Caravan Trip to Victoria May to July 2014

You'll find more of my holiday stories here

2^nd Big Caravan Trip to Victoria May to July 2014

15 May 2014

We left home at eleven thirty and dropped in to see Tamara & Greg Petersen at Banana, but she was out, we talked to Greg for a bit then went on to Theodore for a night with Joan and Ted. Great to see Ted has a laptop and we signed him up onto Facebook, he can now contact the grand kids and friends.

Next morning we set off for Possum Park. The additions and renovations at the park are just amazing. They are in the midst of adding a new concept for a cabin. The old grounded Vickers Viscount VH-TVL has been carted in in bits and rebuilt on site and eventually will become the Captains Cabin. Remembering that Possum Park was a

 
RAAF ammunition store during WW2, having an aeroplane there adds some nostalgia.

Behind the big flat park are a number of self contained cottages and a couple of en-suits for vans

We stayed two nights at Possum Park and it was a great to just put the feet up and rest.

Next we headed off toward Miles, Moonie

and finally St George. Moonie was a major oil field a few years ago and they burnt off the coal seam gas as it came to the surface. The flow of oil has slowed down but it is still there. It was a long drive. The road was ok, typical Mellon hole brigalow country and a road up and down like a roller coaster. I said to Helen that we might be eating scrambled eggs by the time we get to the end.

Mining has introduced a huge increase in large oversize semi trailer trucks, none slow down or get off the road, but they expect other drivers to do so.

Anyhow we were about ten kilometres out of Moonie and WHACK, the biggest rock I've ever seen heading for us, made us both duck. The windscreen is the one that didn't duck and dead centre, both the outside and inside layers of the glass are broken. I painted some of my liquid super-glue on hoping that it will help to hold it all together. We have two horizontal radial cracks slowly working their way across the windscreen. This in the end will mean a new windscreen. This is our original screen with many stone chips and cracks fixed by Star-Chip.  But this one has gone too far, can't be fixed.

Then we had to straddle a dead kangaroo and the hitch caught it and you could hear the thud, but fortunately nothing was caught and no fur on the chains.

Tonight we are at the top tourist in St George just along from the high school.

I was quite tired tonight and after cooking dinner had a bit of a sleep, now I'm wide awake. We couldn't find our Top Tourist card , but we had the receipt so for $5 we got another replacement.

Talking about sleeping, first two nights were not good. But I've adjusted my sleep CPAP machine to produce warmer air and last night I had a much better sleep. We'd been to St George before and this time we just rested for two days before continuing on to wards Lightning Ridge.

17 May 2014 - Lightning Ridge

The drive from St George to Lightning Ridge was through dry and barren country. The odd emu running near the boundary fence and many piles of fur, dead kangaroos, slowing drying up in the winter sun and being devoured by hungry hawks and crows. Very little else, just a car or truck, but not the traffic of the last few days.

How the trees stay alive, I don't know. The grass below is short stubble and dusty grey to brown. There hasn't been a fire here for years, nor has there been rain.

The road surface was great compared to some other roads we have been on. But talking to some visitors from WA these roads are dreadful compared to roads in the big west.

We stopped in Dirranbandi for a pie but after reading the notice on the bakery window we decided to roll further on. An out break of diarrhoea in the town made our mind up. The opened packet of Arnotts chocolate cream biscuits tasted ok and a darn sight safer and we continued to Hebel. Nothing much there so we continued to Lightning Ridge.

I've read about these places and dreamt about what they may look like. With a name like Lightning Ridge I would have thought it was a hill along a ridge of ground, but it is more of a knoll scantly covered in stunted trees and piles of rock tailings brought up from down below.

Interesting to note there are no street signs. The area is divided into Red, Blue, Green and Yellow car doors attached to trees. There is no postal delivery, everyone has a post box in town. So a miner would say his house / shack was on the Red Car Door road and on the 6^th left entrance off that road, maybe marked by a red steering wheel hanging in a tree.

The round trip

We had advice from a traveller to stay at the Opal Caravan Park. The park has 90 sites and we are in site 31. Couldn't be better because the amenities were immediately in front of us. Wonderful amenities too all showers had glass doors and wider than most. At night as you enter the building the lights came on. The water is artesian and smells as such, but it was nice and hot. The park is level, all half inch brown gravel and all drive through sites.

So we were unhooked and set up by 1330 and after a snack had a sleep. These nanny naps are easy to have after a long drive.

Helen and I took a walk around the park and visited the few Vietnam Veterans on site. One from 35 Sqn RAAF, 9 Sqn, 7 RAR and one wasn't home. All from the south and none aware of our veteran retreats in Australia, so they all have the address of the retreats site.

Wi-Fi on this trip has been good. We used our new dongle in Theodore, but couldn't get any coverage at Possum Park, had good speed and free Wi-Fi at St George and again at Lightning Ridge. Very trusting at Lightning Ridge as there was no password, just connect and go. Remember that anything free will be unsecured.

Things to do in Lightning Ridge, don't let anyone tell you there is only mining. We did take the Black Opal Tour of the surface and venture down the Black Hand mine.

Just a few sheets of iron on the surface and a wire gate to the opening. Next we ventured down the tunnels and 89 steps into the bowels of an underground opal mine. The best part NO FLIES.

The shop and tea room was 45 feet down and the opal dig was 65 feet down. An amazing labyrinth of man size tunnels, all hewn out by pick, electric jack-hammer and hours of patient work. The opal is not easy to find, but once you do find it the value is incredible.

One of the miners noted that I was puffing a bit so he took me to the surface in a two man round lift. We stepped out at the top just like Dr Who stepping out of a phone booth, it was an odd feeling and we were no where near where we went down.

Lady Helen bought herself a lovely opal necklace and we also bought a few other little bits to remember this area by and tomorrow will be another day.

Now to be a opal miner you have to be fit, keen, dedicated and mad. 85 feet down a hole is a long way. But I suppose if you find a black opal worth $1million as one was.

The other attraction in the mine was artistic carvings in the clay. An amazing collection of animals, story characters, politicians, Dame Edna, William and Kate and George, around every corner was another, some painted but most skilfully carved into the clay for all to see.

Our surface tour took us to the

Astronomers Monument. An eccentric builder who had a deal with the concrete company to take what was left in the bowl of the concrete truck. So he had various size tins set in parts being built and slowly the observatory took shape. It was never finished.

We visited old Fred Bodel's mining camp and it was as if he was out and we were doing an open house inspection. Everything was in place, but covered in years of dust.

On to Amigo's castle and had he finished it, it would have been magnificent. But only the walls are standing. At some time part has been roofed and turned into an art gallery. A miner lived behind in the next block and amongst his junk lived at least a dozen cats.

18 May 2014

No rain for the last 18 months, no wonder everything is so dry, even the cactus plants are dying. The aloevera is alive but very shrivelled up. Interestingly we also saw, after it was pointed out, the plant that tequila is brewed from.

After a stop at the black opal cafe we learnt how to identify opal in the raw. Had tea and scones and headed out to a fossicking patch for a scratch. We gathered some little wee bits, but the pile had been sifted carefully before tourists were let into the attack.

Tequila

So today has been a great day of exploring. Opal miners are just like sapphire miners, they can adapt anything to be something else, then they can add a bit and it will do two jobs.

It doesn't matter where you drive there are piles of white rounded rock on the surface and as you walk about the piles you must be very aware that there will be 45 foot deep vertical shafts about 4 feet in diameter. Some are boarded up, but there are more uncovered.

Mining blocks are 50 meters square and as a lease you will pay $750 and pay $200 each year to keep and work the block.

A dozen miners got together and jointly mined the area open cut. Of course the benefit was tremendous, one stone 

fetched over one million dollars and is in a glass case in the USA. Along with that they all retired at the end of the project, but it has left a huge scar in the landscape. The rock from the hole was processed off site and the waste wasn't returned.

If you were an old vehicle collector, they are scattered in various states of disrepair, slowly rusting away. What the area needs is the metal shredder to visit and have a big clean up.

We visited a wonderful art gallery of vibrant acrylic colour paintings by John Murray and some more opal shops and tonight we are off to a night show up in the mulga.

That night we went to the Lightning Ridge Black Queen Theatre.

 
Didn't know what we were going to be in for, the advertising looked good so we thought we'd give it a go. The show was called 'Legacy and Light' by Roger and Gale Collins. It turned out that Roger had worked with QANTAS in the office and Gale as a graphic artist in Sydney and 40 years a go on a holiday they fell in love with a little house in Yellow car door street. Gale had to have it and after getting the price down to $55,000 bought it. They spend 8 months at Lightning Ridge each year and return to their other home in Sydney for 4 months during the hot summer.

To help pay for the house Gale took an acting course and now relates the Legacy of the old lady who was the previous owner and the saga of their time living in the house. Both the previous owner and Gale were born on the same day, they both had breast cancer and they had both grown up in tough times.

inside at night

The old lady had built the house from 28,000 bottles and cans she had collected from pubs and had mortared them together in a distinct pattern. With a flat roof made from local hardwood and corrugated iron on top.

outside at night

Years ago there was no power and only lamps. Power today is via solar panels and deep cell storage batteries and a generator. Cooking and refrigeration from gas.

The Theatre starts in the bed room, then moves to the kitchen, then to the light room. This wonderful woman has created an art piece amongst the mullock heaps, it is a show not to be missed.

Prostitutes lamp

The light room is full of lamps from BC to the 1950s, oil, kerosene, wax, and carbide, but not 'just' lamps a collection of the crystal lamp shades from many years gone by. Carved glass and coloured carved glass, moving shades, prostitutes lamps, ladies chamber lamps and mens too. A lamp for nearly every occasion. 

19^th May 2014

Next day we drove to Walgett. A bit of a surprise town because all the shops were heavily barred up with mesh screen doors and looked like something out of an American horror movie. Helen didn't feel safe so we walked back to the car and drove on to Brewarrina. This town was a bit the same, bars over any opening in a building. So again we drove on to Bourke and this time went to the information Centre first to see what was on in town, then to the Kidman Way caravan park.

This park has 100 sites and you pick your own site. So we have a grassed site, one site off being next to the amenities, so it is only a short walk.

These amenities are not as good as Lightning Ridge, but are clean, in good condition and adequate for the park.

