Arcadia Farm

It’s the time of the year when we start to look at the weather forecast. The next week looked pretty grim. Rain and a temperature drop from 18 to 12 was the signal to pack the caravan and head north for the winter. I had been planning for a while so within a few days we were on our way.

Our first stop was at Arcadia. Our friends, Denise and Wayne have a small sheep and crop farm there. Leaving on Friday meant we could spend the first part of the weekend with them. It only took about 4 hours to drive there via the eastern suburbs of Melbourne through Yarra Glen, Yea and Seymour. Once there we set up the caravan

and had dinner inside their tiny farm house. After watching the football on TV and chatting we headed off for a very peaceful sleep.

The next morning after breakfast we had a good long walk around their property.

Even though it is a sheep farm

we were pleased to see quite a lot of large eucalyptus trees

as we walked around.

Now I did mention sheep didn’t I? Well there’s also a couple of alpacas on the property. Apparently they are fierce protectors of flocks and will beat off foxes and feral dogs.

We continued our walk, checking out the oats and corn crops that Wayne had planted, in their early stages of growth. This massive eucalyptus certainly caught our eye as we passed it.

Large bales of hay could be seen in the next paddock as we came back towards the farmhouse.

Back near the farmhouse we spotted Wayne’s rams. Here’s the friendliest one, who was quite happy to come to Wayne when called.

Next up was lunch. Later on in the afternoon we met Denise’s horse, Tara. Unfortunately our little dog Mel just wanted to bark at Tara so she was sent inside.

Now, it’s a long time since Karen has ridden a horse but Denise invited her to clamber up and go for a short ride before she went for a longer ride herself.

Horse rides finished it was time for ‘sundowners’ – beer for Wayne and I, tea for Karen and a cider for Denise while we watched the football. After a promising first half our team was outplayed in the second half. A yummy dinner and good conversation followed to take our minds off the result.

Next up we hit the road again and head to Griffith. More about that next post.

Distance travelled north from Dromana to Arcadia – 255kms.