G'day Mates,
Yes, you read it well; this story is all about our last days in Australia and I can tell you; It Hurts!
When we came back from New Zealand we just had a few days to pack our remaining stuff and drive towards Victoria.We still had a few nice days with my Aunty Mary and then the hard part arrived: saying goodbye, pfff.
My God, what a lot of stuff still....
We had to drive approx. 350 k's that day to our first stop in a little town....
Bye Bye Queensland!
On the way to Victoria we had our last house sitting in the Hunter Valley, close to Chessnock, where we had to look after some chooks, 2 horses and lovely dog.
This lady had hatched, the little ones were so cute....
The horses were here somewhere (but we also discovered a snake)....
A great and relaxing spot....
Here on the veranda I wrote a message to the house sitters Facebook site....
Who would NOT love this dog, look at his eyes.....
He wanted to play the ball even when it was over 40 degrees! So sometimes we just had to hide the ball to protect him from overheating....
His name is Mega and we got a message from the owner when we were gone that he had been very sad for a while....
My God, the weather was too hot, we could hardly do anything and stayed a lot in the house with the dog and the air conditioning on. But being in the Hunter Valley, a famous winery area, we of course also did a wine tour and bought some nice wines.
The day we left it started to rain and we had to travel a fair bit to Gundagai where we had booked a hotel. We were on our way to Bendigo where we would stay a little while with our good friends Jan and Tony, were we had done several house sittings....
We had to drive through Sydney so we took the Toll way....
On the other end of Sydney the weather started to change and at the end we had great weather but again, much too warm, especially when you don't have aircon in the car....
just some views....
A nice relaxed motel in Gundagai, WITH air conditioning.....
Bye Bye New South Wales!
Then we arrived in Bendigo, one of our favourite house sitting places, we love the bush setting around the house, the horses and of course our dear friends.....
We stayed in their AirB&B this time which we recommend as it is a delightful studio!
During the day I did some prospecting and at night we had some nice dinners together...
Again a goodbye, we will certainly miss all of it but we're sure we will keep in touch.....
One more time I wanted to do some prospecting before I would sell my detector so after Bendigo we booked a week in an Airb&b in Maldon. On the day we drove there it was over 40 degrees and sooo bloody hot it wasn't funny anymore. At that stage we were happy to go back to Holland 😊.
We were nearly there when we got a message from the owner that there was no power and the air-conditioning wasn't working.
We stayed, not moving, on the veranda as inside you could not be, it was so awful!
After about 2 hours thank God the power went back on and we could pack our stuff and ourselves inside.
Also this was a nice Airb&b, we loved sitting on the veranda enjoying the view....
and the Kangaroo's
During the day, mostly only in the morning when it was still a bit cool, we went prospecting. I haven't found anything that week so that also was a sign that it was better to go back to Holland 😕😕
And at night we did some cooking and again enjoying the view, we even had a visitor once....
Maldon has a Lookout on Mount Tarrengower and we saw a track going up there next to our Airb&b, first you take Anzac Hill Road and then Fountain Track. MY GOD, if I would have known before that the track was like that, we wouldn't have gone that way. It was soo steep and rocky, it was really scary and I nearly stepped out of the car. We couldn't go back either!
But the view was stunning....
There was someone sitting in the top in a little office, watching out for fires....
On our way to the prospecting places we also saw this little cottage....
Typical Australian...
and we passed the North British Mine Ruins.....
Yes, it was a relaxing place....
After Maldon we spent a few days with my dear family in Newborough, the little village I lived once....
One last look over the beautiful Gippsland valley!
We always are welcome here and we feel very at home, we love and miss you dearly Hans and Val....
After we left Newborough, again a painful goodbye, we went to our second last destination; My Uncletje in Warragul....
Here we spent a bit over 2 weeks and that gave us some time to sell things like our satellite stuff ...
With pain in my heart I sold my detector with all the belongings.....
except of course my gold...
Here on the map you can see where I found it...
It might look much but the pieces are very tiny and all together its not even $ 1000 worth so you don't have to think of robbing me....
The big brown one is a stone with a tiny speck of gold on it....
And we had some nice dinners together...
We also went one more time to our beloved Melbourne....
and the Victoria Market....
We even had a funeral, our dear uncle Bob (here with his daughter Ellen, my niece) died at the respectable age of mid nineties....
Thanks to this beautiful man we had a house to stay for the first few year we were in Australia!
And of course we had to sell our car which nearly didn't succeed as the one who said he would buy it, didn't came (more of that later).....
Again a goodbye, but we will soon see each other again as my uncletje is coming to The Netherlands in July! Then we will say cheers again!
Our last stop was Berwick, at Ellen and Ian's place. In the mean time they had bought another home and we were lucky we could visit that before we left....
an amazing property.......
We hope we can visit them once they live in it....
Our car wasn't sold yet when we left so it stayed in Berwick at Ellen and Ian's place and they sold it when we were in Hong Kong.....
Even though we had so much trouble with this car, he also brought us everywhere, towing our little house on wheel behind him....
We believe everything has a purpose. The fact that we couldn’t sell our house in the Netherlands made us think, already a few year ago, that we might had to go back. At one stage you have to make a decision, we could not keep on travelling through Australia for years and years any longer, so we made the decision to go back to Holland.
In the mean time we are back now already for 5 months and because we are very busy with our house and other circumstances, we do not think a lot about our beautiful Australia (OZ) but the time will come that we will and that will be tough!
We have had warm welcomes from family and friends and we feel very privileged to have these lovely people around and to feel their happiness for us being back.
Our big bonus is the lovely cottage we were able to buy thanks to my Sister Rosita, our son Danny and my Cousin Peter. We definitely will be happy in our beautiful new home.
We are grateful for the time we had in Australia, we had the opportunity to live and travel for 10 years through the country in our little house on wheels and we have seen almost everything, have been nearly everywhere, have done so many things it’s too many to mention but if you have followed my blog, you know.
Bye bye Australia, we will miss you.
Hello Holland, here we come, be prepared!
We made a stopover in Hong Kong, that will be my next and LAST story.
Till then
Cheers!