By going to information first we found out what was on that night and after getting settled in we went to Poetry on a Plate. A slow cooked dinner by a camp fire under the stars with local storytelling and poetry and music. Andrew Hull a Bourke local relates the history of the area to you as in poetry and ballads, telling of the tragedy and toil in the making or Bourke. While partner Sarah cooks up a slow cooked beef casserole with veges and lentils and rice. 

21^st May 2014 - Bourke

And today we watched a

horse whisperer Back O' Bourke Outback Show. He had the show all sewn up, horses doing tricks, dogs queued to work, a draft horse and an 8 bullock team working. It was a great show even for those who grew up with horses and cows and I thought it was wonderful.

Then we hung about for an hour or so before going on a bus trip around the local area. Mateship Country Tours and Stuart Johnson took us to cotton farms, lime and orange f

arms and to the cotton gin and a tour of town. Stuart had a wonderful knowledge of the area, and he is also on the local council and drives coaches. 

It was a well spent two hours. Heading out of town our first stop was a lime orchard, trees laden in limes, but just not quite ripe, they need a bit more water. There is no water allocation for them, so the whole crop is about to be bulldozed and a drought proof cotton crop planted.

Further up the road an Orange farmer, no water, no money and the Which Bank has taken it over. The oranges were a naval / Riverina cross, firm skins, drying up leaves, but beautiful juicy oranges and we picked a bag full. In a few months they will all be bulldozed.

Heart breaking country. 4 sheep to 10 acres,

the shearing sheds lie idle and the days gone by of hundreds of bales of wool being exported from this area are all gone. Cotton has taken over. Although we drove past cotton that was harvested a few months ago, then while Tony Abbot the Prime Minister visited

they had 2 inches of rain and the crop has re blossomed with more cotton. But at $1.70cents a litre for diesel to re-harvest it, plus wages and machinery it is not worth the trouble.

The Cotton Gin was an amazing stop. We were decked out in red reflective vests and ear plugs, given a safety talk and told no flash-lights but you can take photos, stay behind the yellow line and stay close to the leader.

The cotton from the farmer comes in full of seed, waste sticks and other vegetation. It goes through several teasing processors to remove the seed and the weeds, then is bailed into 270kilo compressed and strapped bails, before being bagged and branded ready for export.

The seed becomes animal food and cotton seed oil and in part of the process of making margarine.

22^nd May 2014

We continued our visit to the Out Back Centre with a walk through the audio visual buildings. Very well set up and with a lot of thought Bourke Council have made their mark in the history of this area. Meandering through three buildings connected by a wandering walkway, you get the feeling that you are part of the Darling water system.

There is water in the river, but it has been allocated to the Murray Darling farmers.

We had a general look about in town. A few nice old brick buildings, one the Police Head Quarters was once the teaches quarters many years ago and had been modified around the windows. I spoke with a local detective but he was only new and didn't know much about the history of it. Helen was in a sewing shop and the lady running it was a teacher from Canberra some 15 years ago. She lived in the old building (now the Police Station) with four other teachers. She is now married to a local electricity worker and has four kids.

This afternoon we ventured out on the Jandra, a side paddle boat of 55tonnes which takes you up stream nearly to Bourke and back to its mooring. The Captain gave us a continual running commentary about the birds, the trees, the history, about the Jandra and about the old days of wool trading on the river.

All marine vessels need to be serviced, so as the river rises during a flood the Jandra is moved off the river into an inlet. Once inside in the inlet is filled with dirt and the Jandra is floated over a steel mooring bed and the water is pumped out of the inlet. With the work done they re-flood the inlet and take the Jandra back out to the river. Sounds simple but it is a lot of work.

23^rd May 2014 - Cobar

We are on the road again. 161 kilometres with no fuel stops. The road rose 150 metres to Cobar which is 250 meters above sea level. Nothing to see except the road, scruffy trees red gravel dirt. But we did encounter a few wild goats and a couple of emus. Lots of caravans going north and a few semi trailers going both ways. The Kidman Way Hwy is good, no pot holes, no roadworks, just the white stripes on the road ahead of you.

Finally we came to Cobar and it is quite a big town, with some old buildings, mine tailings, shopping centre and hundreds of give way signs. We found the Cobar Caravan park and rolled into our drive through No 50 van site, nearly level and fairly handy to the amenities. That is important, because when it gets dark, it is black, not street lighting. Last night I became disoriented and had to walk in a circle to find our van.

When we arrived here there were only a few vans on site, but now at 6:30pm there are only a few sites vacant. The office girl said that travellers go through Cobar going north, south east and west and when you look at the map you can see why.

We had a nanny nap for two hours then went to the information bureau to see what is on around here. Different from Bourke where the staff sold their town, booked you onto tours etc., our man in Cobar gave us a book to read and a map of the town.

So we left there and visited the open cut copper, gold, zinc and lead Port Bourke mine, a long way down to the bottom and a bit like Mt Morgan in Queensland, but this one is dry, not a drop of water. The access road to the bottom is well graded, and after reading the literature on the area the opening goes on another 750 meters underground.

Near the Information centre was a monument to years gone by in mining. An old ore stamper and we read that there was 60 ore stampers in a line in the hey days. The noise would have been incredible, and no ear plugs in those days.

Further along was a driller holding a compressed air drill and the bit biting into the rock. In the peak of production in 1911 the mine was processing 1000ton of ore a day.

8 and a half kilometres south west of Cobar, Peak Gold Mines has opened a 5.3 meter shaft down 741 meters and in 2011 produced 95,000 ounces of gold and 6000 tonnes of copper.
45kilometers north the Endeavour Mine was opened in 1983 and refurbished in 2010 and is now producing 50,000 tonnes of lead and 24,000kilograms of silver. So in all a very rich area.

An amenities observation – are people as dirty as this when at home. Most van parks leave a mop and bucket in the shower block for users to mop up the floor after use. But it seems most people think it is there for the next person or the cleaners, lazy blighter’s. Some men seem to be drips, they can't lift the seat to pee, so they dribble onto the seat at the end. Lazy buggers. Locks on the doors and coat hooks – one cubicle I used had had its door lock changed four times, that is replaced in four different locations and the coat hooks were hanging on one screw or broken off altogether. One of the caravan parks had horse shoes attached to the wall with the ends bent up making it hard to brake.

Early night tonight and we are hoping to get away early on Sunday morning to drive to Wilcannia.

25^th May 2014

251kilometres of flat road, scruffy bush, hundreds of wild goats and big groups of emus and one pussy-cat. The sign at Cobar said no fuel for 250 kilometres but at Emmadale fuel was available. We stopped for a cup of coffee and hot chocolate. The young lady was of Irish decent with a lovely accent. The shop was owned and run by Virginia Beard, it's funny how names grab you.

On to Wilcannia which on first looks like a town of half a dozen closed shops and a service station. Off the hwy the town has a few shops, a Police station,

a food and supplies shop which gets refreshed once a week. But years ago this was the port town for the river boats to stock up on wood and sleep the night and the location of Resche Brothers brewery. Most of the old buildings were made from stone and are still standing.

This caravan park is something special, it is a new van park called Warrawong on the Darling. The sites are level, grassed, good bore water, powered and with a breeze day and night, Warrawong is 3 kilometres on the Cobar side of Wilcannia. 

Obviously the area floods and the van sites are built up on a mound, level, grassed and there is no truck noise or traffic, just the locust in my ears. We just had happy hour by the fire, a time to meet the other travellers and their dogs. As soon as the sun goes down the flies go too. The flies are a continual pest, they hover in front of your nose and eyes and never give up.

I just ran the Diesel fuel dockets through the spreadsheet and St George was $1.59 per litre while here in Wilcannia it is $1.79. If you don't have it you don't move.

No Wi-Fi here and Optus signal is zero and Telstra signal on my phone is one bar. So we will have a quiet time here, cut off from the world.

26^th May 2014 - Wilcannia

Sailors would say that a windy day is great for the sails, but caravanner's may think differently especially with the awning out. A sudden gust of wind from a windy whirly whirly and good bye to the second awning on our van. 11am Monday morning. I borrowed a hacksaw and a hammer and a van neighbour had a pair of multi grips and we cut and yanked the stainless steel rivets out. But then we needed a bolt or something to replace it to hold the awning strut onto the van. Fortunately bag ties were invented and we have temporarily tied it all together with a bit of silicon on the mounting screw at the base of the upright. Lets hope it all stays there until we get home.

The worst thing while trying to concentrate and work on your knees in a tight spot were the FLIES.

They just wont let up.

No email from Wilcannia because we had no Optus Wi-Fi coverage where we were stopped. One of the other vanners had Telstra and no problems, but she did say that her megabytes was too low and the next level was too big and more costly with no benefit. If only Telstra would look at their travellers products and provide similar packages and good megabytes at a reasonable price. Travellers are looking for Email, Facebook and a little bit of web to look at the next spot and information on the area. We aren't looking to download movies or get free movies or download music. The Wi-Fi at some van parks is sloooow and unsecured, so you really need to have your own.

At 5pm the fire was lit and a few of us gathered for a wine and a chat. General talk, were did you come from and where are you going, which park to stop at and what wasn't so good. Then the park manager joined in and told us that she and her husband owned a property at Loath and to make ends meet she and the kids ran the caravan park. They had lived all their time in the country and were pretty good jacks of all trades. Now they have to deal with bore water, pressure pumps, keeping the grass mown. Pumping water into the lagoons and keeping customers happy.

We all got to talking about the number of goats on the road and she said that at muster time. what ever goats they can get are theirs to sell and they get between 30 and 50 dollars per goat and at muster they can get about 1000 goats to sell. She said it was good enough to send four kids to grammar school each year.

ABC Landline 21 June 2014 about Wilcannia Goats - 

No sunset tonight and later, mid night early morning a sudden violent thunder storm, heavy rain and I was glad we weren't camped along the river as two others were, the track back would be a bit sticky with sandy black soil.

27^th May 2014 - Broken Hill

I was up early to see the sunrise, but there was more rain. So we had breakfast and slowly packed the van. I tied another bag tie round the broken base pivot and it feels firm enough to stay in place and we headed out to continue the trip to Broken Hill.

