In the early hours of the morning, I could hear light rain on the roof.
I was up at 7.45am, courtesy of dog.
Dog having a nap – not the most elegant position
The day seemed a bit warmer than previous ones, maybe because it was a mix of cloudy and sunny.
John was not in a mood to do go out and about today, except for the mandatory trip to the dog exercise area. He was engrossed in some computer game., then spent much of the afternoon napping.
Ball games
I read and did some quilt sewing. A mundane day.
Dinner was a fry-up using the electric frypan – sausages, potato slices, egg with some salad on the side. Not really salad weather, but with limited cooking options…
I was woken at 8am by the phone. Was friend H calling. We arranged to visit them at Wallendbeen on Sunday, and stay the night there. That means we should be getting home about Tuesday.
It was yet another chilly grey day, although mostly dry. I was finding the weather adversely impacting on my enthusiasm for travel!
John got up about 10am. After his breakfast, decided to have another fiddle with the gas bottles. He went off in the car to buy a new bottle, thinking the problem might relate to the empty out of date one, but couldn’t find a store that sold them.
After an early-ish lunch, set off for a little local area drive, detouring first via the dog exercise park.
Went out through what would have been the really early part of Young, along Whitemans Road, past Garibaldi Gully and the tourist fossicking area.
It was about 20kms to the village of Murringo, through really attractive rolling hill and valley country.
Young countryside
Murringo was a quaint settlement, with some lovely old stone buildings. The first settlement here was in 1827, so then it would have been outside the Limits of Location – the nineteen counties radiating out from Sydney, where settlement was legal.
All this area was fertile, well watered and attractive to the squatter pastoralists of the 1820’s and 30’s. It was north of the more settled “civilized” areas around Yass and Boorowa. The Lambing Flat that was the precursor to Young, was the site of sheepyards, shepherds’ huts for lambing ewes in the good creek valley. Thus it stayed until the gold discoveries of 1860. By 1861 it was clear the new gold fields were rich, and they soon extended over an area 20 miles by 10 miles. By 1861, there were some 20,000 miners, and about 3000 Chinese. In that year, the settlement was formally named and gazette, which meant that land could legally be bought and sold.
Turned NW, towards the Murringo Gap, travelling along a fertile looking valley that gradually narrowed, with the flanking hills becoming bigger. The Murringo Gap is a kind of pass through the sides of a rift valley formation that extends between Young and Cowra. Through the Gap, we took the unsealed Nine Mile Gap road that would take us back to the Olympic Way north of Young and thus we completed a circuit.
Through the Murringo Gap
Stopped at the Lions Lookout north of town – gave a panoramic outlook over the rolling farmlands.
Tea was pork fillet with sweet and sour sauce, from a jar. I sent John off to the camp kitchen to microwave a packet of rice.
I decided to shower, after tea. The en-suite could benefit from having a heater – brr.
After my breakfast, used the camp’s sink to wash out the extremely yukky frypan.
I did a lot of reading of the local tourist material picked up yesterday. Suggested to John that we abandon the idea of going to the coast and just spend time exploring around this central part of eastern NSW. We have to be home in less than three weeks now, for John’s next medical appointment, so it would be too much of a rush for us to do what had originally been envisaged. John agreed. He decided to extend our stay here for another couple of days, and went up to the office to do that. Whilst there, he negotiated a free night for a week’s stay, so we are now booked in here until next Sunday morning.
John then sat down to check his emails. Was an unpleasant one from his daughter, feeling let down because we hadn’t gone to Broken Hill. Oh well, those who do not respond to phone or email messages do not get visited. Simple as that.
I sent a message to our friend H, saying that we were in the approximate area of their weekender home and could visit them for a night, if wished.
John took the gas bottles to be filled. One was out of date and could not be filled. When he put both the full and empty bottles back and connected them up, there was a strong smell of gas about, and a hissing noise. He fiddled about but no improvement. The gas bottle compartment was a small and difficult area in which to work. He decided to leave the lot turned off. This meant no gas for cooking. He decided that, after we left here on Sunday we would just head off back towards home and get the gas sorted out back in Bendigo.
John messing about with gas bottles
This trip was not going to plan – vague as those plans had been.
After lunch, took Couey to the park for ball game exercise.
With dog suitably tired, and asleep on the back seat of the Terios, drove to the big old former school building that houses the Lambing Flat Folk Museum. Cost us $5 each to enter.
I am not a great fan of museums, generally, but found this one really worthwhile. There were really comprehensive displays – quite an eclectic lot and thus more interesting than many. Had a long chat with the volunteer attendant – but about the share market, rather than the museum. He was working on his laptop and told us he’d just bought shares in a new gold mine and the share price was rising nicely. He really knew his shares!
