It was a lovely still morning when we awoke in Aldinga. Ryan drove us over to a reserve, with a community centre, public toilets, children’s play park and fields and we had a nose around it.
I noticed some interesting things (to us anyway), such as some sewing and craft groups and a community veggie garden group that meets regularly. The community centre had a clean and neat looking cafe that sold cheap food and the reserve was lovely- neat and well looked after. If we were to choose to live somewhere a community centre with these types of things would definitely be important to us. Here it seemed obvious from the start that people cared about their area, had a sense of community and have similar interests to us! Great start.
We had already got a sense of the coastline around here driving down to Aldinga. Everything was well maintained with plenty of picnic areas. How I love Australians for their respect of their environment! It is so unlike in the UK, where anything new seems to be graffitied or vandalised before it has been used properly! I am astounded by the number of BBQ’s and picnic benches sprinkled along the coastline- all in pristine condition. So we new the beach was lovely- wide sweeping arcs of white/gold sand and the ocean a fresh blue, rather than the murky blue/black of the typical beaches back home.
After breakfast we took Brucey for a mini tour of the area to find a place to stay the night. We landed on a Caravan Park’s doorstep in the heart of Aldinga and had a friendly chat with the lady there. She gave us a little more information on the area, a handy map and directions for the nearest shopping complex, so that we could do a much needed stock up of essentials. The complex was just another capitalism centre, all concrete, over-seized shops with gaudy advertisements. When we toured around Oz the first time I do not remember these places, but there appears (so far) to be at least one on the fringes of every township. I find them hideous, dead places, but the unfortunate thing is they are often the only place you can go for food or other supplies.
Good did come of the mall however! A troop of friendly faces carrying kids toys and other toddler group staples came in not long after we had arrived. The lady running the place got chatting to us and invited us to stay with Nabeela (although Nabeela didn’t need the invitation!) for a free play and craft session. As Nabeela loves this kind of thing we decided to stay and try to learn more about the area. We eventually got talking to another woman who had joined in later and she knew about the eco-village in Aldinga. Although she didn’t live there herself, she knew people who did. And oddly enough some of those people appeared soon afterwards! We had a good chat with all of them and it gave us such a sense of belonging and happiness. Here were more people with similar ideals and ways of life, right in the middle of a gaudy shopping centre of all places!
We left with a much better sense of what it would be like to live in the area and a strange sense of fitting in. I could see ourselves living here.
Armed with some new found knowledge and some dates for markets, festivals and an open-day at the eco village at the end of the month, we drove back up the coastline to see what else we could find. Without saying it, I think, Ryan and I both knew we could leave Aldinga for later- if we settle there it’d make more sense not to discover everything there is to know about it straight away!
It was late when we finally realised we should find a place to stay, so we pulled into the nearest caravan park- Moana Beach.
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