We drove up the main street of Wilcannia. The local Policeman has a hard job and I don't envy him at all, most of the population are unemployed and according to those who should know i.e. locals, drugs and alcohol have caused trouble in town.

The road to Broken Hill was no different to that between Cobar and Wilcannia, but the trees were getting shorter and slowly there were no trees just low shrubs, then just dead looking grey grass. Long straight roads and nothing else. Closer to Broken Hill the road rose 100 meters and we went through some low hilly county. Coming into Broken Hill is nothing like I imagined it to be, no build up of traffic, just a

few houses set well off the road and a TV spy station with two large dishes. Closer to town the roads are in need of repair and the houses are all old style plastered brick or stone.

Mind you they all had pot bellies or heating and a sense of appeal. The city streets are concrete and in need of repair. Trees align the streets and street are named after chemicals used in mining, like Bromide, Chlorine, Carbide, Iron etc.

Coming into Broken Hill we crossed a Time Line we have gained half an hour.

Opinions of others on the road – One was not to stay overnight at Walgett and after driving through Helen didn't feel safe when we left the car parked and walked up town. It was an odd feeling. The next was not to stop at Wilcannia. We got fuel there and asked about the van park. The bloke at the counter said 'that place is over the bridge and you'll see the sign' So we followed the instruction and found the park and after staying there for two nights we found it to be safe, well set out, good level sites and we couldn't see why you wouldn't want to stay there.

Next was Broken Hill. The water made me itchy said one and the you couldn't leave anything out because it would disappear at night. Most said to stay at the racecourse. We didn't see any vans at the racecourse, we drank the water and our wet shoes were outside our door while not on our feet. There was security on at night and it was safe to visit the amenities at night. I think some people are just too hard to please, read too many horror stories and need to drink less wine and eat more cheese. It is still good to ask people their opinions of where to stay to get a better idea of the next place to stay.

28^th May 2014 Visited Silverton

Helen said she was desperate for a hair cut so we found a salon and she made a booking for 4pm. Then we headed out to Silverton. Interesting place other than being the movie back drop for many Australian made movies. There is not a great deal out there and we had a quick look

then went on to a Lookout and again not what we thought we were going to see. From the lookout all that there was to see was a horizon in the distance for 180 degrees. Back to Silverton to look at the sets of Mad Max II, everything was shut, but we could see the stuff from the film sets. The Silver mine was closed too, but the Silverton Pub was open and Helen had a

schooner of XXXX and I had a Bundy Ginger Beer and we ordered lunch. The pub was full of interesting things to look at and signs hanging from the ceiling. Lunch was good too. One of the bar maids was different, she had only been in Australia for 3 months and had originated from Holland. She hoped to travel a bit before returning home.

Silverton Hotel

FLYS, as soon as you stop walking the flies take full advantage. I breathed one in and could feel it buzzing in my nose and I couldn't get it out. But finally I did..... what a relief. They get in your ears, line up around your eyes, anywhere there is moisture. Silverton has been the backdrop for many movies and you'll be surprised which ones.

Back to Broken Hill, found a park, drive in angle which is dangerous, you can't see a thing when backing out and Helen headed down to the salon and she came out happy and full of complements for the hairdresser Christina Gusling of La Bella Hair Design.

Visited a couple of art galleries some good and some better. One had hundreds of huge bull ants all over the walls and on the floor. Then mixed up on the floor all breeds of animals big and small made of tin, wood and plaster.

It was back to the van and soup for diner because we had had such a big lunch at Silverton.

Big AFL match on TV tonight and the footy party is in the camp kitchen right beside our van. It is noisier at home with neighbourhood parties, here it was quiet as, you wouldn't know they were in there.

Then just before bed we had a phone call to say one of our neighbours was to be flown to Brisbane on the Flying Doctor Service. He is not at all well. We hope they get better news in Brisbane than they did in Rockhampton.

29^th May 2014

It is nearly June. Today the inside the van temperature was 10C at 8am. A vast difference from Cobar. It is like a cold westerly change and someone said yesterday that the wind will be picking up by the weekend.

This morning the Park put on pancakes and hot drinks at the pool. An invite to all at the park to gather and meet and listen to a talk on Broken Hills history and enjoy some freshly cooked pancakes.

After getting the laundry onto the line we did the Heritage drive around town, but got side tracked to visit things like the Pro Hart gallery and the Sculptures. No mine tours and you can't get to the mine restaurant or lookout, the road has become unsafe and has been closed for a while.

The Sculptures are out of town on a ridge, someone must have got a grant to get the huge slabs of stone up on the ridge and mount them in concrete and carve the

various bits out of them. Some say that the view of sunsets at the Sculptures is something to see, but the wind was cutting its way through the best of jumpers and no one stayed up there.

The area is a National Park and visitors are required to pay (Honour system) to visit, much the same as the National Park we visited to see Bald Rock. A small fee of $2 per senior, but it is amazing how many just drive past the gate and notice and don't pay.

The plan for tomorrow is to pack up and head towards Mildura

30^th May 2014 - Mildura

And that is what we did. A tad cooler today and I was very short of air. Hooking up the van is a job that must be done correctly and being short of air makes it very difficult, but with Helens amazing help, I can rely on her and not have to check unless she asks me to do so. Once we get going the air settles down and I'm right until unhooking and setting up again.

The road from Broken Hill to Mildura is nearly flat all the way and with long straight stretches. The vegetation is somewhat like the moon scape, rocks everywhere mixed up with hardy little green prickly bushes. We were lucky to see a big bunch of Emus, goats and sheep. Road signs that say Next 160K Kangaroos, but we saw none. No other caravans going south, but quite a few coming north. In the first 100K there were quite a few triple header mining ore trucks, going both ways.

We picked the Top Tourist in Fifteenth Street opposite the Tavern and near to Coles. This park wont be here next year, it is being converted to all cabins (more money) so there are only 14 sites left. The rates are good $25 a night while at Broken Hill a site was $36. We noticed at Broken Hill that as we booked in there were three new cabins on trucks and one being put in place. But there is no shortage of vans on the road and there were 300 van sites in Broken Hill.

Backing in was OK and nearly all in one turn. The rule of thumb is that the back of the van needs to be 7 meters from the point where you want it to go in and it works every time.

The site is nearly level and the trees are in good locations and trimmed so nothing interferes with backing vans.

The amenities are good for the number of vans and the grounds are good for families with a kids play ground.

31^st May 2014

Rather a cool day with overcast sky and a sneaky breeze, had rained through the night, but not a great deal.

We rang Betty to check they were home. It was great to see them with Vic now being 98 and unable to speak. He has a condition in the throat that has affected his voice, but he can still hear and writes notes. Betty at 92 looks as healthy as she did on our last visit 5 years ago. Although Betty said she gets flustered easily when her routine changes. They live in a retirement village at Princes Court.

Almond trees

Betty still has her lovely roses out the front and pink zygote cactus at the back.

They have swapped the car for two electric scooters that give them about 35km running about at 10k/hour.

1^st June 2014

Today was country market day at Red Cliffs which is about 15k down the road on the way to Bendigo. Helen was able to get some crunchy persimmons, avocados, mandarins and I got some honey. With dew on the grass, a sneaky breeze and a dull day every one was rugged up.

It must have been held in a memorial park because there was a WW1 artillery piece. A massive thing and I could imaging the noise and the amount of smoke, but good to see it in one piece and on view for all to see.

There was also a very large contraption, maybe something from outer space or maybe Mad Max II, but no it was for real and as late as 1917. It was like a gigantic walking tractor. Big Lizzie and look at the Web  to find out more. It took two years to drive it up from Melbourne.

MODEM PROBLEMS - In the last few days we have had Wi-Fi modem hassles, so tonight I decided to look further and
after reading the help file found that I could get into setup and see what was going on. I found we had a user name and password that had been set up by Rockhampton Optus. Linking to Optus I found that our 12 month credit was about to expire on the 8^th June. When we bought the modem we paid $199 which included $69 for the device and $130 for 12 months use or 15Gb for the period. The service reported that we had used 3Gb and it was going to terminate on the 8^th June. The package included 5Gb stand alone with the modem plus whatever we added to it. So we should have had 20Gb to start with. So if Jade at Mildura Optus is unable to retrieve our $130 credit we will be up for another $130. The moral of this story is not to be in a rush and have the selling person show you how it works, how to get into see your credit and don't leave the store until YOU are satisfied you understand. SERIOUS.

The next issue is Recharging your unit - If you are using a iPad you should download a Recharge App, load your information create a username and password and make sure you recharge before the due date or you will have difficulty.

Service in the Mildura area is not good either. Although Mildura is a big Rural Victorian city, Optus are only running 3G, they will have 4G in February 2015 until then their Wi-Fi service will be over taxed. I have found that at times there is 5 bars of service and this can drop to 0 bars in minutes. During certain hours of the day there is no service from too many system users trying to log on. There is no doubt that this problem is not isolated to Mildura and maybe is the problem in many towns in rural Australia.

This afternoon I contacted Don Baird an ex 104 Sig and friend of Dave Morgan. Don worked for the Postal Services in this area for more than 20 years before buying a Post Office and running it for 5 years. Don is now a TPI Veteran and not in good health. I think Dave will be pleased that the contact was made with Don.

2 June 2014

First up today we visited Optus and saw Jade and the wonderful news is that through their system with just the FPOS stub she was able to track the original recharge number and Optus have credited our account and we now have 18.6Gb for the rest of the trip. The Recharge App we set up yesterday gives us direct access to the account without having to go to the web, log in, find the right area etc. VERY HAPPY Thank you Jade.

Next Helen did the Spotlight, Cheap as Chips and we visited Jayco to see about some bits to fix the awning and the lights that have blown. We'll leave fixing the awning till we are home and the lights are worse than I thought they would be. The whole fitting has to come off the wall and the light dismantles backwards or inside out. So we have the new bulbs, but whether the job gets done is another matter.

We drove down to see the River Lochs and nothing doing, not a boat in sight. Lots of house boats tied up along the bank, obviously not the season. One paddle boat called the PV Avoca had sunk at its mooring. It was taking on water and the main engine failed and they couldn’t get it started so down she slowly went. The salvage people were there looking at it.

So back to the van to prepare the route to be taken tomorrow and where we hope to stay for the next little break. Is it to be to Ballarat or Bendigo first and which road / Hwy should we go by.

