Day 39 - The Wye's and wherefores

So, this was Saturday.

This is the day we go off to the coast and stay at the home of John And Rosalie Hudson. They extended the courtesy of their holiday home without ever having met us. We had met at their Grandson Max's twelth birthday party. Huddle and Yvonne (our interpretation) the parents of Max and Alex.

We four were going to Wye River, a small coastal hamlet on the Great Ocean Road.
We'd been told it was a lovely place in a wood, with views over the ocean.
Since we'd bought pretty much all that we needed, except for beer and bread which Trevor thoughtfully supplied on the way down, we loaded up Trevors' car with bedding food drink and everything else M could find.
We'd booked a hire car, because it was probably the only thing unanavailable to us elsewhere, but transport or lack of it would have made life really difficult down there.
I picked the car up not far from Nicolas' and as I was leaving the premises I depressed the clutch in the middle of a right turn. Sadly though, it was'nt a clutch. You do'nt get one in an automatic. The wee Nissan screeched to a halt. Mmm I thiught, good brakes. The car that was approaching from my right had a really nice driver in it. He never even sounded his horn. Why ca'nt all cars be the same. They could put a let on clutch in them for people like me. I've survived over forty years on a clutch, so they ca'nt be all that bad!!
Anyway. What's done is done.
We sped off in the direction of the Westgate Bridge. This would take us over the Yarra and down past Geelong to the coast.
Aparently it's excactly 100 miles from Melbournes main post office to the Wye River stores. On a straight road it could be reached in say ninety minutes. The road down is not straight, in fact like the Antrim Coast road it's a tad bendy in places. Having said that, it's one of the worlds most scenic drives.

Nicola And Trevor would be stying with us tonight, making sure we knew where everything was, and how it all worked.

Another of Trevors jobs would be to show us how to find the house. It was up a very steep and twisting road, half a K in from the road. We'd have had great difficulty finding it, there are only about eight other detached houses on the road.

On first appearance it could'nt be called impressive. Not until you went through the front door, into a Tardus like building. Built on two levels, with a large terrace on two sides of both. The views were special, especially when you found the koala up one of the many trees that surround the house. The Great Ocean road is aout five hundred feet below. The house sits above a lot of the trees planted further down the hill.


Our first visitors were three King Parrots. They swooped down as soon as we went out onto the veranda. Sadly, we'd no fod for them so they lost interest and flew off to spread the word of our arrival, possibly.

I really should go on about the very clever layout of the house, but it's the views you see. From three sides you are hidden by the tall gum trees, the fourth is the roadway up. Two sides let you see far out into the ocean. All around is birdsong.

At the bottom of the hill and slightly further along the road is the local store and the local hotel. We went down there for a couple of beers after settling in. Suddenly we were all starving, time was marching on. We went back to the house and had a barby.

Filled to the boots we sat with a DVD, Kenny, all about a plumber who works with sh1t all day. Still, the dinner stayed down.
Oh dear, ten thirty and knackered. It's been a busy day and lots to see tomorrow, so off to bed.

We never even went to bed this early on our honeymoon.