We are now in Sedgwick, a small suburb of Victoria, about 25 kms out of Bendigo. We've just started a Housesit for 5 weeks while the owners of the house have gone to New Zealand, touring around in a camper van. It's like we've swapped lives at the moment as its usually us in a van traveling about.
We arrived yesterday and spent a very pleasant evening with our owners before they left early this morning. We're now spending a quiet day here settling in before we start to explore the area tomorrow. First stop is the Toyota dealership for a service on the car and then on to an osteopath for me later in the day. I've been having trouble with a sciatic nerve and want to do something about it while we are in one spot for a few weeks. Let's hope I can get something positive from this visit!
We had a great time while at Bulli as mentioned in the last entry and it was great to catch up with old friends and neighbours. The Shire is changing so much though with new buildings and blocks of units going up everywhere. In our old street there are 2 lots of town houses being built now. The traffic in the area is horrendous and we are so glad we don't have to put up with all of this any more. Every day I think how lucky we are and what a great life we are living. Long may it last!
Before leaving Bulli we had a great weekend with our friends Ali and Di and their 2 boys. They came with their Jayco Swan Campervan for the weekend and we had a good time enjoying the beach, beautiful weather, good food and great company.
Next stop was Bateman's Bay where we spent 10 days at Casey's Beach caravan park and just over the road from the beach. A small caravan park with a big percentage of permanent residents who were very friendly and made us feel most welcome. We enjoyed a few good happy hours there.
As we were deciding which way we were going to head down to Victoria Chris was mentioning going through Yass as one option. Not known for my geography skills but I do know that Yass is not that far from Boorowa where Emma and Graham are (only an hour away) how could we be so close and not call in? We made the detour and spent a few days enjoying grandchildren time with Josh and Ellie before heading off again.
Next stop was Bright and our first night in Victoria for a few years. We had been looking forward to Bright as we had heard nice things about the place but unfortunately we felt a bit disappointed. The town itself is quite pretty but we picked the wrong time to be there. It was just before the long weekend with the labour day public holiday on the Monday. All the caravan parks in Bright charge like wounded bulls at these times just because they can and apparently people from Melbourne are happy to pay $65 a night, p/w with a 4 night minimum stay. Supply and demand as one caravan park owner said as she tried to charge us $40 for an unpowered site. There's no way we'll pay those sort of prices on principle so after 2 nights in Bright we went to Myrtleford, about 30 kms away and spent 6 nights there for $35 a night p/w, a big difference!
We drove up to Mount Hotham and were surprised at the amount of caravans we saw along the way, making the long and winding journey up and over the mountain. The views were spectacular and our photos don't get close to doing it justice. We also drove up to Mount Buffalo, a similar drive, not quite as high above sea level but still spectacular views. We did the small steep walk to the top and were lucky enough to witness a wedding. A small group of about a dozen people had climbed to the top just in front of us with a couple of young kids in tow. The youngest was only one week old and whose mum was the celebrant which I thought was amazing!
The service was lovely and such beautiful words, the views great and perhaps a good way to cut down on the number of wedding guests! No fuss and so casual with a glass of bubbly when they got down to the base of the walk. You may notice a light coloured spot at the top of a high peak in one of the photos, that was where the wedding ceremony was.
We took a drive out to Beechwood and learnt the history of the legendary Ned Kelly and saw the jail where he was kept before going into court to be sentenced. There are many areas around Australia that claim fame to Ned Kelly but Beechworth is the area with his family connections.
As we left Beechwood heading back to Myrtleford we saw a sign for "Pick your own strawberries" so we just had to stop. We sampled a few and picked more than we paid for, as you do!!
Next stop Heathcote which is only about 50kms from Sedgwick where we are now, while there we explored the town and surrounding areas, with it's Pink Cliffs, Lake Eppalock and the telecom tower at the top of Mount Ida. We took a ride out to Nagambie the horse Capitol of Victoria and home of Black Caviar, the famous racehorse and after that it was out to the Tahbilt Winery for lunch and a walk around the billabong in such a beautiful setting.
As we drive around Victoria we can't believe how dry everywhere is. There hasn't been rain of any significance for a few months now and it really shows. With high water restrictions and many bushfires in Victoria and south NSW, it's really sad to see. Luckily we haven't been near any bush fires but have friends in Tathra, NSW, a suburb that has just suffered big damage to properties in the area. We will need to be vigilant while here at Sedgwick as this is really a bushy area with lots of trees around the property.
How things can change in a couple of days! Our friends in Tathra are safe and have now returned to their home with only a minimal amount of damage and Yes! It's raining here, a steady downpour that looks like it's set in for the day. With a lovely home to enjoy, dinner in the oven and a big pot of homemade tomato sauce cooking on the stove top, it looks like being a lazy day.