With the house sale process out of the way, it was now time to think about heading back up to Bendigo to house hunt in earnest. With some three and a half months until we had to leave our old home, it seemed we had plenty of time to find a new place….
The sign says it all…
Being able to search for properties online made house hunting much easier than it once was. Go to one of the main sales sites, fill in some search parameters, and up pops an array of choices and information. All from the comfort of the study chair.
Given that John’s stated requirement was for no close neighbours and at least an acre sized block, that went into the search engine, plus wanting at least four bedrooms – well, we would be having family and friends to visit, plus we each needed a study.
I also contacted the main large real estate firms in Bendigo, by email, stating that we were looking to buy, and giving a broad indication of what we wanted. Only one ever bothered to contact me back.
A couple of Open for Inspections looked interesting, both on the same Saturday in very early July. Drove John’s Passat up there, for a long day trip to look at these.
The first place was not our dream property, but proved very informative, because it was on an acre of land. Suddenly, the reality of an acre hit home to John – much larger than he thought! Standing on the house verandah, surveying the expanse of ground beyond the immediate fenced yard, he asked me what one would do with it. I replied “mow it” – which was not how he envisaged spending his time. So, revise block size downwards – gladly!
A big back yard to mow!
The other home was interesting, in the very pleasant eastern suburb of Strathfieldsaye, but the shed was small and grotty and the yard shaded by large gum trees. However, that did give us direct contact with an agent, who listened to our wish list. He thought he might have something that would suit, a place that was for sale but not actually being advertised. He would have to contact the people to arrange an inspection and would get back to us.
This agent had told us the address, in Maiden Gully, of the place he had in mind, so we drove across town to have a look from the outside. It appeared a definite possibility – an older build, architect designed, somewhat unusual, and on a very good sized block in a quiet area.
On the same street were a couple of vacant blocks for sale – again, a very good size, and we sat in the car opposite these for a while, pondering the “build or buy established” question.
We headed back to Melbourne, with a lot to talk about on the way.
John decided to liven up the late afternoon by becoming sleepy and so getting me to drive. Nothing unusual there – except that the Passat was automatic, and I had only ever in my life driven a manual shift car. Quick lesson ensued, after which he was relaxed enough to doze off, while I proceeded, tensely, and a good deal more slowly than he would have been driving.
We spent our week here exploring the Bendigo region, getting a feel for the areas we might like to live.
Bendigo began as the scene of gold rushes, in the 1850’s. Mining followed the creeks and gullies. Other facilities, such as police encampments, early shops, grew up around the mining areas, in an ad-hoc way. As the nature of the mining changed from the alluvial, easily found shallow gold to the deeper reef embedded gold, so the growing settlement became aligned to the NW-SE trend of the gold bearing reefs. Little “suburbs” emerged, separated by big tracts of mines and huge mullock heaps, amongst them Sailors Gully, California Gully, Long Gully, Ironbark, Golden Square, Kangaroo Flat, Deborah Triangle. Even today, most of the older suburbs of Bendigo have vacant ground between them, occupied by mining heaps and regenerated bushland around old mines.
The suburbs of Bendigo
The central business area of Bendigo grew apiece, north and east of the main mining areas, and with a more orderly layout. The massive wealth generated by gold mining is evidenced by the beautiful, ornate old buildings dating from the later 1800’s, that make the present day city centre so interesting.
In more recent times, there have been some housing estates built on infill sites in some of the older mining suburbs, like Golden Square, but mostly development has simply occurred on the outer fringes and moved progressively outwards, leapfrogging the old waste ground and pockets of State Forest. The effect of this is strangely attractive.
The newer, leafier outer suburbs appealed most. We wanted a modern house, for starters. Although there were housing developments close in, like in Golden Square, our preference was to avoid the areas that might sit on top of old mining tunnels. That was something we both agreed on, along with John’s need for a large shed, and a place to park the Bus. Beyond that, we differed. John had visions of acreage, fruit trees, chooks, big vegie gardens, no neighbours within cooee. Suburban and manageable featured in my dreams.
That’s MY bed!
During the week we cruised in all directions around Bendigo, drove past some of the properties advertised in the local paper. We were debating whether to buy land and build, or purchase a pre-loved home, so visited a couple of estates and sets of display homes.
We even attended one Open for Inspection in the Maiden Gully suburb. We were the only attendees. I loved the modern, large, light-filled home, but there was only a small shed and no place to park Bus. However, the experience was instructional in that the lady owner was present through the whole time and clearly hampered the presentation of the place by the real estate agent, and made us feel quite self-conscious. After, we resolved that, when our place was being inspected, we would make ourselves totally scarce.
Despite that, we both liked Maiden Gully, which still had a “bushy” feel and where there were frequent sightings of pairs of Eastern Rosellas flying about.
