Coaster | This Adventurous Age

February 24, 2024
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2018 Travels December 12

DECEMBER 12 2018

An unexpected bonus of the move here was the discovery of a set of friendly neighbours on one side of us. This slightly younger couple had only moved into their home a few weeks before us, so we had that in common for starters. We quickly developed the pattern of going to each others’ places once or twice a week for Happy Hour.

They were caravanners as we had been, owning a rather large and heavy offroad van that they kept at a local storage place. We talked travel and places been.

Another pattern that quickly developed was going out for meals with this couple, almost on a weekly basis. It was definitely new for John to be happy to eat out and within a month or two we’d had more such meals than we’d had in at least two decades in Melbourne!

There was no shortage of wonderful places to dine in Bendigo – and all within less than a twenty minute drive from home. So many pubs doing great counter meals…The one at Marong quickly became a favourite, as did the local Prattys Patch, housed in a wonderful old stone building dating from the gold heyday period. Daughter took us to one of her favourites, the National, on the edge of the CBD.

Historic Prattys Patch

We sampled very good Thai food at a city centre restaurant. The Malayan Orchid also in town, provided excellent meals on special occasions – and between us all, there were going to be plenty of those.

Obviously, with the strong Chinese heritage in Bendigo, dating from the gold rushes, there was no shortage of really good Chinese dining places, so we had some of those we wanted to try.

I soon had a big list of eating venues to trial. Exciting!

John found an online market place site and immediately advertised our lawnmower and whipper snipper, Rather surprisingly, these sold quickly. He was quite gleeful to see them go.

Bus came home from aunty’s place to the new house, where it was driven down the driveway beside the house and parked in front of John’s shed. Some pittosporum hedging had to be heavily trimmed first. There was not a great deal of clearance on either side, and the fact that said driveway was angled around the corner of the garage, made this exercise rather harder than it needed to be.

Had a tradesman come in and measure the area in front of the shed to have a carport extension built onto it. For the first time since we bought it in 2012, Bus would eventually be under shelter. But it would not be built until the new year. The new roof would be gabled, with a central high peak – to accommodate the height of the air-con unit that was so nearly scraped off a few weeks ago.

Only a few days after Bus had been parked in front of the shed, John realized it would have to be moved again, in order to extricate the trailer, which had been parked off to one side of it. Admirable forward planning demonstrated here! The trailer still contained several large and very heavy timber slabs that John had moved from Melbourne on it. These were destined to make large table tops and the like and needed to be stored in the shed. We needed the trailer to collect some mulch for the garden, and take some packing remnants to the tip.

I started the process of reversing Bus back down the driveway, with John directing from outside. This method had worked when our old van had needed reversing, but we’d never quite mastered it with the Bus, as John had usually reversed it in caravan parks. I couldn’t work out which way he wanted me to turn the steering wheel and it didn’t seem he was that sure, either! I did make some progress backwards, very stop and start, but was soon ordered out and John completed the tight reversing through the side gates and around the house corner to the street.

On the cement of the drive at the front of the house, there were now some curvy rubber patterns, which demonstrated how many times Bus had been inched back and forth to get round the angle.

I suggested that we should maybe try reversing Bus back up the drive, when it was time to put it back, after the trailer was unloaded and taken out, which might make it easier to drive out next time. For some totally illogical reason, it did turn out to be easier to do, that way. Couldn’t really work out why – it didn’t change the size of the driveway!

John decided that, to make Bus entry and exit even easier, another task for the new year would be to remove the low brick fence at the front of the block, along with some garden there, and relocate the mailbox, thus creating a straight driveway.

The obstacles to a straight entry to the side driveway…

January 29, 2024
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2018 Travels October 22

SUNDAY OCTOBER 22 ALMOST A DISASTER…

Late morning, daughter arrived to drive John out to the caravan park at Marong, to collect Bus.

The plan was to drive it to a relative’s place a few suburbs away, to be stored in her barn-like shed, along with the caravans of various other family members. I took the Terios and met them there.

The best-laid plans…almost turned into a disaster.

Daughter was directing John as he reversed into the shed, through lovely wide doors. She screamed very loudly, “Stop”. Which he, did, instantly and fortunately.

