Monday - Another beautiful day in AU! Cal & I left Ballarat this morning
meandering our way back to the Melbourne Airport by 1:00. Today we saw more
autumn colors on the trees than we have seen before.
All went well returning the car and finding
the ‘arrivals hall’ at the airport. It was not long until two Rotarians for
D-9790 arrived. We knew both of them, so
we have a nice visit until the group from Auckland, New Zealand.
However, upon their arrival, all plans
changed! One of the team members needed
to get to the hospital immediately. While on the plane he was helped by a
Doctor who was on board – he did a slight medical procedure and advised him to
get to a hospital ASAP. The Australian Rotarians who would be hosting us had
arrived at the airport in a small private bus, which was great, as the bus
driver took us directly to a hospital.
While he was waiting to be seen by a doctor
in the ER, we went to eat a meal. When
we returned to the ER, instead of dismissing him, they were keeping him
overnight. He will take the train tomorrow
to meet us.
It was 7:00 before we left Melbourne for a
3+ hr bus ride to the town of Albury, which is north, just across the Murray
river in the State of New South Wales. NSW is the State just north of Victoria,
in which Melbourne is located. We arrived
in Albury at approximately 10:30, met our host families and were dispersed to
their homes for the evening.
Tuesday – It is a very cool night and this
morning is also very cool. Our team
member who is in the hospital, will be there for the day. They may have to do another procedure
today. They want to keep him for
another day.
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| Yackandandah Street |
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| Yackandandah Walkway |
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| Choice of Pies at the Bakery |
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| The Bakery for Lunch |
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| Having a Sample at the local Micro Brewery |
The rest of us are off to explore the
area. At our meeting spot, an 18
passenger bus was there waiting to carry us from place to place. At our first
stop we climbed to the top of a hill which gave us a 360 view of the area. We are in an area where the south side of the
Murray River is in Victoria and the north side is in New South Wales.
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| Beechworth Street |
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| Honey Store |
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| Choices of Honey |
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| Anglican Church in Beechworth |
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| Inside the Church |
After the vigorous climb we went off to two
old gold mining towns. Yackandandah and Beechworth, were both gold rush
villages during the 1854 gold rush in this part of Australia. Beechworth was
located in the center of the gold rush area and was therefore the center of
more wealth which is reflected in the buildings of the town. One of the stories in the area is the account
of Ned Kelly, a “Jesse James” type of character, who tries to start an
independence movement but in the end met his demise because of his actions.
Our lunch consisted of pastries/pies from
one of the local bakeries. We had a beef
pie, a “Bee Sting” which is a pastry with vanilla filling and a custard
pie. All was very tasty. After lunch we were given a tour of
Beechworth by a local Rotarian, before going to a local micro-brewery for a
sample and to the Honey store and local Anglican church.