Spent well over an hour browsing the exhibits before heading back to Bus, via supermarket. I had to slightly revise meal plans, now there was no stove.
Tea was ham steaks, pineapple slices, fried egg, also some sliced potato for John.
I messaged our travelling neighbours to see where they were in SA. I’d recommended that they visit Mt Ive – thought they’d enjoy the station campground, the outback environment and remoteness. And so they had, spending four nights there. Because of rain and track closures, they’d had to go via Iron Knob to leave rather than the more direct way to Minnipa.
Watched Masterchef on TV. John had a couple of other programs he wanted to watch, without disturbance, so it was 11pm before I could go to bed.
I had the usual early morning start, courtesy of dog. John stayed in bed until 8.30am. Given the still damp conditions outside, we did well to be ready to depart the park at 10.15. Only a little after the regulation departure time.
The annexe matting was wet, muddy and most unpleasant to pack up. My problem ankle chose this morning to be unusually painful, which didn’t help at all.
We had decided to head roughly NE, staying on the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range, to intersect the Golden Highway around Dunedoo. That would then take us east to the coast at Newcastle, thus avoiding both Sydney and the steeper gradients to the north. We were not in a great hurry, and some of this country was new to us, so it wouldn’t matter if we took a week or more on this part.
Stayed on the NSW side of the Murray, taking Spring Drive towards Corowa. Even in dull weather conditions, this was a pretty way to go, with the trees of the river reserve to our right, all the way.
Following the Murray River valley towards Corowa
Refuelled in Corowa: $144.9cpl.
From Corowa, took a meandering way north, firstly through Howlong, then back roads to Culcairn, via a little township quaintly called Burrumbuttock. This was new country for us, interesting, and the back roads were quite good. This was good looking farming country growing crops and sheep, mostly. One lot of really frisky lambs briefly entertained us.
There was some mizzly rain on and off through the day. Saw lots of parrots flitting about the roadsides, and then apostle birds made their appearances.
Stopped in Culcairn – toilet stop for us and dog. Admired a beautiful old hotel there, and were able to give Couey a run and ball chase in a side street by the hotel.
Hotel at Culcairn – and nice quiet street for doggy ball games
From Culcairn, we were on the Olympic Way, which I think we might have travelled before, but ages ago. On through Henty to Wagga Wagga. From Culcairn to Wagga the highway was paralleled by a railway, maybe the one slated to maybe one day be the main inland north-south rail route.I had thought we might stay here for the night, but John was enjoying the driving and wanted to continue, so we took the bypass route around that centre, crossing the Murrumbidgee River – for the umpteenth time in our travels over the years.
Murrumbidgee River at Wagga Wagga
Ate our packed lunch at a roadside stop north of Wagga, then continued on through Cootamundra towards Young. Around Bethangra went through a low range of hills, an interesting change from the rolling farmland. The gradient was sufficient for there to be stretch of highway with passing lanes. Encountered one of the railway crossings where the road has been engineered into a big, sharp, S bend – to slow traffic right down – in this case, to 35kmh.
I hadn’t realized, until we came into large areas of orchards, that the Young region is a major cherry growing one.
John decided this would be far enough for today, so I did a quick scan in my caravan parks reference book and found the Young Tourist Park – the only one in the town.
The caravan park was not the easiest to find. We had to negotiate the centre of town, roundabouts and all. I was pleased it was a Sunday afternoon and not a weekday.
Having misread the caravan park book, I was pleasantly surprised to find the park had some en-suite sites, so we booked in for two nights. $50 a night was a bit on the high side, but there was no competition.
It was after 4pm by the time we got onto our site, which we were able to drive straight onto. By now John was tired, so we left the car hitched up for the night. The site had drive through wheel strips to park on, and a small paved area. The solid brick ensuite was spacious, clean and nice.
Took Couey for a quick walk, on lead, around the park. It was not very busy. Guess mid-winter would not be peak tourist season in these parts.
I made John a hamburger with the lot for tea. I had the same, minus the bread roll.
Watched MasterChef on TV, then had an early night.
Dog woke me at 8am. Suspect she may have been fed up with the snoring, too. Anyway, she wanted out, so we paddled off to the gravelled area at the side of the park and I gave her a ball chase. Put her on the lead to walk around the park. As we got closer to the foreshore, she really wanted to head for the lake, so we would need to watch her carefully from now on, now that she knows there is a giant sized “puddle” over that way.
