It was a really hot day. We needed a quiet one.
We both pottered about. John put up the new aerial. He had to drive home to get some bits and pieces he needed, from his shed, so the project occupied much of his day. At the end of all that, we receive 3 channels – a result he is happy with, given the hilly and treed surrounds here.
I read and sewed, and did some more research on shares.
We were up really early and left the park at 6am! It was still dark. The reason for this unlikely behaviour was that Truck was booked in for a service at the Frankston dealer’s, where we bought it. John is also getting mudflaps and Polyair suspension airbags fitted, and the tyres rotated. Frankston is a long way from Healesville. At least, we were so early that we were before the worst of the traffic, and we had Truck there by the required 8am.
We had several hours to fill in somehow, and without our own transport. John’s first idea was to visit one of his sisters, at Seaford. He thought we could walk it – turned out to be about 4kms, and by the time we got there, she was not home. He had not contacted her in advance.
Rather than walk back to Frankston, we managed to catch a bus to the centre.
Spent over an hour browsing in an Office Works shop. Actual shopping had to be very limited because of having to carry anything we bought, for hours. Had a coffee. Then to Lincraft so I could browse – but there was some pressure on me not to take too long! We bought rolls for lunch and ate them outside the shop.
John wanted to go to the cinema. We saw “As Good as it Gets” and enjoyed the film. Jack Nicholson was very good; the dog was excellent!
Took a taxi back to the Landrover dealership, about which John was not particularly happy, but I was tired and it was just too much effort to walk, or try to find a correct bus. I needed easy mode! The taxi only cost $7.50, anyway.
Work was all done. It all cost $650, which we were satisfied with. But we are starting to suspect that nothing associated with Landrovers is cheap!
Also bought some coolant for Truck – to be emergency supply. The “recipe” is 3 bottles of this into radiator and fill up with water. Hope we don’t need this.
It was a tedious drive back to Healesville, through the building late afternoon traffic.
John’s younger daughter was expected to tea tonight – only time she had available, but not the best timing for us.
I cooked steak and mushrooms, served with salad. Fruit to follow. Not particularly fancy, but time was restricted.
While I was preparing tea, I heard a great crashing noise outside. Further along the row of sites, a large branch had fallen from a gum tree. It fell neatly between two adjacent vans, with the only damage very slight, to a car. Very lucky in the way it fell – would have squashed the vans had it landed on them. I am pleased that there are no sizeable trees hanging over us.
Pleasant enough evening, and R did not stay late, which was good as we both needed an early night.
We drove 185kms today. Two big days of driving in a row.
The days are getting hotter, again.
We had to go to Windsor today, for John to have six month check on his hip replacement with the surgeon. So combined that with other things around the inner city.
Drove to central Melbourne and parked in a place where we only had to walk a few blocks to get to Michael’s Camera Shop. There, John wanted to have a close up look at a digital camera he is thinking of buying. This is new technology so, of course, he wants to try it!
While in that shop, he bought me Pentax binoculars. Back in 1993, when we got interested in bird identification, we bought a set from a pawnshop in Carnarvon. They were actually quite good, but got drowned when John fell in the Roper River whilst wearing them. So I am really happy to have good new ones. They really work well. Will make bird spotting so much easier.
I bought some special nuts from a city shop as a gift to the people we are dining with tonight.
I find the city quite unpleasant, these days – grubby, frenetic.
To Windsor. The surgeon was quite happy with his handiwork and John’s progress. It is progressing as he expected. John is to see him again this time next year, when we are back in Melbourne for K’s wedding. Surgeon wants some photos of John doing active things with his new hip.
John bought his new TV aerial – at Radio Parts. It cost $120.
Got diesel at Chirnside Park – 72 cpl.
Bought ourselves some groceries and some beer and wine to take to dinner.
So we went on and had tea with H and R. It was a lovely meal and very pleasant talk, over a range of topics. We hadn’t realized until tonight that they had spent some time living in Alice Springs. R has a computer supply business, so we arranged for him to get John a laptop, digital camera (the one we inspected in the city) and a scanner.
I will be really happy when John has the laptop. He has tended to take over the little, obsolete stock one that I bought before we left, to write letters on. It will be good to be able to use it when I want!
John using my little laptop, whilst I am relegated to using pen and paper!
It was a big day out, but I really do not like the city. We drove 170kms.
Badger Creek is a misnomer, as we do not have badgers in Australia. It was probably thus named because there were lots of wombats in the district, and there is a degree of similarity between the two creatures.
Rode the bikes into Healesville in the morning, where I bought rolls for lunch and some doughnuts and cakes for afternoon tea. We bought a Sunday paper and John hired a couple of videos – to fill the void left by the absence of TV! Cycled 10.3kms, so the park is about 5kms from town.
After lunch we had a visit from P and K, who wanted to have a look at the rig in our set up mode. They brought friend R and his friend C with them. It was a pleasant visit – nice to play hostess again, and to socialize.
Tea was ham and cheese sausages. Have not had those before and certainly will not again! They were very fatty, and did not taste all that nice.
