I can't resist putting in this photo of a sunset I saw one Friday evening. I took it from the top of the driveway of "our home"!
A wagtail that arrived on our doorstep. I held him in my hand, he sat on Chris's shoulder then happily flew off.
Down the road.
We absolutely loved "living" in Bilpin - known as The Home of the Mountain Apple. We enjoyed the house and the place so much that very often we would spend all day at home without going anywhere. We were surrounded by huge gum trees, rolling lawns, acres of freshly mowed properties, myriads of birds and bird song, majestic views of the mountains and the best part of all was when the mist rolled in over the mountains up to our front deck. All over the area were magnificent flowering rhododendrons and warratahs (the floral emblem of NSW) and acres of apple orchards. We loved the 2 beautiful horses who lived across the road from us. Whenever we went for a walk we would call them for a chat and they would willingly come. We grew especially fond of our little charge - Mack. (Mack gave us a hard time when we first arrived as he was very angry with his owner, Kate, for leaving him. After a few days he decided that he had no option and decided to be friends with us...so into our bed each morning he leapt!)The biggest drama we had was getting our caravan stuck at the bottom of the hill against a fence on the property as Chris needed to turn it around. Oh dear...after unloading the whole van at the bottom of the hill to make it a bit lighter (which nearly worked but ended up in the hedge!), we had to call in a tow truck. As the tow truck driver said, "it normally costs $350, but if we pay him cash it will be $250"!!!! At least the van was recovered with a lesson or 2 learnt- caravans can be too heavy....some green hills may be much boggier and more steep than meets the eye!!!
We recovered from our mishap quickly enough as the place was so beautiful we didn't want to waste a moment. Chris was so relieved when the indented tyre tracks from the attempted rescue had finally disappeared from the beautiful manicured grass.
We felt very sad leaving Bilpin after our short stay in the mountains. Hopefully we will get to visit again.
