This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.


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2017 Travels May 4

THURSDAY MAY 4     MARONG TO BOORT     113kms

It was certainly a frosty night. The sheets covering the windscreens were quite stiff when removed.

Left the park at 10.10am, having slept later than intended. So easy on these cold mornings to snuggle under the doona and think “just a few more minutes.”

Today was the shared birthday of son and his wife, turning 43 today. I texted them birthday wishes as we drove along. We’d given them their present last Sunday – a two-person dining table they’d wanted John to make for them.

Travelled north west along the Calder Highway. Another advantage of the lovely Marong park was that, for north-west travellers, it was already beyond the Bendigo city traffic and maze of roads.

The day was sunny, with blue sky. Quite pleasant inside Bus.

A lot of the little towns in this region date from the gold rush days of over a century ago and usually have some remaining buildings typical of the consolidation era that followed the immediate rushes. Some towns are doing better than others, these days, though. Clearly, some are capitalizing on tourism through the region.

The Loddon River at Bridgewater on Loddon was very full.

On that town’s outskirts was the array of curved mirrored parabolas of the solar farm. These collected and concentrated solar energy for feed in to the power grid. That, at least was the theory, when this experimental array opened in 2012. It was closed down in 2015, not because the technology was faulty, but because of politicking around issues like feed-in tariffs and renewable energy subsidies. Presumably, it would not take much to get the array working again, if governments and the power businesses could get their acts together. Not for the first time, I reflected that democracies are not the most efficient systems of government.

The array looked like something from outer space. Alien.

The main street of Inglewood had some of the old, two-storeyed buildings that date from the nineteenth century. A claim to fame of this town is being the birthplace of Sir Reginald Ansett, founder of Ansett Airlines, for a long time one of the two main domestic airlines in Australia.

Inglewood

The distilling of eucalyptus oil, from local blue mallee gums, began at Inglewood about a century ago and the area is still a major source of this product, with a museum about it in the town.

There were far too many trucks on the Calder Highway. We really should have a serious campaign to get goods moved by train again. So many roads are deteriorating so quickly. Temporary fixes do little to improve road quality or, indeed, safety. Surely, overall, the costs of our reliance on road transport are so much greater, when one factors in ongoing rates and taxes spent on roads, plus related road deaths and casualties?

On the subject of railways, I decided that I do not like the angled railway crossings of these parts. It is very hard for the driver of a car – let alone a vehicle like our Bus – to check the rail line when it comes in at an acute angle from behind, to the left. There are bells and lights on the crossings along this highway, but even so…

I was on a mission today. My family history research had finally unearthed some information about a rather mysterious great grandfather. He was the only ancestor of that generation about whom I’d been able to find nothing, for several years. He clearly existed, having fathered several children, amongst them my grandfather, but how and when he appeared in Tasmania, whether it was of his free will or otherwise, and ditto disappeared again, had no documentary trail at all, that I could find.

In recent months, I seemed to have found him, with a different surname, as a newly married assisted immigrant to SA, in 1848. The trail next revealed him in gold rush Melbourne, having apparently left wife and children behind in the new settlement of Adelaide, and marrying my grandmother in 1852. Apparently, he was rather flexible with his vital details of name and birthdate, using a couple of variants. Who knows to what extent this was deliberate, or the result of the literacy deficiencies common in those times. I suspect he was well endowed with cunning, though, if not principles.

This second family, now using his middle name as surname, relocated to Tasmania – the young Deloraine area – in the mid 1850’s. But then he disappeared from records there, seemingly in the late 1860’s. My imagination had him amongst the numbers of men who simply disappeared in the often harsh conditions of backwoods Tasmania of those times.

But now I had discovered him, dabbling with gold seeking, bigamy and marrying yet again – back under his original birth name – at Inglewood in the late 1870’s. He died near Wedderburn in 1896.

Mt Korong – mentioned in found records of ancestor

I wondered how many of his numerous descendants from the offspring of his three marriages, are aware of the existence of three family lines? I had never heard any talk that suggested the Tasmanian branch knew of same. In fact, no-one ever seemed to know anything much about him, at all.

Today, I wanted to visit the Wedderburn Cemetery, where he and his third “wife” are, according to death records, interred in Plot 160 of the Church of England section. I was hoping for a grave marker, and information, and to photograph the grave.

