Church bells, jelly slices and ice cream

Dong. Dong. Dong. And four more. St Paul's Church across the road provides a Sunday morning wake up alarm whether we like it or not.

For me, not. I had a headachy night with weird dreams. First thing I do when I get up is take a covid rapid antigen test (negative).

Eight chimes and then a celebratory carillon performance.

I walk across to K-mart and Coles to buy some supplies for nights indoors on our holiday.

It is quite late and we'll past breakfast when we head out down to the country town of Beechworth. It is nice to be off the motorway, driving through the hills, archways of trees above us, autumn colour around.

The Beechworth Bakery is full of tourists as we eat meat pies for brunch, pastries for treats and take away jelly slices and pink lamingtons for a later dessert. I buy more cordials and local vegetables for the trip, but we have had enough of quirky shops yesterday.

The motorway to Melbourne is too familiar and boring, but not as stressful as I feared as I did not need to enter the city proper. I'm so focused on the road I can't enjoy what scenery there is and the many memories of the ride towards Geelong.

We stop in Geelong's city centre because B wants to try the Asian Essence Malaysian restaurant. The timing is too late for lunch and too early for dinner, so we order takeaway and continue on towards Barwon Heads.

The bright blue sky has clouded over with big cumulus clouds and the evening light is gorgeous as we drive the country road to the coast.

Before we relax in our accommodation we head into the centre of Barwon Heads to pick up some supplies. First we buy ice creams and take an evening stroll along the bridge across the river. It is so beautiful here and I have so many childhood memories of staying in the caravan park, strolling beneath the lamps, watching the Point Lonsdale lighthouse flash in the distance as cars rattle across the bridge.

Our accommodation is a lovely cottage that is perfectly equipped for relaxing in, with couches, daybeds, National Geographic magazines and old books.

The Malaysian food is really good, one of the best beef rendangs I've tasted and excellent sambal. I think we might make another visit on the way out

But right now a Panadol and a sleep is in order.

Comments

Down the Oito Line

Riding the length of the Oito Line from Itoigawa to Shinjuku (well, Matsumoto, really, but you might as well go the whole way) has long been a dream of mine. It suddenly gained urgency when I read that the last length of it between Itoigawa to Minami-Otari would be closed once the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kanazawa and Toyama opens by next year. Now, as mentioned last time, B and Alex are among those that would much rather catch the very fast Shinkansen, but in the end she decided to follow me, despite the very early morning. We rode the Hokuetsu Express from Toyama to Itoigawa, completing a little more of that West Coast for me. Though the coastal stretch was short there were some nice views at times. I should like to see more of Itoigawa one day, explore its geology. But now we had to quickly cross over the platform bridge to catch our train to Minami-Otari. To my great delight it was a KiHa 120 railcar, my favourite. I felt a degree of sadness standing up at the front...

The Kamioka mines: from silver to supernovas

Part of the Kamioka zinc mining and smelter complex Just after posting about the Kamioka Railway another photo from that 2006 set piqued my interest. Up there in the mountains the landscape looked blasted not just by winter but by something more. It was the kind of lonely place where you would not expect to find major industry, so this sight was quite surprising. Even more surprising is the history associated with this photo. According to some sources mining and refining of ores in Kamioka dates back to 710 AD and only closed in 2001. Undoubtedly the mine was a major reason for the existence of the Kamioka Railway. Refining of zinc still continues to this day under the parent Mitsui Kenzoku zaibatsu . Gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead were all dug out of the rock here. Unfortunately, the process released cadmium into the river, which, when taken up by the rice that was grown in the river, caused the terrible itai-itai disease - meaning "It hurts! It hurts". Cadm...

To Melbourne on the XPT sleeper

Excited by the prospect of reliving the experience of seeing my very first movie and hearing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform it I bought tickets to The Empire Strikes Back in Concert in Melbourne back in February. Then I did nothing about actually getting there. Much as I love Melbourne, due to family commitments I didn't want to spend more than the Sunday away. Flights there and back made sense, but my flight down to Melbourne in late October reiterated the fact that I usually don't enjoy descending into the city. And the concert was in December, a season of summer storms. I really didn't feel like driving the whole route alone and in a hurry, so that left one choice. The train. My very first trip up to Sydney from Melbourne was aboard the luxury Southern Aurora. Or it was supposed to be luxury. I wouldn't know because I spent the whole ride up very sick with the flu lying in the top bunk, unable to stay awake for my whole of night vigil. Now only...

travelling allrite

Search This Blog