We are not far from the Healesville Sanctuary and in the late afternoon can hear the dingoes howling – I like the sound.
I drove to the shopping centre to get the Saturday Age. Bought some groceries, wine and lunch rolls too.
The only drawback of this caravan park is that it is too far from the town to walk, on a regular basis, especially if it is at all hot, and there is shopping to carry.
Read the paper.
John went off to bowls, taking Truck.
Now that we are back in Melbourne, I could not put off any longer a chore that has been hanging over my head since before Xmas. About a dozen of my former staff asked me to write references for them, for future use. This is akin to writing student reports, and not fun! Spent the afternoon writing, and got them all drafted. Will give the hand written versions to P, who will take them to work and type and print them up for me on the school’s letterhead. I do feel better for not still having all that to do.
Tea was mince chow mein again, at John’s request.
John enjoyed the afternoon of competition bowls at our club. He filled in for an unavailable player, and so played a “proper” game.
The environment at this park is so pleasant, with lots of birds around.
The moving on routine gets easier each time. We were quick and efficient again today. Like the traveller yesterday, had to take great care getting out of the site. No one claimed the forgotten door mat, so it is ours. Will be a good one to have outside, in front of the portable step.
We were in Melbourne by late morning. Made our way through lots of traffic, via Carlton, Eastern Freeway, Springvale Road to Wantirna, the location of my choice of caravan park for our stay here. Found it was full – and it did not look all that attractive, anyway – a concrete jungle.
Checked my RACV caravan park book and thought that one of the two parks at Healesville would be convenient enough for us. But John remembered a park at Monbulk and wanted to go there, so we continued on out the Burwood Highway and through the Dandenongs to Monbulk. The park was unspeakable – grotty, gloomy, full of ferals; I doubted they even took tourists! Even John admitted it was not what he thought. It was no wonder that I had never even heard of its existence, and had not been able to find it in the RACV book!
He agreed to try Healesville. From Monbulk we went via Seville, where we bought lunch rolls, which we ate there, then Woori Yallock. By this time, John was getting impatient and his leg was hurting. Found ourselves on a long downhill stretch of road – he had not slowed at the top or changed down gears and by the time we reached the bottom, were doing well over 100kmh! Very scary – and a lesson in that. Obviously, there are some driving techniques still to be learned.
Badger Creek Caravan Park at Healesville had room for us – a good powered site in a very picturesque park, with lots of trees, and the Badger Creek running along one boundary. It is still flowing quite well, even at this end of the dry summer. $16 a night, with the 7th night free. I will like it here. The amenities are clean, roomy, but I am not sure about the piped music though.
Did a basic set up as the afternoon was getting on, and we had plans for it.
Drove home where we were reunited with the pets again. Dropped off some surplus gear, like the extra number of tent/awning poles. Had a chat with P and K. Thence to John’s bowls club, where he checked out coming games.
Bought fish and chips for tea, in Healesville. They were too greasy.
John discovered he could not get any decent TV reception. As we are surrounded by hills, this is not surprising!
Our round about route from Torquay to Healesville
It was a great looking morning, with little wind. Warm enough to need to wear shorts.
The Cairns people in the big van opposite found it difficult to manoeuvre out, with the narrow roads and tight corners of this park, and clipped the side mirror of a parked car. Very embarrassing for them.
Then I noticed that another van that had departed much earlier, had left a rubber doormat behind. Rather than leave it for the next arrivals to find, decided to bring it over to our site – but displayed it prominently on the outside table, in the unlikely event they returned for it. That’s the sort of thing you don’t realize you’ve lost until you are setting up in the next place. So, we may have come by a very useful mat.
Drove to the Torquay bike shop, looking for replacement tyres for my bike. The man there explained that tyres with a continuous line down the centre are the smoothest to ride on bitumen, and as we do a lot of that sort of riding, that was what I wanted. But he didn’t have any we liked. I think my current ones should last a while yet, anyway.
Went on to Anglesea, where we viewed Alcoa’s power generating plant, for their Geelong smelter, from the outside. Drove alongside the open cut brown coal mine that feeds it.
Took some dirt roads through the forest, so John could further explore the capabilities of the Truck. Then retraced our route. Could see a real maze of tracks going up the hills.
In Anglesea, bought rolls and scrolls for lunch, drove west, out to Eastern View, and sat in the car park there, eating lunch overlooking the sea and beach. We could see Lorne in the distance, and Aireys Inlet lighthouse the other way. Blue sea, good views – very pleasant.
Drove back to Aireys Inlet and then out to the Distillery Creek picnic area. From there, walked the Ironbark Gorge walking track circuit – it took us an hour and a half, at a fairly leisurely pace. The walk is listed as 2.2kms but it felt a bit longer. It was an easy enough track, but quite hot and still in amongst the trees and scrub. There was some variation to keep it interesting: ironbark forest, then scrubby land, then into a small gorge, where the creek was dry. It would be lovely in spring. Then there was a fern gully and we were back into the ironbarks. Along the way, we spotted a Southern Scrub Wren – a new bird for us.
