Down Under Diary

The daily diary of a wandering restaurateur Down Under
October 25 - Berowra Waters, NSW

Now we are pretty much in sych with the local time . . . except that last night we had to change the clocks for Daylight Savings. That is, we had to set the clocks AHEAD an hour because Daylight Savings is just starting here. It is, after all, springtime!

The project for today was lunch. That may sound simplistic, but lunch was at The Restaurant on Berowra Waters, a delightful eatery on the Hawkesbury River about an hour's drive north of Sydney. The commute was particularly interesting . . . we had to get there by seaplane! (I had hoped to have some pictures to share with you but the batteries on my camera chose today to die!) The restaurant is owned by Alan Chamberlain, the GM of the Carlton Crest Hotel, our temporary home in Sydney and is managed by his wife, Terry. The restaurant is located in the Ku-ring-gai National Park, is only open on weekends and is only accessible by ferry or seaplane! Our luncheon companions included Alan, Terry, their son Gareth as well as Fergus Maclagan of Fortune Magazine and his wife, Lorraine. An interesting group.

There was something incredibly civilized about sitting on the veranda of this lovely restaurant on the banks of a river in the middle of rugged bushland, sipping good wine with delightful people. Lunch was superb! Their chef, a native of Hong Kong, has a flair for presentation The menu is a collaborative effort between the chef and the owners and offered some very interesting combinations. Margene started with a stacked ravioli appetizer filled with pumpkin and goat cheese in a mango sauce (I tried the emu carpaccio). For lunch I had seared yellow fin tuna and she went for the roasted Muscovy duck. Wines were a very buttery Arrowfield Chardonnay and a big Moondah Brook Cabernet from Western Australia. There is a God!

Time flew . . . and all to soon, so did we . . . literally. The seaplane pulled right up to the floating dock outside the restaurant and suddenly we were away again, flying through the river canyon on the way back to Sydney.

John Lennon said that, "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans" and today was proof of that. We expected a delightful meal with Alan and Terry and we certainly had that. What we didn't expect was Veronica and Rodney Harrison, a couple of locals celebrating their first wedding anniversary. We met them on the plane ride to Berowra (they got dropped off on the way). When we stopped to pick them up on the flight back, it was like running into some old friends again. We struck up a conversation which led to drinks at a local yacht club which turned into an unexpected evening in suburban Sydney! Our afternoon out turned into a very full (and very enjoyable) day. The only problem now is that we will have to charter another flight to get all the pictures we missed!

The lesson for today may well have been to stay open to possibilities. Had we been more fixed in our ideas of what today "should" have been about, we would have never have spent the time with Rod and Veronica and we would have missed a real slice of Aussie life! Woody Allen said that "80% of life is showing up," and that may be true . . . but you have to remember to open the mail!

For (a few) photos of a travelogue-like nature, click here.

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