Friday's Bike Ride

Caesar salad and calamari

On Friday we road our bikes out to campus, just to see if we could do it. It wasn't such a bad ride, but I'm glad I don't have to do it every time I go. We wound our way back through town on our way home, stopping at Proudfoot's Boathouse for lunch. Gorgeous views of the Hopkins River and good food.

 Right across from the boathouse are the most spectacular cemeteries overlooking the river. There's an old side and a new side. The old side is also sort of divided in half by type of plots. You have the in-ground type with a large cement slab over the top with headstones that weren't particularly ornate. There were often both members of a couple or the whole family in one of the "tombs." The stones recorded deaths dated back to the 1800's and some were as recent as 2000.

On the right side of the older part of the cemetery were more of the tomb like plots but with much larger and fancier headstones. It was kind of surreal to walk among them and read the stories of those who are buried there. You can learn a surprising amount from what someone puts on a headstone. The tiny graves for stillborn babies and young children were particularly sobering.

 As I looked out at the bluffs along the river and walked among the white crosses, I remembered the walks I've taken in the convent cemetery at Mount Marty. For some reason, I was particularly struck by the design of this dark cross against the wispy clouds. The style reminded me of church banners when I was growing up.

We crossed the street, away from the river, and looked out at a vast plot of sameness. We were told that at some point Warrnambool changed their policy regarding cemetery plots, and all of the headstones are now uniform in shape and color. Except for this oval one down front - not sure how they snuck that one in. There was something kind of cool about the neat rows and well manicured grass, but we were not drawn to walk among them or learn their stories, which is a pity in a way.