Had a very pleasant meal one evening, with daughter and family, at the nearby Marong Hotel, which did really interesting food. Their Fishermans Basket was very generous – fish, a couple of prawns cooked in charcoal infused panko crumbs, scallops, the tenderest calamari, chips and salad. Delicious and more than I could eat. The pork belly pizza that another member of the group had was innovative, and, apparently, good eating.
One morning there was a really unusual and threatening cloud formation across the sky, not like anything I’d seen before.
Threatening sky over Marong
Eventually, there was a little rain.
Will it rain?
From the park location by the Calder Highway, what really stood out was the sheer volume of truck traffic. The park itself was set far enough back from the road for the traffic noise to be there in the background but not intrusive. At night, from Bus, we had an outlook across a paddock to the highway and the constant procession of lit-up semi trailer trucks. Yet, there was a railway line through Marong to parts north and west. In the week, we neither saw nor heard any rail traffic. This State so needs to re-examine its infrastructure priorities which seem to be almost exclusively focussed on Melbourne and building yet more freeways and tunnels for road traffic.
Overall, the week was useful in firming up some ideas and helping John realize the variety of localities of the city.
This late-month sojourn away in Bus was somewhat different to our usual travel. Its purpose was to investigate the real estate scene in Bendigo.
We were seriously considering fleeing from “Marvellous Melbourne”. In the parlance: Moving to the Country. Doing a “tree change” – though in our case, more of a tree re-discovery.
Our outer Melbourne home
Even in our outer suburban area, 38kms from the CBD, traffic congestion had become an unpleasant reality. Recently it took me forty minutes to drive the 5kms from home to the centre of Lilydale, at 4.30pm on a weekday. That was now normal. I’d had a medical appointment at Vermont, some 20kms away, at 9.30am. I left home at 8am – and was still late!
The outdoor car park at the Lilydale Marketplace shopping centre now needed commercial traffic controllers at busy times!
The volume of large truck traffic on our local roads was fearsome, and their driving styles often intimidatory.
Our once pleasant Hills street had fallen victim to unit style redevelopment. Blocks of four units were replacing the old homes and their established gardens. These units, in the interests of building cheaply and maximizing profits, provided only one car parking space each. But most owners had two vehicles, so the second one would be parked out in the narrow, dead-end street. Once all the commuters were home in the evening something the size of an ambulance or fire truck would not be able to get through to our end of the street.
Our narrow street
So many large old trees had been felled to make way for housing. Our neighbourhood was pleasant no more.
Daughter had lived in Bendigo for over a decade, and through visiting her family, we had become familiar with the city. Its scale, and the overall manageability of life there had come to seem more and more attractive. It was large enough to have a range of essential services (like a Bunnings store for John) and offer a variety of activities – for that, read several bowls clubs, ditto. The place seemed to have an exciting, dynamic aura these days.
I had been wanting to relocate for a couple of years, now. John had not been interested, until recently. The work of clearing and packing his shed was a significant deterrent to him.
It seemed that now the first part of my challenge had been achieved – getting him keen to move. The second part was to convince him of Bendigo’s desirability as a tree change destination. I knew the area better than he did, so on this trip we would be exploring a variety of suburbs and localities.
Bus had not been refuelled since we were in Lakes Entrance, last year, so John took it off to our local servo where diesel was $1.279cpl.
After the usual cold night it was hard to get up early, so it was 10.15 by the time we were packed up and leaving the park.
The day was pleasant – getting warmer, with blue sky, but rather hazy. That might be due to the inversion and smoke previously mentioned.
Looking down at our Maryborough camp from the lake walking track
I thought that it would be best to go home the long way, via Bendigo, rather than down the Calder Highway and through the city, which might be quite busy with traffic related to football and other special events happening today. We could tootle up some previously untravelled back roads through Eddington and Lockwood. John agreed with that thinking, so he programmed Marong into the GPS.
The ”lady” instructed us to turn right out of the caravan park. That wasn’t logical, according to the basic town map I had in a tourist pamphlet, so I made John turn left. Then, I worked out that the machine had been going to take us around the town centre – very smart. Oops! I had to apologize to John as he negotiated the surprisingly busy centre of town.
It seemed we had hardly left Maryborough before we were into Carisbrook – almost a suburb. Saw an interesting home there, built from shipping containers. There should probably be more use of these, for all sorts of things as there seem to be a lot sitting around in various places mot be utilized for much. One of our former employers in the NT made quite a reasonable dwelling using a couple of containers. The one at Carisbrook looked like it had been architect designed.
By the time I finished admiring that house, it was evident that the GPS had decreed we were continuing on towards Castlemaine, not the way I’d intended. Perhaps I should regard that gadget as adding extra spice to a trip, as in wondering: where is it taking us now?