Wonder if my ancestor walked – or farmed – around here?

We drove straight to the cemetery, out on the Boort road. There was an area where John could park Bus, at the front, so we did that and walked in. In my naivety, assumed I had enough information to find the grave. Located the Church of England section, and we searched every headstone and grave marker in it. Couey free ranged and had a lovely time. There were signs that lots of rabbits roamed here, so she had lots of fascinating smells to follow.

Church of England section

The Wedderburn Cemetery was a lot bigger than I had anticipated!

Only part of Wedderburn Cemetery

I was put out to discover there are no plot numbers on the headstones and grave markers. Nor was there any apparent chronological sequence to sites. Not sure what the cemetery equivalent is of needle in a haystack.

A lot of headstones to read!

Spent about an hour, searching. No mention of Daniel or Annie anywhere that I could see. It got quite hot, and my back began to really hurt. So we did what I should have been smart enough to do, in the first place, and drove back into town, to the Information Centre. The two ladies there seemed a bit disconcerted when I asked if they had a map of the cemetery, but very helpfully phoned the Secretary of the Cemetery Trust, and reported that he would meet us out there. Wonderful service!

Drove back out, and the man arrived soon after. He had the same information as I’d found online, but in original copy format. He explained that Daniel was buried in the “public” section of that area – i.e. for poorer people. That figured! He also explained that his neat map of the layout bore no resemblance the reality on the ground. Really?

Back in 1896, such public section graves were allowed a three foot width and there were not to be any headstones, fences, markers or the like. However, in the intervening hundred plus years, the grave standard moved to a four foot width, and some people began to fence or edge their ancestors’ graves, and put in headstones, encroaching on the neighbouring graves as they did so. The multiplier effects of this account for present confusions.

Our helper knew there was no marker for the grave we sought, but by locating the “neighbours” was able to lead us to a mound of earth that was – probably and approximately  – Plot 160.

Great grandad in that central mound? Approximately?

A local historian also arrived, and came to talk to us, giving more information about the general burial practices of the time. There seemed to be a degree of competition between the two men. The Secretary checked his copies of the records and said that Plot 173 had originally been recorded as Daniel’s grave, but that had been crossed out and 160 put in. Who knows what really went on?

So we went to another mound of earth that was approximately 173, nearby. I took photos of both.

Or under this one?

It seemed there was no more information to be gained here – and no helpful headstones.

John arranged to meet the historian at his place, after we’d had some lunch. The man was going to check his files at home to see if he had any further information.

Back in town I walked to a bakery and bought a pie for John and a toasted Mediterranean focaccia for me, and coffees. $23. Very nice lunch, I thought.

The historian was waiting outside his place for us. He had nothing on Daniel, but had found an original death notice for Annie, and a local newspaper write-up of her funeral in 1912. He had records of the graves in the nearby Woosang cemetery, showing a number of people descended from the only child of that third marriage, a daughter.

So, it seemed that I had a number of distant part-cousins living around the Woosang and Charlton areas. With what I now knew about our ancestor-in-common, I doubt they would be interested in meeting me! Given that Daniel’s daughter from his first wife – the one abandoned in SA – had about ten children, there must also be any number of others in SA! All very interesting, but frustrating. Wish I could go back in time and talk with some of these people.

I was really grateful to the two Wedderburn men who gave up their time and tried so hard to help.

Wedderburn

2pm when we left Wedderburn to continue on to Boort. It was a pleasant drive, through sheep and grain growing country, some of it irrigated, which surprised me.

Booked into the Boort Lakes Caravan Park. $35 a night. Our site was excellent – on thick grass, backing on to the Little Boort Lake, and in the centre of a group of about ten such sites. It was not far to a small amenity block – older demountable style one. The main one was a bit further away. We had a shade tree next to us.

The park reminded me, for some reason, of the one at Copi Hollow, near Menindee, in that it mostly consisted of permanent holiday cabins and structures built around caravans, with just a couple of fairly small sections for travellers like ourselves. With a boat launching ramp next door, and a water ski club, the lake was obviously a summer holiday playground for the region. Like Copi Hollow, it was very pleasant in this “off” season, but I would not want to be here in the summer holidays, or at Easter.

