Sydney to "home"

This is the catch-up from January...

We spent a few days in Sydney seeing friends, and explored an area on the North Shore we hadn't been to before.

We also had a couple of days at Swansea and fit in some walks along the lake.

Our final night was at the showgrounds at Woodenbong, where we watched the storms roll in. There was a good light show, but no good photos, and we also missed the rain.

Gundagai

We were heading towards a conference in Wollongong, so didn't have an option to avoid the heatwave. We had one night at the Albury Showgrounds and saw the smoke from one of the Victorian fires to the east as we left in the morning. The three nights in Gundagai were made a little more pleasant because we were mostly under the shade of the massive plane trees, but it was still in the 40s each day. We are so thankful for air conditioning!

We ventured out for walks early in the morning when it was still in the mid to high-20s and then spent the rest of the day inside.

The old sign was subsumed by the tree.

The caravan park was in a great location on the river and we'd love to come back and explore when it's not over 40 degrees.

Frankston

We knew Melbourne had laneway murals, but when we had a couple of spare hours in Frankston while the car was at the mechanic we discovered some around the station and shopping centre.

Sale

After finding Sale to be fairly quiet last Christmas we decided to book the caravan park for longer this time - from Christmas Eve to 2 January. It didn't disappoint... this was us camping with all our friends on Christmas Eve!

We enjoyed regular walks around the lakes and wetlands (and the supermarkets for marked down specials!). The water was quite dirty from the carp and all the birds (even though it's blue in the town mural), but there were some good photo opportunities as the birds all had their breeding plumage and colours.

Intermediate Egrets

Cattle Egrets

Australian White Ibis

Satin Bowerbird

Dusky Moorhens

Great Cormorant

Straw-necked Ibis

Pelican - The pelicans all looked rather shabby from the muddy water.

Royal Spoonbills

Ensay

Just down the hill from Omeo is the small township of Ensay. There is a recreation ground with cheap powered sites and it was lovely. We were surprised that there weren't other people there as the school holidays had started, but we didn't mind having it mostly to ourselves. There were lovely walks along the Tambo River. 

On our first walk we discovered old fruit trees. The pears were small and green but the plums were ripe and sweet! They were all about cherry size, and were a variety of colours when ripe, all with slightly different flavours. Plums are not our favourite stone fruit, but these were actually quite sweet. Needless to say, we collected some for later!

We had some rain and the clouds hung about, which made for interesting light in the afternoons.

Eastern Rosella

One afternoon when we were out walking a cyclist stopped to chat. He told us about a drive up to the Nunniong Plains, which sounded interesting. I did a bit of research and we decided it was worth doing the following day. Our first stop was the water tank in Ensay.

Moscow Villa Hut

Once we gained a bit of elevation the forest was obviously more damp and was full of tree ferns. It was quite spectacular and we've decided it's a place to come back to on a foggy day as it would be even more beautiful.

The Nunniong Plains had a fenced off area that was protecting native vegetation from the cattle. The difference was quite remarkable.

The Washington Winch

On our way back down the hill Dazz stopped suddenly because there was a blue tongue lizard on the road. As he stopped we were greeted with a sight we hadn't seen before...

A few weeks ago he bought new rope to tie the kayaks on because the old one was starting to fray. The rain in Ensay and then some lovely sun had obviously led to some loosening of the knots and after driving for a couple of hours on corrugations there was enough slack for the boats to slide off. Fortunately there were just some minor scuffs on the bonnet and the lizard was unharmed and unmoved!

Since Dazz was busy putting the kayaks back on the roof there is only a glimpse of the blue tongue from a photo on my phone.