George and Mary's Travels: Australia - phase 4

Ian kindly drove me back to Brisbane after I returned his car ( intact thankfully ) to his house at Malleny. Ian and I have shared many happy days together over the years. Many more to come I hope.

Gina and Tim kindly entertained me again in Brisbane before Gina took me to the airport very early the following morning. Gina had kindly masterminded visits I had to each of her daughters and their families all of whom live within a mile radius of each other. Sarah, Lucy, Pru, and Fiona and their lovely children all gave me such warm welcomes at their homes. Mary and I look forward to seeing much, much more of them all, over the years to come - either in Colorado or Scotland. That " special relationship " between the cousins must be given every chance to thrive, as I'm sure it will.

Off now to Adelaide.

Catherine kindly had driven over an hour to meet me, and continued to drive me it seemed for much of the next 3 days. She had most generously lent Mary and me her Ford station wagon for our colossal journey across Australia at time of D & K's wedding in 2009, and it wasn't exactly new then! Staggeringly it's still doing sterling service conveying Catherine some huge mileage week in , week out. A great ad for Ford - and for Catherine's careful stewardship !

We had a lot of fun, chats and laughs. She kindly had contacted a Melrose relative (by marriage) of mine on my mother's side , Bob Melrose who with his wife Ros were instrumental in getting me off to such a great start when I got off the P&O liner in Adelaide at age 18 in January 1965. I had never had the oppurtunity of thanking him properly for all he did for me on that occasion. It was immense. Catherine now gave me the chance to do that and had spent many, many hours doing so. Thank you Catherine.

Catching up with Fiona & Matt and meeting Harlow and Jensen for the first time was special, as was lunching one day with Catherine's friends and neighbours Hugh and Fiona Maclachan at their magnificent property in the Adelaide Hills. No pics I'm afraid.

Catherine's horses - one of them Charlie on whom Fiona did so well at events around South Australia

Bob - doing well at 93 and still a ball of fire

Bob took us to this museum ( where we had lunch ), the WW 2 "secret" flying boat base when Darwin was attacked by the Japanese and the whole of Australia was under threat

Bob had friends based who were killed in the action. He relived, very emotionally, some of those times with us.

Crossing the Murray river on the way back to Adelaide - almost 7 hours there and 7 hours back in one day. Long live the Ford station wagon with over 250K km on the clock!