Boort Lake

This was a great park for the dog! As the nearby cabins were not occupied, there were plenty of grassy places where we could throw the ball for her. There was a walking path from the park, through adjacent parkland and on around the lake. This was a 3.7km circuit, so the lake was bigger than our local Lilydale Lake. And, of course, there was the water for a splosh about in, whenever sneaky dog could manage it. I got out my supply of dog drying towels!

After set up, drove to the shopping centre, for milk and bananas. Can’t be without the latter, because dog expects at least half a one, each morning. John went of to the hardware store and bought a hair dryer – for use on said dog.

Boort seemed a pleasant little town. IGA supermarket. Newsagent. Hardware store. A couple of hotels, and so on. Their civic provisions were certainly excellent, with tennis courts and a bowls club part of the extensive parkland area.

We sat outside, enjoying the sunshine. Dog “persuaded” John to throw a stick in the water for her to retrieve. Then we had to tie her up in the sun to start to dry. There proved to be no way that hair dryer was going to get anywhere near her. Given her dislike of being air dried at the dog groomers’ I was not surprised. Looked like grand daughter would be receiving an unexpected gift – one hair dryer, surplus to requirements.

This will do very nicely…

A local teenager came past, walking a dog that proved to be a kelpie/koolie cross – beautiful creature and incredibly well trained. Her obedience put our girl to shame. The lass stayed and talked with us for a while – didn’t seem to want to go. When a van pulled on to the next site, she stayed talking with them, too.

After the late lunch, we only wanted soup for tea, so I heated up a tin of pea and ham variety.

The night was chilly, but not as cold as Marong had been.


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2017 Travels May 3

WEDNESDAY MAY 3     MARONG

Inside Bus was really cold, this morning. I turned on the fan heater before getting dressed and taking Couey out for her morning walk around the park. At least, one of us would be emerging into a warm room.

There was ice on the front window of the Terios!

Ice on the car!

After breakfast, texted daughter to say we would not go, as invited, to tea with them tonight, because it was going to be too cold. I said we preferred to stay in and keep Bus warm. Also, there had been preliminary warnings about possible black ice on the roads tonight. She replied that she’d bring the boys out for a while, after school, and that she would also bring us two serves of her spag bol. Nice of her.

John slept late and then spent the day messing about with the laptop, tablet and hot spot stuff. He had a long call with a support person at Telstra. I read, in Bus. It was too chilly to sit outside. Occasionally took Couey for a walk around the park.

Cold day at the caravan park, despite the sunshine

Daughter and boys arrived about 4pm. She came equipped with the boys’ afternoon tea, too, because I don’t have crisps and biscuits stocked in my travelling pantry. We sat outside and chatted while they snacked. Then John took dog and young J up the back for doggy ball games. I chatted with A about his hopes to go on a school trip to Indonesia next year – an incentive for him to keep up the language study.

I mentioned that we were considering going to Boort next, a place we had never visited. Daughter had friends who were the new owners of the caravan park there. She phoned them and booked us in for a good site, for two nights, onto what she said was the best site. The family has one or two weekends there every year, so we were happy to have her arrange our booking.

Pretty callistemon by our site

By 6pm it was really cold again, and time for the family to leave. We walked them up to the car park at the front of the park.

I draped one of the dog bed sheets across the Teriod windscreen, to prevent an ice build up again tonight. John covered up the Bus front windscreen, too.

Tea was the last of the cucumber soup from home, and daughter’s spag bol, which was really nice. She had even brought a little bag of grated parmesan with it!

Watched some TV. It was another freezing night and I was really glad we were in the warm Bus.


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2017 Travels May 2

TUESDAY MAY 2     MARONG

Although it was first night back on the Bus beds for a while, we slept well – and until 8.45am, in my case.

There was some sunshine about, although it was still cold.

Marong site

I did the usual morning routine with dog – a walk around the park, on the lead. There were lots of lovely, fresh overnight, rabbit smells to explore. She was meandering along on the lead, nose down and sniffing, when she was rushed at by two madly barking Pom type dogs who came racing out from one of the cabins. They were not on leads. A woman raced out after them, still in her nightie. She was apologetic, but as far as I was concerned, she should not have let them out unchecked, in the first place.

Couey only ever wants to run away from aggressive little dogs, so she was happy to retreat back to Bus, and her breakfast.

Obviously, this park has a cabin available for dog owners. I noticed later, there was a little kennel and a water bowl outside, even after the lady with the little yappers had left. It is really great to see caravan parks begin to cater for dog owners in this way.