Shed length and width of doors opening – no problems. But we hadn’t thought of height. Dumb. Just luckily, daughter had been standing at an angle where she could see the Bus air con unit only a few cms from being scraped off if John went any further under the door frame.

So, scrap the shed storage.

For the time being, Bus would just have to stay outdoors, parked under some trees on aunty’s acreage block.

This would not be a permanent solution, as I really wanted it under cover.

November 8, 2022
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2014 Non-Travels December 2014

DECEMBER 2014

The mysterious allergy/immune system disorder flared up again. I was getting so sick of myself.

M and friend had a stay on Stradbroke Island and M had experimented with sand driving, apparently scaring herself as well as him. She doesn’t scare easily, either…

A little window of opportunity appeared to present in early December. I was free of appointments for a couple of weeks. Driver could spare five days between his bowls and medical appointments. Yessss…

The Plan was to head off on a Sunday morning, after the previous day’s bowls, and head to Castlemaine – a new area for us. We would use that as a base to explore some of the nearby old goldfields towns. M – never one to miss a travel opportunity – said she’d go too. I booked sites at a Castlemaine caravan park, for four nights from Sunday December 7. Consistent with our policy of “saving” closer places for the time when our travel abilities were reduced, we’d never visited this town or area before. The abilities were certainly reduced now!

I went through Bus cupboards, throwing out past use-by food stocks and replacing same. Made up the beds, packed my clothes, dog food and treats. All that was left to do were the Driver’s jobs.

When we woke on Sunday morning, the rain was pouring steadily down. We didn’t fancy doing the final packing and preparation in the rain, so deferred departure until the next day. The rain cleared after lunch so we were able to work on the final things. John checked Bus coolant and oil, drained and refilled the water tanks. The Coaster seems to have such a cumbersome system for adding coolant – or were we doing it wrong, by taking off the driver’s side step cover?

I put enzyme down the sink, so it would slosh around the grey water tank in travel, and loosen up any grease. We put the car hitch onto back of Bus.

I then had a really bad night, with nerve pain from the leg ulcers, exacerbated by doing a clean dressing on it Monday morning. John asked if I still wanted to go away, given the pain I was in. I didn’t. He phoned the caravan park and explained; they were very understanding.

Later in the day, after some extra pain killers kicked in, I was able to unpack Bus fridge and my clothes. The dog was totally confused! At least I didn’t have to cook tea, as I’d previously cooked chicken marylands to take away for our first night’s meal – and podded a couple of lots of broad beans, to reduce the space they would occupy in Bus fridge.

The trip nearly happened….

This episode led to me being put onto Lyrica for pain management.

Thus ended 2014. This was the first year since about 1980 that I hadn’t been away holidaying and travelling at all. Even as a single mother, working full time when my children were young, we always managed at least a week’s camping in the holidays.

Could only hope that 2015 was a better year.

November 6, 2022
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2014 Non-Travels October to November

OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2014

Bendigo grandson came to stay in the September school holidays and John took him to the Royal Melbourne Show. A plan to take him out for a drive in Bus didn’t eventuate because John was really tired after the Show day.

**Grandson doing “shed work” with John**

Clearly, though, Bus needed a run to shake out the cobwebs. After the family had gone home again, we took the tarpaulin cover off Bus and I checked over the inside. Was surprised to find the house batteries were down to 1. Not good for batteries! I couldn’t work out why, because it had been plugged into 240v power, ever since we’d come home last year.

We took Bus out for a day trip, on a day that was cool, grey and slightly misty. Firstly, a detour down to Bayswater to refuel at an easily accessible servo – which our local one definitely wasn’t. $1.489cpl – much less than we paid on last year’s trips.

Back up the hill to Mt Evelyn, thence Woori Yallock and across to Healesville. The Yarra Valley was beautifully green after winter.

At Healesville, we parked a block from the main street and walked to get lunch at the place we’d eaten at, a few times before. This was shut, and a pile of mail on the floor inside suggested permanently so. So we had to lower the lunch expectations. John got some Charcoal Chicken. I managed a ham and cheese croissant from the nearby Bakers Delight, and we got coffee from a bakery cafe.

We’d left Couey at home today. My thinking was that, not knowing quite what was happening with Bus electricals, it would be better if dog was not with us if we broke down.

