A taste of country hospitality

We have been at Loch for a week now. It is a beautiful place and the people are so friendly. In fact we have spent many hours this week just chatting to the locals.

Sam and Will started school this week. We enrolled them into Distance Education Victoria last year, and after going to an interview to meet their teachers, I was given 6 months of schoolwork.

They each get an English/Literature and a Mathematics handbook which is taking them each about 2 to 3 hours a day to complete. So far they are really enjoying the work and are completing it without too much fuss. I have had to motivate Will a bit more than Sam, but I was expecting that. What better motivation than “if you finish before lunchtime, we will take your scooters over to the skate park and you can spend the afternoon there”?

 

To get to the skate park, we walk over the Loch Suspension bridge, over the miniature railway crossing, through a tunnel which runs under the South Gippsland Hwy, and we arrive at a beautiful new playground.

 

Before we left home, some friends asked where our first stop was going to be. We replied “a little place called Loch, it’s somewhere in Sth Gippsland”. Tonia said “I know Loch! It’s about 8ks from where my mum and dad live.” So on Saturday Ton, Cam and their two kids came down and met us at Loch.

After a cuppa we headed off to the Korumburra Show. The local recreational reserve had been taken over by horses, tractors, local fruit and veg competitions, ute displays, food stands and amusement rides. After spending a few hours there, we were invited back to Ton’s parents’ house.

There we were shown true country hospitality like we had never imagined. Tonia’s mum, sister and niece had made an amazing roast dinner followed by homemade Lemon Meringue Pie, Apple Pie, Profiteroles and Mud cake (with icing made from Jersey Caramels – tasted great but once it had set, we almost had to get the chainsaw out to cut through it!). After dinner we all went back to the Show to watch a breathtaking firework display.

Sunday morning we went to the Loch market. It was a small Trash and Treasure market held near the railway station.  Sam and Will spent most of the time looking through the second hand books, working out how many they could buy with their pocket money.

After another cuppa and lots of laughs we said our goodbyes to Tonia, Cam and the kids. We then packed the caravan up for the huge 7k trip to the Bass Valley Campground.

Before we left we had planned on filling up our water tanks from the taps at the cricket club. There was an over 65s cricket match on so the car park was full. It was going to be a tight fit to get to the clubrooms anyway, but with all those cars, there was no way we could manoeuvre the caravan to the taps.

We pulled up and asked a few of the locals if there was anywhere else we could fill up with water. They all had a discussion that went something like this “Yeah, normally you could go to Georges (he’s the guys that runs the servo) but he’s gone fishing this arvo. Hey what about Pop’s place? Nah, you’d never get her in there.  I know, why don’t I take you to me mum and dad’s place and you can fill her up there?”

So ‘Grant’ jumped into the passenger’s seat and took Dan to his parents place to fill up while I stayed and watched the cricket match.  Another example of the country hospitality that I am very quickly growing to love.

At home quite a common discussion at social events is who is going to drink and who is going to drive. That afternoon at the over 65s match I heard a young guy and his dad having a similar conversation. I nearly laughed out loud when I realised they weren’t debating over who is driving home.  The debate was about who could have another beer and who was going to milk the cows that night!