It was too chilly to eat breakfast outside. After eating, I read for a while, then started crocheting my newest project – a rug, in autumn tones.

John slept in till about 11am. After his breakfast, he walked Couey up to the back section of the park for an off lead ball chase.

Outlook from our site

My phone had gone flat, again, as it was doing with increasing frequency. Clearly, it needed a new battery. As we were to go meet daughter at her place about 2pm, there was not really time to go chasing all over Bendigo looking for same.

Daughter was having a week of leave – well timed for us. When we arrived, she had just returned from collecting an ailing son from school, apparently with a migraine headache. He was sick and then started to feel better.

The household had a whippet dog, quite a timid little girl. We brought Couey into the back yard to see how the two might get on. After the mandatory sniffing of nether regions, Couey just wanted to explore the yard, with whippet following her around, seeming a bit mystified by this large black creature that had appeared. There was a very secure dog pen in their yard, built because whippet and her now-dead brother were great escape artists in storms. Once we’d gone into the house, Couey wanted in, too, and added her scratches to those already on the sliding door. So it was into the pen for them both. Couey barked and howled.

Left dog in the pen and went with daughter to collect the five year old from school. Daughter had not told either boy we were in town, so us being at the school pick up was meant to be a surprise for young J. However, he spied us through a window and, as soon as he saw his mum, announced to her: “Grandma and Grandad John are here!” As if she didn’t know. Then, he was adamant that we be introduced to his Principal, who was seeing students off, and the boy’s teacher.

We were most impressed that said Principal already knew the boy by name, obviously for good reasons. The school – a different one from where the older lad went – was new, modern and very nice.

Daughter took us to a Telstra shop, which could not help with a new phone battery for me, but suggested a place in the town centre. While we were talking to the Telstra man, little Mr Confident carted John off to look at a games shop. Bought some wine for tonight, then were taken into town to the phone shop, where I was able to get a battery for my Samsung.

Back at daughter’s place, Couey was still barking in protest, but was still in the pen. I hadn’t quite trusted her not to try to climb out.

We had a good look over the caravan the family had bought, before Xmas. We’d had a hand in the purchase because the van, an older Jayco, had been for sale near our home. My son had inspected it, as we had, and pronounced it a fair buy within their limited budget. Every summer, the family spends a month camping at Narrawong, and they do other smaller more local trips through the year. Their tent camping gear had seemed to radically increase each year, especially after the arrival of young J. They’d bought an enclosed trailer to transport it all, but packing, setting up and the like was increasingly onerous. The caravan had been intended to make all that so much easier and had been a success on the most recent summer holiday. They had done a lot of small things to improve the van, and it was these we had to inspect.

Had a very nice meal with the family. A had just about recovered from his migraine. Daughter’s partner came home from work, and her mother came to see us as well. Young J was not going to let his new captive audience of Grandad John get away, without being much read to, and talked to – non-stop. The boy’s reading was most impressive, after only a few months at school, and apparently his understanding of numbers was “freaky”.

Daughter cooked chicken Kiev’s, corn, squashed potatoes, and a very nice tomato, zucchini and cheese bake. There was apple pie for afters, too.

Couey eventually stopped the barking. I think she ran out of voice. I felt a bit mean after the whippet was brought inside and Couey had to stay in the pen. . But the whippet was very quiet and well behaved and just curled up on her bed and stayed there. Couey would have been exploring everywhere and annoyed us – and shed fur too, over their always immaculate house.

We left about 8.30pm – bedtime for school children. It was really cold.

Back at the Bus, the fan heater did not make much headway against the chill that had built up. I went to bed early, to get warm!

That had been a really pleasant afternoon and evening.


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2017 Travels May 1

MONDAY MAY 1     HOME TO MARONG    240kms

There had been a rather leisurely preparation and pack for this short trip, in amongst tests, scans and appointments. With the news that a necessary specialist appointment would not be until May 17, we had a clear fortnight – and were away!

John was up early and sent the dog in to wake me at 8am. Crude, but effective. 28 kilos of dog doing a flying leap onto the bed, than going into the so-happy-to-see-you routine, is impossible to ignore.

