Cruising at Sunset

Steve must have been in a romantic mood because he suggested a cruise to see the sun go down over the banks of the river. The boat was far from glamorous,  in fact it was one of the ferries that run up and down the river during the day. We think that the skipper must have seen an opportunity to make an extra bit of money by offering to run his boat at this time to attract a different type of customer. . His gamble appears to have worked because the boat was full.  Neither he nor the boat were licensed to sell alcohol so in all the adverts you were told to bring your own (byo) drinks and the glasses would be provided.

The skipper was a cheery fellow who kept us entertained with a few jokes and stories. We were one of the first of several pick ups he made along the river but at 5.15 pm it didn't feel particularly romantic.  However it gets dark quite early here and by the time the last people had climbed aboard it was dusky. We had paid a visit to the bottle shop and were in possession of a bottle of rose wine so we collected a couple of glasses from inside the boat and made our way up the stairs to the outside deck so we would have an uninterrupted view of the sunset.

First off we motored up and down several of the inlets where the cost of the houses is high. I'm not sure whether the skipper knew the people in the houses or whether he was using other water users as his excuse for blowing his horn a few times.. he told us about one owner whose kids complained that they didn't have enough room to play outside.  Being a kind and considerate father he purchased the house next door and then knocked it down and lawned the whole area so in essence the kids now have a $4million play area. True or not only the owner knows for sure but the story kept us entertained for a few minutes.

As we turned back down the river the sun began to slip down the sky. It was like molten gold and the sky turned a hundred shades of orange, it was a very dramatic sunset.