Strathfieldsaye

Strathfieldsaye is part of the Greater Bendigo Area - it is only 15 minutes from the Bendigo CBD, and this was our next BCA stop.  We pulled into Strathfieldsaye on Thursday afternoon (3rd November).  Steve (the Minister of the Anglican church in Strathfieldsaye) had organised for us to be able to park our caravan on the property of one of the couples from his Parish - this was such a blessing to us (in so many ways).

Steve and Vanessa Weickhardt with the Mason Family

 After meeting Beth and Geoff (our hosts) and setting up the Caravan, we headed to the church (the Uniting and Anglican congregations have combined) to start on a few jobs that Steve had lined up for us.

The church

Mike got busy building a sandpit cover over the existing sandpit and Liz started sorting out a music cupboard (that hadn't been touched in quite some time).  The kids kept themselves occupied by 'helping'  Mike and doing some drawing as well as playing on the DS and Leapsters.

 We spent a couple of hours on the Thursday afternoon at the church, then knocked off for the day.

Building a sandpit cover

When we got back to the property, Geoff took us all out on the Four-Wheeler (Quad Bike) and we looked at his property and went Roo spotting.  We saw our first (live) Kangaroos of the trip - which was surprising since we've covered 2500Km's already!



On Friday morning, we helped Vanessa (Steve's wife) feed Kuba (her horse - who lives in the paddock next to where our Caravan was parked), then we went back to the church and continued working.

Kuba the horse was a good neighbour during our stay at Strathfieldsaye

On Saturday morning we finished off at the church and then headed out to Lake Eppalock to have a look.  Saturday was really hot, and because the lake was full of blue/green algae (so we couldn't swim), we headed back to the farm and the kids had a good run-around in the sprinklers which cooled them off nicely.

Cooling off under the sprinklers

Steve and Vanessa had kindly invited us to join in their daughters Birthday Celebrations with a BBQ at their place - which was a great time to have a chat and get to know Steve and Vanessa.  The kids had a ball playing with the other kids.

On Sunday morning we went to the 9am service, because it was the first Sunday of the month the Uniting Church minister ran the service.  This was a very different service for us and the kids had to stay in with us the whole time, but did very well (on the whole).   We went back to Bendigo on Sunday afternoon and rode scooters around Lake Weeroona.  It was a much cooler day than the previous day (and even started raining on us a little) but it was better than sweltering in the heat and we had a great time at the Lake.

Scooting at Lake Weeroona

On Monday, we were waiting for the School Post to come into Strathfieldsaye, but it didn't come until the afternoon (which meant it was too late to move on) so we stayed another night.  On Monday afternoon, Geoff kindly let us use his quad bike and so we had a few rides around the property - another real hit with the kids (and Mike!).

Quad Bike Fun

Throughout our stay at Stathfieldsaye, we were so thankful for the generosity and kindness of Geoff and Beth - they really made us feel so welcome and shared their house with us like we were family.  We were so grateful for this and have learnt a lot from them.  We will always remember our time at Strathfieldsaye with Steve, Vanessa, Geoff and Beth.

On Geoff and Beth's Property