All organized, dog on board, house locked up, Terios on back, we drove off down our street at 10.15 am. A couple of hundred metres along, John managed to collide Bus with a large green wheely bin, fortunately empty. It was minding its own business on the nature strip, but he was trying to activate one of his dashboard gadgets and strayed from the road. There was a most impressive noise, and bin bounced off, somewhere. Obviously, our solid bull bar was not going to be injured, and he did not stop to check on the welfare of the bin. According to John, it had no right to still be out there, since collection day was last Friday.

The day was cloudy and cool.

Took our usual route via Yarra Glen, Yea, Seymour, Heathcote.

There is a property between Coldstream and Yarra Glen that I always look at with interest. Once it used to have alpacas grazing but now there were very handsome sheep, with black faces and legs. I don’t know the breed, but they are much more attractive than the standard variety plain white sheep.

Topped up the fuel, as usual, at the Glenburn servo, where there is plentiful room to get the rig in. $1.149 cpl for diesel.

Stopped at the old railway station rest area at Yea – mainly for a comfort stop for the dog. We walked her across into the area that once was tracks, and let her have a run. Ungrateful creature! There was one small patch of mud where a tap was dripping and, of course, she found it – and wallowed in it before either of us could reach her. I swear the look on her face meant something like “I know you are cross with me – but it was worth it!” I’d gone to the trouble and expense, last week, of taking her to the grooming service at the Animal Aid, for a bath, so we would have less of a doggy smell about the place. Now there was a distinct swampy doggy ambience.

Old railway station Yea

After Yea, there were some encouraging patches of blue sky appearing to the north.

Next stop was Heathcote, for lunch from the bakery there. John took dog for another walk, firmly on the lead, while I did the buying. A pastie and sausage roll for John – he had been looking forward to the yummy pastries from here, for days. Egg and lettuce sandwich for me, a couple of coffees and a pumpkin and garlic scroll to have with tonight’s soup. $29 in all. Supporting small town economies…

I had been coming through Heathcote regularly, over the fifteen years that daughter had been living in Bendigo and had noticed how much this small, historic, Goldfields town has revitalized in that time – much of it due to the impact of tourists.

1.30pm when we left Heathcote for the last leg to Marong. Good timing as far as making our way through Bendigo before school traffic time.

John was happy with the feel of the new clutch. He had feared it would be very stiff, but not so. The gear changing seemed smoother and easier.

Lake Eppalock must have been really full as Mt Ida Creek, just to the west of Heathcote, was overflowing its banks. This links to the Lake and I can’t remember seeing it this full, here, before.

Our Garmin, with me carefully checking its instructions against my paper map, took us on the through traffic route that skirts the centre of Bendigo. It involved a few turns and the need to be in the correct lane in advance, but was not too hard.

Arrived at the Big 4 Marong Holiday Park at 2.30 and were allocated en-suite site 1, the same as we occupied last time here. We would be comfortable. The site cost $37.80, after discount.

I had not let daughter know we were going to be in the area until we were actually on our way, given how things had been going for us, lately. We decided not to actually meet up with them until tomorrow, because John wanted to nap for a while and then see if he could get his newest tablet working as a mobile hot spot/modem for the internet for our laptops.

Both ventures were successfully accomplished. I relaxed on my bed, and read.

Tea was cucumber soup brought from home, some slices of cold roast beef left from the weekend roast, and the scroll, which was very nice eating.

After tea, rain started and lasted for most of the very chilly night, but we were snug and cosy in Bus.


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2017 Travels April

APRIL 2017     JUST WAITING AROUND

I succumbed to another round of the mysterious allergy that had sometimes affected me in recent times so tests and treatments were needed. As well, a new leg ulcer had developed. I was starting to think the two might be linked somehow. So medical stuff delayed us through the rest of April.

Last year, we had set out to explore some of the Victorian goldfields region, but did not get as far as we’d planned, running home ahead of the deluge that flooded some of the places we’d been heading for.

Part of that trip was to have allowed John to visit the site of the second one-teacher school he’d had in his early career – Boolite. So, we could try again for that. It would work in nicely with visiting some of the rather new phenomenon of the painted grain silos of the Wimmera region, which I was curious to see.

In my somewhat stop-start forays into researching my ancestry, had recently discovered that a hitherto – and apparently twice bigamous – great-grandfather was buried in the Wedderburn Cemetery, I wanted to visit that to see if his grave could be found. It might throw some light on his life subsequent to totally disappearing from Tasmania around the time of grandfather’s birth, about 1865. His use of two different surnames had obscured the facts for a while, too.

