They chatted as they walked along the pavement to the side of the house, went in through the side gate, and looked up at the roof. ‘It doesn’t seem as if anything has happened up there to the shingles or the tiles,’ Nancy observed.
‘Nope. Let’s hope it’s the same all the way around.’
As they got further into the garden and walked across the lawn, there were loads of tree branches scattered around, and two garden chairs not far away from the greenhouse had fallen on their sides. They both lifted a chair up each, popped them back under the table, and Nina peered into the greenhouse. ‘No shattered panes or broken glass there either. We’re on a roll. I thought there might be some problems out the back here because it’s so exposed.’
Nancy agreed and nodded. ‘Looks like it’s all fared well here. I was expecting more damage, to be quite honest.’
‘Me too. Hopefully, everything will be okay inside,’ Nina said as they headed to the tradesman's entrance and walked through into the living quarters of the hotel.
About ten minutes later, they were standing back outside. Nina had expected to find more havoc, particularly where the roof was concerned, but they’d looked everywhere and found nothing. Nina pushed open the gate from the back garden onto the small strip of river beach running along the back of the hotel. The storm had washed up lots of debris on the sand, and a plethora of seashells in a wobbly line snaked down towards the shoreline. Nina bent down and put her hand into the line of seashells and picked one up. She turned it over to its pearly pink side and held it out to Nancy. ‘Look how pretty this is. It’s amazing how these wash up. I thought that when I first came to Lovely Bay. You see all sorts of shells down here.’
Nancy took the shell, turned it over, and held it up to examine it more closely. ‘It’s so pretty. Oh wow, yes, there are loads of seashells down here today.’
Nina started to crouch down and pick up shells, putting one after the next in her pocket. ‘I’m going to add these to my collection. I’ve got that huge mason jar full of them by the window in the attic room. I love collecting them.’
‘Yeah, they really look nice, don’t they?’
‘They do. Each one is so unique. I love how the water brings in treasure. I found some beautiful old sea glass down here the other day. It’s a sort of green-blue with a hint of yellow somehow. It’s now proudly on display on my coffee table.’
Nancy nodded, picking up a shell with a spiral pattern. ‘It’s amazing, isn’t it?’
‘It seems as if the storm has stirred up the bottom of the river. Is that even a thing?’
‘No idea.’
They continued to scour the beach, picking up shells here and there as a cool breeze came in off the water. Nina inhaled as they strolled along by the shore for a bit and she took in the sound of the waves lapping at the sand. ‘It’s so peaceful down here, isn't it?’ Nina said as she picked up another shell and examined its patterns before slipping it into her pocket.
‘It really is,’ Nancy replied as she scanned the sand. ‘Makes you appreciate the little things. There was so much chaos in that storm, and now this. You can’t really compute the two somehow…’
Nina nodded in agreement as she stood up and peered over at the other side of Lovely, the bright white of the lighthouse towering over the bay and the sea in the distance. ‘You wouldn’t believe we even had a storm the way things are now.’
‘Nope.’ Nancy stopped and stood next to Nina, and for a minute, neither of them said anything. ‘I hope whoever buys the hotel appreciates this place. There’s something special about it, not just the building, but the land, the beach, the whole atmosphere down here. It really is something else.’
‘Yeah, it would be a shame to see it go to someone who doesn’t value it. It needs someone who understands its charm and potential.’
‘Absolutely. Right, we’d better head back.’ Nancy said, tilting her head towards the hotel.
‘Yeah, better get on.’ Nina replied, her pockets heavy with seashells. As they strolled towards the gate she mused. ‘You know, I’ve realised how much I've come to love this old hotel. It’s like it’s got a little part of my soul somehow.’
‘Yup. It’s got character, that’s for sure. And history. You can feel it just standing in the garden, let alone when you’re inside it.’
‘Definitely.’ Nina looked up at the hotel as they walked back through the garden. She really hoped that someone would soon see the potential in it. As she looked up at the roof she nodded.A little part of her was well aware that the old place had changed her life.
11
It was a few weeks or so after the huge storm in Lovely Bay. Nina and Robby were sitting in the car queued in a line of vehicles waiting to park at a chain ferry over to a place called Darling Island. Both of them were sipping take-away coffees and they were chatting about Robby’s business opportunity in Asia. As the tender had progressed, it was now more or less certain that Robby would be going first to Singapore and then Bangkok to put contracts in place, train teams and set up the ins and outs of business there. There had been much talk about Nina going with him and they’d chatted about it as they’d driven towards Darling Island.
Nina watched as a beautiful old floating bridge ferry with a hexagonal tower left from the other side of the estuary and made its way towards them. Robby inched the car through row upon row of cars until he finally found a parking spot. Nina hopped out and walked over towards the pay machine. The price for parking the car was not cheap, and thinking that the little island had better be worth it, she looked over across the water and wondered quite how the water was so blue.
A few minutes later, she was strolling along beside Robby, following a few other foot passengers going towards the floatingbridge. As they walked down the path for pedestrians, a queue of cars waiting to board sat bumper-to-bumper on the slip road going down to the sea. Nina watched the front of the floating bridge, where a man in a white polo shirt with a blue badge on the breast and trousers with a reflective strip on the bottom shouted across the line of waiting passengers. ‘Left if you’re on foot. Foot passengers to the left, please! Darling Island to go through to the bay! Wait for the gate! Repeat, wait for the gate! Darling Island. Left if on foot!’
As they stood by a barrier waiting to board, Nina read a brown sign overhead with interest.
Darling Floating Bridge is a vehicular chain ferry crossing over to Darling Island, nestled just off the dazzling blue waters of the south coast.
Family-owned, wholly operated, and still privately run by The Darling Floating Bridge Company, it is one of the few remaining chain ferries in operation today.
First established in 1871, some of the original ferries can still be seen at our boatyard. The Darling floating bridges remain the only way to cross to Darling with The Pride of Darling crossing the narrowest point to Darling Island.
