And The Dogs Came Too!

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Saturday 28^th January - Congratulations and best wishes to Sarah and Darryl on your Wedding Anniversary. We’re sure you will have had a memorable day.

Because of the events of the night before, we changed our plans somewhat for today. We had thought to catch the tram into the city with John so as to visit the Eureka Tower and its magnificent high rise viewing platform. Rod and Tania had visited it a few days ago and said how much they enjoyed it. However, given John’s unfortunate problem of last night, we thought he would benefit more from a lie-in so we decided to leave the tower for a later date. David, Mele and some of her relatives had planned a trip to a winery on the Mornington Peninsula and had arranged to pick up Daphne on the way. It’s possible that John may be up and about in time to go with them, as he was invited, but preferred the idea of a trip into the city. Tomorrow we are collecting both Daphne and John to take then down to the beach house at Rye for a few days. We will only be staying one night and then we will leave to make room for Rod and Tania and Cathy and Chris. Hopefully Daphne and John will be ready in good time tomorrow to make it worthwhile for us to go down for the day. In the meantime, by not going into the city I was able to make a few preparations for our one night away. We did a bit of shopping at Vermont South and then tidied up the caravan after all the excitement of the last few days. Graham had a dip in the pool and we spent time chatting with our new neighbours from Brisbane who will be next to us for a few days. We’ve extended our stay here for two extra nights so that we can get to Rye and back and still have a day to prepare for our on-going journeys to destinations so far unknown. I rang Daphne late in the day and spoke with Bertie. Despite her feelings from last night that she didn’t really want to go, she did, in fact, go to the winery. John arose eventually and made his own way into the city and rang back later on his return at about 7:00pm at which time Daphne still hadn’t returned. I told John what the plan was for tomorrow – that I would prepare a picnic for us all to have at Mornington on the way to Rye -and to pass on the details to Daphne so that she doesn’t have to worry about anything except getting herself ready. We would hope to leave Daphne’s at about midday. With that we nipped to Coles to get all we would need and to get a voucher for the dongle. Alas, for whatever reason, I struggled to put the voucher details onto the dongle although I succeeded eventually. We had an earlyish night in anticipation of our journey to Rye tomorrow.

Sunday 29^th - our advanced preparations for our journey to the beach house at Rye, put us in a good position to make sure we left for Daphne’s at a reasonable time. It was already very warm when we woke up so we knew it would be a scorcher today and thunder storms were forecast for late afternoon! But our main concern was whether Daphne would be ready for us to leave Melbourne at a reasonable time. We did well and arrived at Daphne’s at about 11:15am only to find that we had just missed David and Mele who had called round. What a shame they hadn’t thought to ring us to let us know they would be there! We could easily have gone round earlier to see them before they went back to Warwick. Nevertheless, the major surprise was that Daphne and John were virtually packed and ready so it was just a matter of loading everything into the car and setting off towards Rye. We had forgotten that John would have to take his entire luggage with him as he would be leaving from there to catch his plane home on Thursday after a very short stay in Aus. With Daphne’s luggage also fairly considerable, it was a bit of a squeeze in the car but we managed. The intention was to travel to Rye via the coast road and to stop in Mornington to have the picnic that I had already prepared. Everything went well until we arrived in Mornington at about 12:30 to find every parking space taken and the park choc-a-block with picnickers!! Maybe we should have expected this as it was the last weekend of the school holidays. We drove on keeping our eyes open for a suitable picnic spot with a bit of shade to protect us against the scorching sun but it was only at Rosebud, just a few kilometres short of our destination, that we found somewhere that suited. However, it proved to be a perfect spot and we thoroughly enjoyed our picnic before making our way to the beach house. Grant had warned us that he might not arrive before mid-afternoon so when we got there the house was still locked. But we were able to gain access to the rear verandah which is covered and shady so it was possible for us to relax and unwind. Grant and the girls, with the two dogs, arrived soon after and we were all able to settle in to our rooms. About an hour later Anna arrived by which time, we (me, Graham, Daphne and John) together with Grant and the girls decided to take advantage of the lovely warm weather by going for a swim. We made our way to the beach at Blairgowrie which proved to be perfect and it wasn’t too busy. The water was warm, clear and not excessively deep – ideal for the girls to play with their boogie-boards. We spent over an hour frolicking in the sea and everyone enjoyed it. Afterwards we drove into Rye to get some ice-creams and then we went on to Rosebud to do some grocery shopping while Grant took the girls back to the house. We were able to get all we needed for the evening meal – ham, chicken and salad. After our meal, quite late into the evening, Anna, Graham and I went with the dogs to the beach for a long energetic walk. By this time the tide was fully “in” so there was no hard sand to walk on. Anna and I enjoyed paddling as we went but Graham found the going tough on the soft sand. We were out until quite some time after dark but it was beautiful – probably the most comfortable time of the day. Anna and the girls were soon in bed but, for the rest of us, we sat out on the verandah with a few drinks and with the men’s singles final on the outside TV. We all started out determined to watch it until the end but hadn’t realised just how long it would last. Wimpy Graham staggered to bed at 1:00am, Daphne dozed throughout much of the match and those of us who saw it through to the end went to bed at about 2:00am. It had been a fantastic match and for us, having seen Djokovic play in one of the earlier rounds, we were happy that he was the eventual winner.

