7 months ago, vanished as I got to know Gary and Sonia -- owners of several successful businesses including all the port operations services for the very busy Brisbane cruise terminal, and learned about their family (4 children in their 30's and grandchilden).
Gary and Sonia are like me -- haven't met too many "strangers" except those who want to remain strangers -- and conversation flowed easily such that I was happy to agree to join Gary on a two day - 22 hour road trip to near-Sydney and back, including an overnight stay at another relative's house, to pick up a vintage jet boat he had purchased. Here we are returning on the ferry with the boat -- one just like Gary owned as a young man.
Of course I was with him for its maiden voyage of his ownership:
I'm staying a total of 6 nights -- enjoying more outings and meals with Gary/Sonia -- and learning all about Aussie island life and their businesses, their lives, their families. It's been delightful. It was definitely another lucky day for me to have crossed paths with Gary last March in Bali. I'm already thinking of when I can return and continue to enjoy their friendship in this beautiful piece of the world.
