WEDNESDAY 4 MAY     POREPUNKAH

John had volunteered to do the early morning routine with Couey today, so I could sleep in. Nice of him. However, he needed to ask about things a couple of times, and was in and out of the van several times, so there was actually no hope of me staying asleep! I got up before they were back from the morning walk.

Son’s birthday. I sent him a text.

It was a lovely day, after yesterday’s rain had freshened up the place.

We drove into Bright and parked down behind the Visitor Centre, near the Ovens River.

Then walked across the nearby bridge and turned onto the Canyon walking track.

The Canyon is just that – where the river has cut a narrow little course through rock. It is neither all that deep, nor all that long, but made for an interesting walk, having seen historic gold mining activity.

Some of the sluice channels cut by miners remained.

M opted to do the full Canyon circuit, which returned her to Bright via the somewhat rugged track along the southern side of the Canyon. John and I opted to continue on to where the former railway bridge crosses the Ovens, and walk back to town along the Rail Trail. This was longer, but easier going.

John had Couey off lead for some of the time. She did really well, moving out in front of us a little way, but always watching us, and then running back to the last person to “check” them, before going back to the front. Interesting to see the herding instinct coming out, and being applied to people.

John needed to rest a couple of times on the walk. It really stretched him. We probably did bout 5kms.

Encountered a man about to set out on a bike ride with a group of school children, from out of town. He commented on our “Smithfield” dog – rather a common error as they both have bob tails. After a bit of a chat about dogs and what we were doing, he invited us to go camp on his cattle property, down towards Cheshunt. He thought he knew the other John and his wife. It was an interesting offer, but I explained that we were planning to follow the Murray downstream.

Met back up with M in town and had a Subway lunch. I went to a gourmet butcher shop and bought some meat and sausages.

Back to camp. Couey was worn out and slept all afternoon. I read, and sewed. John napped.

Later, new neighbours moved onto site. Another test for dog. She watched them arrive and set up, but didn’t bark or growl. She really is so good.

John had been thinking about our plans again. Never a good sign. Now, after catching up with the other John, he had decided we should go straight to Broken Hill. His younger daughter had recently moved there for work, and he wanted to visit her. Seemed work was going to take her to Sydney for several days, in twelve days’ time and John wanted to visit before then. He seemed to think we could comfortably get there in one or two days, clearly having no idea of the distances involved – and not wanting to hear any different!

This would put paid to the idea of a slow meander along the Murray, or staying longer in Bright, which I’d have liked. So, it looked like my pleasant holiday would be ending in a couple of days. I was not enthusiastic about the visiting idea. Based on past experiences, daughter would be busy and would have little time to spend with John. It would not be long before there was some sort of angry clash between them, and that would end the visit!

I made spicy marinated pork strips for tea, with potato and zucchini. M shared the marinade with me and we cooked the pork on the BBQ in the camp kitchen.

Phoned son and had a very pleasant chat with him. John phoned his namesake; there was some stuffing around about a possible meeting, but then John handed over to me. We arranged to meet in Myrtleford  tomorrow, for lunch. That got neatly around John’s idea of moving camp to Beechworth.

John phoned daughter. No answer, so he left a message. She often did not answer her phone if she did not feel like talking to him.