We decided to go down Hwy 20 on to the B400 following the Murray River south via Swan Hill and Kerang where we are staying overnight and tomorrow it will be onto Echuca, then on to Bendigo. The other way would have taken us inland to Donald and down the A220 to Ballarat.

This has been a lovely little caravan park called Desert City and it is a pity the management are converting it to cabins only.

There was a smell near the refrigerator so I investigated and found it not chilling or freezing properly and after looking further found that the AC/GAS/DC switch was not switched properly. We had to chuck out a pickled pork roast, lamb shanks and some sausages, plus a few things from the bottom section. We have decided not to store frozen food and just buy as we need it. Each time we move house the refrigerator goes from AC to DC and although the battery is good, it is not as good as AC.

3 June 2014 - Kerang

How time flies, it is now three weeks and a day since we left on this caravan trip. We have been through so many towns and areas that they are all running in together. It is hard to remember what we saw yesterday.

Today has been overcast, sunny, showery, cool and an average 14C all day. Helen has a new rug on the bed and in the car she always has her blue rug over her knees.

At Swan Hill where we have been before we looked for a spot to park. Just like semi or large trucks, cities don't make provision to park without being a kilometre out of town. Anyhow at the end of the street there were three car spaces in a row so I parked there and right next to a cafe where we had a late lunch. With a toy shop next door we had to look in especially with Olivia’s 2^nd birthday coming up.

Heading further along the river we came to Lake Boga. Quite a large fresh water lake. But not just a lake. During WW2 the RAAF had a secret air base at Lake Boga. History

has it that an RAAF Catalina was flying over the Murray River area when he noted a large lake and decided to land and look about. On returning to his base he reported the find to his commanding officer. The outcome was an operational RAAF and US water air base and top secret until 1945. Hundreds of float planes were serviced at Lake Boga during the war period and now the original Catalina A24-30 is housed in a huge memorial building along with many other items from that era of the war.
The whole museum is a Lions Club project and very well done.

I was lucky, Helen said 'you stop for me so I can go to craft shops, so it is your time to look at the museum'.

On we went to Kerang. Not good Optus service there and I was only able to drop one message on to Face Book to say where we were. The park at Kerang was a lovely Family Park with very long green grass that remained wet the whole time we were there, the amenities were old but suitable.

4 June 2014

This morning there was a very thick fog with visibility at no more than 75m. The fog stayed around until 11:30am while we drove at no more than 60KPH until the fog started to lift. We continued on to Echuca, but decided to push on to Bendigo. With the Queens Birthday weekend coming up we thought it best to be in a park and area that we could look at for a week.

After setting up we ducked into Woolworth's to get some fresh milk and we drove back north looking for the Hartlands eucalyptus distillery at Huntly. Missed the turn because it was was part of a corner under road works and we drove another 20K north before deciding to turn back. We were determined to find the factory.

I stopped at a shop and they had no idea what we were looking for, never heard of it, but she looked in the yellow pages and we found two addresses one at Huntly. So back to Huntly and we saw the sign on the corner of the road works and the factory was about 10K off the main road.

Barney will be happy we were able to get 20 bars of soap, and have a good chat with the owner who told us roughly how the oil was extracted after harvesting the leaves. No tours of the factory, there has been a death in the family and lots of family grief and bitterness, but things are slowly getting back to normal and the harvesting is continuing and the distilling is back on the boil.

The road from Kerang rose 150m from the very flat river flats along the Murray River. Very fertile productive farms, some areas with crops in the early stages, but more farms producing sheep and hundreds of lambs. Sheep with black faces and white wool and many farms stocked with dozens of milking cows, huge herds and shit all over the road, so they obviously walked along the road in the fog early in the morning. Then closer to Huntly huge sheds storing the oversize rectangular bales of hay, 1000s of bales, so they obviously supply to the local farmers.

When the afternoon sun is lower the bright light with the dark sky makes a great view, but hard to capture as a photo. I think we should all have the little dashboard cameras and switch them on when there is something of interest in front.

So tonight’s snack is toasted sour dough bread with olives and garlic spread with avocado and to have a break from wine we had a Malibu and coke. In fact we haven't had a wine since Wilcannia.

5 June 2014 - Bendigo

When I woke this morning I thought we had been here for two days, such a good sleep. After being up and showering coming back to the van there was a musty smell, so we opened our bottle of eucalyptus oil and put a few drops around, so much nicer now.

This van park will come alive at the weekend with the arrival of the soccer teams for the Bendigo festival. Would have been better had it been rally cars or old cars.

This afternoon we visited the Bendigo Pottery which it has been making for over a 100 years. He old wood kilns are still in the building, but no longer in use. Today’s kilns are fired by gas and electricity, cleaner, more efficient and a constant temperature can be held. 1000s of pots, plates and dishes of all sorts and size. The pottery has an antique shop attached full of so much garage sale junk. There is a limit to what you can save and throw out and the best place for these historical pieces is in a place like this.

Helen found a couple of scarf’s that she liked and she came away with two Bendigo Pottery coffee cups. Nothing was cheap even the seconds were top price.

Much cooler tonight and even I am thinking it is time to wear socks and runners so after 11 months of wearing sandals, tomorrow it will be socks and runners.

6 June 2014

Inside the van this morning at 8am it was 7C degrees. A hot shower was very nice but it was cold dressing.

Today was see Bendigo Day and we drove the 8ks into central city and found the Edward Street parking high rise that I had found on the web. Always pays to look ahead in

the new town. As simple as to get in and just as simple to get out and Edward Street is two city blocks from the CBD.

Bendigo is a beautiful old city with wonderfully preserved old historic brick buildings. Being one of the first gold rush areas of Australia there is much history in every direction you look. Mind you the Council gets behind the preservation and there are many volunteers who care and restore the old treasures.

Bendigo is one very proud city when it comes to the old tram. They have a vintage 'Talking Tram' Depot and workshop with a tram running from the top of the town at the Joss House Temple to the Deborah Gold Mine in the south, about an hours run one way.

We toured the Tram workshop and found it very interesting and amazing with some of the restoration work some of the volunteers are doing. Some of the old 1903 trams look brand new.

For the techno-buffs the trams run on a single wire 600VDC and the earth is the rails below. Mechanical brakes assisted by compressed air. Like trains they use sand to gain traction and grip on the rails. Most of the points on the track are manually opened and closed by the driver along the way. Each tram has two electric motors, at each end of the car. Trams don't turn around, they can be driven from both ends.

Much to Helens disgust we didn't stop for lunch or a cup of coffee, it was go all day.

From the Tramway Workshop we took the tram to the far end and stopped at Deborah Gold Mine.

This mine is 410M deep vertically and we went down to level 2 which is 61M down. Our guide was Zoe and she was well boned up with all the terms and how things worked. She was a good guide and I think everyone enjoyed the adventure underground. We saw the difference between fools gold (Pyrites) and real gold, saw what one candle power of light is in pitch black conditions.

She gave us a demo on a water cooled compressed air rock drill and a demo on the Bogger. What a neat little machine, like a small end-loader that could lift the load over the top and drop it in a skip behind the machine. After the quartz and rock was dug out of the face the miners called it bog, so this is how the machine got its name.

Our transport up and down was a caged lift driven by a cable from a winch on the surface. 

Back on the tram, back to city central and walk back up to the car parking station. $6 for all day parking which we thought was good.

Cool again tonight and tomorrow it is a farmers market day at Heathcote, so we'll see you there.

7 June 2014

Quite cool again this morning, 7C in the van. I is hard to get out of bed and go for a shower, lucky there is no wind at that time of the morning. A number of vans came in last night in the dark.

This morning after breakfast we headed down to Heathcote, 42k South east of Bendigo for a Market Day, The market goes on from 7^th to the 9^th June and is promoted as 'Heathcote on Show'  for more.

The town is 90 minutes drive from Melbourne CBD and some

 

of the locals do that drive twice a day to work. Lots of little cafes, market stalls, nicnak shops and supposedly the longest main street in Victoria. High Street Heathcote. The Rural Fire and SES were on display fund raising and telling people about Rural fire safety.

The bakery was doing a great trade on pies, sausage rolls and toasted sandwiches and hot drinks. As the day wore on the temperature slid down. Many dogs on leases with their owners and a pen of very friendly animals for kids. Goats, chooks, geese, baby pigs, rabbits and a couple of dogs. It was quite funny watching one dog, he'd been given the job of watching the guinea pigs and he had them all in a straight line along the edge of the cage and as soon as one moved he'd nudge it back into line.

We walked from one end to the other buying little bits of this and that, nothing too impressing.

For the homeward run we went via Mia Mia and Redesdale and passed the Eppalock Dam and back through south west Bendigo to Eaglehawk and back to Epsom where the caravan park is.

The countryside is beautiful and lush green, rolling hills and tree areas, paddocks of sheep and lambs, Lamas in small groups and little country cottages scattered about. As we got closer to the built up are we spotted an overly opulent huge house, very well kept lawns and big iron gates at the entrance.

Most people in this area live in little brick low-set houses with a fireplace in every room, although new houses seem to only have one fire or pot belly.

Tonight the air is quite cold again, so we had soup and ava on toast for dinner. Some of the park people are sitting around all rugged up having a wine or two. This weekend there are a number of family reunions on here. Bit cold to be outside drinking without a fire.

Helen tells me we are going to another market tomorrow.

8 June 2014

First up this morning we visited the Bendigo Show Grounds market which was a bit like the Rocky swap, but they have it every month. We got a pair of men's cotton singlets for $5, two mouse traps for $8, a hot water bottle to keep Helens feet warm for $5. 1Kg of persimmons and three big red plums for $4, a brass universal water tap fitting for $2. Helen praised a stall holder on the quality of her sewing and I took an interest in some photos taken down in the Otway area.

We walked in and out of pavilions and zig zaged through all the stalls. Lots of J U N K, lots of stalls selling cheap sun glasses, mobile phone cases, creams and sprays to make you feel and look nice, a pie shop that sold out before we got back to it, men's and ladies work socks, shoes, kids clothes.

When we parked the car it was close to the road and much easier to find. So we started out to look for the Beechworth Bakery. Someone had told Helen it was worth a visit.

