FRIDAY 6 MARCH   HEALESVILLE TO ALBURY   328kms

Rain set in during the night and the grey morning, plus the night before, probably explained why we didn’t get up until 9am!

Final packing up and hitching up went well – although wet – and we left the park at 10.20am.

A few days ago, John had been looking at maps and talking of heading north via the road through Toolangi. I was against this idea because of the nature of that route through the range! I was pleased that, in the end, he took the sensible route: Healesville to Yarra Glen, thence to Yea. That was fine by me. Truck pulled the van up the winding section from Dixons Creek to the top of the range, quite easily, and John took it carefully down the other side.

But then, at Merton, he decided on the spur of the moment to take the road to Euroa, assuring me that he’d been that way before and it was much better than the way I’d planned, through Maindample to Benalla. It wasn’t! It was winding and hilly and seemed to take ages to do that 30kms. John is not quite satisfied with the van brakes – they do not seem to act to slow the van as much as he would like.

We stopped in Euroa so I could buy rolls for lunch. John decided he wanted some chips to be going on with. Had a coffee break a bit north of Euroa, at a roadside stop beside the Hume Highway. Our lunch break was then at a rest area north of Benalla, overlooking Lake Mokoan.

The rain had stopped by now, but it was still quite a grey day.

Followed the highway through Wodonga and crossed the series of bridges that span the Murray River and associated backwaters. Finally, we have reached NSW!

It was mid afternoon when we got to Albury. Navigated our way to the Albury Motor Village, on the Wagga Road – lots of turns and traffic to negotiate through Wodonga and Albury. Our powered site cost $14.40, after Big 4 discount.

After we’d done the minimal set up for an overnight stay, John washed down the van and Truck, which had come off second best through a long stretch of muddy roadworks on the Hume Highway.

We took the bikes off the van and took ourselves off for a ride through streets on the outskirts of Albury. It was a bit too windy for really pleasant riding, but it was exercise after the drive. It has been too long since we were on the bikes, but we managed 12.5kms.  Most of the time in Healesville, it had been too hot – and there is a discouragingly long uphill section between the park and the town!

When we got back to the van, found that the hose had come off the van while we were away and created quite a flooded area. The man from the next van had eventually turned off the tap. John can’t have quite clicked it back into place after washing the rig, and the water pressure is actually very strong here. Whoops!

Went and bought fish and chips for tea.