John wanted to drive some more tracks, so we followed gravel roads, using the guide in the Great Ocean Road book I had. Supposedly, there were stops along the route to observe different aspects of recovery from the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires that were so destructive in these parts. But we didn’t do those. Eventually found ourselves up the back of the Alcoa coal mine again, which was not where I thought we were! So we cut back to Anglesea and on back to Torquay.
Got diesel, in view of our trip tomorrow. 72cpl.
Tea was an omelette, fries, leftover risotto, salad, with bananas and ice cream to follow.
While it was still light, did preliminary pack up, including taking down the awning. Sorted the awning poles and the big tent poles, which are interchangeable; it has dawned that we can, therefore, leave some of these at home. More weight reduction.
John spoke to another traveller with a TV aerial that looked like a Deeper Image one. He recommended it – said it came from Hardings and cost about $150. It has booster plugs in it, inside the van, so there is no need for a hole through the van. Another man told John they are available from a shop in Spencer Street, in the city.
I had an earache for much of the evening – no idea why.
Woke to a very pleasant, sunny morning, but with a rising wind.
John went and bought the Geelong Advertiser paper and looked up all the bowls listed. He rang up and got a game at the Eastern Beach club, in the afternoon, so he had to drive into Geelong for that.
I wrote letters to a friend and to K, recounting our travels to date. I had planned to walk to the PO to mail these, but it had become so windy that I was reluctant to leave the awning and van. I really wondered how well they would stand up, and whether flying debris would do damage. It didn’t feel safe to be out and about, anyway – real fire weather. There was a fire near Colac, which was contained later in the day.
I ended up reading for much of the afternoon. Walked to the post box outside the park and posted my two letters.
John returned from bowls not very happy – the wind had made it very difficult to bowl consistently.
A couple with a big van, parked near us, came and asked about the Trakmaster and we showed them over the van. They are looking to change to an off roader. He said we’d get ours as far as Weipa, on Cape York, easily.
The wind dropped a bit, later in the day.
Tea was tomato and mushroom risotto.
I did two loads of washing – $2 a load; hoped the weather would stay favourable for drying same. It did.
We drove to the Torquay shops and claimed our lotto prizes from Saturday night – collected $87.60. Every bit helps!
We drove on to Anglesea because John thought he might be able to get a bowls game there – but nothing was on. Bought rolls and scrolls there, for lunch.
On the way back to Torquay, we stopped to have a look at the famous surfing mecca of Bells Beach – there were a few people surfing on medium-looking waves. I can’t really see the attraction, but the activity and associated lifestyle is obviously addictive for many. We have seen some older surfies around the area – to me, grey hair with wet suit looks somehow incongruous.
John finished letters to his daughters and we went to the PO to mail them. I bought ingredients for a risotto.
Felt like a bike ride, so went up the Deep Creek Nature Walk to its end, then cut back to the east and onto Horseshoe Bend Road. Rode north on that until we felt it was far enough, and rode back to the van. It was a good ride of 17.5kms, but there was a headwind on the return leg that made it rather hard.
After this, was too late to cook risotto, so I put some salad together which we had with pink salmon from a tin, followed, of course, by strawberries! Well, we do love them at this time of year – and they are an easy dessert.
The big day today! It is seven weeks since we set off, too.
We had to get up at 7am. It was raining solidly and so would have been a great day to stay in bed!
Left for Melbourne about 8.45am. There was quite heavy traffic in Geelong, and heading in, even though we thought we’d miss the worst of the peak hour. Had to get diesel there – 72cpl.
It was a miserable driving morning, with the rain. We took the Princes Highway, then went in through Footscray. We actually got a parking place not far from the Royal Melbourne Hospital, but still got damp walking there.
It is a dismal hospital. John did not have to wait too long. His fears of big and nasty tests turned out to be unfounded – it was only a blood take, but lots of phials of same. There was much relief, on both our parts. It will take a week or two before the test results are received by John’s physician, but we are quietly optimistic, since going off the Warfarin does not seem to have had any ill effects.
John felt up to driving out to Box Hill to see Deeper Image about a TV aerial. Their system employs a booster, needs a hole putting through the van wall, and costs about $250. Obviously, for that price, the booster would need to make a big difference! We decide to wait and see C at Trakmaster about making a hole for it, when we are in Melbourne. I do not like the idea of another hole in the van wall. If it was up to me, would not bother about TV at all!
In teeming rain, returned to Geelong, via the SE Freeway and Westgate Bridge. There was heaps of traffic, even though it was only mid afternoon.
Stopped in Geelong, at All Tools. John bought two props – $89 – big, solid, orange, and a hazard for unwary fingers! Got some fruit and vegies at Grovedale, on the way through.
One of the heavy prop stands in use (taken at a later date)
After we’d had a cup of tea, back at the van, there was less rain, so we went for a walk along the beach. This seemed very pleasant and easy for about 2kms, until we turned to go back – and realized just how strong the tailwind had been! John really battled into the wind. He drove some 240kms today, much of it in traffic, so we were very pleased that his leg was even up to walking! Progress is happening.
For tea we had cold roast lamb, salad, and strawberries.
This Adventurous Age 