On Our Way

On our way

In Canberra we had had some wonderful big frosts followed by brilliant sunny days which saw the temperatures into the minuses to start the day but getting up to 14 degrees during the day and if you sat in the sun, you even got a bit hot.

However – try to pack a campervan and sure as eggs the heavens open. That was what the last week before we went away was like. Every time I had a chance to get stuff organised, it rained. I ended up with piles of stuff everywhere which made the house look really untidy.

I have never gone away for more than two weeks so there was a lot of things to do last minute and a lot of things to do weeks ahead. I consolidated our two freezers so spent the last 3 weeks eating things that were in the freezer. I had pumpkin soup 4 times one week because that’s what was in there. I don’t want to see pumpkin soup for a while now!

It was a busy time at work trying to get all the dog grooming customers up to date. The exercise business was more fun, we did exercise and had lunch out as a mini farewell.

Between catching up with friends, working and dodging rain, I eventually got stuck into the packing and by Friday morning was in a state of 1000 things to do and try and leave by 10am.

That didn’t happen. At the last minute I wanted to clean the bathroom, I had things to iron as the rain had held up drying time, vacuum and wash the floor and tidy out the fridge, taking everything that might go off while we were away. It took longer that first thought and Greg hadn’t even packed his clothes. The camera gear was all good and covering most of the lounge room floor – hence I could not vacuum the floor until it was packed in the car.

I was despairing that we would never get out of Canberra – there was so much to do.

In spite of my complaining and impatience we left – at 12pm, both of us buggered already from running around doing last minute things. I was aiming to go to Bendigo in one hit but wondered whether that was going to be impossible given our state of tiredness already.

However, with our hot thermos, sandwiches packed, every decomposable item in the fridge in the esky in the car, clothes packed, doors and windows in the house locked and hoping that I had remembered most of everything – we were away. See you later house. Be back in a month.

Greg took the first leg of the drive. I forgot to turn off the fridge in the shed so called my neighbour to see if she could do that for me. ‘What else have I forgotten’, I asked myself.

The cruiser towed the little van with ease. Our first stop is Jugiong. Its not too far away but far enough to start getting the taste for a decent coffee. The Long Gully Café does one of the best smoked trout pates we have ever had. It was just past lunch time. We expected to find the café deserted as it was a Friday afternoon. We have been there during weekends and its been packed out. To our surprise it was really busy and we wondered whether we would get a table inside. We parked the cruiser and van went over to the café.

Pulling up at Jugiong for a well
earned coffee

We got a table inside, it was still busy but not overflowing, and ordered our coffees plus a pate to share with extra bread  - you never get enough bread with these things. Our order arrived piled high with fresh toasted bread and our favourite pate. How yummy it all was. The café also sells its own jams and pickles, you can buy local wine, there are also kitcheny bits like storage jars, aprons and that sort of thing for sale. Its always interesting.

I bought my peg bucket there a few trips ago. Just what you need and just what you want on a road trip! Anyway it’s a great peg bucket as its made of tin with a tin handle. Previously I had plastic ones and the handles always fall off and the plastic breaks. I think I will have this peg bucket until I am too old to hang out washing. It even says ‘pegs’ on it in case I get dementia and forget what its for!

The Long Gully Cafe at Jugiong

I did resist purchasing anything from the café at this time, although I did see a great hand crafted wooden noughts and crosses set that would be great to send to my nieces in Queensland. We ate our pate which was fantastic as usual, drank our coffee, used the rest rooms which are also nice and clean and got back on the road suitably refreshed.  It’s a really good place to stop, Jugiong and can highly recommend it. There is also a pub, petrol station, fruit and produce store, wine and crafts store and over the road is a great public park, loos and a great place to park under shady trees and walk a dog – which is what we used to do back in the days when we travelled with our dogs. (Don’t any more they died of old age a while back!)

Back on the road again and it was my turn to drive. The drive to Victoria down the Hume Highway is not very exciting. The good thing is the road is straight, duel highway and bypasses lots of towns now. The bad part is that it’s a pretty boring drive for everyone in the car – so I played music.

Greg decided to amuse himself by playing with a new toy. He bought himself a ‘go pro’ which is a little camera that sits on your windscreen and takes photos every 5 or 10 seconds, you can program it to take photos in whatever time increment you want.

 Firstly Greg could not figure out how the thing that sticks to the windscreen works with the camera. Then the camera housing didn’t go right. The fitting seemed to be upside down so it was taking photos of the passenger’s lap. The device has several hinges so it can swivel and be put on different angles depending on what car you have and what you want to take photos of. Since I was driving I could only see what he was doing out of the corner of my eye and to me it was like a grown man playing with a transformer toy. His remark was that it was just as well we had a long time to drive as it would take him that long to figure out how the camera fitted on the stand. He finally got it sorted  and the stand fitted on the window and the right way up etc. It amused him for hours. If it had been me I would have given up. We can’t see the photos its taken as we need to download software – roll on free internet somewhere!

