This last week, has been the worst week I have had in our business, our travel agency Grey Nomads Travel and Cruise & former Yarra Travel Junction, we are in our 30th year of business and have never had anything like this, it is crazy!! I am trying to keep positive, but at times it is hard.
My clients mean the world to me and I go all out to do my very best for them. They become my friends and I just love putting their trips together for them and fulfilling their dreams. I sure hope this Coronavirus goes away real soon, but I have a feeling it is going to get worse before it gets better. Let me know if I can be of help to anyone with advice or travel arrangements. It is hard for everyone at the moment.
I look out at our garden and I feel blessed that I have a little haven to rest my soul.
Oh well as we face this new week, I just want to say, stay safe and keep well and healthy and be kind to each other. Share the love.
Let me tell you the story of this painting. It’s a long one.
Back in 1993, we moved shop from down the street to where we traded for another 24 years or so. A friend used to come into the old shop for a regular chat. I knew he was a great artist so asked if he would do a mural on the feature wall of the new shop. His foresight was better than mine and his generosity was even greater. I took him up on his suggestion to do an oil painting of the Yarra River taken from behind the bus sheds in Warburton near Yarra Junction. He spent 6 weeks well into each night, painting this major masterpiece. As he needed the parts to the frame, he asked if we could pay for the frame, which we did. (We did not see the work in progress). Then on day of hanging the work, he said he would have to charge $1 per year. First payment done, no questions. It was on the condition that he be allowed to take it to his art shows which he put on in the valley and nearby. The first time, the office looked so bare we decided to buy it so as not to have the vacant wall on display spasmodically.
Many students from his art class would come into the office just to admire the work, like many of our clients did too.
When we were deciding to move away from the shop a few weeks ago, we wrote to the local shire to offer them first choice on hanging the painting in a public place, as it deserves. We haven’t heard from them. We offered it to the local aged care facility where Ken spent his last few years. No response. We tried a winery restaurant – no response. We offered it to the local church in Warburton. No response. A guy came into the shop two weeks ago and, not knowing why he was in the shop, I asked if he wanted to buy a painting. He responded positively with “how much?” I said “twenty-seven fifty”. “It’s a deal” and placed $30 on the table. (I thought he was paying a deposit with the rest of the
money to come on pickup day the next week.) It would be hung in a restaurant in the Valley. The next week I called the guy to ask when and how he was going to pay the balance and he said he had payed for it. He thought I was meaning $27.50 not $2750. The confusion meant the sale didn’t take place.
Lyn’s response was “bring it home and hang it in the family room”. So today, with help of kind Alan Hall, we brought it to its rightful place, we believe, and have it at home to enjoy for many a day in the future. Thanks Ken Mead – your masterpiece is our blessing in our home now.
Today is the last day Yarra Travel Junction will operate out of Yarra Junction after opening in 1990 – 27 years and nearly 7 months. You would have noticed that the website has changed to Grey Nomads Travel and Cruise.
We intend to travel Australia selling travel from our motorhome in country areas of Australia and at various festivals and rallies we attend. Look out for a brightly coloured Peugeot on a trailer as you drive along the highway or country road. You will see us, that’s for sure. And if you see us at a truck stop or rest area, come and have a cuppa – we should have the time.
Thanks Lyn, for being the “face” of our business. You certainly have done a fair and proper job to all who came in the door. The tours we took people on were well planned and a pleasure for all who joined us. I commend and appreciate you for a job well done.
The contact phone number is now 0418185850 and the email is lyn@gntc.com.au.
Without a gold tap in sight, I ventured into my hotel room just near Oslo, Norway. The furniture is just bearable and the bathroom facilities are very much ‘country Victoria’ small town, budget chain, motel.
But this is not what I have come for. Accommodation is important when you’re in a foreign land, but the real reason I have come to Norway, is not to find five-star opulence but to find ten-star scenery.
Leaving Oslo and heading towards the west coast of this interesting Nordic Empire of old, and just a few minutes in a couple of well crafted tunnels, I am transported to the 10-star beauty of my dreams and the beauty that Norway is so famous for. The conditions of the roads are well kept and they take me down some wonderful lanes that are bordered with creation’s beauty in every way. Farms along the highway show off their white houses and red animal barns while the yellow buttercups in the meadows stretch open towards a brilliant sun. Each turn is breathtaking with blue sky enhancing the green of the foliage and fields. With mountain ranges in the background topped with the season’s final snowfall, this is one ten-star experience.
The 275,000 residents of Bergen have a beautiful picturesque little harbour right in the centre of town. I stroll in the early morning coolness and admire the reflections of the renowned colourful buildings viewed from across the harbour. The buildings are painted old-fashioned rustic colours. Some are on a lean, standing the test of time and elements. In the afternoon, there is a magnificent view to be had from the top of Mt Floien, just behind the town. I take the scenic railway to the top for the view of a beautiful harbour of blue, with dots of ferries busily transporting people across the water for various reasons. It is refreshing indeed!
Train rides are always sort of ‘kids’ fun stuff, but the one I took to get to Flam was something to enjoy. It was so much more different than most. I took a train to the junction of Myrdal where I transferred to a second train built to take the strain of the very steep 865 meter climb down into Flam, nestled in the innermost corner of the Aurlandsfjord. I don’t remember a straight piece of track. If you were to drop a length of soft spaghetti on itself, you would sense the amount of switchbacks within the 20km trip; and then imagine, if you will, that the switchbacks also occur within a tunnel. There are 20 tunnels, 18 of which were built by hand. This engineering masterpiece was completed in 1940. It’s very hard to imagine the ingenuity of the day in creating this world heritage railway.
The landscapes that roll out on the way to Balestrand on my ferry transfer are so reflective of what life should be – untainted and exact. Shards of rock tower above as I journey along the edge of the many fjords. A cruise boat has crept up the fjord during the night to provide just the mix that tourists enjoy – souvenirs and memories.
The most interesting experience while travelling through Norway was when the road bored into a rock mountain for 5 or 6 km, found a roundabout where three roads met, then out of the tunnel, across a bridge, and straight into another tunnel, finding another roundabout, before venturing to the outside world.
The Geiranger Fjord is visited by two or three cruise vessels each day of the season. Over 350 ships will be the means that tourists get to see this majestic fjord this summer. I arrived by road experiencing the many switchback bends that led to my hotel, which provides me that 10 star magnificent view. Wow! This sure is another great spot in the world of landscape beauty.
Plying the waters of this breathtaking fjord in a small ferry enables me to behold the many waterfalls gushing down over craggy rocks toward their final end. I am stunned at the presence of a brilliant rainbow that enshrouds the Seven Sister’s waterfall as we pass. On the other side of the ferry, another cruise ship is making its way to the head of the fjord while showing its reflected brilliant white beauty on calm waters.
Leaving this world heritage scene is difficult but there is more beauty to see as I travel towards the east now. Trollstigen excels under another brilliant sky. The granite hills are bare because the snow has melted. As I manoeuvre around the many switchbacks down into the valley way below, I sense the powers of solid rock holding back monoliths of granite. Another angry waterfall falling down the mountainside that we drive down completes yet another breathtaking scene.
And so, Norway doesn’t need gold taps. The ‘gold taps’ are the vistas that go on and on and on. I have strong memories of exciting locations around a magnificent and beautiful country as I hibernate in my chair for the long flight home.
Today is the last day Yarra Travel Junction will operate out of Yarra Junction after opening in 1990 – 27 years and nearly 7 months. You would have noticed that the website has changed to Grey Nomads Travel and Cruise.
