December 2012

02 December 2012

This morning finds us camped in a great caravan park in the town of Coolamon NSW. Heavy rain and wind over the past two days has stopped all harvest work and so rather than sit around in Grongy (as the locals call it) we decided to have a look around the area somewhat and took a drive.

Driving through a small village called Matong we arrived in a very nice looking town called Ganmain (too early for the twilight markets) before we eventually arrived in Coolamon, the main street of which is up the hill from the railway and grain silo at the bottom.

Coolamon

The caravan park here is a cracker with bookings made through the town newsagent and a site with power, water and drainage on each of the 15 sites, a laundry and new toilet block next to the town swimming pool, a 10 minute walk into town and all for the princely sum of $10 per night!

So with the last site available in our possession and despite the rain we enjoyed an afternoon settling in and getting to know the neighbours over happy hour.

A call to work this morning resulted in exactly what we thought it would be - no work today. The unseasonal rain really did muck things up and talking to most people (even at work) the harvest here is almost over and will wind up in the very near future, and with the sad news of Joanne's sisters partner Ian passing away this morning, it looks like we will be finishing here shortly and heading to Melbourne to be with family again.

09 December 2012

This morning we packed up and headed West out of Melbourne and on the way dropping Joanne's niece Bronwyn at the airport as she makes her way North to Darwin again. The weather yesterday was quite hot with a 30 deg day but today it is cooler and very windy which made driving quite a challenge, especially with large trucks either side of us as we went down the freeway, but lets go back a bit (like a week) because quite a bit has happened since the last entry.

We finished work in Grong Grong at 8pm on the evening of Wednesday 5 December and hit the road, driving for a bit to knock off some kilometers in order to give us the best chance of arriving at Ian's funeral tomorrow on time. It was a tad strange to be driving at night and we sure got a first hand experience at the number of truck and road trains on the road.

Grong Grong Silo's

The Grong Grong Silo's at Sunset (our last night's Sunset there)

With a few kilometers down and around 10pm we stopped in Jerliderie at a small riverside free camp just out of town and with only one other camper in it was easy to pick a spot away from trees that may fall or drop a limb (as they are prone to do) for a good nights sleep with the river noise in the background.

We were up and hit the road early, getting some more distance in before stopping behind a highway service centre for a shower and breakfast before driving the last 300 kilometers onto Ballarat, arriving at the funeral home with about 40 minutes to spare. It was nice to surprise and be back with friends and family, and to be there for Ian's last hurrah which went off very well. Ian had opted for a private cremation after the service so after leaving the funeral home we all went to a local golf club for afternoon tea before driving on and stopping overnight with Janine and some of Ian's family for a party that Ian would have enjoyed.

The next morning it was an uneventful trip through Melbourne and onto Joanne's Dad's place to attend a nieces 21st Birthday party which also went off very well. The next day being one of recovery from the two late nights and some indulgence.

So back to the present and here we are back at Janine's place for an overnight stop as we head West towards Adelaide.

10 December 2012

A cool night and morning saw us rug up for our departure with a stiff cold South Easterly wind blowing on our left quarter, and with a diesel shortage in Victoria we wondered how far we would get.

We were on the main highway to Adelaide and eventually found fuel at a highway service centre just out of Ararat. The sun was out but that cool wind was still there. A stop in Horsham to top up some food items and it was on towards the South Australian border with more and more wheat and canola being harvested.

Joanne had noted a campsite at the recreation reserve ($10 for power and water) in a little town called Serviceton where there also happened to be a large historic railway station so we dropped in for a look at both. On arrival at the station we were met by a local man by the name of Ron. He offered to give us a guided tour through the place which is no longer a working station and is part of the National Trust.

It turns out that Ron is a wealth of knowledge on the building and its rich history (complete with Mortuary and Cells). Built midway between Melbourne and Adelaide on what was "disputed territory" in 1889 the station then straddled the border with two different gauge rails meeting and the building itself having two separate stations (Vic and SA).

Serviceton Station Map

Two States Ticket Counters

The joint ticket office (ticket desk for SA in foreground and Vic in background)

Leaving Serviceton we took the back road through Wolsley and onto Bordertown (which is not at the border but is the birthplace of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke) where we are camped next to to the Bordertown Recreation Lake just a stones throw from town.

It's our 35th Wedding Anniversary today and we couldn't think of a better way to be spending it - touring.

11-22 December 2012

Heading for towards Adelaide we arrived at and passed through the river towns of Murray Bridge, Tailem Bend and even a look and a ferry ride at Mannum before we enjoyed a peaceful night at a roadside lookout not far from Bear Rock (which is shaped like a polar bear on all fours) just North of the town of Palmer.

Bear Rock Lookout

Our lofty perch for the night.

Leaving our lofty campsite we drove through the Adelaide hills and eventually arrived in the busy streets of Adelaide. Threading our way through the suburbs we arrived at the factory where our new fridge came from and spoke to one of the owners about the issues we have with the fridge running all of the time during hot weather. David took our fridge for testing and we took off to visit our good friends the Elliot's, where we spent two days. We even had time to do a Christmas Lights tour.

Adelaide Christmas Lights

A grainy phone picture of the beautiful street where every house had its Christmas lights on.

With the fridge returned and reinstalled we spent the weekend in a caravan park on 240v power testing the fridge with two temperature probes to monitor its performance. Unfortunately the weather decided to turn for the worst and didn't help us in our quest. Returning to the factory on Monday we swapped our old fridge with a replacement one and spent the night locked in the factory yard, on power and testing the new fridge. The next morning we spoke with David again and decided that the fridge seemed to be working properly and we left Adelaide, climbing up and over the very large hills that flank the city and out into the beautiful countryside.

We decided to stay off the main highway and took the Mallee Highway towards Pinneroo where we wanted to check out a possible future workplace on a very large potato, onion and carrot farm. We also took the opportunity to inspect a number of campsites in some of the small towns, eventually stopping for the night in a roadside rest area just before the Victorian Border.

Passing through more small country towns including the very nice town of Moliagul in Victoria, where the worlds largest pure alluvial gold nugget was found back in 1869. The nugget was found 1 inch below the surface tangled in the roots of an old stringy bark tree by John Deason and Richard Oates some 40 metres from Deasons home. When extracted the nugget weighed in at 2332 ounces (109.6 kg) which when cleaned up was 69.3 kg of actual gold nugget with the quartz and ironstone surrounding it containing a further 39.6 kg worth of gold. Interestingly the nugget had to be cut into three pieces to fit on the bank scales. Valued and bought by the bank foir 9,381 pounds (in the millions today).

We eventually arrived at the small freedom camp on the Loddon River at Laanecoorie and spent a very peaceful night there with half a dozen others.

Loddon River

Our Loddon River Campsite

Waking to a very cool morning we left before any of the others were up. Taking a few wrong turns we ended up enjoying some real country lanes, many of which were no wider than our vehicle. Arriving in the quaint town of Maldon we found a nice place to park and used that stop to have a shower and breakfast.

Skirting around the big smoke of Melbourne we ended up at Kinglake, a nice town that four years ago was a scene of toal devastation from bush fires. We stopped for lunch at the lookout where the sun was warming us nicely as long as we stood out of the very cool wind and where the City of Melbourne could be seen far off in the distance.

Smog and haze obscuring Melbourne from Kinglake

Melbourne

Zoomed in

Lunch over we spent the next hour or so climbing hills and dropping down again through some wonderfully tree lined countryside eventually arriving at Joanne's Dads place. So for duration of the festive season the touring and work are on hold.

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2013 everyone.