Day 29
Today was a very quiet day. We pottered! Everyone loves to potter. Dom cooked me her famous pesto eggs. A bagel with pesto, chilli, egg and cheese cooked in the air fryer. I will have to recreate this upon my return to the UK, must put bagels and pesto on my shopping list.
Mid- morning I did my couch to 5k week 5 day one and in the afternoon we chilled and went for a walk.
That evening we had chicken parmas ✅. A good rest day as the rest of the week is a bit jam packed 🤪.
Day 30
There was a frost in Melbourne today, a rare novelty, but the forecast was sun sun sun ☀️. Today I was going on a little adventure to Castlemaine to see Pam and PJ, Doms mum and dad if you’ve just started reading the blog. To get to Castlemaine I needed to get the train from Croydon to Southern Cross and then another train from Southern Cross to Castlemaine, just short of a 3 hour journey. Cost of travel in Melbourne is ridiculously cheap. If you think about a 3 hour journey in the UK, pushing £100, this journey cost me $11 or £5.50 in easy language. You can see why people commute using public transport rather than drive 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️.
Castlemaine is about 123km north west of Melbourne by road. It is known for its rich gold rush history, thriving arts scene, and growing reputation as a fine food destination.
I arrived into Castlemaine at lunch time and Pam was waiting for me at the train station. We took a short drive to the old mill and grabbed some lunch at a lovely coffee shop/ cafe called Das Kaffeehaus yes you guessed it was an Austrian vibe cafe. I had a traditional Austrian sandwich, pork with gherkin and mustard and a flat white. Think I may look like a flat white by the time I leave.
We had a little mooch around Castlemaine then headed back to the house of Pam and PJ out in the bush. They gave a lovely little house with some land, and apparently sometimes on an evening they get kangaroos in their back yard. After a cup of tea and cake, I said my goodbyes to PJ and Pam and I went on the hunt. I wanted to see a kangaroo in the wild. I was in luck, we saw 2 just chilling in a field then a few km down the road there were 4 grazing in a field. Pretty cool. I had seen a kangaroo a few weeks earlier when we went down to Wilson’s Prom but sadly it had lost its battle with a car and was lying dead at the side of the road!
It was almost time to get the train back to Melbourne, but before that we called in to see Arni, Doms grandma and her aunt. It was lovely to see them both after so long. We even had time to a have a little drink in the railway hotel before I got an earlier than planned train (it was delayed and pulled onto the platform as I arrived) little did I know I was going to step back in time onto a train from what I sense was long ago. It was great to see Pam and PJ and such a shame that I couldn’t spend longer with them.
It did get me back to Melbourne where I was then able to navigate my way back to Croydon to get picked up by Stricko ready for a steak cooked on the BBQ 🤤🤤.
Another good day! Do I have to leave on Friday?! 😭😭
Flying Solo 