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Published: August 21st 2010
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We were all up bright and early for our day trip to Mansfield and, although it was cold, the sun was shining. We had turned “sat nav” on to guide us but we found that it was ‘Daph Nav’ who knew the best route out of the city. Melbourne is such a large and sprawling city and the leafy suburbs go on for a good many kilometers. After a while we realised we were no longer surrounded by houses and the outlook was much more rural and pleasant. It was becoming hilly and mainly farmland with cows, sheep and their lambs in abundance. We also passed an alpaca stud - they are such amusing creatures! There were a good many vineyards scattered through the countryside although the vines were bare at this time of year. Tempting though it was to stop, we kept going until we reached the small town of Yea and as the sun was still shining we stopped at a picnic area in the centre of town and drank our flask of tea and, yes, ate some more of Daphne’s fruit cake. It was an interesting picnic area which had obviously been the local railway station at one
time - presumably the Aussie version of Dr Beeching had since been there with his “axe”.
We continued to climb steadily as the terrain got more and more hilly. The clouds rolled in and it rained for much of the rest of the journey. When we reached Mansfield it was lunchtime so we headed for the local “pie shop” and tucked into some great Aussie pies. We then headed for the Delatite Hotel where we spotted Mark (from the famous Reeves family) busy serving behind the bar. When Graham asked for a ‘warm beer’ his face lit up as he suddenly realized who we were. It was lovely to meet him and it was a shame he was so busy and would be working until well into the evening. His nephew, Jake, was also there so we had a good chat with him, reminiscing about the various adventures with Sarah and Darryl.
Then we set off for the Reeves’ house which was a few kms away at Bridge Creek. Mark had said we couldn’t miss the place and he was right. As we approached, there, tucked in at the side of the house, we could see ‘Sweetie’ the
beautiful caravan. We were greeted at the door by Spotty a super little dog - not much of a guard dog as he was more likely to lick us to death than anything else! The house is a wonderful large and open plan country home with huge windows looking out over the surrounding countryside - it must be a great place for kids to grow up in. Because it’s been the wettest winter for years, the caravan was virtually surrounded by ankle deep water so we were pleased to find some wellies to wade through the puddles to get to the van. In spite of the heavy rain the van was bone dry inside. We immediately knew that it will be a very comfortable home for us during the next twelve months or so and were sorry we weren’t going off in it straight away. But, for the first few weeks of our adventure, the caravan will actually be surplus to requirements. We spent some time filling the cupboards with some of the mountain of clothes we won’t need for a while and also off-loaded some camping gear from the car. We’ll be back in a few weeks to sort
things out properly and to start our camping experience in earnest.
In the meantime, Simone had arrived back from Melbourne where she had been to visit her poorly Mum and not long after that the children arrived home from school. They are a lovely, lively bunch and immediately made us feel at home. It was obvious that they had enjoyed having the company of Sarah and Darryl and missed them greatly - but who wouldn’t! We were sad to leave but we faced a long drive back to Melbourne and Graham wanted to get as far as possible in daylight. So we made our farewells and promised to stay longer when we come back to pick up the caravan. Our journey home was broken by an amusing hour or so spent in a quaint and very quirky Chinese restaurant in Lilydale. Suitably replenished (the food was excellent) we arrived back at Daphne’s at a reasonable hour but soon disappeared off to bed exhausted.
Joutau everybody (Cantonese good night!)
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