The Bush: Hiking and Strolling

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On the last day of our farm stay, Mike and L went hiking on Mt. Alexander, and G and I hung out in Maldon.  Two different ways to spend a nice day. 🙂

Before leaving, though, G and L spent a bit of time creating inventions with yarn, sticks, grass, and wooden chairs into various bridges and pulleys.  A little while later, they’d moved on to flying “kites” (plastic garbage bags) from the verandah! 🙂

And then we were off…Mike and L dropped G and I off in Maldon while they went to find the hiking paths.  Their first stop was Shepherds Flat.

As they walked along, they conscientiously made an effort to be quiet, when suddenly, L spotted an echidna!  The picture isn’t great (Mike had to dig out his phone while the critter was waddling away), but they know what they saw! 🙂

The picture below is only the 3rd selfie Mike’s ever taken!

Meanwhile in Maldon, G wanted to stop by The Wool Stash to see Oodle the poodle that we met the other day while in Maldon.  Oodle moves fast, so the picture is a bit blurry. 🙂

 

We also spent a bit of time at the Little Red Book Shop, which is a gently used shop with lots of great old books.  We found a 1951 version of The Three Musketeers, printed in Australia, that we thought L would like.  Unfortunately, by the time we met up with them to check on it, the store was closed.  Fortunately, I emailed the owner of the shop that evening, who offered to meet us there the next day (even though the shop wasn’t open), so we could purchase it before we left Maldon!  L was thrilled!

Before continuing with our window shopping and doing a little walking history tour, G and I stopped at Le Sel, a French deli, where we had a lovely visit en francais with the owners and enjoyed a piece of delicious chocolate macadamia cake.

Some sights from our walk around town.

As we stood looking at the library, we heard a large truck coming down the road and turned to see a semi with four layers of sheep being transported to a meadow somewhere!  (Mike’s note: it IS possible these were “meat” sheep and maybe NOT actually going to a new meadow, but we can let Jody believe what she wants.)

The Anglican church below, had beautiful velvet covered doors in the entry way separating the inside entrance of the church from the narthex.

The building below has possum prints on a brick to the side of the door.  How they got there, we’re still not sure.

Back on the hills, Mike and L found some huge boulders and great views at a place called Dog Rocks!

A beautiful gate in Maldon and a cool Victoria Bitters (beer) sign on the side of a building.

We could have spent a lot more time in here…so many fun things and it smelled just lovely!

While Mike and L found one more spot to hike, G and I sat on a bench in front of the Kangaroo Hotel reading and watching people and noticing the beautiful iron scroll work on the overhang. 🙂

 

Up on the Maldon fire lookout tower.

Mike and L met us at “The Roo” and we had dinner before heading back to the farm.

On the way back, we stopped to take pictures of these old dredging machines used for mining gold.

We couldn’t help taking a picture of this construction sign and then showed G and L the video of the song from our youth with the same name. 🙂  Click on the link below to have a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfR9iY5y94s

Finally, how nice of this mob of kangaroos to greet us as we drove down the road to the farm?  They were busy drinking from the pond, but they all politely looked up as we stopped to take their picture!

We drove up to the area that Mike and the kids had seen a mob the other night and caught another group on video as they hopped away.

And then it was time to give a pat to Susannah before settling in for the night.

Rosie and Hardy came over to get a pat, too.