Well here we are deep in the hills at Taronga Falls on a very dark, very wet Friday night. The weather is supposed to improve radically, so it should be lovely and warm by Sunday. (fingers crossed!)
Note to self: Snakes like warmth :-/
This was meant to be Barbara's first date, but she's been stood up :-O They don't know what they're missing ;-)
We splashed out and bought a portaloo when we were at leisurefest last weekend, and GM just found them cheaper at Supercheap.....same brand!...isn't he just impressed!!!! But he only said one swear word, so his temperament is definitely getting sweeter. Could be because he was excited about coming away in Barbara, could be because I have that wonderful calming influence on him, but really.............I think it's because he's very, very old now ;-) Anyway, it is probably the best investment we've made since Barbara :-)
We were to stay at Loch Valley just outside Noojee, along the banks of the Latrobe River, but the place doesn't open until November. Looked like a cattle yard, so I imagine it wouldn't be that great a place to enjoy the peace.
The campsite here is very muddy, and quite steep in places, but we're not packed in, and we have a lovely flat spot near the river. There are drop toilets and fire pits, but we didn't have time to check the place out properly before night set in. Am looking forward to a lovely walk to the falls and elsewhere :-)
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| Our campsite |
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| Barbara goes to Taronga Falls |
It doesn't matter too much if it rains as Barbara is waterproof, the annex has plenty of room and we have the right clothing and plenty of scotch and bourbon to keep us warm :-)
I am sitting here in a lovely snugly coat, drinking champers. I can see my breath but am not cold.
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| Snug as a bug!!! |
GM is cooking dinner and drinking champers faster than me. (We've already deduced that he's a bigger pisshead than me.) He's a very contented soul at the moment, and life is good. :-)
13/10/2012
Had an amazing sleep and woke up to a light rain, had some cornflakes and a cuppa, made a stew in the dreampot for dinner and went and checked out the river. We met Bella, a very excited, very muddy, fluffy white puppy.....even GM didn't crack up when she jumped all over him, but we both ended up wearing the same colour mud encrusted clothes for the day :-)
We went for a drive into the clouds, and GM wanted to show me McAdams Gap,
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| A wee bit wet up here :-) |
but it was closed off for the winter still. We stopped to take a couple of pics and amazingly, I found a gold nugget in the middle of nowhere on the top of the world :-) It's about the size and shape of a $2 coin, and even has the same pictures on it ;-) GM was pretty impressed!!!
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| My lucky nugget ;-) gone into the holiday fund! |
We toodled down into Woods Point (I reckon my ears popped a dozen times going down!!!) We stopped at the pub and had a steak sandwich and a couple of beers for lunch :-). There's an awful lot to see in there.......almost gives you the history of the place. It's the 3rd pub and is about 70 years old, the other two burned down in bush fires. We took a few pics and then headed off again. There was a little boy about 3 years old standing on the road with no one else in site......he threw stones at the car.....unfortunately the laws in this country don't allow you to run kids over ;-)
Took some more pics of the old service station and main street and drove back to camp.
We drove through Matlock, but I couldn't see the police station.....there were clumps of daffodils and forget-me-nots all along the sides of the road. I've seen more kookaburras today than I have all year, they obviously breed well up in these hills!! The rain forest was beautiful, but I somehow preferred the top part driving across the high plains. The trees are so tall and straight and there are so many of them :-)
The road was nearly all gravel, but seemed smoother than our sealed roads and highways.
GM is in his element.....his car is covered in mud, Barbara is filthy and he finally got to play 4WD, pretending to get bogged.....I rolled my eyes at him, but luckily he hasn't read 50 shades ;-) He only reads books with pictures!!!
We're now back at camp, the sky is clearing and it's very peaceful sitting here eating nibblies and drinking scotch in front of a lovely warm camp fire.
The sun is just starting to go down, so I'll have to get up soon and finish cooking tea before I can drink some more and relax some more :-)
14/10/2012
Well, it's Sunday and a very lazy sleep in. It's finally stopped raining and the sun is out!! Woo Hoo!!!!
GM can be heard pottering around camp getting ready to cook me an amazing breaky, and the camp next to us is full of screaming kids.....super!
So, after a lazy, amazing breakfast, we went for a walk to Taronga and Amphitheatre falls.
It is so amazing walking through rain forest. There's lots of noise from the water and the birds, but it feels so quiet. We stopped and watched a Lyrebird go by and then took a few pics of the Taronga falls, (a bit more spectacular than the Amphitheatre falls).
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| Taronga Falls.....a magnificent sight ;-) |
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| Amphitheatre Falls |
The walk is supposed to be 2 & 1/2 hours, but we did it in about 30/40 mins and it was very slippery, but beautiful. On the way back to camp I almost stood on a Lyrebird hen. She didn't seem in the least bit scared :-) This is the natural habitat of the Blue Fairy Wren and the Black Wallaby, but we didn't see any of those. All we saw were the Lyrebirds and Bronwyn & Matt from the next campsite with their dog Rupert the spoodle, who had very similar hair to me :-/
We got to camp in time to put a roast lamb in the camp oven. Guests turned up at lunch time and we had a very leisurely afternoon drinking scotch and champers :-) while watching everyone else pack up camp.....suckers!!!!
Everyone has left, and GM made me the most awesome shower. We're sitting here all squeaky clean but still stinking of campfire smoke :-) drinking scotch and bourbon, listening to the radio and river, and life is still grand!!! :-)
15/10/2012
Another lazy sleep in, then pancakes for breaky before packing up camp. It isn't quite as muddy this morning. We got going around 11 and stopped at the trestle bridge at Noojee.
Got a wee bit of a fright as something long and slithery crossed my path, but it was just a big skink....Phew!!!!
We went to look at the Aida Tree, but the road was closed, so maybe next time??? We drove back through Nayook and went on a detour to Glen Nayook. It's a beautiful little patch of rain forest right in the middle of farmland. The walk was steep and slippery and I must remember to wear decent footwear next time!!
It was hard work walking back uphill in thongs :-/ and I swear it took longer to wash the mud out from between my toes than it did to wash my hair!!
We're now back at the passion pit, all squeaky clean, smelling rather delicious. I have a rather lovely shade of raspberry glow to my skin.
Note to self: Sunblock is there to be used, not just take up space! But I did get a good dose of Vitamin D :-) ......who would have thought, with all that rain!!!
Now it's time to plan the next adventure, which should be quite exciting, as we'll have some extra equipment to play with :-)
Stay tuned!!!!
Note: Life is Good :-))
More happy snaps below....................