The road wore on and the weather in true form became revolting. One minute it was raining that hard you had to put the windscreen wipers on to hyperactive and the next thing it wasn’t. The road was awash and looking out of the windows, low lying areas and creeks were waterlogged, right up to the top of their banks or flooded.

We finally came to Bendigo past 8pm and it was too much of a big drive. We were stuffed. My cousin Warwick is working in Melbourne at the moment and he drove home back to Bendigo too. He beat us only by 5 minutes. He did however have the heater on in the house so we came in to a nice warm house. He also invited us to spend the first night of our holiday in the luxury of a home. So, stuffed and tired and the thought of setting up camp in the rain and cold about as inviting eating mud – we took up his kind offer and crashed inside – the luxury of a loo down the hallway! My other cousin popped by with his wife, we ordered a pizza to be delivered, had a few wines/beers and had a very nice time indeed.

The holiday begins in earnest

Bendigo National Park goes all
the way to Heathcote - luckily I
turned off before then or I would
have been a really tired jogger!

The first thing I did when I got up was check out the weather. It wasn’t raining at the moment although it had rained all night so I took the opportunity to get my running kit on and go for a long awaited run. Actually it took a while to get the running kit together as my runners were in the car in a bag, my shorts somewhere else etc. I actually remembered to set my phone with ‘map my run’ so I wouldn’t get lost and off I went. I always try to go somewhere I haven’t been before in a new town and before long I found a National Park to run in. Just brilliant. I managed to nearly get lost before a walker told me the way out. It was so nice running again. I hadn’t had any exercise all week on account of the rain and I was nearly climbing the walls.

I got back and Greg who had had a sleep in while I was running, was up. I had a lovely hot shower. The last showers without having to wear thongs on your feet (flip flops for the uneducated) like you have to in public showers.

I cooked up some eggs on toast for us both and we set about getting the camper set up for that night. Then we hopped in the car and went down town for a coffee before hitting Coles for some groceries for the dinner that was to be that night.

My lovely Uncle Ray and me
Time is precious

My other cousin and her hubby and daughter were coming up from outside Melbourne.  My Uncle, who has lived in Bendigo and raised my cousins there is not very well was joining us for the evening. This gorgeous, precious man’s health is failing him. He has Parkinson’s disease and many other conditions and its so sad to see such a fit, independent and intelligent person decline into old age with a cruel disease. He now lives in a care facility. My cousins picked him up about 2.30 and he came home where he stayed until after the party. He was tired and maybe a little overwhelmed by all the attention and noise and people about but had such a great time.

Every time we get together it’s a loud hilarious affair that lasts hours and fills up the recycling bin with spent bottles. We all had a ball. It was so great to all be together and these times are so precious as you never know what is around the corner.

Main street Bendigo on a cold and
very gloomy Sunday

The next day was Sunday and my cousins who came up from outside of Melbourne had to go home. My cousin had his own stuff to do and we were meeting Greg’s family in town as his cousin and her husband had come for a visit from Holland.

Last night with the luxury of a loung
and a cosy fire.  Going to miss this!

We all met up at a Exchange which is a licensed café.  Having visitors up meant that we did tourist things so we all hopped on the talking tram – a tram that visits historical sites around town. We had never been on it in spite of visiting Bendigo numerous times.  The talking tram has a recorded story on it. Its really informative except when the tram goes around a bend as the metal wheels on the tracks make the most ear wrenching squeal and you could not hear a thing until you were around the corner. I don’t think the Dutch cousins understood much of it and the tram had no heating so we all froze. We also visited their cathedral which was magnificent, even if it did take 100 years until it was finished.

Greg, his cousin and her husband from Holland and I.
They came out to Australia expecting hot weather and
had to go shopping for warm clothes as it was freezing!

Greg’s Dutch family were great fun and spoke English really well. We enjoyed the time we had together but Greg’s sister had to work the next day so they left about 3.30 to go back to Melbourne. We went home to our place where I made a cassarole and Greg lit the open fire. By the time my cousin came home, dinner was on the go. He had to get up early the next day to return to his Melbourne job so we kicked back in the cosy lounge with the nice open fire and Greg went to sleep on the couch. I loved it all up knowing that it was camper van and no couch for another month!

Monday

I heard my cousin leave at 6am and rolled over and went back to sleep. Eventually surfacing at 7.30, it was another grey and drizzly day and not one that inspires the soul at all.

We packed up and I visited my Uncle in his place of residence which is a really nice place. I mean I have visited lots of nursing homes to see friends and family and even worked in one for a short time and this one was very big but also really well spaced out. The rooms were not too small either.

