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School holidays
When the school holidays started, we picked dad up from work and began our drive to Bendoc. Traffic was jammed for the first two hours (70km), but we arrived before midnight. Emma went back to sleep after the transfer to her bed, but Piet had been awake during the last two hours of the drive and stayed up a bit longer.
The next day, we played in the garden with a big pile of leaves. Piet and Emma liked to throw them at each other or run through the leaves to be caught by mum. For a change, the afternoon quiet time was filled with a DVD instead of the iPad at home. We had lunch together. We put the tea leaves on the blueberry bushes, which like acidic compost. All toy animals were put in their own continent. Emma told grannybunts where Wally could be found. On Monday afternoon, we waved mum and dad goodbye, who would stay in Merimbula for the night for dad to catch a plane to Sydney early the following morning.
At the end of the week, we took a day trip to Thredbo and were overwhelmed by the snow. Unfortunately, it had not snowed for four days and the snow on the ground was quite icy. We played for a few hours and managed to make a snow man (actually: add to a snow man left behind by others). Back home, we played with rings and a ball in the garden. The next morning was frosty with beautiful views.
Wombat at his hole
We made a long walk through the backpaddock and to our surprise, found a wombat sitting in front of his hole, happy with our presence. After the kids got bored, we moved on. By the time we came back the next day with a camera, the wombat
had gone. For more pictures of this second walk,
The morning of our departure to Sydney, we woke up without power. Piet and Emma quite enjoyed a breakfast by candlelight.
Back in Manly
Those country roads had left a lot of dust on the car, so on a nice weekday and with some
helpers mum washed the car. Especially
Emma was most meticulous. We also help mum
cut the veggies. If we are in the mood, we may share a chair to do some
colouring. In the morning, Emma needs a
cuddle and a fair bit of time to wake up.
From our home, we went for a walk to North Head. We had been there by car in April, but having the whole day, we set off on foot. We looked at the map for the nicest route across the land of the former artillery school and quarantine station - now trust land. Once decided, we ran off. At the information centre, we had a look at a large sized satelite image of our neighbourhood. Piet and Emma were able to pick out some beaches. We had a snack and the kids had still enough energy to chase each other for a ball. As we had been told whales had been sighted, we made a detour to an outlook point, to no avail. The local whale watchers hadn't seen any whales that day, but they had nice booklet for Piet and Emma. The detour proved too much: we were even too tired to sit in the rucksack, so dad was sent to collect the car. Still, we wondered why it had taken us four months to walk to these nearby treasures.
Blue mountains
Two weekends laters, we set off on another walk. Just over 100km and just under two hours west of Manly are the Blue Montains. On our
knees we admired the view. Ten minutes down the track, we could
see the Wentworth Falls in the
distance. The Blue Montains are a 1000m high plateau in which rivers have cut
canyons exposing cliffs overlooking broad valleys. It took British settlers a long time to find a route across these mountains, as every time they followed a river up a valley they ended at a cliff. We
decended to the waterfall and crossed it
twice. Then we continued with a path under
overhanging cliffs. On the last look out, we could see
Empress Falls in the
distance (10cm to the left of Sarah's right hand pink). As usual, Piet refused to
pose for a picture.
