T is for Tweets: Telex tweets from The Telegraph, Beechworth

If this was 2015 on the 11 November, a tweet would have read, #nedkelly, "Ned Kelly executed at Melbourne Jail, Saturday at 10.04", instead a telex was sent from The Telegraph in 1890.

Everything has changed but nothing has changed.

This chalkboard in Beechworth was fascinating, telex's about the amount of gold received at Melbourne in 1859, a temperature low of -10 degrees on the 10 August 1872 and the Cornish Miner who fell down a 250 ft shaft and survived, #nobrokenbones!

K is for Kookaburra: waking up to it's laugh

The iconic Australian tree kingfisher with its laughing call needs a blog all on his own. Here the Kookaburra watches us keenly. The morning's here at the Mansfield Country Resort start with the Kookies laugh, so nice.

H is for Hay: Bales dot the biscuit coloured rural lands

The dominant colours here in the High Country of the North East Victoria, are the biscuit shades of fawn, gold and brown and the fields are dotted with hay bales and flocks of Cockatoos and Corellas.

I have been looking for the 'perfect' spot for a photo of these huge perfectly formed circular bales.

Fred, in his usual enthusiasm for getting the best out of his photography, jumped a fence and was on his belly in the itchy mown field.

Got to love it! I used my trusty iPhone to snap him at the hay bales.

F is for Foodie: Farm fresh cherries and Gum Honeys

When the birding mojo deserts me, it is time to revert to a foodie day. I dragged the gang out late afternoon yesterday with the promise of wetland birding. I had done the research, the website looked good, the local tourist magazine carried an article too, so Winton Wetlands was the destination, over 50km north of Mansfield.

We arrived to a vast dust bowl, with an enormous kangaroo just managing to cool off on the little ground water over the boat ramp. The temperatures were mid 30's, birds scarce so we turned around and headed back.

High Country foodie highlights.

Fortunately Bev, a friend of Lee's who joined us, pointed us to a local farmer who has a good cherry crop and we stopped at his 'honesty fridge' and bought a couple of kg's. Plump and delicious.

'If Mansfield is the heart of the High Country. The Regional Produce Store is the heart of Mansfield.' 

This quote from a local cookbook is spot on, Fred and I found this little gem on day one in Mansfield and we have made it our local for the week, yummy baguette sandwiches with roast vegies, tandoori chicken and pulled pork, and of course loads of good flat whites.

Today we pottered along the King Valley road, via iNeeta's for breakfast of pies and pancakes and then onto Beechworth to partake in their Honey Experience. Beechworth Honey is an impressive business and we had the option to taste 30 different honeys, all influenced by which gums trees the bees frequented, like red gum, yellow stringy bark, coolibah, green mallee, grey ironbark and more.

I managed about 7 and was then honeyed out! But not enough to turn down ironbark honey ice-cream with macadamia nuts.

This recipe caught my eye and Fred is keen to make them once we get to New Zealand.

W is for Walking: 14km along the Great Victorian Rail Trail

Walking from Maindample to Mansfield

Over boiled eggs and toast last night Lee reminded us that we have known each longer than we have not know each other. We all met in our 20's and here we are at a timeshare in the High Country of Victoria, spending time together, as if the distance between Johannesburg and Melbourne does not exist.
A privilege indeed.

And we spent our morning walking the section of the Great Victorian Rail Trail between Maindample and the Trail Head at Mansfield. Over 140km of the original rail track is now converted to a wonderful space for walkers, cyclists and horse riders.Fabulous use of the land!

We dropped cars at each end and walked the 14km stretch through the countryside, which is a golden biscuit colour, marvelling at the form of the gums, the deep blue of the sky and we just loved being out.

It was the hottest day we have experienced to date here in Australia, mid 30's, so we kept the pace gentle, talking all the way and bridging the years.

Q is for Quirky signs: An echidna on the road

A gate on a walk - reclining kangaroo is a delight

Travel delivers some quirky moments and not least of all these come from the caution signs on the highways here in Australia - with their images of the weirdly wonderful animals of this great continent - kangaroo, emu, echidna, wombat, koala.

So I have been watching the verges for glimpses of the wildlife, there have been loads of kangaroos but no sign of the others.

Yesterday as we were driving to the summit of Mt Buller, I saw my first Echnida, just off the road, about a rugby ball size, short quills, with its strange little face and it's long snout of a nose.

No sooner were we out the car than it sensed danger and started to burrow furiously, hiding its face underground!

