The Tour had begun, out onto the open road, wind in our hair, Australia at our feet. OK, we weren’t really mimicking Thelma and Louise, that may be a slight exaggeration as we only had an hours drive ahead of us. We drove through the windy roads of Kosciuszko National Park, heading to Tom Groggin, which was fairly crowded given Christmas and NY summer holidays. Alex and I are quite particular about the places we camp and we like our space. After a bit of searching we found a nice spot to set up. Once we’d had a bit of an explore, the “sorting” began in earnest! The kids were also helping enthusiastically and as we were filing away stuff into their respective places, the kids were removing stuff from other boxes as quickly!! Reo jumped in Minty, after about 10 mins, I shouted in to ask what he was up to, “just trying to get the chainsaw” was the reply I didn’t expect or wish to hear!! Over the next day and a half we were left with only a few boxes left, one of them full of wine so we made a mental note to focus on that one first when the next “sorting” was needed. Luckily that night was NYE, so we started “sorting” again sooner than expected!

Our first hard timeline was the boat over to Tasmania mid-January and we had no plans prior to this, yet! We’d had friends kindly offer places to stay as we ventured through Victoria but had not had time to really look at schedule. It was time to focus. Having made plans to suit our timetable, it was time to find out if it suited our friends! Before long, the next 2 weeks were fixed in the diary and we found ourselves traveling North West (I admit I wasn’t looking at the map when I locked that one in!) for the next 7 hours to Deniliquin, home of the Ute Muster. Over the next 2 weeks we would see ourselves being pampered with warm, dry houses, delicious home cooking and fabulous company, a bit of a false start to dusty life on the road, although I’m certainly not complaining!

First stop was with Anika and Will. We met Anika was when we were travelling through Pakistan on our overland trip from UK to NZ. Anika’s mum Susan was also over for Christmas so it was a great opportunity for a reunion.  Reo loves all things to do with animals and as soon as he heard we were off to a farm, a million questions arose; “Does he have a horse?” (Reo’s favourite animal), “does he have a dog?” (Reo’s second favourite animal), rabbits, hay, tractor, pigs, cows, the list was endless. Normally one to run in the opposite direction when it comes to any type of reading or writing, soon, pen glued to hand, tongue sticking out in concentration, he carefully formed his letters jotting the questions on paper so he wouldn’t forget them. We hadn’t seen Susan since Pakistan and we hadn’t actually met Anika’s husband Will but catching up with them was like we’d all been together last week.

Poor Will was bombarded with all these questions and more! The following day we had a tour of the farm and Reo was like a little puppy dog yapping at Will’s heels as she showed us the area. They farm sheep for their merino wool and today was the hunt for them. It didn’t take long! With over 7000 in the flock, we ventured to the dams to check the windmills were working to fill them with water and the faces of 100 or so sheep looked up in anticipation thinking we may be bringing a feed, they were quickly disappointed and soon continued doing sheep things.

We spent a good 4 or more hours driving over the land and learning all sorts of information about farm life, it was a real education for us all; they keep the sheep in their age groups, they are sheered every 9 months, the water from the dam was very cold and comes from 80 plus metres below ground, the quirky fact I particularly liked was sheep walk in to the wind, so if they can’t find the sheep they’re looking for, they basically drive into the wind and know they will eventually come across them! There, an interesting fact of
the day for you 😊

With the temperatures over the last few days pushing 40 degrees, it was a welcome break to jump straight into the pool on our return to the house and we stayed there for the rest of the afternoon and most of the following day! Over our stay our tastebuds were also tantalised with Susan’s cooking…. We were again spoilt with her Pakistani curries; fragrant, colourful, delicious and never tasted quite the same when Alex & I tried to replicate at home!! It was great catching up with them all and sad to say farewell when it was time to leave. We need to make sure that we don’t leave it until another 14 years before meeting again!! The following day was forcast to hit 46 deg so it was a welcome break we had a 3 hour car drive to Ruffy.

