We woke up this morning to our pictures in the local newspaper, The Border Watch. Friendship Force received a full page of our activities, the mayoral reception and some history of Friendship Force. Bob and Marty actually made the front page too from a photo op earlier planting the Golden Celebration Rose in the Friendship Force Garden.
A cruise up and down the Glenelg River was the mornings activity. We cruised from South Australia into Victoria back and forth. The Captain of the boat provided us with a narrative of the history of the river, some interesting statistics and described the "shacks" along the river and the rules governing their usage, which does differ some between the two States. They stay within families and must be removed when the last person within a family "moves on". Families generally can not live in these for any length of time, but certainly can enjoy the fishing and comradeship that goes along with a waters edge view. The boat owners provided us with a lovely lunch, tea and desserts, of course!
We were then free to tour on our own with our hosts and sightsee the area. Of particular interest was Piccaninnie Ponds where the water bubbles up from underground continually and eventually flows into the sea. The sand is fine and extremely soft - Nothing like any of ours at home. We then continued on to Port McDonnell for a lovely dinner at our hosts beach home. There are not enough words to describe this unusual, creative and magnificent home. We dined on a glass table top that had been placed on top of a 20 foot sail boat in the middle of the room. This boat had been sailed competitively by their son and was now no longer sea worthy. The chairs around it made the entire scene look like the railing around the boat. The table seats easily 18 and more could be added. The dinner of course was superb as our hostess is an excellent chef! Gail and Dick Bird and their hosts joined us and provided the entrée of Cray fish, (lobster) as a special treat. The entire meal was thoroughly enjoyed by all. A wonderful evening.
(Written by Bob Ghiglieri's personal Executive Secretary)