Verbalism Personified: Possums and Hot Air Balloons

Monday, November 01, 2004

Possums and Hot Air Balloons

This was actually Plan B.

We decided that if the weather was going to be wet and cold, we would head to Sydney for the weekend. Fortunately, Victoria was blessed with twenty degree weather and sunshine after being battered by cold, rain and wind.

So what to do and where to go?

Once you've shopped at one shopping centre, eaten at a restaurant or walked down a boulevard, you've done them all. No doubt Melbourne offers many of the best treats but a mini get-away to the Yarra Yalley was shining as brightly as a log cabin fire on a cold night.

The Kangeroo Ridge Retreat came highly recommended. Set on fifty hectares of bushland, it offered the perfect combination for sights, food and wine. Booked for two nights, we rented a car and drove up to Healesville. Though there was a provision to cook your own food, we dispensed with the idea on this get-away!

What greeted us was nothing short of amazing. Perched on a hill, the cabin overlooked some really incredible views. Floor to ceiling glass windows and sliding doors gave an unobstructed view of the valley below. With so much privacy and greenery around, we left the Roman blinds up the entire time we were there. One could go naked or soak in the spa without anyone being the wiser.

On the first night, Claire was woken by scratching sounds. An investigation revealed a pair of possums making a house call at the balcony. Our nocturnal visitors had come to welcome us. Olga told us the next morning that Jack and Jill are the local neighbors who made house calls to visitors. Potentially a menace, Jack and Jill were 'adopted', fixed, tagged and kept under control in a tree house.

Within the vacinity, we went hiking and sampled wine from TarraWarra Estate, bringing back a couple of reds for friends. But the clincher was being up in a hot air balloon. For an hour, we were looking across the entire Valley with acres of forest and hills. It was so breathtakingly beautiful that it was difficult coming down, literally, from that kind of high.

It was a regretful feeling to have to drive away from it all. But coming away satiated and refreshed, we knew that we had made one of the best decisions so far.