Back at Bus, parked next to us was a brand new Traveller caravan and 4WD. The owner was taking photos of his rig, which did look rather splendid in contrast with our utilitarian Bus. I could remember when we were that proud of our new Trakmaster and Landrover. Now seemed a long, long time ago.

John wanted to go look at Maroondah Dam – a water storage for Melbourne’s supply, a few kms out of Healesville. As soon as we parked, could hear the roar from the dam. It had been a wet winter. Although we thought the excess water must be coming out through a pipe, it was really boiling up and then coming down the rock faced section into the Yarra River. That was worth seeing.

**Surplus water leaving Maroondah Dam, into the Yarra River**

The gardens at the Dam are extensive and lovely, a destination for a picnic and wander in themselves. Back in 2008, when we’d had son and his children staying with us, we had occasionally packed the makings and had a BBQ lunch here.

Today, I took a couple of photos of a conifer-type shrub that had eye-catching bright green tips on it.

As we drove to the Dam and back, saw that new dining options had opened, on that side of Healesville. There was an establishment that offered wine tastings and food, seeming somewhat upmarket. There was a Beechworth Bakery too – how long has that been there? Maybe not so surprising that the cafe had shut down, after all. Entry on my mental to-do list: return before too long and try out these options.

Followed the Maroondah Highway to Lilydale and thence home – just in time to do battle with the local school traffic and buses.

Bus went as if it had never had an extended period of inactivity.

It appeared that, as we went along driving, the house batteries were receiving some charge from the engine. That was a surprise – I did not know that was supposed to happen, for those. The two cranking batteries, used to start Bus and power its “car” things, were isolated from the house system, and were obviously not affected by whatever had flattened the latter.

I still had much to learn about this motor homing lark and started to seek advice wherever I could, about what might be the problem.

The slight niggle of worry aside, it had been so good to be going somewhere in Bus, again if only for a few hours. John enjoyed the driving.

My email queries to the company that had done the Bus conversion, back in 2004, went unanswered as did their phone. I wondered if the guy had retired?

We consulted an auto electrician in Lilydale. The advice was that we needed two new house batteries and a new charger. The batteries were a pity because the ones in Bus were onoy three or four years old. They were Haze brand which I’d never heard of. I ordered Full River batteries. We’d had these in the van, which was all 12v so they got a solid workout and were still going strong, after eight years, when we sold the van. Decided to go for another Projecta charger, same brand as was there. The electrician said there had been a faulty batch of Projecta chargers some years ago – maybe that was our issue?

When I thought back, wondered if the funny episode we’d had with the smoke alarm, coming back from the NSW coast, last November, was in fact the charger burning out?

The new one came with a remote monitor, which the man mounted next to the other monitors and switches and wired up for us, so I would now be able to see what it was doing. Previously I would have had to take everything off my bed and open up the underneath, to check this. I was much happier…

**The new charging monitor – easy to see**

He also explained to me how the electrical systems worked – finally I thought I understood it all….

That lot cost almost $1300.

Bus came home again, after its stay in Lilydale. We did not put the tarp back over the roof, hoping to get in a sort break away, before too much longer.

July 10, 2022
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2013 Travels July 31

WEDNESDAY 31 JULY FORREST BEACH

Couey woke me before 7am, by whining and nudging at me. This was unusual behaviour, so I got up and took her out. She had certainly needed to be out of Bus – upset stomach, big time! I presumed she took on too much sea water on yesterday’s walk. Either that, or the tick collar had affected her.

Because it was so early, we went for a long walk along the foreshore paths and through the park areas – about 3kms. There would be no beach walk for her today.

Again, it was a superb day, about 26 degrees, blue sky, no wind, gentle sea. This was what we’d ordered!

After his breakfast, John decided to check the pressures in the vehicle tyres. Actually, he wanted to do the Terios, but decided to do Bus too, since he had the gear out. Terios tyres, at 31, were higher than the recommended 26, but he wanted to leave them at that. He discovered that he didn’t have the right gear for checking the inside rear bus tyres – would have to rectify that at some stage. We really didn’t know what pressures the Bus tyres should be running at anyway. Just had to hope the Toyota service centre at home had them right. Still on a learning curve with this Bus thing, us.

