Orange, NSW, Australia

The wonderful lunch at Sue's

We arrived in Sydney on Tuesday 4th December then flew, immediately, in a small plane to Orange (population 53 000), arriving at nine o’clock at night. Where we were to stay with Laura’s lovely mum, Sue.

The next day was pretty hectic as Sue was hosting a lunch for 30+ friends and their daughters; both as an end-of-term celebration (Sue is a school teacher) and to say goodbye to Laura who was leaving for South Africa to join Suzi and Jaimee. This was to be an all female event – except for David – but he coped magnificently. Sue had planned an al fresco lunch, but the rain came down just as the first course was to be served. Nonetheless, the lunch was a great success and stretched far into the evening! You can see Sue on the left of the photo, while the ladies begin to tuck in!

On Thursday, Sue drove us to Mount Canobolas, an extinct volcano, covered in an indigenous gum tree forest. As we walked through the forest, it was strange for us to see gum trees in their natural state as we had only seen them as tall straight branch-less trunks grown for gum poles in Southern Africa. Our next stop was Cook Park, inaugurated in 1882 and named after Captain James Cook. The park is in the centre of Orange and planted with European trees, many of which are huge after more than a century of growth. We were amused to see that some of the trees had plastic sleeves on their trunks – to discourage the possums from eating the new buds and leaves!

We had another wonderful day on Friday when we visited Wansey, Sue’s family farm. The farm is set in rolling hills with lush pasture, ripe golden wheat and yellow canola (often called rape). They also have 1400 head of cattle, 1400 sheep, 20 horses and countless kangaroos, walleroos and wallabies. The farm is run jointly by Sue’s brother, Bruce and their mother, Jean – still farming at 75 years of age! Jean qualified as a vet in 1954 and is still actively engaged attending to all the livestock on the farm – an amazing woman!
This is Jean on the left, after she had given us lunch and before she went off to see to a bull that needed her attention. I have discovered that one way to ensure a fit and healthy long life is to continue working!