Jan 16

Werribee South

We booked the camping in Werribee South many weeks ago, in anticipation of the flight back to Sydney. Els, Marjo’s friend, has offered to look after the bus and the dogs while we are away in Sydney which helped us out greatly. So we decided to book for 10 days at a camping just outside of Melbourne, easily accessible from the airport.

From Johanna Beach we take the remainder of the Great Ocean road towards Melbourne. This results in some nice shots.

We stop to look at a waterfall.

And a bit further to let the dogs cool down in an inlet.

Then we come to Werribee South where there’s a lot of produce farming and park on the camp ground and do spring clean (well, get the bus cleaned up after so much travel).

In fact we first went to Werribee for a haircut (Marjo), shopping (Marjo) and a bus wash (Dotti, Nossi and Axel).

It was not all work though, I managed to pick up my new bigger board and try it out. Works great.

Then it was time to leave the dogs for a few days and take a flight to Sydney.

In Sydney Niki picked us up from the airport and we went together to Joran and Christine who kindly put up with us for the duration. In return we did some garden work.

And cooled down in the pool.

Joran’s and Christine’s dogs needed also a bit of cooling down.

We felt very welcome at Joran’s and Christine’s, they got all our favourite foods, a nice room for ourselves and we enjoyed staying with them very much during our Sydney visit.

Then we went with Joran, Christine, Marjo and Axel to dinner and met up with Niki and Nic. Niki and Nic met while we were traveling and have been a couple for quite some time. We had heard all nice things about Nic and contacted him using Facebook but this was our first in-person contact. We had a great time and are glad he and Niki met.

Anja was so kind to shout dinner and for good measure we decided to taste their yummie dessert as well.

We all went back to Joran’s place for some drinks and a chat and it was a nice evening.

The Saturday was full with meeting new people. First we went to Nic’s parents, Rob and Willemine and had coffee and talked with Nic, Niki, Willemine and Rob.

Niki’s dogs Peppe, Flow and Envi were happy to see us after all this time and their enthusiasm couldn’t even deter the wild King parrots that visit the backyard.

Rob is a quite gifted musician and he showed me his guitar. I failed to impress him and he was very nice about it 🙂

Then it was time to dress up for ladies day at Nic’s cricket.

There was very nice snack food made by Willemine and other ladies and Niki and I fought over some of it.

Niki won of course.

Then Niki en Marjo went to a hippie shop nearby. Nic drove them there and had the good sense to not wait around. Two hours later he picked them up. They had a great time and got some nice new garments.
That evening we went to a birthday party of friends of Rob and Willemine. They had a life band and some nice food.

We had a great time, met many people of which we mostly don’t remember the name. It’s fantastic to see how nice Niki and Nic form a couple and Niki blends with Nic’s extended family. All a very warm and happy feeling.

This got even better when Nic proposed to Niki and she accepted. With Joran and Christine already engaged in December we now have two children who decided to marry their loved one. Oh what a feeling!

Back in Werribee South, everything went well with Els and the Dogs. Els had a busy time with running with Nossi.