Later, we all walked up to the shops, to buy some vegies for tea and to post mail. There was a post office agency at the newsagent. Or was the Post Office also a newsagent? Either way, the postal location is Allingham, not Forrest Beach, just to confuse everyone. We both had cards and letters to post.

John had ordered, online, a dashboard camera, that he had delivered to M, for forwarding. That parcel was now there for him.

Back at Bus, he fiddled about with the dashcam for a while, then went for a drive in Terios to get it going.

I read, knitted, wrote up the diary, spent some time on the laptop.

We had steak for tea, with sides of broccoli and mushrooms. I used a packet of green peppercorn sauce with the steak – not the sort of thing I usually bought, at home. John loved it and wants it again, next time we have steaks.

May 24, 2022
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2013 Travels July 7

SUNDAY 7 JULY COPI HOLLOW TO WILCANNIA 155kms

We took our time packing up and hitching up, leaving the park at 10.30am.

John really wanted to go direct to Wilcannia, not back through Broken Hill.

People at the Menindee Visitor Centre had told us that the road up the west side was marginally better at the moment, than the east. I suggested that I drive Terios separately, rather than tow it on the unsealed road, but John vetoed that idea.

**West bank route from Menindee to Wilcannia**

The west bank road was rough in places, where it had been driven on when wet. As a passenger, it felt like the Coaster “caught” in some of the wheel ruts. I worried about the following Terios, with its much narrower wheel base. An ok path for the Coaster was not necessarily so for the car.

It took us a bit over two hours to do the unsealed 138kms to Wilcannia, but John did need to make about five comfort stops along the way!

The country we traversed was flat and scrubby and not very appealing. Not the scenic route!

In the quiet, run-down looking Wilcannia, we refuelled at the Liberty servo. $1.73cpl. This time, we’d managed 6kms per litre. Later, found out that the other servo, down a back street, off the highway, was considerably cheaper.

Parked by Bourke Park, in the town, and gave Couey a ball chase for a while,

Wilcannia has some lovely old buildings, dating from its era as an important Darling River port town, but it was sad to see the deterioration and neglect of some of this heritage – and the prevalence of bars on windows of those businesses that were not closed and boarded up. A very sad town.

The prevailing views we’d heard from other travellers were that camping in what passed for the caravan park in town, by the river, was not always secure feeling. We had no intention of doing so. On a Cartoscope free map that I’d picked up in Menindee, I’d seen an advertisement for a caravan park 3kms east of town – Warrawong on the Darling – and had Googled it. Looked both new and fine. We drove out there, thinking we would check this out, stay if it looked alright, otherwise drive on east and find somewhere to stop along the way.

I had some moments of doubt about this place, as we turned off the highway onto the approach road, to be confronted by a paddock full of old cars and scrap metal. But that was the neighbour’s place; the caravan park was well away from that.

Liked what we saw and booked in for a night, at $35 for a powered site. We could choose our site – most were unoccupied – and we picked a large grassy site on the bank overlooking a billabong of the Darling River. This was really picturesque and lovely, ringed by trees and bush and with a mix of dead and live trees in the water. Lots of bird life.

The place had only been open since Easter, so was still being developed. The new amenities were very spacious and clean, still with some finishing off work to be done. Each large shower cubicle also had its own handbasin.

There was a row of roomy, powered sites along the billabong bank, and the makings of more back from the bank. Already, there was a camp kitchen established, and a campfire area for happy hours.

There was town water – that solved our water shortage issue!

Set up didn’t take long, then we relaxed with our lunch, outside, taking in the view.

Took Couey for a walk. The temporary caretaker who’d checked us in told us there was a track that went to the Darling River and on in a circuit right around the billabong. Once we were away from the formal camp area, Couey could range off the lead. The heeler dog that belonged to the managers saw us walking off and joined us – Bidgee. The two dogs romped a bit together, on the walk. I wouldn’t say they were the greatest of friends, but they tolerated each other. Bidgee was in and out of the billabong, frolicking in the water, but couldn’t tempt Couey to join her.

**Looking back to the camp area from the track to the river**

We walked across and looked at the Darling River. Its level was noticeably lower than that of the billabong, so we thought there must be some means of closing the latter off.

