SUNDAY 1 MAY     POREPUNKAH

Dog was up and about early, again, so I took her off walking, so John could sleep in, in peace.

After breakfast, we went off driving again, this time to Mystic Mountain, just to the south of Bright. The para gliders yesterday had intrigued John and he wanted to see where they launched from. We followed directions given in some tourist propaganda we’d picked up at the park office.

The designated minor sealed road turned into an unsealed dirt one, with lots of hairpin bends, and quite severe drops to one side. Not my favourite sort of road. At the top was a launch area – a big, cleared, pad with synthetic grass, leading to a steep drop off.

The outlook from here was pretty good. It was, after all, high up, in order for gliders to catch updrafts and currents that swirled amongst the ranges. Logging tracks in the forests were obvious. I suspected the track we’d come up had started its life as a logging track too.

Unfortunately, also obvious were recently logged areas – a real landscape scar. Still, we need timber and if that is gained from pine plantations rather than native forests, I can cope……

A man arrived not long after us. He assessed the flying conditions as “marginal”. John chatted with him for a while. M and I walked further along, to look at different view angles. He didn’t launch his glider off whilst we were there. Pity – it would have been interesting to watch.

Clearly, dog did not like it when John and I were separated by some distance. She whined and complained. I presumed her pack instincts were kicking in, and she wanted said pack in one place – close!

We set off back down the “hairy” mountain, but detoured along a similar track to get to Huggins Lookout – lower down and closer to Bright.

From that Lookout, there were good views over the town.

M and I had plans for this afternoon – to visit the Bright Brewery and listen to the live entertainment that would be on there. However, John had other ideas, having spotted the bowls club on our drives around town. He checked it out and discovered there was a game at 1pm today. So, after a quick lunch, he was away.

M and I went walking. Just along from the caravan park there was a little suspension bridge across the river. We took that – Couey wasn’t too sure about it at first, but trusted us, in the end. We intersected with the Rail Trail and followed that, towards Bright, as far as the 3km marker, past the pretty golf club. Then we backtracked to Porepunkah village. At the Rail Trail Cafe, we sat and had coffees. Couey had a bowl of water. I like places that think of dogs.

From there, we crossed on an old bridge, now pedestrian only, and followed the riverside track back to the park. It was a very pleasant, reasonably long walk that I thoroughly enjoyed.

When we got back, John was home from bowls, which had finished unusually early. He’d enjoyed himself and played well. Those two facts were probably linked!

We sat round chatting for the rest of the afternoon, talking about what we might do, after here. The original idea was – if the dog behaved acceptably – to mooch west along the Murray, until we felt it was time to go home. M might then head further on by herself – maybe up to Birdsville. Rutherglen was an attractive first place by the Murray to base ourselves for a few days, M and I thought.

Now, John had the idea that he would like to go and stay at Beechworth for a few days, from Friday next. That would be pleasant enough.

Several years ago, John met a fellow traveller namesake in the remote reaches of the Kimberley. That John hailed from these parts, having grown up in Beechworth, where my John’s parents hailed from, and was some sort of cousin. We had kept in touch. They now lived at Cheshunt. My John wanted to meet up again, to discuss some family history stuff that daughter had told him about. Hence the Beechworth idea. He couldn’t seem to grasp that Cheshunt is actually a considerable distance from Beechworth!

Had soup for tea, and the pasta I’d bought yesterday. I made a tomato and caper sauce to go with it – very nice.

After tea, while watching TV, John ate a lot of the walnuts bought yesterday. I am not sure of the limit of how many walnuts are good for people and how many are too many?