It was too cold and damp to breakfast outside, as I prefer.
John got going mid-morning and after his breakfast, we set out in the car to go “into town”.
But first, drove slowly through Kyffins Reserve, adjacent to our caravan park. I’d read of this place as a popular camping area, for fully self-contained rigs, as there are no amenities provided. Could see why it would be attractive, in the warmer months, combining waterfront and bushland. At this time of year and in these conditions, there was only one lot of campers, newly arrived, setting up by the water’s edge. Optimistic people, I thought. It was evident, from campfire remains, that the No Camping edict in sections of the Reserve, had been ignored. The selfish minority in action again.
The main shopping precinct for the twin towns is Yarrawonga, so it was back across the bridge over Lale Mulwala. John’s priority was to find somewhere to buy a TV cable. That accomplished, drove around, looking, getting a feel for the place. Looked at the weir which dams the Murray River and hence forms Lake Mulwala upstream from it. Saw caravan parks that looked alright and would be more central than where we are set up. In the warmer months, I suspected our park would be dominated by the fishing and watersports/boating fraternities and not a peaceful place to be. So, if we were to return at such a time, think we would seek out one of the town parks to stay.
Lake Mulwala bridge
Had to go to Woolworths to stock up on fruit and vegies, having not brought any from home due to fruit fly restrictions. John decreed he wanted meals of ham steaks, skinless franks, and hamburgers, so I bought up the makings for those. No one will ever accuse him of healthy eating!
To a bakery for lunch rolls – rather a disappointing lack of interesting options there. Then, complete with the Saturday papers and a new Caravan Parks guide book to replace our outdated one, it was back to camp.
While I made up the lunch rolls, John tried to get the TV recorder to work. No luck – the new cable was no miracle fix.
Although the rain ceased late morning, and the ground around our site progressively dried out, we largely stayed inside for the afternoon, as it was still really cold. I read. The dog slept. John spent more time fiddling with his TV set up but eventually decided that the TV and the new expensive recorder might be incompatible with each other – one a Kogan, the other a Panasonic. I could not care less.
I did venture out for a walk around the park, and took some photos of the lake.
Lake Mulwala at the caravan park
Cooked the skinless franks for John’s tea, which he had hot dog style inside bread rolls. I had some salad.
There was a really nice camp kitchen near our site. I took our washing up over there to do – easier than in Bus.
Our site with improved weather
Football watching on the TV for John after tea. I read some more and went early to bed, to try to get to sleep before John and the commencement of his snoring serenade.
By mid-morning, we were just about ready to depart. I made a tentative suggestion that, given the bleak day, we might consider a delay of a day or two. Nup. No way. John was in travel mode. End of story.
I had taken some perishables we could not use, to the neighbours on our other side. They had only moved in a couple of months ago, so we did not yet know them as well as the travelling ones. Gave them orange juice and milk, as those containers didn’t fit in the small Bus fridge, and some grapes – anticipating travel in fruit fly exclusion zones.
The man – G – came out to watch us hitch up the rig out front, after John had extracted Bus from the sideway, and I’d locked up the house. There was a D shackle missing from the car hitch – must have been “borrowed” for some other purpose, and not put back. So I had to unlock the house again, to get the keys for the locked shed, so the missing item could be found. I think neighbour was slightly amused, as well as intrigued by the car hitch. He’d not seen one close up before. Our departure did not really paint a picture of efficient travellers.
So, almost 11am before we left. Still raining…
Great day for travel
We had not been to Yarrawonga or Mulwala before, so decided on those twin towns that straddle the Murray River, for our first night’s destination. Not too ambitious for the first day of travel. I was kind of determined to keep us to short travel days, if possible, as sitting for too many hours in Bus without any exercise was not great for my leg circulation. Whether I could rein in The Driver’s predilection to just keep driving remained to be seen.
As soon as we left home, I entered battle with the GPS, which wanted to direct us through the centre of Bendigo, and managed to persuade John to take a route via Eaglehawk. Eventually GPS caught up with the way I wanted to go, to join the highway at Epsom. Not often I win one, but my nemesis sulked away, plotting revenge.
Victoria’s solution to roads that need repairs…
The day was grey and drizzly when we left home. The rain grew heavier through the day. We passed a lot of wet and very miserable looking sheep along the way.
Wet and woolly
In Mooroopna, needed a comfort stop and then decided to eat our lunch rolls while parked up there. It was too chilly to wander about outside, so we ate in Bus.
