Milang Moments

We stayed in the old butcher's shop on Milang. The old butcher's shop was one block back from the lake, nestled behind a curtain of grape vines green with summer leaves. It had thick stone walls and a lintel worn down by the feet of countless sustomers, and outside a flight of stone steps led down to an old wooden door which was tightly locked. Rogers imagination immediately took him to dark places populated with ghosts of carcasses past, and the sharp edges of meat cleavers. I assumed dust and a sprinkling of spiders. Neither of us got to find out who was right.

The old butcher's shop had access to a laundry in a separate little outbuilding.  We had a key, which did not work. We were given access to another key, which also did not work. At that point I have up on doing laundry and spent my days in Milang in a slightly less sanitary condition than I would have preferred. It didn't matter because Roger was similarly challenged so we spent our time in smelly togetherness.

Every morning we got up early and walked down to the jetty to watch the sun rise. Milang put on a variety of sunrises, all of them patrolled by the pelican crew. 

Sunrise #1,

with pelican patrol.  They don't like it when someone stands on their jetty spot in the morning.

Sunrise #2,

with pelican reinforcements.

Sunrise #3: the pelicans had ceded the jetty and contented themselves with circling out on the water, waiting for us to leave.

Sunrise #4: not a lot to get excited about.  Even the pelicans stayed in bed until later.

Milang was very quiet.  On Australia Day there was not a shred of excitement to be had in town, other than a breakfast at the Bowls Club about which we did not know until it was over.  A tattered piece of paper on the Community Centre notice board advertised storage sheds, with contact details which you could tear off should you need a storage shed.  Thinking of our belongings mouldering in a shed in Queensland's hot and steamy summer, we took the contact details to call after the long weekend was over.

On the last day in Milang I rode my bicycle up the Nurragi Reserve, which was a rail trail but not really. It followed the old railway which once ran from Strathalbyn to Milang, but the path was complicated by regular stiles over which I had to heft my bicycle.  Then I got slightly misplaced while dodging a patch of puncture-inducing goatheads (caltrop, if you're a South Aussie) and ended up in the revegetation section beside the trail, which resulted in quite a lot of walking. By the time I reached the next road and ate my banana it was time to go home because I had a date with the Devonshire Tea served by the Milang Railway Museum volunteers, so I took the road home to ensure that there would be no hefting involved in the return journey

Welcome to the reserve.  Be prepared to heft.

It was quite fun when one was a) on the right path and b) not dodging goatheads, sorry, caltrop.

 

Out of consideration for the Museum volunteers I changed into my least dirty clothes before we walked down to the museum where we partook of the largest scones I'd ever seen. They were so big that I had to rethink my commitment to a pub dinner and settle for tea and toast at home instead.

On our last morning we stayed until the very last minute of the old butcher's shop 1100 check-out times, drinking our last coffee and enjoying the peace and quiet of Milang.

We'll be back.