The Fifth Lap

  THE FIFTH LAP Digging the gold digging past (i) Last:  Reminiscing Melbourne Photo Album:  5th Lap - Digging the gold digging past (i) After a few days  in Melbourne, catching-up with long lost friends, and walking about old haunts, it was time to continue the journey. There is still one more long standing friendship to re-connect, so we left early in the morning, and pointed Sandi towards the historic town of Castlemaine. We reached the smallish Organ Pipe National Park mid morning, with a tiny hint of rains, typical weather on winter mornings in the Melbourne area.  Organ Pipe NP offers a good point for breaking up the drive, only a few hundred meters off the Calder Highway. It was an easy hour of walking up and down some steep hills to marvel at the geological attractions.... and of course, the Organ Pipes ( a geological formation  Organic Pipe Formation  ) .... The Rosetta Rock ( actually an end-on horizontal organ pipe formation ).... and t...

THE FIFTH LAP Reminiscing  Melbourne Last:  Gippsland Victoria Photo Album:  Reminiscing Melbourne It was a sunny but fresh rise at Rye Beach and we have a long trip ahead getting to metropolitan Melbourne, ahead of a courtesy catching up with my long time tax accountant, whom I have only met once more than 20 years ago. The trip into metropolitan Melbourne was really to do a few reunions with relatives and friends, whom I have bonded with during the first 19 years of my time in Australia. The enjoyment of their companies and the reminiscing over a meal and a few drinks were overwhelmingly amazing. Something that I should do more often after this trip.  Unfortunately, time was also limited, it was not possible to see everyone, and not everyone was available due to their various situations and availabilities. In between reunions, there were visits to old places where the family lived, and frequented during the 1970s and 1980s...but also many places were...