Thursday 9th November

Did some washing & packed before catching a ferry & a train to Central Station for the 10.17 to Lithgow over the Blue Mountains. The ride is quite impressive after Penrith as the train winds its way up to Katoomba, a famous tourist spot in the hills & then on a zig-zag up to Lithgow a coal mining town in a basin.

Here Diana met us & whisked us off on a fascinating route to her property at Triangle Flats, a 200+ hectare area of paddocks creeks & woodland about 50km south west of Orange. The house, they had built of large sawdust/cement blocks, is spacious overlooking much of the property to the north & west. Diana & Kevin have been there for about 10 years working on restoring the native vegetation & growing saffron crocuses & vegetables. They are both very knowledgeable about the flora & fauna of the area and wage a constant battle with invading species.

Soon after we arrived, Martin, Diana's ex, arrived & it was great to see them all after such a long time. He brought with him his new dog, Bailey, a rescued kelpie cross puppy, which he is training.

Friday 10th November

Up latish & after a great breakfast we all went over to Caloundra to visit a museum of fossil fishes found in rocks uncovered during road building works in the 1970s. Some of them are unique & the museum explains the processes very well. Moving on we went for lunch at a small winery Borrodell Vineyard which also has fruit trees growing apples & cherries. The lunch was excellent & we had a great time going over all our exploits since we had last met. We drove back home & had a light dinner that night & were in bed early.

Saturday 11th November

Had a walk with Diana in the steeply wooded area of the property having inspected the crocus beds with their shrivelled up plants. The highlight for us was seeing an echidna which froze on hearing us & waited for us to move on. d*** found the ground quite trying but managed OK & it was interesting to see the work that has been put in to clearing black berries & poisoning the introduced willow trees on the creek edges.

After lunch Kevin took us around in his ute. At its highest point, over 1000m, we had a wonderful view across to a range of hills about 20k away. Returning to the house we had a very lazy afternoon & watched a strange western in the evening.

Sunday 12th November

After breakfast we said goodbye to Martin who was returning, very carefully, south west to his place in Bateman's Bay.

We then set off with a packed picnic ( which we ate at Hartley, an historic town) with Kevin & Diana to return to Sydney.

They took us to see an Open Garden near Lithgow & then on to an old village before dropping us off at Mount Victoria station. The train ride back was uneventful & we caught the ferry back before having dinner in Military Road.