As I floated down the Murrumbidgee River on Saturday afternoon, I was taken with just how idyllic our rural lifestyle really is. Being a former city kid myself, I found I had come to love the lifestyle.
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I didn’t have to deal with a 30-minute wait to get to the ‘beach’ near Darlington Point. We just pulled up, put out our camp chairs and esky and then jumped in the water.
There was no back-of-your-mind worries about thieves or sharks or pollution. No smog or other unidentified odours. True, there was no sea breeze, but there was serenity.
Heading back into town, I realised we take for granted what we’ve got. You can go in to a shop on Banna Avenue, buy what you want and leave again without coming into contact with thousands of potentially germ-ridden people jostling you and arguing over who grabbed the last Shopkin first. We may not have a K-mart, but we don’t need one when we’ve got a billion stars in the sky.
When we got home, I threw a few things on the barbecue while the wife made a salad. Each individual vegetable on the plate was crunchy, juicy and full of flavour. If you buy one of the anaemic supermarket tomatoes on the coast you can have look and feel but no flavour.
And the meat! The ‘chicken steak’ from the butcher at Hanwood is one of the greatest taste sensations I’ve ever wrapped my face around. Keep the coast. I’m home.
-STEPHEN MUDD
