from left to right: Siegfried, Heike, Padma (holding Malty),
Andrew, Alison, our Cottage guests Maggie and Clayton
Riverbend feels strangely empty after our guests Maggie and Clayton left this morning. They were kind enough to sign our guestbook. This is what they wrote:
"I am lost trying to find the proper superlatives to express our gratitude in sharing your private space at 'Riverbend', Peter and Padma Goerman. Two short weeks on the edge of the Clyde River became a reality when my wife Margaret accidentally discovered your 'Piece of Heaven' on the net. What a discovery!
Peter, you and Padma are truly special people that we are so glad that we had the opportunity to encounter in our travels and help us enrich and expand our minds around worldly issues.
We were treated royally during every day of our stay in "Riverbend Cottage" (just like royalty). Peter, your help in getting us settled in, launching our power boat in the Clyde River, getting to know the challenges of anchoring our boat with significant changes in water levels due to dramatic tide variations (unusual for us) and then learning the ropes rowing your tiny, unstable dinghy to and fro, from jetty to the boat and from the boat to the jetty.
The coup de grâce that will stick with me for a long time will be 'dunking in the Clyde River'. Padma and Margaret had a great laugh over that untimely experience! I have a great respect for that small dinghy now.
Padma's cooking and treats were unreal. Sure beats eating out in 5-star restaurants. We never expected to be fed by our hosts. And such delicious treats!!!
Besides my dunking, I leave with some fabulous memories of catching one fish in the Clyde (a legal-sized flathead) and we devoured it at suppertime. And then all those fresh oysters that I peeled off your pier under the jetty. Swallowed them straight off the half-shell and also had two (2) feeds of fantastic oyster stew!!!
Enough said - no more bragging. Thanks so much!
Clayton & Margaret Legault,
Geelong/Australia and Kingston/Canada"
We took our guests mountain-climbing, treated them to several film nights, had a day out with them at Ulladulla, and showed them the Moruya Markets. However, methinks it was the Canadian maple leaf that we pinned to the Cottage door that did the trick! ☺
