Daily chores out of the way we made our way up to Essendon, to meet Susan at her church charity shop, where she was busily tidying up and organising for the summer to winter stock changeover, having already taken Clodagh and Ben to the airport. She was keen that she entertained us to the maximum and had suggested one of two possible excursions, either to Hanging Rock whence came the book name, or to Philip Island, to observe the dusk arrival of penguins. We felt that either would involve lengthy car journeys and probable late returns to Brighton so we were keen to take a more leisurely approach. In the end more dog-walking was chosen and without revealing the objective of her selected destination, to avoid possible disappointment, Susan took us to a park that included a retirement home for aging racehorses. The great treat, however, was that it turned out to be the area where kangaroos came to graze as the afternoon wore on, and we were in luck. Having sighted them in the distance, we marched boldly off the path across the field (fear of snakes put aside) and approached initially quite gently to about 100 yards, and fully expected them to bound off at any instant. Far from it! One or two, once they became aware of our interest, bounded towards us, as if they were looking as though they might try to come to scare us off….until the dogs started barking and then the (insert collective noun for kangaroos) all set off together at the bounce. It was a lovely sight and a mild sensation of being on a safari in the outback, notwithstanding the A380 that had just taken off from the nearby Melbourne airport.
We then met up with Jan and Rob Maltman at Bob MacMillan’s grave, where a little gardening was conducted and the nice touch of placing one of the wedding posies to adorn the headstone. Bob was obviously a much loved husband, father and friend.
On return Susan instantly produced a pasta dish, and we left to do our packing, and to wash trousers bearing evidence of two boisterous Labradors.
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