P

rice's Villa Nobile - Merton

 

December, 2007








Australia flag






We managed one outing from Melbourne and it was great: a three nighter that took us to Merton to stay with Michael Price on his farm, Villa Nobile. Jan had worked for Michael and his company RCP in Hong Kong in 1981-1985 and we had last seen him sometime before the end of our stay in Hong Kong. Michael, who is originally from Australia, decided to return to Melbourne for his family's sake around 1984. When we were in Sydney a year ago we thought we'd continue on to Melbourne and hook up with him; that didn't happen

We drove the three hours and two hundred kilometers to Merton and Villa Nobile, by going east through Melbourne's suburbs for an hour and then turning north; Only after this hour did the human density decrease. Rather suddenly we were in a wine district but we didn't have time to stop. Then we went through a delightful, almost enchanted forest, lasting about 15 kilometers, called the Black Bends?? The trees were as tall and straight as pines, but there weren't; they were simply unknown to us. Their unique nature and the play of the light is what enchanted us. After that the drive to Villa Nobile was relatively tame, but still passed through pleasant rolling country, made a bit greener than it would have been if there had not been recent, unusual rain.

At Villa Nobile (Merton) with Apollo
At Villa Nobile (Merton) with Apollo

Villa Nobile consists of about 50 hectares (125 acres) and once was a working farm. Now it is where Michael works and runs his software business, Datasphere. He keeps two horses, dozens of geese, and a half-dozen exotic egg-laying chickens. In addition, present, but not kept by him were a tribe of nomadic kangaroos and plenty of exotic Australian birds. To Jan's amusement, and Michael's delight, Gerry was a very interested audience as Michael went about his business of collecting eggs and feeding geese. Another shared interest was photography: they spent a few hours together editing some digital video. And Gerry borrowed and re-read the story of Michael's father, a doctor who started life in Germany, was chased by the Nazis to Beruit, and ended in Australia.

With Michael we made two excursions: One was by foot, all of ten kilometers, that gave us a pretty good introduction to the area, passing as it did through Central Merton (defined by its one business, a petro station cum convenience store cum post office cum animal feed store. The other was by car; we, Michael driving, went out for lunch, and kept going and going (another parallel between Michael and Gerry) until we'd visited Mansfield and then Mt Buller and its ski area. Michael himself had a wonderful time reminiscing about the times, long ago, when his children were young, and he'd take them skiing at Mt Buller.




December 15, 2007