A middle name that could double as a surname was useful!

So there were the bones of a short swing through the Wimmera and our first trip for 2017. It would also be the first outing of Bus since the new clutch was installed, late last year.

Later in the year,  we would probably need to revisit Canberra and John’s family there – maybe even get in a couple of visits, as they would be off overseas on another posting, next year.

The north coast of NSW beckoned, too. The area around Coffs Harbour was a favourite two-week school holiday destination, in our working days. There was so much of that coast, from Newcastle north, that we had not really explored.

So, still no shortage of ideas about where to go.

We issued an invite for friend M, recently back from a few weeks exploring New Zealand, to accompany us. But she thought she’d be too busy planning her coming jaunt to Paris and England.


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2017 Travels March

MARCH 2017     WHERE WILL WE GO THIS YEAR?

With autumn’s onset, our thoughts – well, mine – turned seriously to this year’s travels.

Back in summer, we’d talked about doing a 3 or 4 month trip this year, to be away through the worst of the Melbourne winter.

A friend, actually former boss from one of our working holidays, was now based at Dimbulah in Far North Qld. We had been reading his latest book – Camp 64 – the story of his 2011-2012 solo walk from Camooweal to Birdsville following the Georgina River system, and using goats as pack animals. This sparked the idea of heading north again, visiting some places we had yet to see, and maybe calling in to have a yarn at Dimbulah.

The cover of Owen’s latest book

With that in mind, I had started a serious hunt for house sitters. The length of time was too great for the as-hoc arrangements we’d had for the past few years.

I e-mail contacted some fifteen sitters advertising on the housesitters site we’d used years before. To no avail. Some were already booked but had not updated their ads. Others really did not want to be in Victoria in winter. Couldn’t blame them for that.  So I put in my own ad for house sitters wanted, specifying a mature-aged couple, with no pets. I already knew, from past experience, that we would get replies from any number of younger, single people, often with both children and pets. And thus it proved.

We are not as prejudiced as people might think, from the above. Although our swimming pool is fenced, we simply do not want to take the risk of having children living here that we are not supervising ourselves. Some of our carpets never fully recovered from the less than house trained dog that our home minding son had, years ago. So – no pets, no kids.

After replying “Thanks, but no thanks” in effect, to a number of people, I was left with three possibilities. All had the added benefit that they were already around Melbourne, so we could meet in person to discuss the role. Theoretically, anyway. One lot proved very difficult to pin down, with several broken appointment times, and in the end I jettisoned that one as too unreliable to bother with.

Then, I thought we’d found a very suitable couple. We’d met here, they had seen the place and were keen. We arranged the date for them to move in here and thus for us to be away on our travels. Then came the news that the owners of their current sit wanted to stay overseas for another three months, so they would not be available after all. Damn.

Then, the final possible phoned to say they had just accepted a sit that started earlier and went longer than ours, which suited them better. That phone call came an hour after we were due to meet here for afternoon tea. The scones went into the freezer.

I couldn’t face starting the whole rigmarole all over again. So North Qld was off the agenda. It was more my idea than John’s anyway. It would just have to be more of the shorter trips, where leaving the house wouldn’t be an issue.

We started to make tentative plans for the first of these to be after the Easter school holidays, in mid-April this year. Threw some destination ideas around.


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2016 Travels November 29

NOVEMBER – LATER

Bus repair place was organized. RACV sent an experienced operator and truck to move Bus there.

John managed to get the clutch to work just enough to back Bus off the grass, for the tow truck. But it wouldn’t work at all at the other end – Bus had to be pushed into the workshop bay.

A too-common sight for us…

The repair place does the servicing and fleet maintenance work for one of the large bus fleets of the eastern region. John reported that this included several Coasters.

The burnt-out clutch would be replaced and the flywheel machined as part of the repair. Didn’t mean anything to me, but John seemed to think this was good.

M decided the Yorke Peninsula was too wet and windy and came straight home. So maybe we wouldn’t have had a great time there, anyway.

The Bus repairs cost us $2,500. John decided he’d take it to that place for routine servicing, from now on, so that was one benefit to come out of the saga. The other was that he didn’t miss any Saturday bowls, after all.

