Day 11 - Sawadee

-
Levena 0km

Our first 0km, genuine rest day.  Brought to you by some lovely family of ours and their absolutely gorgeous property.  Stewart and Dao, and their (almost 10yo) kids welcomed us with the gift of time together, excellent home cooked Thai food and great conversation.   At night we sat out on the deck and watched the full moon rise over the range, and in the morning, we watched the sun do the same thing.  



We of course took the opportunity to rest and relax, but also undertook some all important repairs.  The bikes both got a clean and lube, and our little green house was repaired with the always amazing Gorilla tape.  She's looking much more weather proof now!




We closed the day with a highlight, a Thai banquet, Australian wine and four generations sitting around the table!  Nan is an absolute cracker.  When I was growing up my elders  always said they had taken the best bits of Australian and Italian culture and mixed them together to give us the best possible cultural beginnings.  Today I have enjoyed watching the same ideas play out when you mix the best of Australian and Thai culture and traditions.  Hospitality, food, shared space, responsibility and knowledge, generosity are valued across all ages.  What a special space to be welcomed into.  Thank You!
Location: Victoria, Australia

Comments

  1. FrancieFebruary 19, 2022 at 1:59 PM

    Wonderful comments Louise. After the trials of the past few rides, you must feel [with Stewart and Dao] as if you are on the summit near Heaven's Door. There are two Carberry cousins at Yakandandah - and the Nature Walk at Paul's place is superb. Give our regards to the family and Happy Birthday to Pamela and Gordon. Whoooa double digit age already!

    ReplyDelete
  2. BrendaFebruary 19, 2022 at 4:54 PM

    Amazing, wonderful to be able to follow your adventure. Beautiful nature and good company.
    Special time with Stewart and Dao and family.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for sharing! We read all the comments, replies depend on internet connection and energy levels.

Popular posts from this blog

Accidents happen

-
Image
It's slow going writing this particular blog post as I am doing it with only one functional hand.  After almost 7000kms on the bikes, injury found me while running.   I wish I had a fantastic story to tell, but I simply tripped on a rocky trail and fell over.  You know that meme that goes "If you want to know if you're old fall over.   If people laugh you're still young,  if people panic then you're old!"  I can confirm, I am definitely old! It probably didn't help that two of my fingers were quite obviously either dislocated, broken or both.   I begged Kerstin to remove my wedding ring before the finger started swelling, being three hours from the hospital I was imagining the worst case scenario of the ring tourniqueting my finger and its subsequent death and amputation.  Poor Kerstin, this kind of thing makes her faint, but she gritted her teeth and pulled off the ring.  I then gritted my teeth and asked the ex-army maintenance guy to try and relocate my
Read more

Learning a new language

-
Image
There's plenty of things I anticipated learning when we accepted the positions at Avon Downs.  I thought I'd learn a lot about cooking for groups, about different cuts of beef and how to prepare them.  Maybe some stuff around the logistics of running a community which is 260km from the closest centre, and even then, its still Mt Isa... But I didn't really expect to learn a new language.  To be fair, I haven't spent a lot of time in the Territory.  But they really do speak their own dialect here.  Much different from costal Queensland, which is a slower, relaxed kind of Australian drawl.  Here it's fast, brief and usually mumbled.  I think I spent the first month constantly asking people to repeat themselves, answering the phone is always a diabolical risk.  And trying to understand the radio chat, impossible! Then there is all the slang and local shorthand.  To be fair some of the slang I suspect has been created by the Ringers themselves, as they are on their own l
Read more

Generation Z's perspective

-
Image
Q:  "Which is more important, the journey or the destination?' A:  "The company." Introducing the team at Avon Downs Station.  This video was made as part of a competition between AACo Stations for the Employee Challenge.  It's a great way to show the outside world what life on Avon looks like.  It will change your perspective on who works on Cattle Stations. There is a lot to be said for keeping company with Generation Z.  The stockcamp (the staff who do all the stock work) are all aged between 16-23 years old.  We feel pretty privileged to be given access and insight into their world.  They are generous when asked for explanations of everything from the work they do, to how the social system between them as individuals, as a team and as a Station works.  I'm pretty sure the education is going both ways!  If you want to be reassured about the future, then I recommend spending some quality time with it.
Read more