In the mean time we are spending some time around the Melbourne and Gippsland area but because that's mainly with family and friends I don't have much adventures to share with you. Not that the people we are with are boring but its just not interesting for you guys and for us a bit private.
But because I don't want to disappoint you and I don't want to loose my faithful followers, I will show you the last few days of our house sitting in Barjarg.
This time it's only a movie but quite lovely as I may say myself, just watch and enjoy;
Movie time;
Our next house sitting is in Bendigo, see you then!!
G day mates,
Guess what! We have been grape picking for a few days. This is the picking season and because we're close to some wineries we thought let's try to get the job, thinking it would be easy.
I sent an e-mail to two wineries and one of them called me back on a Monday and Tuesday morning 07.15 we were standing in the middle of the grapes ready to pick. We tried to catch up with the rest of the pickers, who worked the whole day but we couldn't cope so we decided to shorten our working hours, after discussing it with the over-man it was OK. We still started every morning at 07.30 with the result that we had to get up at 06.15 in the morning, Crikey, that's a long time ago we had to set the alarm clock and not used to it anymore!
After a cup of coffee, half sandwich, getting into the car and on our way, it's 32 k's to drive, I come to my senses half way and realise that this is such a great time of the day.
The sun is coming up and you get the most beautiful light you can get for pictures.
But we also realise that it's dangerous on the road because of wildlife being active (watch the movie) and most dangerous was the last approx. 7 k's before the turn off to the winery, we had the sun, just coming up, right in the eyes and even the sun visors were of no use so we had to be inventive and stuck some brochures under the mirror.
The Winery we go to is.....
The views at the winery were magnificent to..
Grape picking maybe sound very romantic but it's hard work and even scary sometimes. First you have to be careful with the clippers because it's easy to cut into your fingers.
Sometimes the grass and weed is very high so there could be hiding everything f.i. snakes, luckily we didn't see one. And what about spiders? The grapes are covered with webs
and where webs are, are spiders and we have seen several residents of the webs. One of the pickers caught a redback spider with his clipper and I hope you don't mind that I didn't take a picture of the huntsman walking over my hand, brrrrr. And sometimes you find an abandoned birds nest hiding in the ranks, I rather see a resident of that.
At approx. 10 o clock it's 15 minutes smoko time and we all go to our car to have something to drink and eat.
And during smoko we still enjoy the beautiful views...
After smoko we rattle our painful joints and start picking again.
The pickers pick as a couple, on each side of the grape vine is one picking so you also have to be careful not cutting into the fingers of your partner....
In between the over-man collects our full buckets, throw the grapes into these big crates and brings it to the winery....
And this is the result....
Its a shame you can't smell what I did.....
We stopped at 1 o clock and that's about lunchtime for the others. It's enough for us. We go home and relax for the rest of the day.
Last but not least, ITS MOVIE TIME (don't skip the movie!!!)
5 march 2016 is a day I will always remember. It started with a loud boink at our bedroom window in the middle of the night and after that was the sound of an unhappy miaow so we figured out it was the cat Milek trying to get into our bedroom from outside through the fly-screen.
Of course the boink woke us up and as soon as I opened my eyes I saw something black cruising through our bedroom but I thought it was the shadow of the cat or I must have been so excited for the things to come that day, something on my bucket list, that I was seeing things which wasn't there.
Anyhow we went back to sleep, not for long because as soon as there is the smallest, tiny, little light commencing the beginning of the day, Milek starts miaowing till he has food in his bowl. Amazing actually is that Cinnamon, the other old cat, normally is as deaf as a post but she knows exactly when one of us comes into the kitchen to feed them as you can see her waggling from the living room, where she has her own chair, to the kitchen.
It's only 06.15 so I decided to back to bed to get some more sleep but as soon as I come into the bedroom, I see that black thing again and I hear the blinds rattling. So I turned on the light and said to Fred that I think there is something scary in the room and it must be somewhere near the blinds. Then suddenly we see some black shapes sticking out under the blinds and we decide to be brave and move the blinds a bit, me being the farthest away from the window so Fred had to be the hero. The black shape started to fly and lands on his belly on the floor, hell knows why, but it did. MY GOD, it was a BAT, Crikey, isn't that scary!! No idea how it came inside other than the cat could have taken it in. It was laying there very quiet so Fred got a towel and threw it over it, then carefully picked it up and put it outside where he or she took off.