Fred and Guy tried to encourage it to surface without any luck, we all hooted with laughter when the Echidna came up for air - its stuck it's long nose out of the ground and took a breath. So odd, so how about a wombat next?

Postscript: on the road today I noticed a dead animal on the roadside, we turned around and it was a wombat, much larger than I expected, full bodied and strong looking. Would have preferred to see it alive though.

F is for Fry's Hut: a mountain man tin and log hut in the High Country

Built in the mid 1900's, Fred Fry lived as a mountain man, an isolated life until his death in the 1970's and he is well remembered for his building talent and he influenced the style of many of the heritage huts here in the High Country. We walked the 3km Heritage Trail in the Howqua Valley, saw the remains of the gold mining from the mid 1800's ending at the hut. I must remember to get Inel to sketch it for me in my journal, the lines are remarkable.

So while I was finishing high school, here was this man, in his tin and wood hut, living the simple but rich life, too marvellous.

F is for Family: a surprise visit!

A late night intrusion here at our timeshare near Mansfield in Victoria.

Inel, Guy and Joss had arrived after a 7 hour drive from Cowra, NSW. So special.

We ran around here in the High Country, tasted Tin Shed ciders; visited Dalzotto, of Masterchef fame for me, in the King Valley for crisp, cold Prosecco; walks are the lake, along a heritage trail and up the summit of Mt Buller; made good food; found the King Parrot and of course loads of coffee and wine.

We saw them off at 5am this morning and look forward to our return visit at the end of February.

G is for Grasstree: a Western Australian icon

A road trip can surprise. I assumed the landscape would be dominated by the wondrous gum trees that Australia has, until we stumbled on this scene along the Indian Ocean Highway. A vast plain of Grasstrees and as the info board says, they can survive for over 500 years. Such an interesting sighting indeed.

B is for Birding: my first flock of the huge Carnaby's Black Cockatoos

Driving back from Jurien Bay today, I was feeling dejected about not having sighted any of the Black Cockatoos that are endemic to Western Australia.

We went off Highway 1 to have ice-creams in Gingin, oh my best ice-cream to date, marketing blurb from Connoisseur Ice-creams says it all:

Within the Murray River lie ancient pink salt flakes. We mix them into our classic gooey caramel sauce, and whip it generously through rich caramel flavoured ice cream. It’s then locked away inside a layer of premium milk chocolate and macadamias. We think the salt flakes are happier here.

Anyway, as we were leaving town a flock of Black Cockatoos flew over, noisy and bold. Fred leapt out of the car and did his best to get some photos before the flock moved off again to the next field.

Yay, I now have the Carnaby's Black Cockatoo on my life list!

P is for Pinnacles: a place to breath deeply

Nambung National Park, Western Australia.

The approach to the park gives nothing away, scrub saltbush and white dunes, low hills.

We paid the entrance fee and walked to the start of the Desert Trail through the Pinnacles.

It's a vast area, denuded of the coastal scrub and these stones stand, silent, sometimes looming, sometimes ordinary and sometimes extraordinary in form, erosion creating this place of magic.

The end of day warmth in this quiet, rather surreal landscape, turned the sand a buttery colour, even the wind dropped.

Nankeen Kerstrels scrapping high above us in the deep blue sky were the only distraction.

I am constantly reminded of the wonders of our natural world and I am in awe. Scientists find it hard to explain the Pinnacles. I do not ask these stones to explain themselves but just stand and look.

S is for Stromatolites: Lake Thetis, the weird and the wonderful

Microbial communities? Been growing for about 3500 years?

So Fred looks around and sees rocky lumps....but how interesting, never heard of Stromatolites until this morning at Lake Thetis, near Cervantes. The little Red-capped Plovers seemed to love the high levels of salinity too.

We also met a rather handsome lizard this morning - in fact Fred was getting to close and it turned around and hissed at him, showing his namesake, a blue tongue. Our host at Isabella's Cafe told us the tail mimics the shape and size of the head as a survival strategy. Wonderfully weird.

Bobtail Skink - locals call them the blue-tongued lizards.

G is for a Green Sea: Indian Ocean from Thirsty Point, Cervantes, WA

Windswept, jet lagged and happy to be exploring.

As I plan our trips I google images of the places I am thinking of visiting, Pinterest searches too and I was wondering about the remarkable sea images that define this Turquoise Coast north of Perth in Western Australia.

Our drive along the Indian Ocean Drive, some 250 kilometres north of Perth, delivered beautiful scenery, white sand, and this green sea. All I could say was wow.