Break Out

Sally and I performed another historical re-enactment today. It wasn’t meant to be but we often get around to it when we run out of museums to see. Sort of moving from the theoretical to the actual.

We really just wanted a glass of wine but preferably one enjoyed while looking out over the bay with perhaps a cool breeze on a hot day – all very bourgeois. After much indecision we took the ferry over to Mosman Bay. It was a fateful choice – sensible on paper, when looking at the ferry route at Circular Quay, but almost disastrous in practice.

But in a way that’s good as it gave us an insight into the challenges faced by the First Fleet as they sort breakout from Sydney Harbour. For, great horrors, there was no wine bar next to the ferry stop at Mosman Bay. In fact, there was a steep climb up the steps and streets in what appeared to be a very select neighbourhood. One where a sea view costs a fortune.

In the baking sun we sought help from a solitary native and luckily, like the first aboriginal encounter, this one was friendly. He pointed us to the local shops five minutes up the road – 5 minutes in a car that is, which seemed to be the normal means of transport in Mosman.

In the end, it all turned out OK. We found the shops and dined on a meat pie and ginger beer then headed back down to the ferry terminal. On the way we passed the local park which was a vertiginous area set aside for bush regeneration. You could see what battling your way out of Mosman Bay would be like for those in the First Fleet.

Likely they never tried it here. Their ‘no-go’ areas turn into our sea views and local delicatessens.  The margin of disaster has now changed. For us it meant that the glass of wine was delayed until we got back to Circular Quay. It’s amazing what two hundred years and a ferry link can achieve.