Got up at 7am to go to the bathroom and there was mist all round. Quite pretty, and a little eerie.
Although the park is by the Calder Highway, we were pleased to find that the traffic noise was not really evident from the park. There was a bit of a swampy area next door, and what we were hearing was the sound of frogs – just beautiful.
When I got up properly at 9am, the earlier mist had totally cleared away.
Pottered about through the morning. John didn’t get up until after 11am! He had stayed up late last night, after watching TV, involved with a computer game.
Tried to check email on my laptop. The download proceeded at snail’s pace. John had used up our entire 8GB data allowance, last night, on his World of Warcraft update. Unbelievable! Especially since he said he’d done all the upgrades possible the night before we left home, using our much larger home data allowance. I was furious. Clearly, I am not a WOW devotee (addict?).
I was able to link to the park’s free Wifi, but it was not much faster. After sending friend M, currently travelling in Qld, a brief email that took forever to transmit, I gave up.
Morning relax at our site
As we were having lunch, was a text from daughter to say that grandson’s dad was dropping him at the park, in about twenty minutes. I waited out the front, and we chatted for a few minutes, before he headed off back to Melbourne. Daughter arrived not long after. We took the two boys to the very good park playground and jumping pillow. Daughter had received the OK to do so from park managers. It was the first time the four-year-old had been on one of those, and he had fun.
I was not impressed with the two boys, maybe 8-10 years old, who had two Cavalier spaniel type dogs in the playground, and were carrying them up, then pushing them down, the slide. The poor dogs were obviously uncomfortable. The boys’ grandparents were setting up an annexe on a van that I thought they’d brought from the storage area at the back of the park. I wondered if they actually lived in the retirement homes section behind the tourist part of the park. Seemed the kids and dogs had been sent off to play.
The boys may have decided that the look on my face boded ill for them, because they quickly left the play area. By the time we walked back past the van, there was no-one there. I mentioned the episode later to the park manager, who also seemed pretty annoyed by it. She clearly knew who was involved.
It was very chilly this afternoon. John suggested we might be more comfortable with our nibbles and planned pizza dinner, at daughter’s place. So we all adjourned there, complete with the food I’d bought yesterday.
As we drove through the streets of the more newly developed part of Golden Square, I was really taken with the white blossom on the ornamental trees that had been planted all down both sides of some of the newer streets. A really pretty display and, for once, clever landscaping on the part of some urban planners.
Street trees in blossom
Sat round the table with our nibbles and some wine, then ordered pizzas to be delivered. Made it easy! After tea, S arrived home. The sporting victory celebrations had been going on since yesterday and would continue into “Mad Monday”. In view of this, daughter had a rostered day off work tomorrow to mind the four-year-old, so we would be able to meet up again.
Watched Australian Survivor on their TV. We are finding that program at least as good as the American version. Then, back to Bus, keeping a careful eye out for roadside wildlife through the treed areas between Golden Square and Marong.
I got up about 8.30am. Nice quiet park for me to be able to sleep that late.
Took Couey out for her morning constitutional. When we checked in yesterday, the guy at the desk said there was a lane behind the park where the owner took his dogs for a run. I intended to take her for a good long walk along that. Plan foiled when dog refused to go out the entrance of the park, presumably because she could see traffic on the road. So she had to settle for a “once around the park”.
I drove to the general store to get the Saturday papers. Realized that the entrance to the lane mentioned for dog walking, was a lot further away than I’d thought.
The little township of Marong is where the Alternate Calder Highway, that branches off south of Bendigo and enables bypassing of that city, meets the original Calder again. It seemed to mainly consist of a hotel and the general store.
I sat outside Bus and read some of the news. It was quite pleasant in the weak sunshine.
Had ourselves an early lunch, then set off to drive to Huntly, on the northern edge of Bendigo to watch S’s netball grand final. The GPS took us on a kind of outer ring route around northern Bendigo, where it was obvious that the city was growing and spreading out. This was an area we didn’t usually go through – Sailors Gully, Jackass Flat. Still plenty of bushland around those parts though. I loved the picturesque names, deriving from gold rush days.