And the 2016 wet weather continued…


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2016 Travels November 13

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13     HOME TO…….HOME   15kms

Today’s aim was to reach Mildura, or close to it.

We managed to leave home at 8.45am – something of a record for us. It was raining steadily, but looked like it might be clearing, a bit. Or maybe that was wishful thinking?

Being a Sunday, and reasonably early, John decided we’d brave traffic on Eastlink and the Tullamarine Freeway, and take the Calder Highway.

Only a couple of kms from home, that ominous revving noise we’d experienced on the last trip, appeared again. By the time we reached Croydon, it was starting to happen in top and third gears, as well as fourth. By East Ringwood, there was a bit of a smell, too. We decided to turn around and head back home.

Part way back, we stopped and took the Terios off the tow, to make it easier for the struggling Bus. There was a definite acrid smell about the rig, now.

I drove the car behind the Bus. A couple of kms from home, there was a huge cloud of smoke came out from under the Coaster. I flashed my lights at John, who pulled over. The smell of something burning was very strong.

We agreed that Bus was not going to get up the last, fairly steep, hill to home.

I phoned the RACV, feeling pleased that I’d taken out their new Tow Pack option, last year. No problems, they said, they would arrange a tow truck for us.

I took the dog and drove home, leaving John to wait for the tow. When the truck arrived, it turned out to be the operator’s first day on the job. Not a good sign. He tried to charge John $300 before loading up Bus, which John refused to pay. Operator made a phone call, which straightened him out about a RACV job. Then he set about loading Bus onto the tilt tray, which took quite a while.

Bus had to come home because, being Sunday, repair businesses were closed.

Now comes the hard part…

Offloading at home was not easy. It had to happen out on the street, and Bus would have to stay out there. Ours is a narrow, dead-end road, and we are on a slope. What was that about “life” and “easy”? The operator managed to scrape the tow hitch receiver on the road, before realizing that the angle meant he needed to run it down wood planks, off the bottom of the tray. We supplied some planks!

That didn’t sound good…

Eventually got Bus off the truck. John enlisted some neighbours to help push it backwards so it was half on the nature strip, half on the road. There was no activity at all, in any gear – totally burnt out.

Not sure about this process…

Then our hapless tow truck driver had to do a multi-point turn in a neighbouring driveway, to get away. Hope his first day on the job got better…

Unloaded the fridge again. Emptied Bus of things like the laptops and camera, and the assorted pills that keep us alive. Put out a warning reflective triangle in front of Bus and hoped all would be well for the night.

Phoned M to let her know that she would be remaining on her own.

Back in September, I’d researched bus repair places, as an alternative to the local Toyota dealer, whose capacity to deal with a Coaster was limited. At that stage, John had not been inclined to act. Now, I resurrected the details of the bus repair place in readiness for tomorrow.

I told John that, despite the fact that it was quite chilly, and that we were now home, dinner for the next three nights would be the cold meats and salads that I’d made for the trip. Like it or not!

Obviously, I was less than impressed with the whole abortive episode. But did agree with John that “it could have been worse”. Like we could have broken down in the Melba Tunnel, or out in the wilds of the Mallee. I refrained from pointing out that it could have been better, too…


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2016 Travels November

 NOVEMBER 2016     PLANNING A SA TRIP

Son’s wedding a month previous had been a wonderful day, with his two children acting as attendants. They had even managed to crack a partly sunny, dry day – by no means certain in a Melbourne spring.

Springtime wedding

Since then, friend M had been wandering about in SA for a few weeks. Her travelling companions had, however, needed to head home. So…

We planned to meet up with her on the Yorke Peninsula, where we’d not been before, and spend a couple of weeks sightseeing and relaxing by the sea, there. The Driver was even prepared to sacrifice a couple of Saturdays of bowls, so we could fit this in before hot weather eventually hit Melbourne and we became tied to garden care for the summer.

Lovely in springtime but a tie in summer…

On our last trip, an intermittent revving that may have been clutch or gear-related had appeared in Bus. John had decided, in his wisdom, to wait and see if it got any worse, before taking action. Somehow, I didn’t think it was going to disappear of its own volition, but what would I know of things mechanical?

Did all the usual preparations, including moving all the potted plants into one shady area, where it would be easier for our flat tenant to water them.

I cooked up some chicken drumsticks and pork strips, to be our meals for the first three nights. Made some potato salad and coleslaw, that would pass through the quarantine checks between Mildura and Renmark.