Crossed the Goulburn River wetlands between Mooroopna and Shepparton, and then missed the angled deviation road that we should have taken. Not a peep of prior advice from the GPS! The resultant turn on to the highway in the centre of town was not easy, with traffic squashing up tightly. We do need to swing a little wide on sharp turns.
Goulburn River
Took the Katamatite road. I had it all plotted out on my paper atlas map. But the GPS had a brain fade – revenge? – and took us along back roads. I mean real back roads, just one step up from unsealed. I had no idea where we were. At one stage we seemed to be in an area called Boosey, which didn’t appear on my maps. Eventually we rejoined the road to Yarrawonga, east of Katamatite.
Back road countryside
I had booked us into the DC on the Lake Park at Mulwala, so we trundled through Yarrawonga without stopping, drove across the bridge/causeway into Mulwala on the NSW side and sought out the park. It was considerably further out of the town than I’d anticipated.
Bridge from Victoria into NSW
Our powered site cost $27 a night, after Top Tourist discount. The reception lady said the ground was sloppy – not surprising after all the rain – and we could go for a walk and select our own site. In the middle of winter, in the midst of a rain event, a waterside caravan park was not exactly bursting at the seams! In fact, there was no one else on any of the sites. If I believed in omens…
The park was dominated by cabins and privately owned permanent camp set-ups, it seemed. There was a foreshore grassed area but dogs were not allowed on that, which might have been annoying in fine weather.
We chose a site that had some gravel on it, that looked a bit drier, than the others around. There were no sites with cement slabs. The site was not far from the amenities block, a good idea given the continuing rain.
No need to worry about neighbours…
It was a bit windy, as well as drizzling rain, so we got set up quickly. John took Couey right off to the side of the park and gave her a ball chasing run.
John spent quite some time fiddling with setting up the new TV recorder he’d bought a few days ago, so he wouldn’t be limited to just “live” TV. He’d spent about $400 on this. Eventually decided that, to make it work, he needed a new cable, that had not been provided.
I’d planned that we’d go get fish and chips for tea, but John was pre-occupied with his TV issues, and it was a fair way back to town, so I fished a tin of tomato soup from my under-seat cache of tinned goodies. Cooked some pasta which we had with bottled stir-through sauce. It was an alright meal, but not what I’d been looking forward to.
Late in the afternoon really heavy rain set in. By dark, the ground outside Bus was flooded. Going to the amenities involved wading…
After tea, John watch football on TV. I read.
Through the night, my sleep was interrupted by John’s snoring, which seemed to have become much louder than the last time we travelled.
For some time now, we had been desultorily talking about our next trip in Bus. It had been quite a while – a couple of years – since we had done any “proper” travel. That is, not associated with moving house in some way.
Summer had been long and dry, with garden watering a daily task. But the heavens did open somewhat during May, and I recorded almost 80ml of rain for that month. The sprinklers and hoses were put away. A rather mammoth weeding effort had, hopefully, eliminated the lush growth of spear grass in the back gardens. The previous owner’s attempts to reduce weeding by laying weedmat everywhere clearly had not worked, but simply provided a nice trap for grass seeds to grow in.
Over the preceding couple of months, John had seen assorted medicos about his heart and lung issues. Tests showed much reduced lung capacity. Not a surprise. Seems he has bronchiectasis on top of everything else.
Our neighbour friends departed with their caravan, to tour outback NSW and SA for a couple of months. That sparked some action on our front. John took Bus out to have the big chip in windscreen fixed. When it came home, we prepped it ready to travel.
Clean and tidy in Bus before adding all the travel paraphernalia
We had decided to head up through NSW, ultimately looking for some warmer weather, and to spend time in some places we’d only zipped through before. There was my good friend to visit, where he’d retired to in Port Macquarie. John wanted to visit his friend, M’s brother in law, in Maclean.
On a Saturday in June we departed home, mid-morning, to drive to Melbourne. For me, it would be my first trip back to the Big Smoke since our move last year. John had been back once, when he drove down and stayed overnight, to attend a sister’s birthday party.
Couey was to be left home alone. She was quite used to us going out for shopping trips and the like, but this was going to be for a longer time. I was fairly confident she would be fine, but did organize with one set of neighbours – also dog people – to keep an ear out for any distress signals.
The drive to Melbourne was quite straightforward. Even enjoyable. The Calder Highway extends between Mildura and Melbourne. Conversion of its busier southern end to a freeway standard road began in 1972, the year my daughter was born, and continued in increments until last year. The completion of the Ravenswood junction then meant that, effectively, Bendigo and Melbourne are linked by some 135kms of freeway. Said daughter had now turned 46!
