Our Home Coming at Our Village of Crowdy Head

We arrived home to a wonderful welcome. Our cat and house sitter Hazel had done a fantastic job of looking after not only our five Siamese cats, but also our house. I might add that our cats are not the easiest of animals to look after either...

In fact Hazel was quite our local heroine. During the time we were away, our isolated little fishing village of Crowdy Head (an ancient island joined to the mainland by a permanent isthmus of sand) copped the full force of a cyclonic storm depression causing the sea levels to rise, and flooding the incoming "spit" road with enormous sea washed boulders while gale force winds razed trees and inflicted a considerable amount of damage to village houses and gardens. One of our 15 meters steel poles holding up our verandah shade sail snapped clean in half, leaving it swinging wildly in the peak of the storm's ferocity, striking Hazel in the head as she tried to salvage the wreckage. As it was she lost her glasses and had one earring ripped out, but thankfully she was fortunate that she wasn't really badly hurt. And somehow she managed to strap the pole up so well that it remained stable for the during of our time away. An amazing effort for a woman on her own without her glasses!



Neither Hazel, nor any of our Crowdy Head friends had told us the extent of the storms, nor the damage to our house, fearing that the news might worry us too much while we were travelling. And from their point of view, the house was not otherwise structurally damaged and we still had five healthy cats! And in hindsight, I guess there was nothing we could have done anyway. Neighbours Peter and Ros Roberts and Peter and Sue Dodd also came to our rescue, making sure Hazel was OK and ensuring we didn't have any more damage to our property. They are true friends and their efforts were greatly appreciated.

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The cats were actually pleased to see us. Hazel went to an enormous amount of trouble, organising "Welcome Back" balloons, afternoon canapes and drinks, and had even cooked a chicken for our evening meal. It is "tradition" for us to have a roast chicken the evening we return from being away anywhere, but we certainly didn't expect Hazel to bake it for us. It was really thoughtful of her. And during our dinner one of our cats Khiva entertained us by walking around with the balloon ribbons in his mouth, comically dragging the helium balloons behind him.

It was a wonderful welcome and so good to be home.

A Visit From Our Russian Friend Eugene and his Son Slava
 
In 2015, we had the pleasure of meeting Eugene, his wife Irina and son Slava in the Immigration queue at Moscow Airport. Sheremetyevo is not the easiest airport to be in, and we were very grateful to Eugene who helped us not only with our Immigration procedures but also in negotiating a taxi for us to our hotel. Eugene spoke perfect English and was of invaluable assistance to us. Furthermore, he invited us for dinner at his home in Moscow the following evening, picking us up and driving us back some 30 kilometers to our hotel. We had a wonderful evening and it was a great privilege to meet and chat with local people in their own home.



So we were delighted when Eugene and Slava visited us for four days at our home in July 2016. Unfortunately Irina was tied up with business but we had a great time meeting up with Eugene and Slava again. Making new friends is of course, one of the wonderful highlights of international travel.

A Visit From Polish Friends Monika and David

During our visit to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia in June 2016, we met up with a Polish couple Monika and David who were travelling the world on a year's sabbatical (refer entry: "My Chicken Skin Arms OR How Green Was My Gobi?").

They were keen to talk with us about their planned travels to Australia later in the year but we didn't really expect them to contact us as so often even the best laid plans don't always eventuate.  

And so we were again delighted to be visited by our Polish friends who spent a day with us at our home at Crowdy Head.

And Then There Was Doogii....

I was quite astounded one day in February 2017 while flicking though Face Book, to see our young Mongolian travel agent Doogii photographed outside Sydney Opera House.

As mentioned throughout my entries on Mongolia in this blog, Doogii was probably one of the best travel agents we had ever encountered. The daughter of a nomad family from Khovd in far north-western Mongolia, at the age of just 29 she owned and managed the second most successful travel agency in Mongolia. She really was quite astounding - as well as being the most delightful young woman.

Like most of our agents throughout our travels, we had stayed in touch with Doogii but at the time, we had no idea that she was in Australia. A short time after sending her a text message inviting her to stay with us at Crowdy Head, she replied saying she would love the opportunity to meet with us. And although she was in Australia for only two weeks she somehow managed to catch a train and stayed with us for three days.

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Living in a land locked country like Mongolia, Doogii just adored the beach. And despite it being minus 42 degree C in Ulaanbaatar just before she left for Australia, then having to cope with our heat wave temperatures of plus 43 degrees C, she coped extremely well!

It was the best fun and we were very sorry to say goodbye to her, as we were to all our overseas friends.