The stay at my parent’s farm was only a few days. But we got the proper Coleambally experience, with a 38oC day.
The boy was well impressed with fresh peas. He’d even just eat the entire pod, not bothering to shell them first.
Evening walks, when it had cooled down to 30oC, and I could wear the unicorn mask without immediately dying of heatstroke.
We even went into town, where I got to meet up with an old school friend, and our kids were introduced to the joy of running through sprinklers on a hot day.
On the drive back to the farm from town, we came across a burnt out truck – trailers detached and safely unburnt though. I went to take a photo to show Dad, but he was out fighting the fire.
The stay at the farm over to soon, we were headed back towards Melbourne, although first with a detour to the Puckapunyal tank museum – the menfolk were thrilled, I happily napped in the van.
Dinner with old mountaineering club friends! All have offspring, and so they all went off and played together (they didn’t seem to be setting anything on fire at least) while we caught up.
Then it was down to Sorrento for our final night. Taking the boy to a proper beach was good, although it was a typical Australian experience, with the beach covered in bluebottles (aka Portugese man o’war) – a jellyfish-like thing with tentacles that can deliver a painful (and sometimes fatal) sting. Good old Australia.
And the cousins (and brothers) got to spend more time hanging out together, so that was good.
Wonderful, beautiful Australian coastline.
And then the next day was packing, returning the van, and back to the airport and on to the cold, dark Canadian winter.