Monday 30^th January was the day that Rod, Tania, Cathy and Chris were to join us all at the beach house. To create room for everyone else to stay, we were going to travel back to the caravan but not until as late as possible. Grant had promised everyone he would prepare a couple of his special curries so we were determined to stay to the bitter end. The weather didn’t start particularly well with heavy skies and occasional showers – a complete contrast to yesterday. Graham, Daphne, John and I drove to Sorrento to see the views, which are beautiful whatever the weather, to walk around the trendy, touristy shops and to have a coffee and some world famous vanilla slices. As it rained as soon as we’d parked the car, the coffee and cakes beckoned. It was John’s treat but I resisted the huge, delicious looking vanilla slices in favour of some fruit toast. Afterwards, with the weather only marginally better, we strolled around the small coastal town. Then we drove down to the beach area where there is a pier and a terminal for the Queenscliffe ferry. Alas, the heavens opened again so we cut our losses and went back to the house for lunch and to await the arrival of the Wiltshire crew. They had had a bit of an issue with their hire car (too small for four people and four suitcases) and had had to arrange a changeover to a bigger car which they were to do this morning. Also, an incident involving a chalet maid pushing a large laundry trolley which promptly crashed into the side of their car held them up still further. It meant they didn’t arrive at the beach house until about 3:15pm by which time the weather showed signs of improvement. By this time Grant wanted to begin the preparation of the evening meal so Graham took him and John to the shops to get some ingredients. Dinner would not be until about 8:00pm and, on their return from the shops, and with the sun now blazing strongly, it was decided that everyone would dash to the beach for a swim. Two car loads went – Graham stayed behind to help Grant with the food preparations (well, the washing up!).

Down at the beach we split in to two groups. The ladies decided to walk/paddle along the beach to the nearby jetty and back (actually not so nearby!) while the men and the girls went into the sea for a swim. Everyone had a great time except that poor Chris forgot he had money, car keys and some insurance papers in his shorts pockets so, although he only waded in up to his waist and didn’t actually swim, he had a bit of explaining to do to Cathy and a bit of legal money laundering to arrange afterwards! Back at the house we all chatted about our recent experiences, especially the wedding, and on-going plans. Poor John would have to return to the airport as soon as Thursday (his was a very short stay in Aus) while, after a few days in Melbourne, Rod, Tania, Cathy and Chris would be travelling along The Great Ocean Road together as far as Adelaide. Cathy and Chris will fly home from there while Rod and Tania will fly on to Perth where they’ll hire another car and travel up and down the north coast of Western Australia. Our plans are to spend a few days in eastern Victoria, possibly Walhalla, but without the caravan which we’ll leave in Melbourne. We’ll return to Melbourne for a few more days at the end of the week but we don’t know yet if we will be able to catch up with the Pommie tourists again before they travel on.

Grant’s efforts for the evening meal were excellent, as usual. We provided some nibbles for starters with some Tasmanian cheeses and crackers while Grant created two curry options – Lamb Rogan Josh and a barbecued chicken curry – with plenty of “trimmings”. I had bought some strawberries and ice-cream for “afters” but we were all so stuffed from the main meal that they never got used, at least not while we were there. After a few group photos we made our farewells and hit the road for Melbourne soon after 9:30pm arriving back at the caravan at about 10:40. Needless to say, we were both pretty tired although we couldn’t resist a late night cup of tea while catching up with our emails before collapsing into bed. It had been a brilliant few days.

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Photos

but Micky had to stay home in the care of Bert and Kym
He's already got used to his new collar - it's a great aid to tracking him down!

Great tennis on the verandah!
did we really stay up until 2am? (it was a great match though!)

Was this a preying mantis?
it was quite large but we've seen bigger on our travels