Melbourne – A weekend in the Country

Today I am meeting up with my friend Kate from Ivybridge. She is doing some work in Australia and has 4 days’ break between jobs. I sit on a walk in Federation Square, watching the people coming and going and keeping a look-out for her. Suddenly there she is and we have a big hug and say how amazing it is to meet on the other side of the world. We sit for a while in the deckchairs in the square and chat to catch up with each other. While travelling almost all relationships start from scratch and it is very nice to be with someone I already know and only have 6 months' catching up to do.

Deckchairs in Federation Square

Work colleagues and friends of Kate, Di and Adrian, have kindly invited us to join them at their weekend home, which is about an hour and a half north west of the city. This is the Labour Day long weekend holiday, which celebrates the unions’ fight for an 8 hour working day. We are meeting Di at the Children’s Hospital , where she and Adrian work and we struggle onto the crowded tram with our luggage. Along the short journey and man sitting near us keeps up a grumbling commentary to himself, ‘There’s too many people on this tram; it’s always like this on a Friday, they should put more trams on; why have we stopped now?’ etc etc. We meet up with Di and we join the many other motorists on the highway who are also leaving the city for the weekend. The countryside is not so very different from England. We pass through a farming landscape dotted with trees, with large grass fields that are perhaps a little browner than at home.  Then we are off the highway and passing through pleasant small towns. The last couple of miles is on an orange-coloured dirt road and then we pull into their property. As soon as we get out of the car the smell of eucalyptus fills the air and I can feel that I am in Australia, more than I felt when I was in the city. The house is a lovely single-storey wooden building, with an open-plan living room, dining room and kitchen and a veranda that looks out across the back garden to the paddock and the forest beyond.

Di and Adrian’s Weekend House

Garden

Di shows us around the house and garden and we admire the vegetable patch, where the aubergine and cucumber plants are having a prolific harvest.

Vegetable Harvest

We walk through the grass field to the pond and as we go we can see kangaroo poo on the grass and a kookaburra sings its harsh laughing song in a nearby tree.

Di is an amazing cook and hostess and she sets to work in the kitchen and by the time Adrian has also arrived from work, she has created a delicious vegetarian curry, which is the first of many culinary delights we experience over the weekend (many of which include aubergine!)

Di making Pizzas in the Kitchen

Kate in the Lounge

The next day Kate and I take a bike ride into the nearby town of Daylesford.  As we cycle along the quiet country roads parrots and large white cockatoos fly between the trees. The town has an alternative lifestyle vibe and at the moment there is a gay festival going on and the town is full and jolly. There is already a gay theme to this weekend, as Kate and I are sharing a double bed, so we giggle that we should feel quite at home in the town. We have a cup of coffee in a nice lively café in the main street.

Coffee

Then we cycle to explore the nearby natural mineral springs. The water is pumped by hand out of a bore hole and it is naturally carbonated and tastes slightly eggy and metallic.

Mineral Spring

On Sunday morning all four of us go to a nearby café for breakfast. The menu has a range of interesting and tasty breakfast choices and we all choose something different.

Sunday Breakfast

After breakfast Di and Adrian take us for some locl sightseeing and we visit a nearby lake for a walk and Kate and I are delighted as an echidna waddles across the path in front of us. As we get closer, it tucks its head and snot under its spiny body. Kate and I are pleased to see this one, as we saw a dead one by the side of the road yesterday.

Echidna

Our next visit is to a lavender farm, which has lovely gardens and an original restored farm house.

Me and Kate at the Lavender Farm

After our outing we return to the house and have a lazy afternoon. Adrian potters in his shed,  takes some stuff to the dump, Kate finishes her book in the garden, I write up my blog and then Di shows me how to make homemade pasta, which we have later for dinner.

Homemade Pasta

Kate and I enjoy our last morning in the country by taking a walk along the road from Di and Adrian’s house. It is a beautiful day; the air feels clean and fresh and the blue sky seems very high above us. We walk along the country road, passing the occasional house. There are fields on either side of us; some with sheep grazing on the rather dry-looking brown grass. The view is wide and expansive, across slightly rolling fields to low hills in the distance.

Walk along a Country Road

4 rosellas land in a eucalyptus tree beside us. They are parrot-like birds with bright red breasts and blue wings.

Rosella

Further along there is a flock of white birds in the road. They are cockatoos and as we approach they take off and fly chaotically in all directions, making their strange cockatoo call. The bird-life here seems out-of-place in the open air, as if they have escaped from a pet shop. It is a shame that we haven’t seen more of a kangaroo than its poo.

Back at the house Di and Adrian are ready to leave to go back to the city. We have had a lovely weekend here with them and I feel very lucky to have been included. They have been the most amazing hosts – relaxed, generous, kind and good fun.