The drive from home to Fitzroy took us two hours. Once we left the freeway, the Saturday morning traffic through Brunswick and Carlton was slow going.
The reason for our journey was to attend a friend’s 80th birthday celebration – and his wedding! The venue was St Mark’s Church – old and traditionally atmospheric.
St Marks Church, Fitzroy
We were an hour early for the service and sat on the lawn area outside, eventually finding some people John knew to chat to. The couple being married were long standing friends of John’s from before he and I met; in fact, he had been at uni with the bride. So the couple had been together for many years, but had now decided to formalize things.
After a very pleasant service, afternoon tea type foods and drinks were served as all the guests mingled outside on the lawns. Apart from the newly married couple, I knew no-one. Their home is in Canberra, so our social circles have not overlapped.
By 4pm, John had enough socializing and standing around and suggested we leave, even though the speeches were yet to begin. I was quick to agree. We had managed to find a parking spot in a side street not too far from the church, for which I was grateful, given the state of my back after all the standing about.
On the way home, stopped at the big service centre at Diggers Rest – toilet and coffee! John asked for an expresso coffee. He really did need to brush up on his coffee terminology. What he thought he was getting was a cappuccino. What he received was a black coffee. Not happy.
Stopped off at a Chinese restaurant in Kangaroo Flat, where we’d had food from before, and bought some takeaway to be our evening meal.
All was fine at home. Our lovely neighbour had earlier texted that she’d gone to check on Couey and all seemed well. Dog seemed pleased to have her pack back, though – especially he who feeds her dinner.
I was pleased to have found out for myself what the drive to Melbourne down the Calder Freeway was like. It was new to me because, before we’d moved here, our route from these parts to the outer east of the city had been the “back way”, via Heathcote, Seymour and Yea.
A good day, but tiring. My back was sore from all the standing.
I doubt very much that we will ever again attend an 80th birthday party like that one!
Our home has a small, high portico sheltering the front door. Going in and out, one tends to be focused on what is straight ahead – either a keyhole, or a step not to trip over. But, coming home from drinks with the neighbours, for some reason John looked up whilst I was fumbling with the keys. No, not too much wine, just a number of still unfamiliar keys on the ring!
He noticed a small brown blob up in the porch corner. It kind-of looked like a little critter of some kind, but nothing I had seen before. We studied it for a while, using our bird binoculars to get a better idea of its appearance.
Large spider??
Some Googling told me that we probably had a microbat sheltering up there. I was familiar with fruit bats, but had never heard of microbats. So…
There are 24 different species of microbat in Victoria, all protected wildlife and some very rare. They are small, weighing only a few grams, even if the fur/hair(?) makes them look slightly larger. They have large ears and small eyes – guess that’s because they navigate by sonar signals?
Insect eaters, microbats will eat their body weight in insects in one night of feeding. Some prefer moths, others different bugs, some mosquitoes. So they are amongst nature’s pest controllers and thus really important, environmentally.
Microbats give birth to a live baby bat, or two. Some prefer to live in caves, others in tree hollows or even cracks and under bark. If there is access, some will live inside roofs – but they don’t cause any damage.
Some of the bats that John used to see flying about in the caves when we were at Pungalina were no doubt NT varieties of same. Since the AWC took over Pungalina I have read of their research work on the ghost bats that live in the caves there. These are Australia’s largest microbat.
I had no idea what type of microbat our little critter was, but really liked that it was there. It had the sweeetest little face. When we looked closely, there were some little droppings under where it was perched – like little mouse poo. So it must have been there for a little while. However, it disappeared after a few days.
Like much of our native wildlife, microbats have been affected by clearing of forests and bushland habitats.
I decided to buy a microbat nesting box to put up on a sheltered area of wall, in the hope that we might attract a permanent resident.
My perception of the skies here is very different from when we lived in Melbourne. That is really quite strange, because – living in the foothills of the Dandenongs, as we did – we had quite a vista, especially to the west. Here, somehow, there just seems to be more sky around. Totally illogical, I know.
Already we have noticed an array of spectacular sunsets. Don’t know about sunrises as I am never abroad to see same.
Recently, I noticed a rainbow to our west. As I admired same, it morphed gradually into a double rainbow – and I raced for the camera.
Double rainbow just starting to form
Some later research revealed that double rainbows are not particularly uncommon. I surely must have seen one or more, before, but couldn’t remember doing so.
A couple of facts I found interesting: the colours are always reversed in order, like a mirror image. The space between the two rainbows always seems darker than on the outsides.
Who knew?
Double rainbow showing inverted colours and darker space between
This Adventurous Age 