I’d kind of assumed that country netball/football league games would attract some loyal supporters, in the country style that I’d been used to, in my Western District days, and that there would be room to park in the grounds. Wrong – very wrong! There were thousands of people in attendance, and cars parked for at least a kilometre in every street around the sports ground. We cruised around and eventually slotted into a very small space just across from the grounds. Good to have a very small car…
Daughter had brought chairs, so we were able to sit to watch the netball game. It was a good close one, as befitted a grand final. I thought the playing standard was quite high, although the opposing team was very rough. In a previous incarnation, I was a qualified A Grade netball umpire, and I certainly would have penalized some of the actions I saw! The umpires missed a lot.
“Our” team won by five goals. Going out with a premiership was a great way for S to retire from her netball playing, after about 40 years of it! She played well too, and was rather emotional after the game.
I’d brought with me the crocheted rug I’d been asked to make as a baby present for a friend of V and S. Friend was at the netball, so I was able to see her being given the rug, which was well received.
The completed gift blanket
After the presentations, we extracted ourselves from the crowd and our little parking spot, and went to a nearby supermarket. Some of the family would be coming to the caravan park tomorrow afternoon, so I needed to buy some nibblies. And wine.
The earlier pleasant day had clouded over and it began to rain as we were driving back to Marong, quite heavily too. 5pm when we got back to Bus. I resumed reading the papers.
An absolutely huge fifth wheeler had come in today and was almost opposite us, on a drive-through site. Each to his own I guess, but it just seemed really excessive to me. As well as its great length, there was also a large side slide out section. This extended across the walkway path, effectively blocking it. I entertained some very uncharitable thoughts.
Walkway to camp kitchen, later blocked by fifth wheeler on the site
Tea was cold chicken pieces I’d previously cooked at home, avocado and asparagus. I took the latter over to the camp kitchen – dodging the extended obstacle – and cooked it in their microwave. That camp kitchen would not be out of place in a normal home – very well equipped.
After dark, a van arrived in the park, towed behind a tow truck. Its 4WD was up on the tray. The truck put the van in position up at the end of the park, and left with the vehicle. A glitch for someone’s travels. I felt great sympathy – we’d once arrived in Broome that way.
After tea, John watched sport on TV. I continued reading the papers. It was a chilly night again.
Bus had been ready to go for a while. The hold up had been waiting for three weeks before John could have the stitches removed from his leg. I’d ben doing some leisurely packing over the previous days.
It seemed timely to start a short trip now – maybe three weeks? The obvious first stop was Bendigo, where we hadn’t been in over a year. Grandson had a semi final coming up, in his hockey, and daughter’s partner a netball grand final. We could earn some family brownie points by attending these events.
Departed home at 10.30am. There were always last minute things to do, like packing those last fridge items, and filling rolls for lunch, and we were not in a hurry.
This morning, an added complication was a call informing John that his sister died earlier this morning. We had known this was coming, so it was not a shock. It was thought that the funeral would be late next week, so we decided to continue with at least the Bendigo part of the trip.
There was definitely an emerging pattern to our trip departures – that we have to stop at the park a couple of kms away, down the bottom of the range, to make some adjustment or another to the rig. In this case it was – again – the tyre pressure monitors. John had put them back on the Bus front wheels. He hadn’t ever gotten around to investigating solid sleeves for the inner rear tyre valve extensions, so we didn’t have the monitors on those, which had been the source of an unpleasant flapping noise on their first trip. But it was evident, as soon as we got up to any speed, that the front ones were making that noise now and would have to come off.
The monitor things are fiddly and hard to remove, which is probably a good thing. He swore a lot. The metal edges of the monitors were chopped about from flexing and hitting on the wheel rims, even over that short distance. Clearly, for this system to work on the Coaster, most wheels would have to have some modification to the tyre valve posts. It might make sense to just keep the system on the Terios, which was what I’d intended in the first place.
While John was working on the wheels, I watched a group of Little Corellas – of which we have a lot in the area these days – playing in a big gum tree a short distance away. They were taking it in turns to swing on “ropes” of bark hanging down and clearly just doing so for fun. They really are entertaining birds to watch. I know they are noisy and can be destructive, but I do like them. Had such a vivid memory from when we were camped at Purni Bore, on the edge of the Simpson Desert, some years ago, and there was a large dead tree containing a huge flock of corellas. A noise startled them and they rose all at once, like a great raucous cloud. Once, we would only see them in places further north – along the Murray, Coopers Creek and the like. But now they are well and truly present south of the Divide. Climate change?