Now it's not just a matter of parking, we had to get in a queue of cars waiting for a space to become available. We both had a Ned Kelly pie which was meat, cheese, bacon and an egg and a hot drink. Because it was Queens Birthday all the staff were dressed with crowns on the boys and tiaras on the girls. 

The weekend traffic is as heavy as 8:30am in Rockhampton on a weekday except it is three lanes in most areas, but if you keep a watchful eye on where you are going, it is possible to look about at the same time, Tuesday will be different.

The Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral is one building that stands above all others. Not in hight, but in grandeur size and prominence on a small rise in the central city. An architectural wonder of sandstone and craftsmanship from years ago.

9 June 2014

4C degrees inside the Van, it is no wonder Victorians flock to Queensland for some warmth. The air is cold, crisp in fact and doesn't warm up until about 11am. Standing in the shade is cold, subdued and by just moving into the sun gives you a lift.

11am we heard the raw blast of the whistle of a steam train, close but south of us, I'm not sure where the rail crosses the highway. Echuca's Queens Birthday weekend was all about steam and the trains would be returning home, wherever home is.

Getting up this morning was icy to say the least. We decided we need a better cover on our bed so while out shopping we bought a mink blanket.

So saying that we went into Bendigo City to find the shopping centre and we bought a few bits and pieces to take home for the grand kids. Some wonderful things at Australian Geographic and at Big W. The back of the car is slowly filling up with goodies.

On the way home we filled up with diesel at 151.9cents per litre and we went via the Bendigo Pottery again. This time I had the camera with me and you will see some of the beautiful pottery displayed inside. Outside I found a few little flowers that stood out, things we just can't grow in our hot climate.

Back at the van park, most of the vans have gone and it is all but empty.

My iPad has had another heart attack, it really is a pathetic pain. Considering the hype Apple has on its products. Not like a IBM style computer there is no easy way of opening and fixing except by a costly return to Apple. Maybe mine will be renovated by some other means. When it was going it was good, but now it is BAD. Ever since midday when we went out the iPad has been resolving, a blue screen, a green screen with a green apple, then a black screen with a white apple, then a black screen and nothing until I do a forced reset, now the battery is flat. WHO WOULD HAVE AN IPAD

For all the time we have been away we have to date covered 3527k.

Tomorrow we will we will hear across west to Maryborough and Avoca then down to Ballarat for the next phase of the trip.

10 June 2014 - Ballarat

Time to leave Bendigo and take the road to Maryborough. This road takes you through Castlemaine and on to Maryborough, Avoca and into Ballarat. Beautiful country side with well looked after farms producing thousands of lambs,
 
wool, dairy and crops. Quite a few old early settler homes, now abandoned and a sprinkling of ruins. There was something different around every corner.

In Maryborough we had to look out for a sign to the Railway Station. Beth Elkins one of our U3A members had said to Helen that if we went anywhere near Maryborough we must see the railway station. What a magnificent old building it was. But it was closed, only open three days a week. We saw the outside and we headed over to Kmart for a hot drink.

After Avoca we drove toward Ballarat and at Waubra we came upon a new renewable energy wind farm of 128 towers. Each tower is 120M high with 40M blades rotating at 18 rotations a minute. The towers are on a 17,000 hectare f

arm. The farm produces about 192Megawatts of power which is enough to supply 140,000 houses. As we arrived at the information billboard for the project, so did all the heavies from Ballarat Power, Council, and the tower manufacturers and construction bosses and the press. So something big was in the wind. They asked who we represented and I said Solar panels in Rockhampton, but I also said to one of the heavies did he know of the Ceramic Fuel Cells and  project in Victoria where Gas was used to produce electricity. He hadn't heard of it and added that the area didn't have gas.

I think Ballarat is a bit bigger than Bendigo. As usual the Information Centre is in City central and although we saw the sign and a sign for parking, we couldn't find the parking. Not knowing where we were I decided to drive out a bit and find a spot to park and get the Internet up on Helens iPad and find a Caravan park and an address. Luckily there was one a kilometre away and we headed there. Luck strikes twice, Sovereign Hill is right next door. We wont need to drive anywhere to find it, literally right next door.

Our new site was a piece of cake to reverse park into, level and connected we sat down to a hot drink and relaxing time reading the Ballarat information. Get the TV tuned and ready for the night.

11 June 2014

Disagreement day, must be the cold wind Plus my bloody iPad still will not reboot and iTunes says it needs 17 hours to download some programme to do with a reset. After trying another, probably the 10,000^th on/off and home reset, it suddenly came to life, bloody apples. I think I'll buy a grape next time, this one is a bit of a lemon. I always said beware of fruit salad computers, I didn't listen to myself. I'm sure it is still not well, but it is working at the moment.

Anyhow, today in Ballarat was COLD, windy, overcast and hard to handle. Didn't stop the locals though, they were all rushing about, business as usual.

After a late start, due to getting used to the much cooler air we dialled in the Information Centre to the NavMan and headed into town. Ballarat grew from horse and dray suitable streets and is now a complex network of one-way streets, steep gradients, roadworks and parking meters. Some streets have no meters, some have ticket stations and scattered all over there are low high-rise parking stations where you pay for a ticket and leave it on the dashboard, remember the time to have the car out. No change given.

So we parked. Then with map in hand we ventured into the wind and cold and argued about which way to go.

A local lady stepped up to help and had us returning down the street and around to the Information Centre. 
There is just so much to see and do in Ballarat, we wont see a quarter of it. I wonder if the locals know they are living on a Gold Mine of History.

Moved the car to the Woolworths / Coles carpark and had lunch at the Beechworth Bakery, lovely pies there and after we did a little food shop.

Next we needed to find the Post Office and just like Rockhampton the beautiful building they were in is now part of the University and the post office was in the Myer Centre. So we opted to drive to another where we were able to park outside.

Helen was not impressed with the service. Queensland post offices are well ahead with service. The two parcels are now on their way, but are not the way Helen thought they would be. But it is a long way to deliver them personally and at least they are on the way ready for Olivia's big day. She will be 2

While Helen was at the Information she found out about a specialist quilting and material shop. Just out of Ballarat and in a lovely cottage set in a beautiful garden and from there we found our way back to the Van.

Police Lane

Helen decided that tonight was going to be heat day and the Heat cycle on the air conditioner now has the temperature at 25 instead of 9 that it is outside. The only drawback is that the aircon interferes with the TV.

12 June 2014

Miserable day, overcast, cold wind and rain forecast. Today we are off to see Sovereign Hill. Now the girls at the Park office said it was only a 300m to the Hill gates, they didn't tell us it was up hill all the way. Luckily we decided to drive.

Miners tent

 

Chemist shop

After walking all day, 6 hours on the hill, the walk home would have been enough to finish us for the day. As it was when I got home I slept for two hours.

Panning for Gold

I think Sovereign Hill has been going so long now that it needs to re invent the enthusiasm and bring some life back to the place. Other than being a cold miserable day, Sovereign Hill had a drab look it self. The staff are happy in what they were doing, but the whole place lacked enthusiasm. I expected to see Hill people living the life, panning for gold, the police arresting people and harassing the miners over the miners licence as they did back in the gold rush. I thought I would see buskers in the street and Red Coats forcing military law on the area. What I did see was a few of the old shops selling expensive items admittedly made on site. Not all shops were staffed or open.

Making candles

We also attended the Murder, Betrayal and Rebellion – Blood on the Southern Cross at night on the Hill. It started with a history movie in a picture theatre, then we were ushered into the gold panning area to listen to and watch a sound and light show about miners living on the gold fields. There were no actors or people involved. Then along came an articulated people mover and took us to an amphitheatre for the next phase of the show.

Again we listened and watched a sound and light show of the Eureka Stockade. Again there were no actors or people in the show. There were some spectacular scenes of a hotel fire and a burning wagon rolled across the front and sound affects of shooting and explosions during the stage of the attack on the miners by the Redcoats, police and the Government. But there were no actors. The whole scene just lacked the personal touch of the human miner.

It was like going to the opera or ballet with cardboard statues and sound and lights, but no movement.

The Sovereign Hill entry fee was $94.40 for two concession tickets and the night show was $77.60 for two concession tickets

It is now raining very steadily 2315 (Quarter past 11 PM)

Tomorrow we will go to the Gold museum and report tomorrow night.

My iPad is NOT WORKING

13 June 2014 Friday 13^th

Thinking about yesterday and last nights show – if I were 10 years old and had listened to my teacher about all the adventures on the gold field, I would have come away somewhat disappointed. All I can remember was the burning wagon that rolled past us and the hotel fire, but where were all the people. I was expecting to see miners huddled around camp fires and standing near their tents and panning for gold in the creek.

Poured rain last night, it started as we left the night show and drove home. Lucky we took the car, it would have been freezing after getting wet walking back in the dark.

It must have been a big day yesterday because I woke at 9am this morning and it is now 10:30am, at least I have had my breakfast.

One place on the Hill that was quite interesting was the candle maker. Starting out with a brushed tightly woven cotton strand and dipped in hot wax three times then left to cool. Then the process starts again until the candle is the required size. Colour can be added and scent to give the candle a fragrance as it burns.

Thinking about the things they could have and the overall effect on the Hill and it's visitors. Just bake one loaf of bread every three hours to give the smell of hot bread, smoke some bacon, have a miner at the creek showing people how to pan for gold, anyhow if they want to survive they need to change, at the moment they are resting on their laurels from past years of success. They need a new leader to inject some enthusiasm into the operation.

Sovereign Hill is a not for profit organisation and 60% of the gate takings is used for salaries and the remaining 40% for infrastructure.

I feel the staff need to have some special training about their jobs, eg the girl in the chemist shop had no idea what a chemist sold in the Gold Rush days. The girl in the jewellers shop just stood and looked pretty while the man told us about the jewellery. The candle makers knew about their trade and were interesting to talk to.

We filled in a questionnaire and told them about the lack of enthusiasm.

The Gold Museum was very interesting and displays were well thought about, but, there is always a but. The display was well lit with LEDs on stems, but because the rooms were subdued there was not enough light to read the inscription for the display. An amazing collection of years gone by gold coins from all countries of the world. On the field artists impressions of gold mining and memorabilia found on the hill from past years of mining.

Then we watched a movie on the history and at one stage the town was called Ballaarat and in 1923 was changed to Ballarat.

