Sunday 27th, Monday 28th February 2022 Race day at Phillip Is.; Phillip Is. to home. Yum, breakfast! We started the day with a nice breakfast at the regular café then headed out to the track for the races and opportunities for Roy to engage with friends and colleagues. Phillip Is Circuit It was pretty much  perfect weather for Phillip Is and the races all went well. Wayne Maxwell lining up on poll position Where the important stuff happens behind the scenes. We stayed to the last race to watch Roy’s old buddy Murray take second place after a couple of wins earlier in the day. Roy with Muzz on the podium At the end of the formalities, we headed back to Cowes and ended up with dinner at the same place with Pete G. We all packed up the AirBnb for an early night for an early start tomorrow . Monday 28th Phillip Is to home/ Canberra An early start, driving off into the dark at 6.15am to head home. We took the scenic route home through Cann River with a couple of breaks along the w...

 Saturday 26th Feb Castlemaine to Phillip Is Vic. Mikael doesn’t sleep well and was up early fetching the best ever croissants for breakfast and Roy had soft boiled egg from the chooks, fresh laid! His insomnia was certainly a bonus for our breakfast! I think the only way to get better croissants would be to pop over to Paris!! We planted a beautiful little silver princess tree (Eucalyptus caesia)  in the friendship grove and Mikael said a dedication and sprinkled confetti to confirm it. Digging the hole (Mikael already did the heavy lifting) And into the ground A little TLC A small excerpt from Mikael and Helle's beautiful dedication ceremony: Today we honour the visit to our property by our good friends, Fiona and Roy,  by planting and dedication a tree to add to our Friendship Avenue.   The Friendship Avenue is a planting of Silver Princesses, a variety of Eucalyptus caesia, which is a small Australian ornamental native tree that is endemic in the Western Aus...

Friday 25th Apollo bay to  Castlemaine to stay with Mikael and Helle Video call to Mum. Lucky to find an internet signal! We travelled through the Otway ranges to Lorne and made just a short stop there and headed north inland. Its amazing how much development there has been in Lorne since I was last there for a Genome conference. We made it to Winchelsea in time for the arranged video call with Mum back home. we pulled up at a café near a park which was populated with a large flock of noisy corellas.  We had hot chocs from café La hoot and of course Roy found a gourmet sausage roll! The country roads were full of flocks of sparrows. Trip North from Apollo Bay to Castlemaine Vic. We really enjoyed driving through the rolling hills of golden wheat stubble. The back roads were really back roads, but we had no trouble getting through. It was a cloudy day but the rain still held off . The temperature dropping to 15C! What a shocker but it was back up in the high 20s by th...

 Thursday 24th Feb Day 15 Mt Gambier to Apollo Bay SA to Vic on Great Ocean Road The most unusual and picturesque collection of boat houses, spied as we crossed the bridge at Nelson. And where is Nelson? Right here! Mount Gambier to Apollo Bay. Blue is sort of close to the route we took. We stopped at Port Fairy for a cuppa and a look around town. Looks like a Melbourne getaway, a lovely little spot. Real estate looks pricey! Broke out the thermos at Port Fairy Most unexpectedly we spotted Tower hill reserve almost on our route so we diverted slightly to have a look see and a drive through. Clearly a popular picnic spot and we saw loads and loads of black swans. Tower Hill reserve. On to Warrnambool where we made a brief Grocery stop. We were looking for the elusive Arnotts (nee Menz) yo yo biscuits but had left our run too late - they are only sold in SA (and perhaps just over the border) and bubbly to take to our friend's place where we going to stay near Castlemaine. We had more...

 Tuesday 22nd February Day 12 A day in Victor Harbor Washing day! Washing into the machine nice and early and onto the line, nice and breezy for drying. Video call to mum at 10am local time. She was in good form and remembered various people and places in SA, her home state. Tried to do some internet blog stuff but gave up in frustration at the poor internet, both wifi and Optus were hopelessly slow. Headed out to cousin's place at Port Elliot, had coffee and toasted sandwiches, lots of chat. They drove us out to their block and the straw bale house he built. Roy took the quad bike down to the dam to find snakes- found just one black snake. red bellied black by the dam They took us for a tour of the local area and around Yankalilla, his brother's farm. We drove ourselves back into Victor Harbor and walked out on the jetty to Granite Island. Walked up on top and around then back to the mainland.  Walking around the top of Granite Is, Victor Harbor Looking back at Victor Harbor ...