Corella trees at Purni Bore, Simpson Desert
It was 11am by the time we got going again, taking our usual route via Yea and Seymour, to Bendigo. Also, as usual, the GPS was fixated on taking us back to Melbourne first. The only route it seems to recognize to Bendigo is via the Calder Highway.
On the large farms approaching Yarra Glen, workers were busily harvesting crops of Brussels sprouts.
Brussels sprout farm Yarra Glen
Along the bypass route around Yarra Glen, there is one roundabout where the route to the Melba Highway is straight ahead, and the road to Healesville off to the right. John took the latter, then had to find a place to turn around, before playing circles on the roundabout to the correct exit. This is something else that now seems to happen every trip – it gets him every time, and sometimes even on the return journey.
The many hectares of grape vines around Yarra Glen and Dixons Creek had all been neatly pruned and looked very tidy. In one of the vineyards there was a red helicopter parked. I wondered if it was tour related, or someone’s private transport?
As we churned our way up the Divide, some cars coming down towards us were flashing their lights at us. Of course, our initial reaction was to think “police ahead”. Then, when there weren’t, to worry if they were spotting something wrong with the rig. The reason became apparent not far from the top – a broken down 4WD and large caravan, parked partly in the oncoming lane. Traffic cones had been set up around it and there was obviously someone helping.
There were a lot of caravans heading towards Melbourne – the return of the grey nomads…
It was a very pleasant day for driving. Fine, blue sky, cool but not cold.
Yea-Seymour road
Topped up the fuel at the servo at Glenburn – $1.149 cpl.
Stopped at the Rotary Park at Seymour to eat lunch and give dog some exercise. I wanted her kept on the lead, to keep her away from water, but he who learns slowly let her off for a run. She promptly found the nearest large muddy puddle and wallowed in it. That undid all the good work of the dog groomers! Wet, muddy, smelly dog now. I was not happy. She was.
Lunch stop Seymour
I don’t think we had ever seen the country between Seymour and Bendigo so green and lush. There were lots of full dams and flowing creeks. Part of Lake Eppalock was visible from the road near Axedale, so it had to be pretty full.
I took a phone call and John was able to pull over to talk. It was to tell him that the sister’s funeral would be on Tuesday – sooner than we’d been previously told. We decided to keep going. Dog and I would stay in Bendigo and John could drive the Terios back to Melbourne for the day. I was pleased that we had set off today and were not now waiting around at home for the event to be over.
The Garmin had finally caught up with where we were, and directed us on the usual Over Dimensional Route through Bendigo. Only one glitch, when John seemingly couldn’t count to three and took the wrong exit from a round about. Again! Naturally, we’d managed to time our passage through the city to coincide with school let-out time…
It was 3.45 when we reached the Big 4 Marong Holiday Park, some 14kms west of the centre of Bendigo. We had not stayed here before, but were still trying to find a really good dog friendly park in the area. By initial impressions, this could be it.
I had previously phoned the park and booked us an en-suite site from today until Tuesday morning. Now, in view of the funeral, they were able to extend it for an extra night. After discount, we paid $36 a night, which I thought was very reasonable for a place of the quality that this turned out to be.
Set up on en-suite sites, which had ample room for us. The bathroom was compact, but clean and quite adequate. I was most impressed with the nearby roofed BBQ area and adjacent camp kitchen room, which was very comprehensively equipped.
Left Marong again at 5pm to drive back to Bendigo for grandson’s hockey match. It was cold, and we had to stand for the whole game, which was murder for the legs and lower back. “Our” team lost, so that was the end of the boy’s hockey season for this year. But he appeared to play well – I think? I would appreciate the game more if I knew something about the rules.
After the game, the boy headed off to spend the weekend with his father, who had come up from Melbourne to watch the match, so we wouldn’t see him again until Sunday afternoon.
Drove back to Bus, stopping at Marong to order fish and chips from the general store’s attached shop, which John drove back to collect at the appointed time of 8pm. Very nice they were too.
We certainly needed the little electric fan heater to warm up Bus.
John watched football on TV. I did some hand sewing of the quilt project.
Bed at 11pm. We were both tired. For some reason, not long after getting into bed, I got a really nasty cramp in one leg. Unusual for me and it sure woke me up again! Was very careful how I moved that leg for the rest of the night.
This Adventurous Age 