Sparrow Lorelei photo gallery

Daytrip in north central Victoria, 29 August, 2009

We were going on a daytrip, but I hadn't confirmed the exact destination - it had changed from Rainbow to Mooroopna to somewhere else undecided in the course of a week. My plan was to leave after one of Sparrow's early morning changes, so she'd still be sleeping for most of the drive there. But when the morning came I really didn't want to leave at 4:30 am with the heavy rain still going over. So we left at the more sedate time of 8 am, and headed north. Here she is, ready to go in her capsule and the bright and cheerful hat and jumper that Maggie knitted. It was quite a cold day, despite being well into spring here in Melbourne.

We drove out between rain fronts, but the rain caught up with us on the way. My best guess of direction was hot chocolate at Heathcote, and when we got there after driving through the Great Dividing range only a few metres below the bottoms of the clouds we were more than ready to sit down in the bakery. Heathcote has two, and we went to Gaffneys just because we were right by it. An obviously popular choice - it was only just 10 am and there was a line of customers stretching out the door by the time we'd ordered. Lots of pies and quiches to choose from, a fabulous range of cakes and several kinds of cake-done-as-muffin. After agonising over choices, James left me to order and took Sparrow to a table where she proceeded to charm the pants off everyone still waiting in line (we got a few compliments on the jumper too). Here he's facing down the incredibly-sized and delicious chicken parma pie. I had a pumpkin, fetta and spinach quiche. The hot chocolates were much appreciated. We gave up on sweet stuff because we were too full, but promised ourselves a stop in on the way back through.

Heathcote is right next to the Heathcote-Graytown National Park (who'd've thought). One map in the bakery showed a "Viewing Rock" not far away. After several go-rounds with the various maps at the information centre, we worked out that the rock was an hour and a half return walk from the centre, which was more than we were thinking of. So we thought we'd drive to the base of the walk and shorten the distance. Heathcote is along a creek, and the walk was on the other side of it, and none of the town maps showed bridges except one, which turned out to be a swinging footbridge. After much driving around we found a bridge by accident, took it back to where the walk should be, and found that it was at the end of the street we'd started at, which turned out to also contain a floodway crossing of the creek. Oh well. We tried with the maps again, and worked out that there was a parking lot not far from the Viewing Rock, so went looking for that. We found the parking lot well enough, then had to try and find the Rock. Which turned out to be this little outcropping about twenty metres from where we parked the car - the scale of the map was a bit erratic. So here is James with Sparrow, looking out at the view from the Viewing Rock. And what are they looking at?

This. (See what I mean about scale? I'm standing almost back where the car is. At least one of the maps implied that the track to this point wasn't drivable. We got very confused. But it was a great adventure.)

We decided seeing as that leg of the trail had been so short, we'd walk the other way and find the cave also marked on the map. We walked, and we walked, and we walked... here's James going "Nope, don't see a cave down here..." Thankfully most of the walk was along the ridgetop, with not too much up or down-hill. We are both not very fit at the moment, and it was a good reminder of why I'm not likely to apply for a Larapinta Trail guide position next year -sad sigh-.

There wasn't much undergrowth in the forest, which surprised me for this time of year even if it *was* ridgetop. I thought there'd be a few ground orchids even if just at the bases of trees, but didn't see a one. But there were a few little things around - a fern here, some fungus there, and one tiny piece of Hardenbergia. A very empty-looking woodland, as this type of woodland can be. Lots of bare ground, which is always a worry. Very little to track other than the caterpillar that had graded the tracks, though we did see a couple of swamp wallabies early on.

So then it was on to Elmore. I'd figured we'd go to Heathcote and then home again, but James saw the sign saying that Echuca was only an hours drive away, and then I realised that meant driving through Elmore. Suddenly, we had a plan. Sparrow and I are at the bakery in Elmore, our late-lunch stop where we drank cups of hot strawberry (not chocolate!) and looked at stuff. Sparrow had been pretty good til now, mostly sleeping or talking to herself in the car and enjoying the stops, but over lunch she started wanting to look around a bit more. She was fascinated by the little statue of a chef on the counter.

