A night in a pub

We have developed a liking for those traditional Australian pubs. They have a special atmosphere, not so easy to compare with any European venue. Very often they are a hotel as well, and often they have the same name: The Commercial Hotel. Now it happens that somewhere in the nowhereland between Casino and Grafton there is one. In the tiny little hamlet of Rappville. We think that the only reason it's there is the railway, that must have had a station over there. Nowadays only a couple of trains pass there, mostly at night. The pub was built in 1911 and is still very much in original state, and condition. Paul, our host in Kyogle, found their telephone number and we booked a room. Good, for the distance between the towns is over 100 kms and nothing in between than Rappville. We had to make a 7 kms detour to get there. We didn't regret it for several reasons. We were the only boarders and as far as we saw only three guests visited the pub in the evening. The owner was recovering from a stroke, his wife ran the business. Therefore there was no cooked breakfast. And as for dinner, we were lucky that it was Saturday, since they only serve dinners in the weekend. The beer and the wine were good, the steak also and so was our room. A high spacious room with a fine queen-size bed. The bathroom was basic and the toilet likewise. Only one of those available for all 4 or 5 rooms. We were most lucky to be there because in the evening and night a severe storm came over and a huge amount of rain and hail fell. Didn't harm us in our warm historic and cosy bed. In the morning we made us our coffee and toasts ourselves and, without having seen a single soul, we sneaked out and took off for Grafton, still 85 kms to go. After 5 minutes the rain started to last until midday.