On pedants, anthills, and mines

I caused great offence to a dear friend in my last blog, which has horrified me and cast a slight (very slight) shadow over my holiday in the Hunter Valley. I called him pedantic, which I thought was a complimentary acknowledgement of careful attention to important detail, but I have discovered he does not see it the same way AT ALL. Mortified at the thought of having caused anything other than mild amusement in my blogging, I typed "definition pedantic" into the Google search engine and reeled at the results, which I had not anticipated. There isn't a single contemporary definition of pedantic that I could find that isn't pejorative. I stumbled over an older definition that is neutral, but could find no modern definition that is even faintly complimentary. I was wrong to use this word in my last blog and I freely admit it. If anyone is a pedant, it is clearly me - and I'm a flawed one at that!

While on the subject of (ped)ants, I encountered my very first ant-hill yesterday. It is quite extraordinary; the ants are easily 15 mm long and very fast. The track they have made from their ant-hill to the nearest eucalypt is not much narrower than a sheep track, and a good 20 metres long. We saw how they climb up the trunk and shimmy out to the very ends of the branches to gather something delicious - nectar? - to take back to the mound. No time off on weekends, either, methinks.

Steps up to Baiame Cave

Today we left Peppers Guest House and drove off for a daytrip in search of new excitements in the Hunter Valley. We drove into a pretty valley at the edge of the Yengo National Park and clambered up a few thoughtfully placed steps to a sheltered cave with wonderful views and cave drawings created by aboriginal people living in another world; a time when there were no bovines, no equines, no vines, no wines, and certainly no mines in the Hunter Valley.



This figure is thought to represent the creator
who taught the ancestors survival techniques
before returning to the sky from Mt Yengo

 

In our travels today we also saw the Hunter Valley number one mine, which is vast: conveyors, massive trucks, huge piles of coal, huge holes in the ground. From our viewing point on the Lemington Road (which is home to roo corpses innumerable), we could also see the enormous steam stacks of the two neighbouring power stations. As my big camera had run out of battery (grrr) I didn't bother trying to take phone photos of the mine, but here's a snap of some suitably whopping tyres being transported out for repair.

After our industrial encounter we diverted via Jerry's Plains and Denman to the Two Rivers vineyard. I can only presume the woman there took against us; she recommended lunch at the pub at Gundy, for reasons we can only guess at... the Gundy pub has the classy name of "Linga Longa" and serves the greasiest F and Cs this side of the black stump. I have to say though, that most of the locals around here are welcoming, helpful, and fun.

On the way home we popped in for a "structured" wine tasting at the Scarborough vineyard, and now we are back in the sanctuary of our room at the nicest guest house in Oz, drinking Venus Block chardonnay from the Pepper Tree vineyard that we visited yesterday. Oh happy day! I'm not sure I can contemplate a return to the normal every-day...

This pub is surrounded by horse studs. They are doing their best to suggest that Phar Lap was a local.