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Hi there badgers!
Figured I’d send a quick update before we head out on the road again - yip Trevor is growing restless which means we gotta swing by BP, give him a feed and head for the outback! We’ve been back in Macedon (just outside Melbourne) for just over a week now - daily hot showers and monster feeds - a fruit picker’s dream! Tasmania was amazing and we will definitely be going back...in the Summer! The grapes ran dry during the final 2 weeks of our stay - we had the odd day picking here and there but we were mainly beetling around in Trev and taking in the sights! One of them being the Cadbury's factory of course!
Shucks i was SO excited - it was a Thursday and Slimey was having a die! You see the night before we'd been out on the town with our fellow pickers - went to this excellent pub where they served steins - for those non-beer-drinking companions a stein is basically 2 pints served in a giant beer mug! Anyhoot we beetled along on the Wednesday eve - Wednesday being the special day...between 4&5pm a stein costs you $4,
between 5&6pm $5 and so on - you get the picture! It was quite a sight - especially between 4&6pm - a big bunch of thirsty fruit pickers all muttering bout grapes round a stein-filled table! Good times. Anyway, was no surprise that Sime felt particularly horrid the next day - wasn't too peachy myself - just stoked we weren't out wrestling vines like some of our other picking friends! The Cadbury factory was simply splendid - Ludwig (Loood) my wild hare came along for the trip as did Dan - our German friend. Loood proved quite a hit on all the tours and i reckon i scored extra chocolate as a result - one for the wild hare i'd mutter - always a bonus! Felt horribly sick by the end but quite content😊
But we didn't just eat chocolate and drink beer on our days off, oh no, we ventured on proper road trips too! First off we headed for the Florentine Valley - giant forests with crazy tree people protecting them from the logging baddies! It was great fun - beetled off with Gael - our crazy French betty picking friend and Dan -the laid back German!
We arrived fairly late in the day at Mt. Field National Park but still managed to squeeze in a walk - Russell my new goat (he has an excellent gruff and top notch hooves - very well groomed) insisted we take him to Russell Falls so off we went - of course we had to find our way back through the monster forest in the dark but all in all it was very pretty. We then rustled up some grub on our gas cookers - many a possum pulled in for the party too - and after pot-fills of Gael's mulled wine (only way to keep warm i tell you!) we headed for our van beds! Day 2 brought with it the infamous tree people - mad activists who sit in trees or chain themselves to the trunks so that the forestry folk don't hack them down - was really interesting. We met some of the tree fellers - those who weren't up a giant tree - some are proper bat sh*t crazy or just there for a party but others were really cool and very passionate about what they were doing. Hats off i say and yay for the
tree people!
Day 3 we went fishing - in the hail!! well almost anyway - it was possibly the worst day EVER to go fishing - good thing Slime and i are such die-hard fishermen! I caught several trees and Sime kept catching other people's lost lures - Gael and Dan at least looked the part but they too caught us no swimmers to munch so all in all it was quite the successful fishing expedition! It did of course rain on our heads too but luckily we fled just before the hail stones came a tumbling! Good times. So we headed for Gordon Dam instead and wow am i glad we did - one of the most amazing things i've seen i think! It's the highest dam in Tazzie - 5th highest in Oz i think but the setting was just spectacular - yes i realize i'm sounding a little pompous here...'quite spectacular' ' truly splendid how now brown cow!' but sod it - it really was awesome - and it SNOWED while we were walking along the actual wall! i didn't know what to do with myself - i'm not the best with heights so there i
was scared sh*tless on the one hand, crazy excited on the other and all in all shaking like a leaf in disbelief as it snowed on my heed!
Road trip 2 was just as fun - this time, still joined by our French/German duo, we headed East to check out Wineglass Bay. Wow! Them travel-writer folk will tell you that it's one of the 10 best beaches in the weeld but shucks i think they're right with this one! We arrived in the eve and set up camp at the 'Friendly Beaches' - part of the national park so super pretty. In the morning we were joined by Clive - a brave wallaby and fan of raisin! He clearly wasn't phased in the slightest - would come right up to us, sniff Sime's giant heed and munch raisins right out of our hands - what a champ! What followed was a long day of walking - we climbed mountains, and more mountains before finally making it to Wineglass Bay! The waves were gigantic and the sun was sinking but that didn't stop Slime - couldn't pass up such a top notch shorey - he lasted about 10 seconds! -
caught 1 wave, then sprinted out before his willy dropped off!! Gael then rustled up a real cheese fondue for grub as only a French bet could - i did sample it but you know i am not one with the cheese - it got rave reviews from everyone else though - don't think i've ever seen so much cheese consumed in one sitting - Sime even got the proper cheese nightmares! (ha apparently if you munch too much cheese you get nightmares - i obviously would not know!) All in all it was another fantastic roadtrip. After cheese and nightmares we woke early the next morn ready for the fat mission up to Devonport where we boarded our overnight ferry back to Melbourne. We traveled back with our Welsh pals which was a good laugh - we were supposed to be meeting them up in Queensland now to tackle some strawbs but they have recently landed a job rounding cattle in the outback! No joke - we were going to join them - you know how i like to wrangle me some bovines - but turns out the station only needed 2 peeps...hence tomorrow morn we're heading for Queensland
in search of strawbs sans Welshmen!
And that about wraps it up from me... Slime has the sniffles at the mo - Scott (Sime's brother who we're currently staying with) and his critters have had the coughs and splutters plus there's those hairy lice creatures going round at the school so i think it's definitely time to hit the road before i start coughing and my hair gets munched! It is hard leaving though - such a warm and happy home and we always have a good laugh BUT it's PICKING TIME and we must charge! Missing you all beastly but still smiling...
Lots of love
eM, Slime, Trevor, Big Stan & the kids
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Guy Groom
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Awesome shot!