The next day was like we were sat in an oven, the temperatures oppressive, so we cracked on the A/C, cranked up the music and headed for our next destination and next State, meeting up with Pete and Lyn in Ruffy in Victoria. We arrived around tea time to a gorgeous old farm cottage surrounded by a yellow, grasshopper infested field!!! 3 weeks before had been lush green grass but the harsh weather conditions had changed all that. We enjoyed a lovely evening dinner on the veranda, basking in the slightly cooler temperatures, enjoying the sunset as the kids jumped through the sprinkler trying to cool down.

A southerly came in that evening and the following day it was over 30 degrees cooler! It was freezing!! Rugged up and after a cooked breakfast to warm us from the inside, Pete took us around the acres they’d been maintaining, we explored the farm. Gorgeous scenery. With Reo’s favourite animal being horses, Lyn thought it would be nice to show us the miniature donkeys down the road. They were teeny and pretty cute, only just bigger than Reo! They would have been the perfect riding companion if they were allowed to be ridden. After a lot of patting and cuddling, there were many wanting affection, it was time for the bigger animals and while I had a little snooze, Alex, Pete, Lyn and the kids took off to see some horses. I thought once Reo had got up close and personal with them he’d actually be a little afraid, but once he’d hopped onto Pete’s shoulders and at the horses head height to feed, he was in heaven! With more friends lined up to catch up with, the following day we waved farewell to Pete and Lyn, thanked them for such fabulous hospitality and headed 30 mins down the road to Bonnie Doon.

Alex and I aren’t Aussie thoroughbreds and having not grown up in this wonderful country, not fully indoctrinated, as we’d not watched the film ‘The Castle’, which made Bonnie Doon famous in the late 90’s. It was only after several comments about ensuring we enjoyed the ‘serenity’ that someone explained it a little more to us and told us we needed to watch the movie. However, there was no time for that just yet!! As soon as we arrived, Phil & his wife Mathap were heading down to Lake Eildon and we dropped off Minty at their pad and followed ‘tout de suite’.  A quick introduction with Hazel and Mark and we all jumped in the boat and headed out on to the lake followed by Lexi & Mark on the jet ski.  All afternoon we played around being pulled behind the boat on the donut and the knee board or chasing around on the jet ski, I’m not sure who had more fun, me and Alex or the kids! The following morning I didn’t feel so ‘fun’ as my aching old muscles were protesting that I wasn’t as young as I’d like to be and hadn’t been to the gym in quite a while!

We took the day off from too much strenuous activity and after a lazy morning, instead cruised to a restaurant 20km along the lake, taking half the time over water than it would have done by land. After a seafood lunch and a couple of glasses of wine to ease the pain of the aching muscles (like I needed an excuse!) we headed back to the boat and went for a swim. It was another glorious summer day and a great way to cool off. We headed back to the house for a BBQ and were treated to the most breathtaking sunset I’d seen in a long time. The sky looked like it was on fire and with the lake and undulating hills in the forefront, made for spectacular viewing.

The next day, (let me remind you this is Day 2 after the most strenuous activity I’d done in a while) I could barely lift my arms over my head! There was only one thing for it, to get back on the water and loosen up some more. 😊 This time we took the SUP down too. I quite like paddling on SUPs, never had I entertained the idea of being pulled behind a speed boat on one! It felt slower than the knee board but still a lot of fun and tricky to pull yourself up, never mind trying to look graceful and poised while doing so… The kids got the hang of it really quickly and light as a feather they jumped up on the board to be pulled around. It was another fun filled afternoon. Time will tell if all the pulling and smashing our bodies against the water as we fell has either given us one hell of a chiro workout or just contribute to our medical bills going up! We headed back to Phil and Methap’s for another BBQ before they headed back to the Big Smoke and kindly left us to our own devices at their place for the night. The kids were practically asleep as soon as we turned off the light and it was the perfect time to put on The Castle so we could be fully initiated into Bonnie Doon.