Home for Christmas xxxxxx

With thoughts surrounding Christmas,family,friends, traditions, celebrations to be had, it was this surreal feeling to see us at home again.  It took me almost a good 6 months to pack, but surprisingly around 9 days to have furniture in place, all boxes unpacked with things back in their beloved place. With this accomplished it almost felt like we had never left or had even been around Australia with about forty thousand kilometres behind us in almost 12 months.

With that I still managed to send out Christmas cards to our friends at home and then the ones that we had made along the trip.  Mission accomplished I could concentrate on Christmas Eve and to have our son and his fiancee home for a meal with us. In between all of this we still managed to laugh at anything and everything including the little fellas who entertained us daily with their antics.

As Mon was overseas I took it upon myself to take some snaps of the little fellas in the event she ever had the opportunity in her hectic holiday schedule to look at 'facebook'!...so Santa's helpers they were for that time. Christmas Eve was spent with great company, Christmas Day was spent with a greater company, that of Melissa's entire family, in their first home for their first Christmas.

The journey, for now, had come full circle.  The year had begun with such immense sense of adventure, taking us to places that we had only heard, yearned and dreamed for. Reaching the tip of Cape York, an ultimate in any Australian's trekk north was a pinnacle highlight especially to be able to share this with another (favoured) traveller (Les and Stew), to be home grounded was the close to a truly amazing adventure.  Words are not enough to describe the thoughts that race through either
of our minds.  It's the quiet moments between us that one realizes that we are reliving a moment on that trip!

A close to a chapter......but the beginning for many more....!  Bless You and thank You for what we have been given.........

to be continued....................

.....while they lay sleeping!

Christmas Day at last ...with Atlas.....

...........and Atlas again!.......

....and Basil!

.......and his pose!

At Szymon and Mel's for their first family Christmas at home

It was a beautiful day

with gifts for all!

What a great guy!

..and presents for Nina and Evey

A grand Christmas 2011

 

Return Home, Aspendale, Vic.

It was Monika and Matt's last morning as they headed out to Wagga Airport onto Sydney before catching their international flight onto Europe for their overseas Euro trip Contiki tour. You could see their excitement that they had completed their year, gained a promotion and now heading out on some well deserved rec leave.  I was so glad just to be able to feel that excitement from them.  I waved them goodbye as I took one last photo of them before leaving them behind to head back to Daniel and the little fellas.

On return we packed the van took the last walk of the city with the dogs before hitting the road. As I was driving, dogs settled nicely on the back seat, Daniel looks up our likliest destination for the night.  At a stopover of about 200ks south of Wagga we decided that another 2 weeks in caravan parks before arriving home may not be the optimum situation for us with dogs in tow.  So destination "home" declared I drove onwards south.

Arriving home Daniel magnificently backed the van into the drive within 5 minutes, having previously done the exercise taking approximately 20 minutes.  It was truly a spectacle to witness, it was amazing.  With that done, the property had been vacated so in we went.  We were so fortunate to have had great tenants.  The place was handed over in the same manner as had been left to them.  Many thanks to them with great appreciation.


The next few nights were to be spent remaining in the van until such time earlier on in the next week that we were able to move things out of storage and into their relevant places at home.  With this task completed before the end of the first week it was then necessary to ensure that all was in its routine and workable order.

Christmas on our doorstep I was so glad to entertain the thought of having Szymon and Melissa over for Christmas Eve dinner. We'd done this with them for a few years so this was special to share it with them again now that we'd returned.

The best hot chocolate ever!

 Please don't interrupt....this is soooo goood!!!

 Coffee in the Officers Mess

.......... I love the lounge!

 Captains' Dinner

Hey...We're on Holidays!

Here being presented her new rank

Matt being presented with his new rank

Wagga Wagga, NSW

Two little Fellas..Atlas and Basil

As any mother or father can tell you, that to see a child that you have not seen for some distance in between is so warming. From Gundagai we were now well on our way truly on our road back home to Victoria but not without visiting our daughter Monika and Matt in Wagga Wagga.  To say the least I believe that we were both a little quiet about our excitement to see them both before they headed out on their Christmas holidays before heading onto Brisbane as their next home base.

On arrival we were greeted by their two Dachsunds, Atlas(who had been with us for 3 months in the previous year) but now also Basil,who they adopted.  We were their adopted grandparents to take them over for the next 5 weeks.  Atlas recognised us the moment we put our hands under the gated fence.  Basil, not sure, barked but overcame his shyness.

Daniel made it to the top standing!

What a poignant moment to see our little girl, who had grown into a beautiful young woman......who then decided to take her 'ageing parents' on this trek of 'The Rock', just outside Wagga (southern end).  Daniel, Monika, me and Atlas, trekked up this mountain range, which
took us about an hour and a half one way.  I swear my head was spinning with every step we took towards the top, I felt the ridge of the passage narrow as we escalated, Atlas was the rock climber as I managed to ( I swear I had to) paw myself towards the last 10 metres on my knees as they were beginning to descend, but I could not let them beat me. I had a challenge, a dream, a myth, reality check. whatever you want to call it.  It was just a special silent moment to see what she had achieved in her dreams for her, they did not come easy.

