Sharp-eyed hikers in Australia discovered a message in a bottle this week, and it came from none other than a trio of Sunnyvale residents who tossed it in the ocean way back in 2016.
A group from Townsville Hike and Explore was collecting trash Sept. 20 at Chunda Bay in Queensland — about 800 miles north of Brisbane — when they found the well-sealed bottle. The message inside was rolled up and wrapped in a hair tie signed by three people — Savannah, Kate and Janice — who gave an address as Yorktown Drive in Sunnyvale.
A hiker with the Townsville Hike and Explore group in Australia reads a letter found in a Schweppes bottle in Chunda Bay in Queensland on Sept. 20, 2024. It was written by three people from Sunnyvale who tossed the bottle into the sea in Fiji in 2016. (Photo courtesy Townsville Hike and Explore)
According to the message, they were staying at the posh Navini Island Resort in Fiji when they tossed the bottle into the ocean. There’s no way to know how long it took the bottle to make the journey of nearly 2,000 miles to Chunda Bay or when it washed up.
The message inside read: “Dear Reader, We wrote this note because we heard so many stories about doing this. We are leaving Navini today at 5 p.m. Fiji time so please write back to me.”
Susie Bidgood, a member of Townville Hike and Explore, was one of three hikers who found the bottle and talked to the Triple M Townsville radio show about the one-in-a-million discovery.
“When we got back to the cars and the headlamp we opened it up and read the letter to the group. We were just dumbfounded for sure,” Bidgood said. The Schweppes bottle cap was so well sealed that they had to break it open to read the message, Sandra Lamari, another member of Townsville Hike and Explore, said.
After they posted about the find on social media, it didn’t take too long for the story to spread to local radio and TV stations and eventually to California.
Lamari said they’ve been in contact with all three writers this week. Savannah, who wrote the letter when she was 11, contacted the group Monday. She had been on vacation with Kate, who was 19 at the time, and Janice, a 72-year-old family friend.
The note will continue its global journey as it is returned to its senders along with some media articles about its discovery.
SUNDAY SOUNDS: The SoFA Street Fair will be celebrating its second 10th anniversary Sunday. The festival, which will feature dozens of bands on 11 stages throughout downtown San Jose’s arty South First Area (SoFA), was founded in 1992 and ran for 10 years in its first iteration and then was brought back to life in 2014.
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Organizer Fil Maresca says there are a few anniversary extras to catch this year. To honor the late Chris Esparza and his contributions to SoFA, there’s a one-time-only Ajax stage situated in front of Mama Kin, under the windows of what was once Ajax Lounge. And to celebrate the dual anniversaries, the folks at SoFA Market created a custom sofa that’ll be given away after the event, which runs from 2 to 8 p.m.
Fil Maresca, left, chats with an attendee at the SoFA Street Fair in downtown San Jose in 2019. (Josie Lepe/ BANG)
It’ll be a busy day for Maresca, who also is chair of the board of Levitt San Jose, the group aiming to bring a Levitt Pavilion concert stage to St. James Park. Its fall concert series kicks off Sunday with the folk rock sounds of Goodnight, Texas and opener Madeline Hawthorne. The free show starts at 3:30 p.m., with food trucks and a beer and wine garden.
FEMINIST FIBER: Artist Stephanie Metz has a new exhibition showing at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara that really breaks any preconceptions you might have about textile art being static.
“Stephanie Metz: In the Glow” features body-like forms in an immersive installation that is meant to explore themes of soft power and the paradoxes of female life, including the duality of being both resilient and vulnerable. Along with the organic forms made of white wool fibers or thick felt, there is a strategic use of the color pink, which has its own various associations with gender, femininity and sexual identity.
“Stephanie Metz: In the Glow” is an exhibition of fiber art on display at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara through Dec. 29, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Metz)
The exhibition, which runs through Dec. 29, has an opening reception Sept. 28 at 2 p.m. at the museum at 1505 Warburton Ave.