And off we go!!!!

First stop: Braidwood – Days 1 & 2

What better way to start a trip than to visit caravanning friends? On their own olive grove, no less!

Here we are ‘free camping’ at the Morans’….

Kerry and Paul are wonderful hosts, and spoiled us completely with amazing food and lots of fun and laughter. We loved visiting their olive grove and finding out all about the ins and outs of growing olives and producing olive oil. We set up near the house, but scarcely saw the inside of our caravan – the Moran’s ‘restaurant’ seemed permanently open for business!

Just to make you jealous, some highlights of Kerry and Paul’s cooking included:

Day 1: Dinner…veal in a cream sauce followed by cherry pie

Day 2: Breakfast….toast with a light scrape of chilli sauce, topped with smoked salmon, capers and two poached freshly-laid eggs (courtesy of the chooks Roxanne, Rosalie, Rowena and Rhonda), with a side of home-grown cherry tomatoes and bacon…garnished with a sprig of parsley

Day 2 Dinner: Paul’s home-made pasta with a delicious sauce cooked by Kerry.

 

Now, I don’t want you to think that this visit was all about food! We walked around the olive grove and found out all about the challenges faced by olive growers: the pests such as the lace bug and the King Parrots and other bird life that liked to have a taste of the olives before harvest, the need to get olives to the press quickly so they won’t start to decay, the way water is monitored and fed to the trees… so interesting. And after hearing it all, I corralled Kerry and found out all the info that I needed to set the next Georgie book on an olive grove! Nothing like brainstorming with the owners of an olive grove – and Kerry came up with a great twist! (But don’t ask her what it is; she’s sworn to secrecy.)

 

Kerry and I ventured into Braidwood for a shopping expedition (mainly for bread, but how could I resist the mug that said: “I could give up chocolate, but I’m not a quitter”? (Rob was thrilled. He keeps saying to me, “Marg, if there’s one thing we need, it’s more mugs for the caravan…” 😉

And guess what? Kerry actually has a paving stone with her name on it in the local park that celebrates local families! Not many people can say that…

The 2 days with the Morans just flew by, and made a great start to our trip. Next, we’re off to Bombala.