The country was different on the eastern side of Maryborough. I could see the occasional volcanic cone in the distance and some paddocks had volcanic rock in. I hadn’t known that the western Victorian volcanic district extended this far to the north.
Saw an old, two-storied substantial bluestone house that would have dated from well over a hundred years ago. Still occupied and cared for – good to see.
This stretch was really interesting to travel. It was quite rich looking land, possibly volcanic soils. There was a lot of cropping evident, but I think it was still grain of some kind, We crossed an arm of Cairn Curran Reservoir – which dams the Loddon River for irrigation and town supply – and could see the cone of Mt Tarrengower in the distance.
Crossed a rail line – defunct, of course, once part of quite a dense rail network serving these agricultural areas. Around the 1970’s the State government shut down so much of Victoria’s country railways, citing cost of upkeep and greater convenience of road trucking. I suspect that, if an honest study was done, the cost of road upgrading and upkeep now far outweighs what rail upkeep would have.
Suddenly, we were in Newstead, where the GPS directed us onto the Maldon road. Ah – now I see its logic! That put us on a road we’d explored last year. I would have preferred a virgin route.
Maldon was busy – maybe there were Sunday markets? We didn’t stop and proceeded out of town and past the old dredge we’d visited last year.
Could clearly smell wood smoke and even see smoke lightly lying in hollows. Such a smoky time of the year. I love wood fires, but have to admit that, in these times, they are not really environmentally friendly.
Stopped at Marong to top up the fuel, at an automatic Express diesel place – where it seemed easier than waiting until we were in Bendigo. But John had immense trouble getting his card to work, knowing which buttons to press, and just how to make it all happen. I didn’t have a clue. Maybe it says something about our world today, when two people who hold post-graduate university qualifications, can’t make a bloody fuel bowser go? John became very cross. He did not want to just up and leave, in case he ended up being charged for $50 worth of fuel he didn’t obtain! Eventually it all happened, though neither of us was quite sure how. Then he was worried that we might be charged twice for one lot of fuel! This is not a fuel stop we will repeat when we are up this way – ever! There are a few servos on the road from Bendigo to Heathcote that offer adequate access for a rig our size. The diesel there was $1.299 cpl.
Negotiating our way on the usual route through Bendigo was not too bad, though I think we struck some Mothers’ Day lunch traffic. It was just after midday as we cleared the central part of that city.
I noticed that, between Derrimal and Heathcote, there were kilometres of dying eucalypts on the roadside verges, and wondered what was causing this.
We stopped for lunch at Heathcote, parking as usual on the side street by the entrance to the oval. This place, too, was quite busy. John took Couey for a walk while I went to the bakery, to spend $28 on coffees, pastie and pie for John, egg and lettuce sandwich for me. The bakery always has a large range of pie types and I chose a chunky steak and pepper pie. John decided it was a bot too chunky! Plain ordinary meat pie for him next time! My sandwich was on grain bread and was stuffed full – yummy.
While we sat at one of the roadside tables, near Bus, we saw a caravanner demonstrating why so many people think badly of the species. This clown – a 4WD towing a big Concept van – drove down the side street, did a U-turn, then drove back towards the main street, passing a couple of long empty spaces where he could have parked. He then pulled in, right at the corner with the highway, almost touching the Give Way sign. He was actually protruding a little way into the intersection, and blocking the crossing from the footpath, so proceeded to reverse, forcing a small car that was parked – legally – behind him, to quickly reverse too, so as not to be hit, That car had been there before the clown arrived. Luckily, there was still a driver in it. All for the sake of saving less than fifty metres of walking distance. Arrogant morons like him give caravanners a very bad image. Unfortunately, we have encountered far too many of them on our travels.
By the time we’d finished our leisurely lunch, mister idiot had departed.
Place where idiot driver parked his rig, right across footpath and poking into highway!
Continued on the usual route home. By now, the day had clouded over. Or maybe it was the smoke polluted air around Melbourne? Near Yea, some of the hill tops just poked out through the haze – looked like they were floating.
Thin line of floating hilltops between the trees
Did not need to stop in Yea, which was its usual Sunday busy.
John decided to top up the fuel at the usual servo at Glenburn, so we would have an almost full tank when we head off on the next trip. Here fuel was 3 cents a litre cheaper than at the best-forgotten Marong place. $1.269 cpl.
We came down the range into the autumn colours of the trees and grapevines around Dixons Creek and Yarra Glen, Very pretty. More smoke haze hanging about.
It will be good when (if?) the Yarra Glen bypass actually gets extended across the Yarra River towards Coldstream. The section of road that currently winds across the river flats and takes both the Coldstream and Lilydale back road traffic, is so slow and tedious. It always seems to have more than its share of impatient and idiot drivers, too.
