Standing at the water’s edge…
“Standing at the water’s edge, a sudden urge took hold of him…”
‘Family’ is an elemental part of the human experience. As we have settled into life on the road there is a sense that is exactly what our journey is all about – the family we have left behind in Perth and are missing terribly, our little family and the journey we’re taking together, the ‘family’ of people who are transient in our lives on the road, and our family on the east coast that we have been spending time with and becoming closer to every day…
Over the past month we’ve travelled from Melbourne to Sydney by the least conventional route possible. Heading down from the High Country we arrived at the Inglis Thoroughbred Sale in Melbourne to see Uncle Aaron and Aunty Emma doing their thing – the excitement of a horse auction and watching Aaron and Emma excelling at their craft gave us goosebumps. Melbourne also had some on-edge moments as we worked through a few broken things on our car and drove all over the Big City to get it all fixed.
Back to the stunning Burnewang North (near Echuca) for two magical weeks of farm life – taming Gina the ‘wild’ miniature horse, seeing Kate the vet stitch up a cut on the hind leg of a beautiful mare, wrangling seriously giant spiders, hot-shoeing horses, playing with Olive and Jade the dogs, Matilda the grumpy pig and all of the goats, riding everyone’s favourite Dodger in the lake while watching duck hunters hunt, butchering a lamb for our freezer, blacksmithing daggers and unicorn shoes and camping on bank of the mighty Murray River with Aunty Em and Uncle Aaron, fishing and tubing the hot afternoon away.
We needed more of the alluring High Country, this time via Tolmie just out of Mansfield. Visiting Stringybark Creek and other sites of the Kelly Gang, and Harry Power the most excellent bushranger ever – many interesting conversations to explain bushranger history and how times have changed.
Seeking serious adventure in the Wonnangatta Valley, we found it! – during a pouring rain, howling wind, three day freezing cold weather event – we decided to drive some of the most iconic and challenging 4wd tracks in Australia, and yes, towing our trailer. After a white-knuckle drive into the remote and peaceful valley, on slippery mud-goat-tracks on the side of mountains, we set up camp, disturbing a sleepy red-belly black snake, before settling into school work and a marathon Dino-opoly game in the tent to wait out the weather.
When the sun finally came out it was time for reconnaissance to find a way out of what might be Australia’s most spectacular valley. Working out gradients on various routes before scouting them without the trailer to find one we were least likely to die on. After making it out of a particularly steep and rocky spur, Paulie said, “I did NOT think you could tow a trailer up that”.
Arriving in Dargo we celebrated in a proper high country log cabin at the back of the Dargo pub before marveling at the uninterrupted beauty of the Blue Rag Track, the following day, feeling on top of the world.
We camped at Lake Hume under a massive blue sky on our way north to the family property for Easter, near Taralga in NSW on the Abercrombie River, surrounded by the Blue Mountains National Park – a fantastic bush Easter Egg Hunt with family and nights filled with spotlighting wombats and a warm fire to learn Latvian by…
It was so good to spend such a time with our family, learning so much history of the area so dear to their hearts.
The past two weeks have been so wonderfully full of love and laughter spending quality time with Pop, Nan and Aunty Steph (and all their pets!). A sensational day at the gorgeous Taronga Zoo, working out at F45 together, crushing cars with an excavator, wonderful dinners, too much wine and an epic eight hour hike into the famous Slot Canyon in Bungonia National Park… Zeke and Lani continue to amaze us every single day.
“…He jumped into the water and discovered he could swim!”…
Melbourne to Sydney