M was going to suss out a dog friendly caravan park, by the sea and let us know what our destination would be.


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2016 Travels September 12

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 12     DAYLESFORD TO HOME     255kms

There was light rain all through the night and the morning seemed distinctly damp and dreary. I was up at 8am and did the usual dog walk.

Had my little radio on whilst I was having my breakfast coffee and did not like the weather forecast I heard. The Bureau was issuing severe weather warnings, with a lot more heavy rain to come, especially around here and to the west and north. It was expected to be a prolonged bad weather event.

When John surfaced at 11am, I suggested to him that we bail out and go home today, before the really bad weather set in tomorrow. Heading further west, as originally planned, was clearly not a good idea now. He agreed, even though we’d paid for another night here. I think he was sick of feeling cold, damp and confined, too.

We got away at 12.30pm.

As we were driving away from the Park, there was a sudden revving type of noise from Bus engine. We both thought “slipping clutch”. I was tense for a while, but there was no repeat, so relaxed somewhat.

I had thought we would head to the Calder Highway, then home on the usual route from Bendigo, through Heathcote. But as we travelled through Daylesford, the GPS issued different directions to mine. John obeyed the machine. I had another look at the map and worked out that we could head over towards Kyneton, which GPS had us doing, but then go on up to Heathcote and home. John was quite happy to travel on C class roads, so we headed on through Lauriston.

The Campaspe River

The roads were mostly fine to good, with a few slightly lumpy sections, in places. It was basically an easy route and a pretty drive, through mostly open country to Heathcote. Another new line for my map of roads we have travelled…

Threatening skies on the way to Heathcote

At Redesdale, there was an unusual warning sign – for a narrow bridge with a curved top.

Don’t see many of those signs

At 4 metres high and 3 metres wide, it was fine for us. But it was a very unusual bridge over the Campaspe River – a narrow stream here – with stone posts in the centre of the roadway. That section was hilly, down to the river valley, and back out again.

Not a truck friendly bridge

Reached Heathcote at 1.45. Stopped in the usual side street area, by the oval. John took dog for a run, whilst I went to the bakery for lunch – a sausage roll and pastie for John and a ham and cheese sandwich for me. Plus a big coffee each.

We had that revving noise happen again, not far from Heathcote. Again, we were in 4th of the five forward gears and on a flat road at the time. It was strange, because Bus had not displayed any issues on the hilly sections we’d been on.

Went straight through Seymour, now both being somewhat anxious to reach home.

There was so much surface water lying in the paddocks between Seymour and Yea, and full dams. There were some ominous low storm clouds hanging on the hills to the north and east.

Turbulent skies near Yea

When we reached Yea, the fuel gauge had just ticked on Empty, so John didn’t take the chance of trying to make it to Glenburn, It took 86 litres in what we thought was a 96 litre fuel  tank! Was $1.209cpl – more expensive than it would have been at Glenburn, for sure.

Around Glenburn, we came up behind some sort of vintage car that we eventually worked out was left-hand drive. He was going a bit slower than us, which was why we’d caught him, but wouldn’t slow to let us past. When there were overtaking lanes, he kept going just a bit too fast for us to be able to get past him, after allowing other tailed back cars to go by. It was really annoying. He was also wandering over the road, noticeably. John though maybe his steering was loose. I thought he may have had a liquid lunch! If it was the steering, it must have been a cow of a thing to drive. We remained stuck behind him all the way from Glenburn, over the Range and all the way to Lilydale.

That car…

From the roundabout on the Yarra Glen bypass, one can usually see the hills of home in the distance, but today they were covered by cloud.

Home is under those clouds…

There was another episode of the revving at the Yarra Gen roundabouts. It went on a fraction longer, this time. Clearly, to me, this was becoming a significant issue.

Reached home at 4.15pm. Bus had trundled up the long, winding uphill road leading towards home with no problem.

Took less than an hour to unpack the fridge contents, other perishable food, assorted electronics and gadgets that don’t stay in Bus – and a large basketful of washing.

So – our planned several weeks trip was rather drastically curtailed. In light of the subsequent weather, and major flooding in the areas we’d planned to be, the right decision had been made.

STATISTICS

Nights away: 10

Accomm cost: $384.80

Discount gained: $35.20

Fuel cost: $165