Fun and Games

Saturday morning found us lazing about and catching up on laundry from holidays. By mid afternoon the chores were done and we became restless so we headed off to Ararat to geocache.

Decided to take in a movie while we were down there since a family show was playing: “Horton hears a Who”. We were surprised to see such a current movie in the theatre. Film release dates are months behind North America. We have also noticed that the North American TV shows also lag behind. Most of the shows are at least 6 months behind airing in US and Canada.

Our social calendar was booked for Sunday. We went over to Frank and Sylvia’s for lunch and a game of Carcassonne . They introduced us to the game a few weeks ago and now we are addicts. We have been getting together about once a week to do battle. Will try and get some pics but never seem to remember to take any. I guess we are just too engrossed in the game and enjoying the company.

From there we headed over to Roz and Daryl’s for tea (supper). We enjoyed a lovely supper with them. After tea the kids played while the adults socialized and played cards. Again, what was I thinking - no pictures!

Easter Holidays - Melbourne & Area

Thursday morning was spent seeking out a geocache large enough to hold a ten-pin bowling ball. A month or so ago we hosted a geocaching event and met a few Australian geocachers. One of them had the fun idea of taking a large ten-pin bowling ball and attaching a travel bug tag to it to provoke people to hide large caches in Victoria. It’s a good idea because we did a query and there are only 34 (out of thousands) geocaches rated as large. We thought we had finally found a home for the beast on the east side of Melbourne, but the lid wouldn’t fit with it in, but a day or two later we found a 20 L pail cache that just managed to hold it and all the swag that was already in there. Our car rides higher now.

We headed into Melbourne to check into the hotel Parks Victoria set up for us and have some lunch. In the afternoon, Sean presented some of the data collection tools and GIS modelling used in the Grampians for his project to some of the Melbourne staff who were interested. Aiden and I spent the afternoon at the Melbourne museum.

All the Parks Canada exchangees as well as the Parks Victoria exchangees gathered in Melbourne that evening for a meeting the next morning. We all had evening tea together at an Italian restaurant down from the hotel.

In the morning Sean headed off to the Park exchangee meeting with the Parks Victoria board, while Aiden and I headed off to the Queen Victoria market to buy some souvenirs for all his cousins. Sean picked us up around 11 am and we headed out of Melbourne.

The three hour trip soon became close to six with detours to a couple geocaches and a playground stop.

It was good to arrive back to our home away from home and sleep in our own beds.

Easter Holidays - Mt. Hotham - 90 Mile Beach

Tuesday found us in the clouds. We used our imaginations and saw some awesome views in our drive from Bright to Omeo, up and over Mt Hotham. Lunch at Omeo and an interesting playground stop at Bairnsdale. Stopped for supper in Sale and decided to stay inland overnight as there were strong wind warnings along the coast. Aiden and I had the opportunity to try for an urban geocache and were practicing our stealth techniques. Aiden is becoming quite clever at it and had me pretend to tie up his shoes which if one was to look closely they would notice don’t have any laces. We camped the night in Sale, no sale on camping but it wasn’t too bad and it is the first campground in a long time that actually had lush grass to set the tent up on. Luxury.

The next morning we headed down to the coast along 90 mile beach. A very impressive sight/site. Beach as far as you can see in either direction.




















It was a good spot to find our 500th geocache, so we picked a memorable cache at 1800’s shipwreck that is still sticking out of the sand like an old whale carcass. To top the morning off, we had a fish and chips (red emperor) lunch at a town called Seaspray down the beach. A very tasty sample of the coast.


The rest of the day was spent geocaching through the Latrope Valley finding little gems of parks and playgrounds tucked away in the hearts of the towns. Places most people just speed on by. It was raining off and on throughout the day and looked fairly ominous in the evening.


This justified a hotel room with the forecast of rain and having to get a early start and not wanting to have to wait for everything to dry or have to pack things wet, we settled into a hotel about 40 km from Melbourne. It was a wise choice for it not only rained but also down poured several times during the night.

Easter Holidays - Mt. Buffalo National Park

Easter Monday we headed off towards Mt. Buffalo National Park. We made a quick stop at Milawa Cheese Factory to taste some cheese and pick-up lunch. We drove up Mt. Buffalo and had lunch at Lake Catani Campground picnic area. Once our tummies were full, we did the Chalwell Galleries track. Why that one you ask? Well, obviously because there was a geocache near the trail. It was an impressive trail that passed through a jumble of large granite rocks forming awesome passages. We were not able to do the loop for we encountered some terrain that was slightly beyond our family’s capabilities at this point. In another year or two it shouldn’t be an issue.