Inside the St Paul's in Bendigo

Greg capturing a detail on the wall
of St Paul's

Staircase at The Shamrock
Pub in Bendigo, one of the
oldest and beautifully restored

Uncle was very pleased to see me and my other cousin’s wife who took me there and we had a nice little visit. He insisted on walking me to the front door to say goodbye and got a little teary – until he saw that in the activity room they had putt golf so got interested in that. I left without further fanfare seeing that his attention was on something else. Said a sad goodbye to my friend and joined Greg in the car. Greg didn’t go to see Ray as he said he had a sore throat and the last thing an older person needs is a cold lurgy.  Greg had spent his time alone in the car probably enjoying a little solitude and reprogramming the GPS.

One of the restored trams in the Bendigo
tram workshop

We were hoping to get to Mildura. As the drizzle and the gloominess of Bendigo slipped away as we travelled on the highway out of town, we passed through a few small towns until we got to Swan Hill. Mildura was another 2 to 3 hours away. It was almost 3pm so we decided to camp for the night.  The weather was clearing and there was spots of Sunshine!!!!

Boring drive Bendigo to Swan Hill
but at least the weather was improving

The big 4 caravan park in the middle of town, right on the river was one we had camped as newlyweds some 20 years ago and I think we got in pretty much the same spot. It’s a very nice caravan park.  Last time we camped we were in a 2 man tent – one of those old fashioned triangle ones. Well this time we went up in class as not only did we have a van but we got a slab spot too. You park the van on the gravel next to a slab of cement. Its awfully posh as when you set up your camping table its on even ground so your wine doesn’t tip over. It also saves a lot of outdoors coming indoors on your feet into your van.  The park was well maintained as you would expect a Big 4. We set up our camp and I made some lunch and suddenly we had visitors.

Great big birds, not sure whether they are geese or ducks but huge! They did seem gentle as I thought I was going to get pecked to death but wasn’t. They do make this snuffling noise and sometimes puff up their necks  and snort but it does not seem to be as a threat to people, more a warning to other birds.  They did seem fine with waddling around seeing if any careless human had dropped anything of interest and then wandering off only to come back in another 10 minutes with a few more friends to repeat the process. They weren’t shy either. One stuck its head almost on my lap in search of something to eat and scared the life out of me.

Upmarket on a slab with bonus duck things

There were also normal ducks, some grey birds that have pretty yellow bits on them and swoop close to you when they land on something. Its like they are swooping you but they aren’t but its horrible anyway.  Yea Caz the bird watching fanatic – not! We were going for a walk in town when these birds visited us but they flew away after scaring me and that was it. Maybe that’s what they do, scare the life out of people who think they are going to loose an eye from a kamikaze bird then fly off extending upright the middle wing feather in solute.

The river right outside our camp. Ahh feel the serenity!

The river is so high and is flowing swiftly. I have not seen it so high and it wouldn’t take much to be over flowing the bank. Not that long ago it was down to a trickle in the drought. The paddle steamer takes tourists on rides and comes in on the right hand side of the junction that the caravan park is on. It whistles and toots and its really exciting until the poor thing hits the main river and then the driver must have to give it some herbs to overcome the current as we thought he was turning around – he wasn’t it was just the current was so strong and he was going against it and the poor old boat was having a hard time of it all. The commentary on the loudspeakers didn’t miss a beat. Looked really funny though, here comes the paddle steamer and there it goes nearly backwards and sideways and then in fart and a big puff of smoke up the river it goes chatting all the way.

The first time I cooked in the camper I decided to do our Monday tradition, which is green curry vegetables. It redeems the sins from the weekend as it normally goes with an alcohol free day. Anyway after failing an alcohol free day but only having one glass of white – which isn’t much, I started my cooking. There is not a lot of room in the van and cutting up a pot full of vegies took me some time. To save waste and room, instead of my normal green curry paste, I bought some in a tin. That way there are no left overs requiring refrigeration. So I put the whole tin in with the coconut milk and some coriander leaves, veggie stock powder, a little sugar and boiled the whole lot up. Using the tiny stove really warmed the camper and in no time we were warm as toast. I served my very healthy dinner and we dined in our camper for the first time.

Holly CRAP it was hot, I mean it was hot because it just came off the stove but it was so hot like curry hot, that it was almost unbearable. We sat there eating our curry with noses running, eyes watering and Greg even broke into a sweat. I nearly hyperventilated trying to blow cool air on the dinner and then trying to breathe through the intense heat that was inventing a whole new pain threshold in my mouth.

Eventually I found some sour cream – but that made not a bit of difference. We suffered through our dinner in panting silence, broken only by requests for more serviettes and Greg counting the towns between Swan Hill and Mildura as we would probably need every one as the curry worked its cleansing magic the next day.

Greg had had a sore throat and I remarked that this curry would fix it. He agreed  whole heartedly as in his opinion he had no throat any more so it would not be causing a problem.

We were both quite relieved when dinner was over. I offered to go and buy ice cream.

By now it was well into the night and it was getting cold so before we really settled in and got an attack of the lazy’s, we did the dishes and we settled in for the night, me typing this and Greg reading brochures about places we hoped to travel. All I need now is some free internet to post it all up! Roll on a McDonald’s coffee in the morning.