You can imagine, no sleep any more.
After a little brekkie with coffee we took the car and drove towards Mansfield, before Mansfield we turned off to Tolmie and went into the high country. Climbing higher and higher, we turned off again into a dirt road to the Hidden Trails horse riding.
Yes! I booked myself a two hours horse ride, through the bush and paddocks, over the hills.
Coming there already looked like a set out of a movie, or some scene out of McLeod’s Daughters.
Yeh, that's what I want for those two hours, being one of the McLeod’s daughters actors, Stevie maybe, riding on a horse, mustering cattle. But of course that's just a dream as you have to ride a horse hell of a lot better then I do haha.
Anyhow I survived, even when the horse, (his name is Shadow, what a coincidence, two shadows on one day), slipped a few times and jumped aside as a bird scared him and I didn't fell off!
I had a great time, I even was very lucky as we should have been, apart from the guide with the three of us but the other two had cancelled just half an hour earlier so I was on my own together with Annie the guide so it felled like a private tour.
It doesn't look that way but the track behind me is very steep and I got instructions here, before we went up, how to handle and how to stay on the horse!
Great view towards Mount Buller.....
After the two hours, Fred had been staying behind reading as he's not into riding horses, we came back and I could hardly get off Shadow, I was so stiff we had to use these steps to get me off.
I helped cooling down Shadow and after that we went home, me very satisfied......
Surprise Surprise!!
Movie time!
To give you an idea of the surroundings, which I couldn't show you during my ride as it was too dangerous to get my camera without letting loose of the reins, I here show some pictures I made during a drive with the car here.
This is Tolmie, doesn't look very welcoming hey!
But this does......
The mountains just outside Tolmie;
In these mountains the film "Man from Snowy River" has been filmed.....
You can even book a ride, half day or longer, even days, and then you go to "Craig's Hut" a set out of the film.
Isn't it beautiful....
from this hight we go back down, little movie, maybe don't seem scary but I can assure you that the slopes were very steep AND deep!
Are you familiar with the rail trail tracks in Australia? OK, I'll explain.
Rail trails are shared-use paths recycled from abandoned railways. Usually managed by local councils for the enjoyment of the general public, rail trails can be used for a range of purposes including walking, cycling and horse riding.
We are house sitting close to the Great Victorian Rail Trail, Australia's longest rail trail and we have done the Mansfield to Bonnie Doon track but we did it in two times because we were located close to Maindample which is slightly in the middle. We parked the car in a park close to the rail trail....
This Great Victorian Rail Trail starts or end, whatever you want, at Mansfield and ends or start at Tallarook with a total length of 134 k's with a spur line to linking Cathkin and Alexandra. In between there are 14 little towns/villages (some of them are just a few houses)
the old bridge .....we are standing on the new one...
The advantage of a rail trail is that in spite of being in the mountains, the trail is mainly flat, there might be some high difference here or there but it's not like the Tour d'France....
Movie time;
There are 12 toilets on the trail and several shelters with tables and seats. Of course there are also public toilets in all the local towns you pass.
Entering Mansfield the trail passes through the Mullum Wetlands before it ends at the Railway Station.......
Of course, it wouldn't be Australia if they didn't turned that old train into a museum.
(it was closed)
at the visitor centre, here you can see that Mansfield is also a winter sports town....
Mansfield really is a lovely little town
This is also funny, you know the expression BYO? Normally it's Bring Your Own drink (alcohol) so in a restaurant you can have a meal and bring f.i. your own wine. Here you can buy a glass of wine and bring you own food;
We had some lunch in Mansfield and after that we biked back coming through stunning farming country scenery's.....
In the old days they shifted the cattle on horses, now its the motorbike, I reckon its a shame...
I love the bark of these trees....
Our second trip was from the same start in Maindample to Bonnie Doon where we had planned to go to a music festival which was on whole weekend.
We hadn't had time on Friday and Saturday so we decided to go on Sunday......
Before Bonnie Doon the trail crosses Lake Eildon over the 385 metre Bonnie Doon Bridge....
It was not only long but scary high as well...
Arriving at the Music festival we found out that it was nearly finished, there was just one shelter left in which people could join what they call "walk ups" , make some music etc......
We only stayed for a few minutes and still had a bit fun....
Movie time;
That's it again Mates!
See you next time, still have some great stories......