And there is another but … But there was no mention, that we can remember, about the Chinese miners and the influence they had on the fields. Within Sovereign Hill there is a Chinese camp and tents depicting the Chinese miners way of sleeping and cooking. There is a Chinese Joss House and many items that showed the Chinese presents in the field.

Some amazing large pieces of gold were found and at $6000 an oz would be worth a mint today.

I've given up on the iPad, I'll stick with this computer for the rest of the trip.

14 June 2014

Let the fresh air flow in, but shut the door on the cold rain and wind. There was a fog this morning and we were hoping for a lovely fine warm day. But, there is always a but, but instead of being warm the air is cold, the wind goes straight through and now it is raining, not good camping weather.

Thinking about Sovereign Hill and things they could do is to have a photo place where you get printed onto a news page saying you were caught without a miners licence and a roving photographer with photos available in the exit room at a certain time.

Camp Quality are having a weekend sleepover at the caravan park and today they have all gone to Sovereign Hill. Two of the helpers came via our van to introduce themselves. Bob was a Vietnam Veteran and it so happened he was also in 104 Sig Sqn, my old unit. We had a long chat, he'd been called up from down here and returned to the area. He joined the Police, hoping for a busy time to hold the PTSD at bay, but it finally got him. Now retired with Prostate cancer himself and volunteering with Camp Quality. His wife Sue also has breast and lung cancer and is also a volunteer. Why not he said, time is short so we will do as much as we can to help others, especially children with cancer. Bob was in Vietnam a year before me, so he would have probably been part of FSB Coral.

Market Day at Lake Wendouree, quite a large lake in the middle of town and adjacent to the Botanical Gardens. A

wonderful area for walking, cycling, family picnics, photography, with swans, ducks and many more water birds. The market was OK we picked up some beetroot relish and a large rye loaf of sour dough bread.

The next stop was to be Lincraft for Helen to add more stocks to her ever increasing cache of cards, paper, material, stickers and cutters. While she was in there I played with the NAV and found Black Hill Lookout, so that was where we went next. Reasonably good view of the city which spreads out much further than I thought. An interesting mountain bike track from the top down three various difficulty tracks and we saw a couple of well kitted out push bikers disappear over the edge, filming their venture on GoPro cameras.

From the lookout we came back to the van for a late lunch of avocado on toasted rye sour dough bread and hot Milo. It is now time for an afternoon nap.

Bubble and squeak for dinner. I cooked some pork and vegetables in the echo cooker for dinner a couple of nights ago and tonight just added an egg and flour and fried it as fritters. Trouble is the van gets full of hot fumes and the new fire alarm lets us know there is smoke about. The fritters were lovely with beetroot relish.

Sunday another rural market at the Show Grounds.

15 June 2014

Fog this morning and after breakfast we rang Keith Murphy, our Vietnam 2010 tour guide and organised to meet after the market.

Pipers Cafe

The show grounds market was much bigger than yesterdays, but not as big as Bendigo. Some lovely stuff, wonderful flowers and masses of JUNK. We did buy some woollen socks for Andrews work boots and a head bee-nee for the two grand-kids.

We met Keith at the Botanical Gardens Cafe and had a delightful lunch of pulled pork on roasted Camembert cheese, salad and chips and hot drinks. The selection on the menu was great and the place was full of eaters until about 4pm, by then it was getting cold outside.

Everybody was rugged up, coats, scarf’s, bee-nees, gloves and me in my shorts stood out in the crowd.

After a long chat we went for a wander through that section of the Botanical gardens, huge English oaks 1m diameter and American redwoods 2m diameter, beautiful fine green grass and an avenue of brass busts of past Prime Minsters of Australia.

Got fuel on the way home 157.9 per litre of diesel and back to the van. Helen did the last of the washing and dried it too ready for the trip north.

Haven't mentioned before that the amenities are heated, and heated floor, good enough to put a swag in there to sleep, you would have a very warm night.

16 June 2014 - Shepparton

We took the road from Ballarat to Creswick, Daylesford and all we saw was a very heavy fog. The visibility was down to 4 white road marking stripes in the middle of the road. There was still a few hot heads who had to pass even though they could only see as much as me. We saw one white car that must have skidded off the road through the night. Our biggest surprise on the road was a roundabout that suddenly appeared out of the fog right in front. A very hasty decision, no time to break and I decided to take the first exit and all was well and after looking at the map we were on the right road.

At Heathcote we stopped for a pie. The first shop was packed so we went for a walk and look at some of the shops. The first was the residents information hub which turned out to be the Council Office, but full of information on the area. Then to a craft shop and bought some beetroot relish, a wool scarf and a new warmer bee-nee for Helen. Back to the bakery for a lovely warm pie and a hot drink and back on the road to Nagambie. Just out of Heathcote on the C344 Highway we spotted three bodies of aircraft. One looked like the twin tail booms of a P38 Lightning a WW2 twin engine bomber. The other two were modern fuselages. Obviously a aeroplane collector.

The little country roads get very little traffic plenty of beautiful farms to look at and in this area sheep farms, thousands of sheep and lambs.

On to Shepparton and we missed the first van park, no sign before it just said turn here. The second park was advertised as a caravan village, but we couldn't raise the office so we drove in, did a U turn and drove out. The third park was OK and we are here for three days. Turns out they are a Top Tourist park, but not listed yet. Victoria Lake Holiday Park

site 126. Easy to reverse park, concrete wheel base and very wet grass everywhere else. In the height of the summer season this park would be a buzz of holiday makers, right on the river and the lake.

On the northern run now with two weeks to go. It is not a good feeling, this time it is a pity that this holiday is coming to an end. But it will be good to see Olivia and Nathan.

Tomorrow we will visit Campbell’s soup and the SPC factory, but before we do that we will visit Coles to see what the prices are, we've been warned that factory prices may not be cheaper than the outside shops.

17 June 2014 

What a difference this morning. SUNSHINE. 9C in the van, but beautiful sunshine outside. Not that that means we are in for a warm day, there is still a chill in the air.

There is a cheeky little bird, every time the door is opened it appears and flies in. First occasion was while we were setting up, the door was open, in it went and when Helen appeared at the door it flew out and we have noted each time we go outside it is there.

Thinking about which road to take from here. Up till now we have nearly gone on all new roads not travelled before. I know we've been to Mildura and Heathcote before, but all the rest has been new country.

From here north after Cobram we have been through this countryside more than a couple of times and we don't like big cities so we wont be going up the coast. Dilemma.

Solved – we'll go to Junee again to revisit the Liquorice factory. So from Cobram to Finley to Jerilderie to Urana to Lockhart and Coolamon then Junee.

Today we visited SPC's factory outlet, but before we visited Coles and pleased we did. Baked Beans Coles $1.30, SPC $1.00, Cadbury Milk chocolate Coles 2 for $7.00, SPC 2 for $5.50. But then there were many brands we had never seen nor heard of, catering quantities and much more. Being on the road in the Van, space and weight is limited, so we bought a few of this and that and some to eat now and some to bring home.

Then we headed out to Campbell’s Soup. Talking to the staff there is No MSG (621) in the product eaten in Australia, but everything exported has MSG. An export product can be identified by foreign titles on the product.

So again we got a bit of this and that as before.

You really could go mad in both of the stores and stock up for 12 months, but you would need a truck.

By now Helen decided she needed some food, we had had breakfast and it was now 4pm and we had been on the go all day. We dropped into the Shepparton RSL, but no food till 6pm so Helen rattled the pokies and we left looking for a Kentucky Chicken shop.

Ate back at the van followed by a hot Milo and an almond slice and TV all rugged up waiting for Winners and Losers. Addicts.

18 June 2014

Over the last few days Helen has had symptoms of tooth ache and mouth ulcers. We saw the chemist yesterday to get something for mouth ulcers and for the tooth ache she has been taking panadol. Today she woke feeling dizzy and since having breakfast she is sleeping (11:15am) And she can sleep all day, I'm happy to have a day off driving. I can take a walk along the lake and look at the bird life (feathered)

Talking about birds, our little visitor hasn't been back. I had some ends of the loaf for him, but he is not around. Probably found someone who was more friendly.

It was quite chilly early this morning 8C, but now it is sunny and warm away from the wind.

Helen slept till 2pm and then we went for a drive to see the rest of Shepparton, get some fuel and a warm pie. The new houses are cheap compared to Rockhampton. $260,000 house and land and the houses are big, not little shoe boxes or $120,000 for land only. Lots of empty houses.

Drove past the SPC factory and packaging warehouse and back to the van to empty the cassette and clean up ready for a morning start on the road to Junee. The air is cold, the water was freezing, but Helen had some hot washing up water left over for me to warm up.

I took a quick walk up to the lake and took a few pictures back into the park. So lovely and green, lush grass and a nearly empty park.

19 June 2014 - Junee

Bitterly cold wind chill this morning, hooking up playing with chains and Ds and plugging in was awkward, but we got it done and dealing with a wet power cord and the water line had my hands near frozen, but we got away ok and headed north to Cobram. This was a very nice older type of town but we didn't do it justice, we didn't stay there.

Then on to Finley and Jerilderie through some of the most beautiful dairy and sheep farms we have ever seen. Lush green grass and well stocked. Somewhere around Urana and Lockhart we saw a cattle drive with hundreds of black cows and bulls heading one way and much further up ahead the camp kitchen with the washing hanging on the barbed

wire fence. While in Urana we also saw the local Sheep Mowers employed by the council to keep the grass and shrubs well trimmed.

Fan Aircon

mowing contractors

Another thing we noticed was fan forced aircon on a house with a super high gain TV antenna. Urana was only a small town but the crime either today or in the past has warranted a large courthouse.

We picked up Diesel at Coolamon and continued to Junee. The roads in this area are not busy, hardly a car and the farms are well spread out. I should have picked up fuel at Lockhart and wouldn't have had to continually calculate how far we could get on what we had. I will always remember the day coming back from Theodore when the red light came on.

The book says that there is 13Litres in the tank when the red light comes on. I shouldn't have worried too much, we still had 29 litres in the tank at Coolamon.

It was good to see Junee signs on the road and the caravan park. When we left Shepparton it was 7C and arriving at Junee it was 18C.

