Visiting Aukje

It was definitely time for a visit to the new place of Aukje, Arthur and the girls. They moved into their new place in Cockatoo in July and we couldn't find the time to travel to Victoria and a weekend we were both available any sooner. We flew into Avalon airport which is quite far from their place, but luckily Aukje picked us up in her new Hilux.We had a very relaxing and also tiring weekend.

Friday we had to pet the chickens, walk the pig, look at the horses and explore the boundaries of the property. We could unwind with a very nice BBQ afterwards.

    
       Lunch                          Walking the pig, SillyToes

    
The gumtrees on the property    Bregje and Arjan             

Chickens!
         
          The house                   Aukjes famous entree

Saturday was a very warm and sunny day. After the morning ritual of feeding  all the livestock, replanting the avocados and playing hide-and-seek it was time for brekkie. After that time for serious business, we had to catch Yabbies at a local yabbie-farm. It turns out you catch them by throwing a line with some meat on it in the water, and carefully watch it (just like fishing). If something is eating from the meat, carefully reel in the piece of string and put a little net behind the meat (they walk forward and swim backward); then scoop up the yabbie. After a while we caught 3 yabbies amongst the 7 of us, so unfortunately not enough for a decent meal. So we just had to go to that nice restaurant in Beaconsfield Upper.

    
Arthur and Hans' joint effort    Now that's a big yabbie

    

Sunday we thought we might as well have breakfast in the local teashop (less eggs to cook for Aukje), so we drove out to Gembrook where they have a monthly sustainable market. We strolled the market, bought organic asparagus, tapenade and pesto. The steam train, Puffing Billy runs a regular service to Gembrook as well, a must see in this village. After all the excitement it was time for more nature, so we went for a bushwalk in Kurt Kiln park. After we were all tired it was time for some final drinks and dips before Arthur drove us back to the airport.

    
Puffing Billy in Gembrook      Petting Zoo at the markets    

We had a wonderful time and cant wait to go back again for a lazy weekend in the countryside.

You can also read the story Aukje wrote on her blog (in Dutch).