2022 Highlights

We began the year by taking several local day trips to take advantage of not being locked down and to get away from our still badly damaged mountain following the June 2021 storm. We saw lots of wildlife, took many photos and back at home Hazel’s veggie garden showered us with produce. In March we headed off on our annual pilgrimage to Port Fairy for the folk festival. This time, our friends Rob and Kate also came to join the usual crew of Peter, Lyn and ourselves.  After Port Fairy we headed north to the Grampians for some serious hiking and wildlife watching. The weather was kind and we had a terrific time, achieving some serious hikes for which Hazel has yet to forgive Rob. After that we headed off on a road trip to South Australia taking in Hahndorf (a German village), Kangaroo Island, the Barossa valley, Adelaide, the Coorong and Mount Gambier.  It was exactly what we needed after the trials and tribulations of 2021. We saw some wonderful wildlife, especially on Kangaroo island, such as the endangered Glossy Black Cockatoo (see below). We also saw some amazing sights like Tantanoola caves which we found to be one of the most remarkable places that we have ever seen on our extensive travels and yet not a major tourist attraction, all the better for that. On our way back from South Australia, we dropped in our great friends Allan and Lorelle in Geelong for the Great Australian Beer festival.

In June, we spent a few nights in Melbourne and saw a great concert from Steve Hackett. In July we headed to the Murray river at Yarrawonga to do more hiking, wildlife watching and to recharge with more warmth and sunshine than was available from a Kalorama winter.

The big trip of the year in August/September was a 4 week trip to the UK to see Rob’s father, brother and family. Whilst there we took Rob’s father to stay in Manchester so that we could take him to the new Royal Horticultural Society Bridgewater gardens in Worsley. Thanks to our friend Pauline we managed to book Dad a mobility scooter which allowed him to get around the full extent of the gardens and left Rob and Hazel trailing and puffing and panting in his wake. A photo of Dad at the gardens is on the reverse of this card.

Upon returning from Manchester we spent a few days in Shropshire beginning with a splendid day in Ironbridge gorge with Rob’s old school chum Gilly before 3 nights in Shrewsbury, a lovely medieval town. Whilst there Hazel was dragged up the Long Mynd, which caused more puffing and panting but the views at the top were well worth it. The next trip was with the family to Lichfield to have dinner with George and Joyce Frost (George was the vicar of St. Matthews in Tipton when Rob and David were young).

We also took Dad for a few night’s luxury in the Chester Grosvenor, a hotel that we have always aspired to. We visited the zoo and the aquarium and then for going around the wonderful old shops in Chester we again managed to rent a mobility scooter for Dad which gave him and us independence and we had a great time with him.

Our UK trip concluded with a few nice days in Lymm where we saw many of dear friends, (photos above). We returned to Australia to find that the big wet had arrived and much of NSW and Victoria have now suffered prolonged flooding for more than 2 months. Luckily we live on a mountain so we are relatively unaffected.

A lovely visit from our Japanese friend Naoto Yagi topped off a pretty good year for us.