We have just returned from what I called our "second last" holiday; because before retirement in September, we have only one more planned (to Cairns and the Savannahlander Railway, in August). Alison doesn't like me calling it this, because more travel is planned after September; but we will of course then not the constraints of work to deal with.

Back to go back a little; we had a little family trip in March, to the not-far-away town of Barwon Heads. We booked a house on Airbnb with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and it worked very well. Louise and Annette and their son Jack had the front 2 bedrooms, which formed a little suite; with Louise pregnant again (due at the end of June) they were able to retire whenever they needed to. Down the back, Alice and Sidhar had one bedroom and we had the other. The house even had a double kayak for guests to use, so as well as walking around the town and along the coastline, we went for a paddle on the river.

Soon after this the biannual Castlemaine State Festival was on again. We went to a lot of events at the last one, two years ago, and went to a lot this time as well. All credit to the organisers for building a temporary main stage outdoors in the gardens, so live performances could be held with less covid restrictions than indoors. Despite the lack of international performers, it was excellent - and more than one person on the stage commented how good it was to be in front of a live audience again after over a year of lockdown. There were some "dud" shows we went to, but most were very good and a few, exceptional!

But now, we've just been away in the car for 10 days;

Holidays post covid can be a bit of a lottery . it is hard to get excited when they might be called off but also hard not to get excited by a break in routine and a trip away. We wanted to visit the east coast areas and so while everything was open, headed north and then east - Tallangatta, then Corryong, into NSW to Eden and onto the Sapphire Coast. Covid behaved but the weather didn't. It rained and rained, but that didn't stop us enjoying the Alpine Way, autumn colours in the trees along town main roads and the sound of  thunder and rain pounding down on the roof . I was agreeably surprised by large areas of intact bush unscathed by the fires in the more westerly sections but then the burnt areas became much more prevalent. Some of the burnt areas have started to regenerate , but in places the fires were so hot, there is ground-cover but no sign of life in the trees. It does make it easier to see the wildlife though! The devastation in the towns has been largely cleaned up but there are many streets with few houses, and there is still a lot of rebuilding in evidence.

It is a very attractive coastline but not so appealing when it is pouring. We headed south back into Victoria and stayed in Mallacoota for a few days before traveling home via Orbost.  I thought this trip would help boost local economies but eating out proved  difficult- so many places are closed from the impact of fires followed by lock downs. We knew Orbost quite well from our many locum visits but it is not looking prosperous with the population just two thirds the number of 10 years ago, and stalwarts like the top pub closed. We were lucky with showers rather than rain for a few days so we explored Croajingalong, Cape Conran, Marlo etc. All in all , this was  a very relaxed trip with some day walks, beach walks , lots of coffee shop stops ( in the hope of finding good cafes, but mostly that hope was unfulfilled) and a chance to visit many op shops en route.

In the past we have always just driven past the Cranbourne botanic gardens as they are close to Melbourne, but this trip we had time to stop - they are very impressive, both the more formal Australian garden and the wilder stringy bark forest areas, complete with 'roos, bandicoots koalas, echidnas etc , all in what is now outer suburbia with new housing estates bordering the park.

We dove back into Melbourne to the very luxurious " chez benson" and unpacked, relaxed and happy to be home after an enjoyable but low key trip.