The kangaroo route

Within hours of posting these fateful words on Friday morning – “my weekend is surprisingly under-scheduled” – I found myself typing my credit card details into the Kangaroo Valley Golf and Country Retreat’s website.

Yep, I booked a cabin there for Saturday night.

Why?

I hadn’t seen the youngest for ages and the next few months are looking a bit hectic, so I convinced her to join me after she finished work on Saturday afternoon.

She was a little startled to be woken by my frenzied calls and text messages on Friday morning, but was excited by the prospect of free meals and accommodation courtesy of her mother.

DD happened to be driving past my place on Friday evening and offered to take the dogs off my hands for two nights (he’s a keeper).

Oh how glorious it felt to not head out into the cold, dark night to walk the dogs before bed, then haul them around the block again at 6.30am the next morning.

Instead I woke on Saturday, did a bit of doom scrolling, showered and dressed, then went for a quick twirl around Northside Produce Markets with my friend Fee before hitting the road.

My sister had the excellent idea that I take the Berry route down to Kangaroo Valley and I spent a lovely hour or so trawling the shops. I’d have enjoyed it even more if I hadn’t checked my credit card balance the night before.

Eeeeeek!

I was on the hunt for a gift for a friend, but all the homewares stores had gorgeous clothes in them as well, which was very distracting.

Then it was over the mountains to Kangaroo Valley. I can’t remember the last time I visited Kangaroo Valley. What a lovely little town!

I arrived at the golf club in the early afternoon and they informed me that I had been upgraded from my dinky one-bedroom cabin to a two-bedroom villa perched high on the hill.

Score!

It had the most glorious views of the valley and mountains so I parked myself on the verandah to feel the serenity for a few hours.

At 5pm I wended my way back down the hill and headed into town to have dinner with the youngest at Kangaroo Valley’s historic pub, The Friendly Inn.

The youngest had steak and chips, while I opted for a Nepalese curry. Our meals were delivered promptly, leaving us to wonder what to do from 7pm onwards.

We decided to head back to the villa to watch the remake of My Brilliant Career on Netflix. The youngest was not a fan of it, but I found it intriguing. The scenery and costuming is spectacular. Weird soundtrack though. As the youngest noted, Bridgerton gets away with it by doing retro versions of modern sounds, whereas My Brilliant Career did a rollicking version of Rod Stewart’s Young Hearts that felt a little jarring.

The next morning we made our harrowing way through heavy fog, past a gazillion kangaroo, to Gerroa for brekkie at Blue Swimmer, where we scored a fabulous table by the window with ocean views and both ordered strong flat whites and mushrooms on toast.

Then I dashed off back to Sydney for a delicious lunch in Palm Beach at our friend Bron’s house.

I put my foot firmly in my mouth by saying to one attendee that it was sad to see him solo, which opened up the can of worms that he’d just broken up with his partner three weeks ago. Oooof, I didn’t realise they had broken up, I just thought she couldn’t make it to lunch and was going to miss her company.

Anyways, my “surprisingly unscheduled” weekend ended up being anything but.

Can I have another one, please?

Song of the day: Men at Work “Land Down Under”