Monika on her way to the top of The Rock

We were fortunate enough that we found ourselves in an enclave of lovely younger people within their work and social groups. We felt very priveliged to share this with Monika and Matt.  However, my concern was that we had to get the 'little fellas' to get used to us and coming home with us.
I knew the worst part would be putting them on a plane bound for Brisbane, their new home, we would miss them both.  But for now they're on a four week holiday with us!

Are we there yet?????

At the top of The Rock with Atlas

Monika does a good job!

The view from here was spectacular

Sydney 3, NSW.

We left Sydney behind still in the rain of the next morning.  As we made our way to Liverpool the weather cleared, sun breaking through the could cover to create a day of humidity.  We were stopping for a night or two to catch up with friends  that we had not seen for some time, but very good friends that we'd made through friends back at home. 

Arriving at their place we were to say the least so very warmly greeted.  The time gap had almost as long as it had been opened now closed up again.

 Catch up chatter and banter into the evening before sitting down to a beautifully home cooked meal with the attendance of another few friends to join the evening.   Sunday after Saturday was a bit of a recovery day!  The hostest with the mostest was as had been perfect. Her husband, her  boys and her friends most generous in sharing their hospitality with us.  Another night before we thanked them for their precious weekend time with family and friends as they headed back to work and we headed even further south so much closer to home.

Thank you for the memories, to very special people.  Your hospitality will always be appreciated.

Moving on we arrived at a pretty place along the inland foreshore at George Basin where we pitched for two nights.  The weather again continued to stay cooler but we remained some spirits after the high we had experienced over the weekend. The day dawned as we headed through Nowra, onto Moss Vale.  This part of the trip was a little more interesting.

As we headed from the coast we had to make our way across the Great Divide on to Moss Vale.  The climb was so high towing the van was not easy.  It applied a lot of pressure to the car whereupon we had to make several stops along the route for the car too cool down before continuing.  It was a little hairy in view of the fact that we'd almost travelled 40,000 kilometres around Australia and only about another 2,000k's from home the car was telling us she was also tired!  We made it up, through Moss Vale before we settled for the night at Gundagai.

Sydney 2, NSW

We've been to the tip of Cape York, today we reached the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The weather forecast predicted rain for the day. We set out with our weatherproof jackets, hiking shoes, backpack, camera, phone, extra socks, runners and an umbrella at 9.30 in the rain on the way to North Ryde railway station. Purchasing our tickets we made our way a long way underground to take the train into Wynyard. Daniel insisted we walk slowly to our destination, The Rocks, to the Bridge Climb Centre so that we wouldn't get too tired and too hot! Finally arriving I took some photos of the Gift Certificates that we'd been carrying with us for the last 11 months. Daniel a little nervous as he can wasn't sure if his legs were going to turn to jelly for a little fear of heights.

The time came, the procedure started, we were in a small group with 4 other people whom we were all asked to introduce ourselves to and to familiarise ourselves with as we would be in their company for the next 3 and a half hours. With the introductions done we headed into the change rooms. Given a 'space suit' like outfit (1 piece) and waterproof pants over that we headed into another section to meet our tourguides, Michael and Matt. We were additionally equipped with a safety belt, that carried waterproof raincoats (for those that wanted to use them if it rained), a fleece for the head, a beanie for the head (which Daniel took), gloves, a hanky, a radio tansmitter, earphones, glasses straps and straps that attached all of the above to the suit and/or the belt. We felt like we were being dressed like astronauts! Then we had a practice session on how to climb properly on the ladders and down the ladders. Once over this procedure which took about 45 minutes we were ready to head out onto the bridge!

I can honestly that my feet felt like jelly for the first few minutes as we headed out onto the structure. A few deep breaths to overcome the fear and we were all on our way. Believe it or not the rain just held off at that moment as we made progress out on and above as Michael gave us the history of the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. With Daniel behind me I felt pretty safe in the event I would fall backwards, I knew where I'd be landing!

Daniel was probably kidding me that he had a fear of heights, he had no problem at all as he managed to climb stairs faster than I could clear them for him to make way after me! We stopped at various points on the bridge for photos taken by Michael. The history of the Bridge was fantastic. It truly has to be one of the world's most famous structures! You need to read about it. I don't think I have enough space in my blog to go through its entirety, so my apologies for that.

Believe this but it only started to spit lightly on our descent. At this point Daniel and I both put on our waterproof jackets. The sights from both the east and west were fantastic even though the weather was overcast and grey. It was an amazing journey. I said to myself that we could do this....I mean we had done the Eifel Tower in 1984!...yeah but we were soooooo much younger then! On our return trip we thanked our guides, filled out a questionnaire, changed into our normal gear. It was a great experience and we just want to say to the four of the kids thank you for this great experience!

It was about 3.00 in the afternoon, our feet were actually quite sore but we ventured back into central Sydney for a well deserved coffee and this time we splashed out on a Cronoli and French Vanilla slice as we rested our poor feet before heading back to the train station for the return journey for our last night at Lane Cove National Park, more rain before we packed up the next day to head off to see friends in Liverpool.