Monkey Creek

This past weekend Veronica and I actually left the big city to spend a weekend in the country. Or the bush as the Aussies would say. Our friends Martina and Gavin invited us to go with them out to Gav’s father’s place, Monkey Creek Ranch. Located about 30 minutes West of Taralga, Monkey Creek Ranch is a 3 hour drive from Sydney.

We headed down to the ranch on Friday night, arriving around 10 pm. Gav’s dad, Daryl, or Boss, was waiting up watching rugby on his satellite television. The house is absolutely gorgeous and was hand built by Daryl. Yeah, building homes is one of Daryl’s many hobbies. After watching the rest of the game, we went to sleep. It was a little spooky to hear absolute silence when we were falling asleep.

Veronica and I were the last to wake up Saturday morning. When we walked outside there was a huge cloud of mist covering the reservoir and much of the land. After watching the mist evaporate, we went back to the house and had a nice, hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs. It was a good thing to because right afterwards we headed out to do some work. Daryl was weighing the cattle, so we helped him out. Of course, being Texans this was natural work for Veronica and myself. J Or not. But as the pictures attest, Veronica was a natural. I mean come on, look how natural she looks in that hat!

When the work was done, we headed back up to the house for a little tennis. I hadn’t swung a racket since my days at Baylor, and Veronica had never played tennis, but we had a fun time. I was quite impressed by how quickly Veronica got the hang of it. Perhaps she missed her calling in life.

After a scrumptious lunch out on the back deck, we then switched sports and proceeded to hit some golf balls into the reservoir. Good times, especially since the balls float. Veronica and Martina then played gopher, kayaking all around the pond, picking all the balls out.

Before dinner, we played an Italian game where you hammer a nail into a standing log of wood. It sounds ridiculous, but it is an insanely fun game to play. You go around in a circle, each with one swing of the hammer, trying to be the first to completely sink your nail into the log. Trust me, you had to be there. After some good laughs we had a steak dinner, and yes, I think this weekend I put on at least 10 pounds. It felt like we were eating constantly.

Perhaps the coolest thing we witnessed this weekend was a lightning storm off in the distance. The storm was South of Sydney, and since we were about 900 meters above sea level, we had an incredible view of these huge storm clouds lighting up in succession. What made the view all the more spectacular was that the sky all around us was clear, leaving millions of stars shining down. It is hard to describe how fantastic it was seeing the clouds light up. Truly it looked like we were witnessing a city getting bombed off in the distance. Craziness.

Sunday was a beautiful day. Sunny, crisp and cool, perfect for lounging around. Didn’t do all that much besides eat and clean. We headed back to Sydney in the late afternoon, feeling refreshed and depressed for the coming work week.