October and November Update

 Amy and I headed down to Melbourne at the end of October/early November. Wanted to catch up with my family at the annual Melbourne Cup Day get together and Amy was catching up with her friend Steph. We stayed with Rob and Louise Vinck, who were so good to us and made us very much at home.

We had an overnight stop at Rutherglen at our favourite B&B- Amberesque and had a lovely time as usual.

Enjoyed a morning walk around Lake King

Always love a coloured door!

Enjoyed our meat and cheese platter for dinner, out on the balcony.

Took Amy for a walk to see the Silo Art

In the morning Amy and made some terrariums at the garden shop. One for Amy, one for Louise and one for Amy's friends Ada and Steph.

We finally managed to be in town when the gelato shop was open, they were yum.

We arrived in Melbourne, and after dinner we went for a walk in one of the parks nearby. It was a lovely park.

Louise and I

Amy, Louise and I

Amy has been crocheting and finally finished this shawl- pretty impressive

On the Friday the three of us went up to the Sassafras in the Dandenongs. We went to Juet, were I used some of the money I got from mum to purchase this sculpture. I thought it would be a lovely thing to have in my garden to remind me of mum. She would have loved it.

 

Being spring, we found this mother duck and her little ducklings looking very cute.

Sunday afternoon after church, Louise and I headed up to the Dandenongs Botanical Gardens also known as the Rhododendron  Gardens. Hard to get a park but once we got into the gardens the people were pretty spread out.

They had an Australian section with some lovely Waratahs

Amy and I went to Berwick, had a quick visit to the Berwick Cemetery to see the bronze plaques for mum and Simon. It was pouring rain so it was a rather quick visit, but it really is a lovely spot.

On Tuesday afternoon we had a lovely time catching up with my brothers and their families and Kim and Fil's. We headed home from their place later that afternoon and stayed the night at Benalla. Went for a walk and found this lovely door so couldn't resist a photo. We will be heading back down to Melbourne in a couple of weeks for Mia and Noah's wedding, it has been a busy time.

Kiama Coastal Walk

 Headed down to Kiama on the Tuesday to do part of the Kiama Coastal Walk with Deb. Kerrie was off on a wildflower tour in WA and then doing some touring, so Deb and I took the opportunity to do some walking. We headed down through Robertson and Jamberoo. checking out the Belmore and Carrington Falls along the way. It was lovely just meandering down to the South Coast, so green and lush. 

On the Wednesday we did the Loves Beach to Gerringong, we left early and had great weather and lovely views. Thursday we headed back to Canberra calling in at Gerroa for a morning walk along the Seven Mile Beach. Back up through Berry, Robertson and Bundanoon, then home via the back road from  Queanbeyan to Goulburn. It was a great little getaway.

  

Went exploring the town of Robertson.

This was the Big Potato of Robertson, it has now been painted to be the pig from the movie Babe

Robertson was tree lined with beautiful cherry blossom trees

We then went to Belmore Falls

Then onto Carrington Falls- they were lovely and had some walking tracks and we spotted quite a few different wildflowers along the way

Looking down the valley from Carrington Falls

Loved these Spreading Fan Ferns

and one of my favourites- Waratahs

The view from Jamberoo Lookout

We then headed down to Kiama and checked  into our accommodation. We then headed out for a walk, found our way down to the starting point of the Kiama Coastal Walk. We headed north towards Kiama to walk a small section. Tomorrow we will head south to do the 3rd section from Loves Bay to Gerringong

This was the view to  Kendalls Beach

Deb and I headed out around 8:30am Wednesday morning to walk to Gerringong. It was around 10km

It was the perfect day for walking, and we were back at our accommodation before it warmed up.

The walk was along the cliff tops, a fair bit of up and down, but lovely views up and down the coast line. It reminded me of the South West Coastal walk in Cornwall

Finally down on the flats near Werri Lagoon. We walked into Gerringong and got an Uber back to Kiama Heights

After recovering from our adventure we headed out in the car back down to Gerringong. This is the view from the headland which gave us the chance to view where we had walked that morning.

After checking out Gerringong we drove back to Kiama for some lunch then up to Saddleback Mountain which had great views to the north, south and west

This track took us down to the platform that gave us views down south to Gerroa

Thursday morning we packed up early and after breakfast headed to Gerroa where we went for a walk along Seven Mile Beach

Then we headed to Berry, up and over Berry Mountain, through Kangaroo Valley and called into Manning Lookout which had great views back down to Kangaroo Valley

And views of the Illawarra Escarpment

Bit of a hidden gem. Then onto Robertson and Bundanoon for lunch.

We then headed home via the backway from Goulburn to Bungendore and Queanbeyan. Lots of yellow canola fields going that way. 

Final stop at Bungendore before Deb dropped me home. We had a great little getaway.