At the moment 4495Kilometers

20 June 2014

Licorice factory

A

beautiful sunny day starting at 7am with 7C. The warmth of the sun was lovely. Helen took advantage of the sun and did the washing and hung it on the line.

Having been in Junee before we didn't go and visit any historical places, but we did a drive around town, out to the Round House and walked through the main streets. Junee is split by the railway and has shops on both sides.

We found the bakery that we visited 5 years ago but it had changed hands, pies were just as good. The whole area is quite lovely and built in a valley along the railway.

The Licorice Factory was still in operation and has in fact expanded. The amount of products has increased and the guaranteed taste is still the same. It really is a lovely experience just visiting the factory. All the workers seemed happy and the quality control on all product leaving the factory was perfect, they even go through a metal detector before being packaged.

Amie served and looked after us

The young lady behind the counter was exceptionally helpful and assisted us in our selection which weighed a ton when we walked out. She was very good at her job and suggested items to us, so we have a good selection.

While there we also had a hot drink and nearly stayed for lunch.

Cold again tonight, even though the thermometer in the van says 10C it feels colder.

21 June 2014 - Peak Hill

Today we will started heading north in earnest. We need to cover some ground and only stop when necessary. First town was Temora and although it was a flying weekend (American productions) we continued north., Wyalong Forbes, Parks and stayed for two nights at Peak Hill.

We stopped at the CSIRO Parks Radio Telescope and as we pulled in I saw the dish was moving so I was lucky to get

some different angles. It is a huge dish and just the thing that would interest Nathan. I listened to the signals coming from far away and wondered what the scientists interpret from the noise. It was interesting reading that some signals have to be cooled before they can read them.

You never get to know what they are working on or what the dish was listening too, so you somewhat come away with little more than you went in. But Nathan will be surprised with what I found for him.

On up the road to 4pm and time to find a Caravan Park. We chose the Peak Hill Caravan Park and were guided onto our drive-through site and told about the main attractions around town. It gets dark at 5:30pm so by the time was had set up we decided we would go to the Ex-service and citizens Club. A lovely little club with about 1100 members of which 13 are Veterans. The past numbers representing Peak Hills of men and women are proudly displayed on walnut honour boards for WW1 and WW2 and in a smaller number for service in Korea and Vietnam.

The club came to life last night with market day and raffles. The Chinese caterers produce a typical Australianised Chinese dinner or you can order off the board. Raffle night starts at 7:30pm and went on longer that we stayed. We gave our tickets to a needy looking young mum and headed out into the light rain and back to the van.

At the moment 4896Kilometers

22 June 2014

What brought Peak Hills into Australian history and why is it now known as the town with a heart of gold.

Peak Hill Gold Mine

Gold was found in July 1889 and although it was alluvial the prospectors flocked to the area. The population grew to 10,000 and by the end of 1889 a town had been surveyed and approved by Governor Carrington. One of the mine shafts reached 210meters before it was decided to work the mine by open cut.

At the moment the main mine is closed but there is still gold to be found in the area and in most areas around the town you can find small diggings.

Another interesting story is the Holden Dealership. A drive past will get you quite intrigued and looking in the dusty cob webbed front window will have you asking what is going on. Then just a 100m out of town behind a locked high fence is a pile of old cars, mainly Holden. A collectors treasure trove!

Inside the shop window I saw three cars that had been sitting in the showroom for many years just gathering dust, maybe more than 25 to 30 years of dust. Many other items of interest, old but brand new tyres and spares. Anyhow I asked at the van park what the deal was and was told the owner had had enough, locked the doors and has never reopened since that day.

Another wonderful observation was the roof of the Ex Services Club. 12 rows of 25 panels collecting solar power. That would keep them out of debt for the rest of the clubs life.

Helen found a craft shop and I sat in the sun and dosed off. We had a drive about the town and a look at the older houses, then returned to the van to prepare for the next drive north.

23 June 2014 - Moree

BAA BAA Black Sheep, have you any wool, yes sir yes sir 1000s of fields full. Sheep, white sheep, black sheep, black heads and white wool and 50/50 black and white. 1000s of sheep and all in huge flocks and eating in beautiful green fields.

Baaaring sheep, very little else to see, but the road ahead.

At Gilgandra a pleasant surprise and some Australian history, some may not know. A very pleasant, well set out gallery and area Information office.

Trinkets as usual and tea-towels and coasters, but a well displayed pictorial history of the WW1 Cooee and all the Australian men who left Gilgandra to march to Sydney to join up and go to war. Men joined the march from every town along the way and were all mustered, uniformed, given a serial number and given a minimum amount of training before being shipped to the other side of the world and to war.

A view of the Warrumbungle National Park and mountain range. The Information lady at Gilgandra said that it was worth while diverting our run north and going via the National Park. If we had more time and it wasn't as cold as it will be over the next few days, we would have considered the detour. But time is running out, the end of June is very close.

The weather is turning cold too. All day the sun has hidden and gray clouds have covered this area. On tonight's news there are snow reports for the south and the weather map was a large cold front moving over the southern states of Australia.

Tonight we are setup at Coonabarabran's John Oxley Caravan Park in a pick your own drive through site. Sites are mostly level and amenities are close too. The best part is that we stay hooked up and only need to pull in the water, power and water waste and go in the morning.

Since we have been here Helen has done the washing and drying and all is folded up and put away. She has also been talking to some Hungarian neighbours who are going the same way but staying in Moree for two weeks.

I have tuned the TV and got diner on cooking on the gas, it is so simple and easy.

24 June 2014

An Observation along the road -

It is time to wakeup Australia, the side of the road is not a rubbish bin!

Tins, bottles, packets, wrappers, plastic, bricks, timber, fast food packaging, cigarette butts, food scraps, cigarette packets, foam, tissues, wheel arches off trucks, tyres and much more. Mind you it doesn't help when the bins at rest areas are overflowing. The easiest way if this is the problem take the rubbish with you. Once the bin is slightly open the crows will get in and sort the rubbish out in to what they can eat and to do that rubbish is pushed out of the bin. All the way from Coonabarabran to Narrabri both sides of the road littered every meter with glass and all the rest. From Narrabri to Moree the sides of the road were grassed and we couldn't see the rubbish. This is just one area of road littered, nearly every road we have been on is the same.

Nothing really to see from Coonabarabran to Narrabri 118Km of bush and burnt out forest land. But from Narrabri to Moree dead flat farm land and dozens of silos, so obviously a rich grain producing area. Gone are the sheep and we only saw a few herds of cows.

Moree and Helen heard that the place to stay is the Gwydir Carapark ThermalPools, a huge caravan park with van sites and cabins. We were very lucky to get the last vacant site (48), nearly level. Most of the hard core caravanners had booked ahead, especially the ones that follow the thermal pools. Victorian and some NSW caravaners have been here many times and know the ropes. The park supports altogether 200 powered and unpowered sites plus the cabins or villas as they call them.

25 June 2014

5C this morning and a wind, so with the wind chill factor it felt colder.

Years ago Moree was a sleepy little hollow and a truck fuel stop, Now it is a lovely vibrant city. Along the main streets are shaded areas with ornamental grapes growing over a trellis. One street had haft a dozen large olive trees in the centre of the road.

One thing will impress you is the way the Moree natives park their cars. Where there is a space you swing in and where the car stops, you are parked. Lines mean nothing. However, unlike many cities we have been through the main street parking is reverse in, so much safer.

As he sun went down tonight the blue ring around the skyline appeared and the wind dropped and the cold air made everything you touch feel icy cold. Weather TV says by Friday the minimum should be 3C, we are travelling north and it is getting colder.

26 June 2014 - Goondiwindi

This morning in Moree it was 3C degrees, so hooking up was cold and everything you touched was cold, but we got away ok and headed north to Goondiwindi and not a lot to see on the road. A large number of trucks going both ways and all behaving themselves.

A wonderful collection of rubbish all along the road side.

broken circlip

Car problems - Getting to Goondiwindi we decided we needed something to eat, so we parked at the end of the main street and started to walk back. As we go past the caravan hitch I always look to ensure all is well, chains not broken, hitch attached etc, but this time there was a smear of oil on everything. I checked further and the boot on the rear axil had broken off and oil was being pumped out of the differential by its movement.  Had this similar problem in Bega 5 years ago.

We found a caravan park and started to look for help.

We got the RUN-AROUND. I rang Tropical Mitsubishi to see what I should do, the girl I spoke to couldn't tell me whether the car was covered by warranty and I'd have to take it to a Mitsubishi agent to have it assessed.

I next rang RACQ, he arrived but was unable to come into the van park because his company hasn't signed the workplace agreement, so I had to meet him on the road outside. He turned out to be quite helpful and told me about the options I had. I could have the car trucked back to Moree Mitsubishi 118Kilometers south or to Pittsworth 178kilometers north. We'd have to leave the van at Goondiwindi and find our own way up to or down to wherever it was being fixed. The local RACQ is run from Tait
Toyota and they couldn't look at it until next week.

The caravan park had given me a card for a local Boarder Mechanical workshop so I rang them and they said to bring it in at 4pm before he shut up shop and he'd look at what was needed to fix it. I've done that and he said he would order the parts tonight and let me know tomorrow when they should arrive and when he can do the job.

He has popped the axil back in and filled the differential with oil and said that we can drive in town but not to put load on the car. Andrew explained to me over the phone how the axil pops out and I can understand that now.

The road between Moree and Goondiwindi is very up and down and rough, no doubt not helped by the number of heavy semi trailers using the road.

Notice in the caravan park

While at the camp kitchen dinner tonight Boarder Mechanical rang to say that the parts should arrive on the late flight tomorrow and if they do he'll fit us in on Monday.

The camp Kitchen dinner was very good, bush stew with rice and ice cream and apple crumble all cooked by 5 French Students out in Australia on working visas. They are working during the day on a property and by doing that it gives them an extension on their visa.

27 June 2014

Happy Birthday Andrew, an amazing milestone in life, so much has changed over the last 30 years. Andrew has become a very good mechanic, has Vanessa his partner and two wonderful Grand Children Nathan 5 and Olivia 2.

Tonight we are having roast lamb for dinner. Roast kumara and potatoes and peas. I can see it cooking on the bench in the Easycooker. A wonderful cooking device for caravans and so easy to use and clean.