Up to horn we hoped for a specky (spectacular) vista from the highest point but the mountain had a different idea and opted for a light show with lightening everywhere and finally a deluge of rain that chased us back down the narrow gravel road and across the instant streams that had formed.

We seem to be turning into somewhat of fair-weather campers. Since the forecast was for rain overnight, we opted to get a cabin for the night. It had a great pool for a caravan park which Aiden and Sean made use of even thought it was a bit chilly. Once again the wetsuit comes in handy. Sean is getting soft; the pool temp was 24° where as Clear Lake is often below this temp. Of course I’m not foolish enough to go in when it is below 30°.

Easter Holidays

Halls Gap - Bendigo - Glenrowen

Where to start? It has been a whirlwind of a holiday. We’ve traveled over 1400 km and are awestruck by more beautiful Aussie country.

Off to a bit slower start than we hoped (I’m sure you have heard that before). It was supposed to be Bendigo for lunch but was Ararat instead. The usual fuel stops, bathroom breaks and geocaches put us into Bendigo around 4:30 pm. After setting up camp and having Chinese for tea we wandered around the downtown area and took in the activities and entertainment. I think it is safe to say that Aiden is going to be an adrenaline junkie if he isn’t already. I think the pictures say it all.

Sunday morning found us at Bendigo Pottery. Aiden and I tried turning some bowls on the wheel. It is much harder than it looks. Sorry Sherry, we were hoping to make you a goblet. Sean thought he could do better so signed up for the next lesson but proved to have a little more trouble than he thought. And for only $38 we were able to have our masterpieces glazed and fired as keepsakes.

Noticed this big, beautiful church so we stopped and did a little walkabout.

Spent the night at Glenrowan where Ned Kelly made his last stand.

The Easter Bilby Strikes

Here it is Easter already. Granted it is early this year but it seems to have snuck up on us very quickly. Since we arrived we have been talking about going on a short hollie over Easter weekend and the week following. We had no definite plans but tossed around the idea of going to Adelaide or towards the east coast of Victoria. Since Sean has to be in Melbourne for the 27th we decided that it made more sense to head east. So east it is, at this point not sure where but east, we will plan as we go. Trying to outsmart all the other travelers we will not be leaving until tomorrow morning.

A cool change has arrived and brought with it more seasonable weather. Fall is approaching and although Easter at home is about rebirth, renewal, the approach of spring, here in Australia it is different. Sure, it is a long weekend and the start of a two week school break for the kids, but it is a time of winding down and the end of the fire season. It feels much like our thanksgiving weekend as it is the last long weekend before winter hits.

It is cool here and we are in jumpers. Even though I tell myself that there have been many Easters that have been cool at home, it is just a bit off. Just the idea of winter approaching makes the chocolate eggs and bunnies (and other sorts) seem a bit firmer than they are when they are sitting on a speck of grass showing through the snow on a sunny Easter afternoon with a warm spring breeze blowing and the kids outside running around in just a jumper. We had our Easter egg hunt this morning in order to ease the Easter bunny’s burden of finding us. Actually, many believe that it is the Easter “Bilby” who makes the rounds here in Australia. The Easter Bilby left us a trail of colourful eggs cleverly hidden in various places. Fun was had by all.

After thinking about it, I guess Easter here too represents rebirth as well. With winter and cooler weather on the way, the dry hot season draws to an end and the parched land is rejuvenated when the rains finally arrive.
Happy Easter! May the Easter bunny be good to you!

From Zero to Horsham

With Sean on night shifts and Wednesday being prep rest day, we all were able to head to Mt Zero in search of some stunning views and a geocache.

From there we headed to Horsham and all came home sporting much needed haircuts.

Wildlife Experience

Some days we don't need to go anywhere to experience wildlife: We have kangaroos loose in the top paddock and Aiden provides us with a bit of life on the wild side.

While Sean and Scott were off hiking Mt Difficult (March 1), Aiden and I headed out to Halls Gap Wildlife Park and Zoo. It has been one of the many things we have been meaning to check out since we arrived but just hadn’t got around to it so today was the day.

We have seen most of the animals in the park but we enjoyed a lovely afternoon wandering around. Australia definitely has some strange and wonderful animals. Aiden was able to have his first look at a wombat and a dingo. He was also delighted to see a spider monkey, an ostrich and ostrich eggs, and play on the playground but the highlight was having a cockatoo talk to him.