Reached home at 3.30pm.
The usual fairly quick unpack and sorting things out followed – and a bout of clothes washing.
Trip done, I needed to focus on this week’s appointment with a thyroid surgeon and working out what might be going on with the half gland that remains. Back in 1996, a benign enlargement of half the thyroid – a butterfly-shaped gland that lies across the front of the neck – saw its somewhat difficult removal. The resultant scar drew speculative looks for years after – had things really been so dire that I’d tried to cut my throat? When we’d been travelling in Tasmania, John had been known to tell people that the scar showed my Tasmanian ancestry – it was where the second head had been removed!
Once we know what needs to happen, and get it sorted, can start planning the next trip. Maybe somewhere warmer and drier?
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.
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.
Usual morning – me rising about 8am and John sleeping late.
While walking Couey on the lead around the park, got talking to a man working on the gardens. Told him how attractive and well kept I found the place. The poor man said he was constantly battling rabbits that come in from the surrounding farmland and dig up newly planted shrubs to eat the roots. Given all the surrounding grass, that rather surprised me.
I said that, from my perspective, all the park needed to make it perfect was a fenced dog run area. Pushy? Well, maybe they hadn’t thought of it? He seemed to think it might be worth considering, but said that we could walk Couey through the residential section (that says no entry except to residents), to the paddock at the back and throw the ball for her there. Very nice of him.
Left the park at noon to meet daughter at her workplace in the centre of Bendigo. The drive in from Marong to the city was really pretty. Forested areas alternating with farmland, from Marong to Maiden Gully – an outlying sort of new suburb development – then more treed and farm lands. The built up city area really only extends about three kms in this western direction.
Mining dump area beside Calder Highway
I seemed to recollect from some long past history study, that the rich gold reefs found from the 1850’s on, extended in a roughly N-S direction and that was the way the early gold rush settlement developed. There was still much evidence of these beginnings about the place, in more than just locality names. We passed large mullock dump heaps as well as the occasional mine poppet head.
Old mining area only 3kms from city centre
At work, daughter was there on her RDO to take part in a blind pie tasting test, to determine the best one to buy for a future function, and she’d invited John – with all his pie eating experience – to join in. There were two pies from local bakeries, one from Aldi, and a Four and Twenty one. Rather surprisingly to me, the first choice of the majority of the tasters was the Aldi pie, with the Four and Twenty one second.
There were some great shops in Bendigo and daughter had a favourite where she bought many of her clothes. I’d been hunting for a while for an outfit to wear to son’s wedding, and not been able to find anything I liked in shops around our local area. I was really trying to avoid going into central Melbourne or one of the mammoth shopping complexes for same. So daughter took me to her favourite outlet, not far from her work. The sales lady there was most helpful and I ended up buying not one, but two, outfits. I suspected daughter who encouraged me, may have an eye to borrowing one of them at a future date.
Trying on outfits
I did love the manageable scale of Bendigo’s shopping areas – and traffic. Maybe one day….
We’d left Couey tied outside the shop, because John wanted input to the clothes decision making. She complained loudly whilst he was still visible, but lapsed into silent and sulking mode as soon as he was not in sight. Handy to know.
I bought a wrap for my lunch, the pie eaters being too full for any more. Then went to daughter’s for coffee. After that, we all drove to grandson’s school, in two cars. He’d commenced Year 7 this year at a fairly new school, on the outskirts of town. I was most impressed with the appearance and behaviour of the students at get-out time. Very tidy and mannerly. The buildings were excellent – interesting and innovative, heavily into open-plan learning areas and flexible spaces. High tech. Beautiful landscaping. Schools had come so far in the couple of decades since I worked in them. We heartily approved of the place.
We continued on back to Bus, Called in at the Eucalyptus Shop at Marong. Bought some laundry powder, lemon myrtle oil for my scent burner at home and wash liquid for the dog’s bedding. Received two “free” jars of local pickled onions as a bonus. John was happy – he eats lots of these.
Met daughter and the boys and S’s mum at the Marong Hotel at 6pm, to have a counter tea together. We’d heard good things about the meals here and were not disappointed. It was a pretty standard pub bistro menu but the food was, mostly, very well done. John had flathead and chips – often his choice at such places. I had a modern take on a souvlaki, which I found a bit heavy on the leafy greens and a bit light on the lamb. The other adults had parma and schnitzel, which they enjoyed. The boys had pizza. The younger one is a fussy eater, but does eat pizza. The kids’ food arrived first, which we appreciated. It was a very pleasant time together.
We were back at Bus in time to watch Australian Survivor.
After that, we had a serious discussion about the pros and cons of selling up at home and relocating to Bendigo. There are both, and no decision was reached. But there was no rush to make such a momentous change.
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 