Weekends

With the kids in school and starting to get involved in after-school activities (swim and soccer), we have been trying to find fun ways to explore the area on Saturdays. Sundays we attend church (a small congregation located about 40 minutes from us in Wangaratta), take naps (some of us are more lucky than others), go for a walk, write letters, and recuperate from the week.

Our church building in “Wang” with a flock of Galahs picking at the grass.

Beechworth is an old gold-mining town about 25 minutes away from us. It is also the site of the jail (spelled “gaol” here) where Ned Kelley was kept for a short period. Ned Kelley was a bushranger (bad guy) who stole from the rich (but didn’t give to the poor) and especially didn’t like police. He is somewhat celebrated in Australia and Beechworth has many tourist sites devoted to him.

In Beechworth we found a bushwalk (hiking) trail that starts at a lake and goes through an area where many old mines are located. The mines are holes in the ground (now covered with grates) that go down, down, down. We had fun dropping pebbles down the holes and trying to hear them plop.

Kids standing near one of the grates in the middle of the trail.

There was a funny tree with the trunk decorated with cockatoo feathers. I’ve been meaning to ask a local if it has any special meaning or is just a funny tree.

Yackandandah, 20 minutes away, is a small old gold-mining town similar to Beechworth that has re-branded themselves as an artist community. There are a few art studios and eclectic cafes. We joined friends at the annual Yackandandah folk festival and had fun listening to music, eating food, and watching the acts.

Maren dancing to a LARGE family string band.

Kids letting the world know how they feel.

Last weekend we drove just over an hour to get to one of the two nearby ski resorts, Mount Hotham. The resort is built along the ridge line of the mountains and all of the lifts go down from there. We checked out the resort and then bushwalked along a backcountry ski trail that goes into Alpine National Park. The trail followed a ridge and passed by a warming hut/day shelter. We veered off the ski trail to hike to the summit of Mount Loch. From the top we could see mountaintops poking into the horizon for days.

Summit of Mount Loch!

We were above the treeline for much of the hike but when we had trees they were really beautiful.

Overall we hike 7 miles and the kids did great – Asher kept pointing out that he wasn’t even breathing hard. (But he slept great that night!) I think watching out for snakes kept their minds busy :/

Good bushwalkers