Parts are not here yet so we are still here. I've settled down, but still snappy especially when out in town today and Helen wasn't reading the map correctly, anyhow I've had a glass of red wine and a drumstick ice cream and are more relaxed.

Goondiwindi Hotel

This afternoon in Goondiwindi I took a couple of pictures of the Victoria Hotel. It would be a nightmare painting the pub all black and white but looks very clean and tidy, but the roof iron is very rusty and looks a bit second hand. It would be an expensive exercise renewing the iron.

28 June 2014

Today started out hot and still with the temperature 10C at 7am. As the day continued it started to cloud over and the wind increased into a massive sand storm that turned into very heavy rain, now is is totally clear as the sun sets.

The van park was nearly empty at mid day and full tonight, just amazing where they all come from.

This morning at 8am the park put on Pancakes and tea with a gold coin going to Australian bush farmers. The pancakes were delightful with either maple syrup or strawberry jam. It is a great time to meet other caravaners, see where they have been, where they are going and where they live normally.

One couple have a trailer-home. They travelled all through the USA and when it came time to return to Australia they couldn't sell the trailer so they brought it with them at a cost of $18,000. Their hometown is Tasmania and they spend most of the time on the road.

I paced down the side, about 12 meters plus the hitch. When the owner came back I asked and it is 36feet and weighs 9600LBS (from the US compliance plate) which is about 4.4tonne, that is a lot of caravan. He tows it with a 3.2 tonne capacity Toyota which is not so safe.

Another pair were New Zealanders from Auckland who store their van in Brisbane and are over here for 8 months of the year.

Another one was a construction site overseer who retired early after having run himself nearly into the ground, but now feels free, no more stress, smiles every morning.

Tonight we are eating the cold roast lamb from last night with mashed potatoes and kumara mixed with cheese. The easycooker did a wonderful job, even the outside was browned.

29 June 2014

No markets, nothing open in town, all quiet in the park, some moved on and some moved in. The only difference is KIDS. It's school holidays and there are screaming kids everywhere. The ducks will be fed well, bread was thrown into the billabong all day, teams of kids all hoping to hit a duck with the bread. Roars of laughter when one does score a hit.

Nothing on TV so luckily we have videos and we have watched them all afternoon.

Got cool at 5pm and the park manager sent a message to everyone to be cautious of walking in the park tomorrow morning due to the possibility of a heavy frost. Have wake up early.

Park is full again, we've had a new neighbour every night.

30 June 2014

Cold morning but no frost as predicted, it was 7C in the van.

At about 10am I had a phone call from the Boarder Mechanic to say that the parts did not arrive on the freight, so maybe tomorrow. In a case like this you've just got to chill out there is nothing you can do to speed things up.

I took a walk around the park and watched the ducks in the billabong. Helen has done the washing and folding again and put it all away.

We can't really go anywhere so yesterday we watched videos. They have been in the van waiting to be played for 2 – 3 years and finally the time has come, now they will be bundled up and go to the Rocky Swap to become someone else’s emergency movies.

I'm very pleased I started this diary because when Helen

asks me “what were we doing last Friday?” my answer was ''when did we come into this park'' it is hard to remember. It is just like the copper saying to you what were you doing on Tuesday between 2:30 and 3pm, impossible to answer, unless you keep a detailed diary.

I should take note of some of the things I tell others to do. Today I noticed that the camera is down to enough room for 17 more photos. So I went to my camera gadget bag and no spare SD Cards, Dilemma. So I've decided to copy all the photos off the SD card onto a portable hard drive and into the laptops D drive too, format the card and start again. 972 photos takes quite a long time to move from one to another.

I found out today why there are so many kids in the park. It was the selection for the under 14 football teams. 12 teams have come from Queensland towns and the final team will be selected this week. NSW rep team has already been picked ready for the footy season.

1 July 2014 (Rabbits)

Phone call this morning to say that the parts have arrived, come in at 9am.

In we went, left the car at the workshop and walked 3 blocks into the main street of Goondiwindi.

After sitting in the sun talking to a local cotton farmers wife, another phone call, all the parts didn't turn up!

Walked back to the workshop, collected the car and came

back to the van.

At least in the van it is warm, we have coffee and Milo and food and we can read, watch movies and sleep, little else to do.

Talking to another couple in the park, they had car trouble on the way up but they were only 35Kilometers from home. The RACV picked up the car and van, but they had to ring a friend to come and get them, she said had they been 100kilometers out of town the RACV would have arranged transport for them. She was not happy.

While on the road you hear all sorts of stories, of course you don't know the whole story, but the bit you hear is bad enough. I can remember my father telling me that when I go on a long drive you need to take tools, tyre fixing equipment, spare oil, spare water for both the car and the people in it and the boot would be full before any luggage was to be packed away.

We are here in Goondiwindi for another two days at the moment, we'll see what happens tomorrow.

2 July 2014

Got the phone call at 10am this morning to bring the car in and the mechanic checked under the car with the part that

was sent up and it all looks good. The cir-clip that holds it all together is ridiculously small considering what the axil action does in that area. This part was ordered against our cars VIN number so hopefully it will be all good.

While Helen worked at the Salt Mine doing the washing again, I lounged about fiddling on the computer sorting all the photos into town areas and turning them up the right way. I was amazed at the number of towns we've gone through and stopped at to take a picture.

Well the good news is the car is fixed and didn't brake the bank to get it done.

I have the broken part and will submit it and the bill to Mitsubishi on our return home. It is part of the transmission which is covered by the warranty.

For all travellers the Repco Service agent at Border Mechanical went out of his way to assist us. So if you are in the Goondiwindi region and need help Mark Brennan is your man. With very friendly office staff who care about their customers. 

One of the girls in the office has had a fatality in her family. Recently one of her sons was one of two people killed in a car accident near Toowoomba. Since then Kathy has set up a charity where by she goes to high schools and talks to the year 11 and 12 students about road safety and about slowing down. The Charity is called Marcus MacDonald Charity – Youth Driver Awareness. Slow Down, Think and Protect. 

Tomorrow we will head off again up via Moonie, Dalby, Kingaroy, Murgon, Ban Ban Springs, Childers and then Bundaberg stopping somewhere overnight before Bundaberg. Some would do it in one run, but this pair like to see the countryside as we drive.

3 July 2014

Rather cool this morning and 1C degrees in the van, but outside 2mm of frost all over the car. It looked wonderful sparkling in the morning sun and slowly melted off.

Wonderful to have a car that works again, so we left the van park at 9am and headed up to Moonie. As usual there was little to see except for prickly pear that is nearly as high as the trees and bush. We did note that there seemed less rubbish on the side of the road.

First stop was Moonie where the car copped the windscreen rock and gave us our best star.

Moonie to Kingaroy was more interesting. The countryside was rich with crop farms and huge and I mean huge grain farms. A few cattle and goat farms but mostly miles of grain.

I can now see why truckies grown about caravans. We got stuck behind a Victorian caravan chugging along at 80Kph in a 110 K zone. Nowhere to pass, so I pulled over and gave him ten minutes lead.

We are booked into the Big 4 in Kingaroy and going to the RSL for dinner and the RSL bus will pick us up at 5:15pm.

Dinner was great, we both had roast lamb and a the bus took us back at 8:45pm. No signing in, any club card can be used to swipe the reciprocal clubs machine.

I tried to book a van park at Bundaberg at Glenlodge on Goodwood Road but they are full of Victorians soaking up the sun. When we were there last time the park was nearly empty.

We found one on the internet on the Old Gin Gin Road and luck too it was the last site. So by the time we do our shopping in Bundy, go and see Warbatons for some van parts, it will be time to have a rest. Our last rest before getting home and slipping into the old run of the mill.

4 July 2014

In 1969 on the 4^th July I was at Bearcat in Vietnam. Bearcat was the home of the Royal Thai Army Volunteer Forces (RTAVF) The Black Panthers. To celebrate American Independence a number of Australian and Marines pinched a box of hand flares and went to the Thai Officers mess. We stood in a line and on the count fired the flares and tossed the canisters under the mess and left the scene. Immediately there was a siren and lights of the MPs approaching and we sat back in safety and watched the whole show.

So that is a bit of history, what were you doing on the 4^th July 1969?

Today in Kingaroy, no frost as expected, just a miserable fog like mist of rain, enough to get wet in and we'll need to wear a coat to disconnect the cables and pipes.

We had a lovely night at the RSL, packed out, great dinner and raffles and we both had a win on the pokies and the bus took us home, so there was no driving.

On to Bundy today and as we cruised down the mountains and through the road works I thought to myself we must be back in Qld, back on the bony roads, sometimes like a roller coaster. The cars under carriage sure gets a workout.

Slightly different country today a bigger mix of cattle and smaller crop farms and the countryside was much more undulated and covered in rocks. Lower down the rocks had all been pushed into windrows allowing better access to the red brown soil.

Queensland is brown – I wish I could have pulled the green lush blanket of grass up over Queensland.

A number of road works, but this time no slow caravans. We picked up fuel at Goomeri and continued on into Bundaberg. I saw the caravan people and sorted out the hot water, Helen will be so happy and I got two sets of metal awning brackets, the originals are plastic, no wonder they broke.

We proceeded out to the Oakwood caravan park and it is lucky I've had plenty of backing practice because we had to turn into a driveway then back around a corner and into the site. Only site left in the park. It is level and we have stayed hooked up.

We went for a walk around the park and Helen spotted a Veteran sticker so we went to see who it was. Bob Johnson from 104 Sig Sqn 68/69

although I was in 104 Sig Sqn I didn't know him, he belonged to Admin Company. Anyhow we had a good chat and I've sent him a lot of info in the email since we have been back at the van.

A gentle spit of rain tonight... It seems that everywhere we go it rains.

5 July 2014

Homeward run today, 4 hours of holiday left.

Arrived home at 3pm to the yard looking great. Andrew & Vanessa had done a great job looking after it all.

The phone was not working, so no Internet, no phone calls, lucky we have a mobile and a wireless dongle to get out to report the fault.

The trip summary – The return trip down and back totalled 6569Kilometers, while we burned up 1168 litres of diesel at a total cost of $1889 while the ave cost per litre was 155.5cents per litre. The highest paid was 179.0cents at Wilcannia and the lowest was 151.9cents at Ballarat