Elmore is home to the Elmore Field Days, which I'm tempted to come back to in October, and the Rural Discovery Centre which has an exhibit called the Campaspe Run (the town is on the Campaspe River). James and Sparrow are sitting in the gift shop / foyer of the Discovery Centre while we chat to the counter lady, and the entry to the display is just behind them. We decided not to go through the exhibit today but to come back another time. The counter lady is an ex-grey nomad who's been living in this area for a while, and affirmed our choice to head for Echuca.

Outside the RDC is a little bridge onto the railway platform. We could catch the train to Elmore.

Echuca! The Murray River, where the Campaspe meets it. Sparrow and I are standing at the top of one of the docks along the river where the paddle steamers and houseboats dock. We were taken with the paddlesteamer that gives rides and the floating restaurant, but weren't there at the right time for either.

A tree with flood markers. The lowest is 1974 (the year I was born), the highest is 1870. At the moment though the water is very low, maybe five metres below where we're standing. It's hard to imagine there ever being as much water as these markers imply. I doubt Sparrow will ever see it in her lifetime.

In the Echuca Chocolate Company outlet. Like most tourist towns of our era, instead of souvenir shops selling lots of little tacky things, Echuca has a myriad of food and wine outlets in its Old Port historic / oldtown area. We had already stocked up on some very good fudge - I fell instantly in love with the Turkish Delight fudge - and explored the ambience of the barrels-to-the-ceiling wine and port tasting store, and were on our way past multiple icecreameries and sweet stores to the local outlet for Beechworth Bakeries when I found the chocolate shop. Sparrow was starting to get grizzly at this point and tired of being carried, and not wanting to stop moving for anything. But she cheered right up and gave a big smile when the counter lady started talking to her. Suddenly there was someone to charm, and that made everything all right. -sigh- It's not like she's my daughter at all... -grin-. I enjoyed a white chocolate chai tea truffle from here that I have no idea how to replicate - there will be some careful experimentation sometime soon. It's about time I kept working on truffles.

Sparrow and me on the Campaspe Sundeck, ovelooking the Campaspe River, behind the Beechworth Bakery. James put down his half-eaten snickerdoodle to take this photo for me - it must be love. The snickerdoodles still puzzle me - I'm used to the American ones, which are a rich kind of cookie, but these are little mini-custard tarts with raspberries on top. They're very good.

One more picture of the sundeck, because I like taking photos like this. But Sparrow was really beginning to get tired of it all, so we went back to the car, changed her nappy and started home. Backseat changes aren't as easy in my car as they are in James' - my back seat turns out to be on much more of an angle, so the baby tends to roll away from you and off the nappy if you're not careful. James was joking about her peeing onto the back of the seat because of the angle she was on.

A quick stop in Heathcote on the way back. We did miss the bakery, it closed maybe fifteen minutes before we got there. But that was OK, we were both pretty full at that point. We mainly stopped to give me a break from the driving, so I could stretch, and to feed Sparrow and play with her a bit between her sleeps. We had to do one more stop on the way home to change her, just before Wallan, which James rather talentedly did on his lap sitting in the back seat. I was impressed. It had gotten to feral hour by this point and she was starting to stay grumpy, wanting lots of attention and play. We realised then that we'd missed taking her out and lying her on the grass and playing with her at Elmore and Echuca, so she hadn't had any time to just wriggle around - the whole day had been in the capsule or the wrap. All that wriggle was getting a bit pent up. Heathcote was too cold and wet to do it, but Elmore and Echuca had been OK and even sunny. Next time we will be a bit more conscious of this. When we got home we laid her on her mat, and she wriggled arms and legs frantically for about an hour before exhausting herself and falling asleep. Overall it was a good twelve hours out with probably six or seven hours driving, and she coped remarkably well.