Back in Geelong

We had a dream drive south, across the border, into Victoria on Saturday - under blue skies all the way, through deep green rolling landscapes, fields of iridescent yellow canola crops and every species of wattle tree out in brilliant yellow blossoms - just beautiful! We stopped midway at Euroa for lunch on the banks of Seven Creeks (a tributary of the Goulburn River) where we both admired this group of beautiful River Red Gums, recently voted Australia's favourite native tree. 

We got to Highton in Geelong around 3.00pm, in plenty of time to admire Ros and Pete's beautifully maintained house and garden and Ros's obvious talent for growing Cymbidium orchids - this beauty has flowered magnificently 'like this for at least a couple of years now........

Yesterday, like most days here, we started the day with a long walk along the banks of the nearby Barwon River. This time Ros directed us eastwards in the direction of the James Harrison Bridge .........

........... with the reward of a coffee break at Sweet Adeline's pop up coffee van at the 4.5klm half way point along our morning walk.

There is a great space for shooting hoops at the back of the van ........

Two sisters ........

Ros always plans lovely, scenic lunch dates for our stays here. This time we headed for Scotchmans Hill Winery about 33klm from Highton on the picturesque Bellarine Peninsula.

We enjoyed a long slow Sunday lunch in the classy surrounds of the winery restaurant, making it a great opportunity to catch up on all the news of the young ones (and be amazed at how much Sammy and Lili have grown since the last time we saw them).

Lili has a great talent for photography and did a great job of taking this shot of the family at the end of our lunch date.

The family, with Lili this time ........ (you can see the tall buildings of the Melbourne CBD in the far distance from this part of the winery grounds).......

This morning Rob and I headed west along the river on our morning walk (Ros and Pete went much earlier - a work day for them!) - as far as Buckley Falls on the Barwon River (just past the back of the old Fryansford Paper Mill.

Like most other regions on the East coast of Australia, Geelong's had a lot of rain in the past year. We could see the Buckley Falls are raging with a lot more force than usual at the moment.

The weather turned against us today after our walk so my stroll around the trendy Pakington Street Newtown area this morning was cut very short and we moved to the Sailors' Rest on Geelong's iconic waterfront for an earlier lunch break than expected.

We'll have one more night with Ros and Pete tonight before heading towards the Great Ocean Road in the morning. Its been great to have this short but sweet stay with them in Geelong!!