Saturday, 4th June …..

It was a great trip over Bass Strait on Wednesday evening and we had been off-loaded from the Spirit by 6.40am. Breakfast at a terrific café at Port Melbourne and we were off and running. I set the GPS and we followed it religiously, even after it warned us we were using toll roads and there would be a charge. I had ordered and installed an e-tag and we assumed it would function as it should. We listened for the beep and we hadn’t travelled far before we heard that gentle tone that told us we had just spent some unspecified amount. I’m glad it was working but,by the third beep, I was hoping it would take a break.

We made great time and didn’t stop until a roadhouse somewhere near Benalla, where we bought LPG and a coffee. Marilyn chatted to a man who was waiting for his order and discovered he had been a student at Corrimal High School (like her); it’s certainly a small world. We stopped at Holbrook for lunch and, by late-afternoon, were in Goulburn where we had planned to spend the night. Goulburn has a sentimental spot in our hearts; it was always a stop for us on the way to Canberra or the snowfields, and our friends, Jan and Mungo, lived and were married there. It’s certainly grown but still has the feel of a nice country town. It's famous as the town of the Big Merino.

We were strolling up the main street, looking into restaurants trying to decide what we would like to eat, when a young woman recommended we try the Bank Restaurant at the other end of the street. It was good advice and we had a pleasant meal and met some very nice people. The owner, Alan, is an Englishman, married to Kim, a Thai woman who does all the cooking. One of the waitresses is Sophia, from Cambodia, and we had a very long chat with her about her life during the Pol Pot days and her hopes for the future.

Next morning, we found Mum’s Laundry (next to Dad’s Car Wash) and Marilyn did the washing. Not only did we have the clothes we had worn over the past few days, but Marilyn had brought whatever dirty clothes were lying around the house when we were leaving.

We had arranged to stay with friends, Jim and Di, in Kangaroo Valley so headed down there on Friday morning. We have a long association with the valley and the southern highlands above, so we were driving over places we have known well for many years. A stop at Fitzroy Falls for lunch was mandatory. Marilyn insisted on a ranger pie, a beef pie with a swirl of mashed sweet potato on top – very exotic – but I just had a plain beef pie. The Fitzroy Falls Visitors’ Centre is always in shade but we enjoyed lunch in the café and the view of the Falls from a couple of angles. I remember a walk I did in the 1970’s with Jim and Di which brought us up the Yarrunga Creek towards the base of the falls. We saw and heard lyrebirds and other wildlife and it was a memorable trip. I’ll talk to Jim about the details to make sure I’m not confused about what we did.

They live in a cottage on the Barrengary House property on the Upper Kangaroo Valley Road and have a very nice, quiet lifestyle. They were pleased to see us and we were delighted to be there. It’s been too long since we enjoyed their company and the couple of days we are here will not be long enough. Di is proud of their vegetable garden. This year she grew Dutch Crook Neck Pumpkins like the one in the first picture. For some reason, two grew together like Siamese Twins and gave us the chance to take some terrific photos, like the other one below.







In the evening, we went to the local Bowls Club which has a very good chef, and met up with some more old friends from our time at Chakola, an Outdoor Education Centre, where we worked in our holidays for many years between 1966 and 1975. Derek and Irene Lucas, Paul and Libbie Turnock and Lance Tomlinson were there and it was a fantastic reunion. Derek invited us for lunch on Saturday to see one of his Operation Challenge courses.