The first weekend was a trip up to a small farm run located near Alexandra and Eildon, over the other side of the Yarra ranges. The farm has been in A's family for decades and has been a favourite place for them to go for years, and I can see why...it reminded me of my own childhood growing up on farms in various locations in Victoria. Some of A's friends also came up to stay, and we fitted nicely into the farm house.
We headed off on Friday evening, after work, which unfortunately meant it was dark as we drove through the Yarra Ranges beyond Healesville and missed the beauty of the Black Spur and the national park. We also missed seeing the burnt out areas left from the Black Saturday fires 18 months ago, however the scars do linger on. We stopped for dinner at the Buxton pub, and contemplated buying a souvenir black hoodie emblazoned with the slogan "What the bucks going on at Buxton". It was all class...
A fire is the only form of heating in the house, in a combustion stove, and Steve got to work establishing himself as our fire-maker for the weekend and quickly warmed things up. The farm house was small, and as far as I could see in the dark, perched on the side of a hill with a garden all of which was surrounded by paddocks with "angry cows" (actually, steers) which in past have terrorised the meek!!
Morning bought daylight and the magnificent views from the house of the countryside. Everything is very wet and very green, and was like I remember farmland looking all those years ago. A big breakfast cook-up, walks up the hill, a car drive to Lake Eildon, lunch at Alexandra all made for a really pleasant day. Cool but fairly clear, it was typical farm weather. BBQ for dinner and a long game of scrabble was a great conclusion...even if some dubious words scored points!!!
Sunday dawned miserable - wet and misty all day, but in keeping with the winter farm setting. We were house bound until we packed up and headed off, making our way home via Marysville to stop at the bakery (which amazingly survived the fires) for a hot chocolate. The rain was on and off for the drive back home, at least being able to see the countryside this time. In all a great weekend away, and a lot of fun.
The farmhouse, surrounded by a garden with fruit trees in it.
Some spectacular birds outside the front window feeding from the bird bath.
Just five days later A and I packed up again, this time headed for the airport and onwards to Sydney for a Friday afternoon wedding of a friend of mine, Alexis (aka Will) and his lovely fiancé Tamara (Tammy). I was honoured to be invited, knowing Will through triathlons and having coached him for a year or two before he switched to cycling. Together Will & Tammy are a lot of fun to catch up with, full of enthusiasm and energy.
The wedding was right in the centre of Sydney, which made it easy to get to as we dressed up in our finery and walked from our hotel over the St Mary's Cathedral, next to Hyde Park. This was no suburban church...it was gigantic from the outside and once we found the right door to go in, the aisle seemed about half-a-kilometre long beneath the high, high ceiling, between the pillars, statues, paintings and more. It was more the venue for a state ceremony than the wedding of our friends!!! Nonetheless, Will was at the front waiting with his groomsmen as the audience trickled in...filling a fraction of the seating.
Tammy arrived looking beautiful and the ceremony was spectacular with the backdrop of the altar.
I've never been a church person, to the extent that back at school a mate and I set a "record" by wagging chapel 12 weeks in a row before being caught, so I must say the religious service part of it all was lost on me...at least we didn't have to sing any hymns!! Anyway, after the ceremony were some group photos and then a gap until the reception, also held in a stately venue at the Queen Victoria Building...literally 50m from our hotel door. Despite knowing no one other than the wedding couple, we had a great time with some really nice people at our table. The service, food and drinks were top class, and the speeches were all great - in all a wonderful wedding.
The good thing in having the wedding on Friday meant we had a full weekend available in Sydney, for which we'd made plans for a Saturday trip to do a boat cruise down the Hawkesbury River. It was about a 90min bus trip to get to Palm Beach, and then onto the boat for a further 1:45hr cruise to Patonga and then up a tributary to the Hawkesbury river, all within the Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park. The scenery was spectacular, with bush all the way down to the water's edge as we snaked our way upstream, passing inlets, bays, other boats, paddlers, fishers, settlements until we reached our turn-around point at Bobbin Head.
Bobbin Head is a lovely, secluded area tucked into the bush with the main featured being a marina for large and expensive cruising boats, a picnic ground and a cafe. It was very serene, and on a lovely, sunny winter day was very peaceful and relaxing for the hour we had there until the boat departed back to Palm Beach. The return trip was also peaceful, as we watched the scenery pass in between reading the newspaper and talking with other passengers. By the time we got on the bus back to Sydney we were getting a little weary, but it felt like a holiday which was good.
Sunday dawned to even nicer weather, and we took the opportunity to walk through the Domain, botanical gardens, along the harbour to the Opera House, around to the Rocks area and alongside the Harbour Bridge back to the hotel to collect our bags. We could well have been mistaken for tourists, but I was adamant we were "visitors" instead to avoid any potential stigma associated with being a tourist!!! Whatever, it was good fun.
We had an almost inevitable delay flying out of Sydney, but eventually got home to Melbourne OK to conclude a couple of winter escapes to break up the routine of work until our next escape / holiday...whenever that it will be...
The happily married couple in the cathedral.
Palm Beach with the wharf in the middle with our boat moored.
Heading out from Palm Beach, looking north at Lion Is.
A small beach on the cruise up the river.
Cottage Point with a flying plane tied up the wharf.
Some of the many paddlers we saw during the trip.
From the Bobbin Head bridge looking at our boat, and back down the river.
More scenery from the boat - it was like this all the way.
A lone dinghy boat with a bird on it a Patonga.
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