**Zoom image of the camp area, billabong and Darling River**

It was a good length walk – maybe 3kms in all – and very enjoyable.

Terios seemed OK after the tow, although small gravel being thrown up had roughened the plastic coating of the front bumper. There were also some small stone chips in the paint of the hitch. We now realized there were no mud flaps on the back wheels of Bus, though the overhang was such that I wouldn’t have thought thrown-up stones would be an issue. We would have to have some sort of protection for Terios if we were going to be travelling unsealed roads, in the future.

Late in the afternoon, the managers got back from a week off. Bidgee stopped hanging round our camp.

By evening, there were several other lots of campers in place.

I texted my offspring, and M, of our whereabouts. Asked my daughter to bundle up and forward our mail – which I’d had readdressed to her place – to Charleville. John texted his daughter of our new whereabouts. He was still hoping for contact from her.

Tea was sausages and eggs.

The night was cold, but we were snug.

May 20, 2022
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2013 Travels July 5

FRIDAY 5 JULY COPI HOLLOW

The nights in these parts had been chilly, but the days fine, with lots of blue skies.

The solar screens had made a big difference inside Bus on the cold nights. The fan heater did not have to run as much, to keep us cosy.

Today was not as windy.

After our usual slow morning start, we bundled dog into Terios and set off to do some exploring.

Followed the dirt road round from Copi Hollow to the much larger Lake Pamamaroo, then skirted round that.

There were, at intervals, rough tracks going off towards the lake edge, which we assumed led to bush camping spots by the water. We took one of those and came upon a caravan parked in a clearing, right beside the lake.

A man came out of the van, in a hurry, looked at us and demanded quite aggressively that we not let the dog out of the car. We hadn’t been about to, but I didn’t think anyone free camping had any right to behave as if he owned the clearing and we were trespassing. The message was quite clear, that he didn’t want company in “his” clearing. Just to annoy him, I took my time wandering around and taking photos, while he stood with hands on hips and glared. I hoped that, with the weekend coming, his patch was invaded by noisy campers with a heap of children!

We continued on, looking at another couple of the lakeside camp spots. There certainly were some attractive camp places, for people who were self contained and didn’t need any facilities.

So, around to the Main Weir, part of the system that diverts water from the Darling River for storage in the Menindee Lakes.

Had a wander around a fairly extensive free camping area near the Weir. There were several lots of campers set up; some looked like they’d been there for a while.

**Picnic and camping area near Main Weir**

The camping area did have toilets, unlike the lake side clearings that we’d visited earlier, but seemed rather bare and dusty.

According to display signs, the ill-fated Burke and Wills Expedition, in its early stages, had set up a base camp here, for three months, over summer.

Obviously, this was before the Weir and irrigation system were set up, but presumably the original Pamamaroo Creek must have been a pleasant enough place.

Ate our packed lunch there. Gave dog a good run where there were no people to be upset by her.

After a couple of hours at the Weir area, drove towards Menindee, stopping to look at the Menindee Caravan Park. By the shore of Menindee Lake, we did not think it nearly as attractive as Copi Hollow.

In the dry, dusty, not very attractive Menindee township, I collected some material from the Information Centre. Had a discussion with a couple of people there about the conditions of the two routes from here to Wilcannia – one each side of the Darling River.

Bought some supplies at the supermarket, cruised around looking at the town.

Drove to look at the railway bridge over the Darling. Built in 1927, it was part of the railway connecting Sydney and Broken Hill, now the main east-west line. The bridge had a sort of hinged opening section in the centre, that could be lifted up by a type of crane arrangement, now dismantled. This allowed the passage of paddle steamers up the Darling to Wilcannia and beyond. That river traffic no longer exists, of course. For about fifty years, this bridge was also the road crossing of the river, trains and vehicles sharing it. Now, the road bridge is some distance downstream, at the other end of town.

**Railway bridge across the Darling at Menindee, showing part of old lifting mechanism**

Left the town and followed the road around the curve of Menindee Lake, some 20kms to the little settlement called Sunset Strip.

As the name suggests, this is a narrow section of houses by the lake. It was a mix of pretty basic, not very attractive holiday houses, through to some quite pleasant ones, possibly the homes of the permanent dwellers. When the Lake had water in it, I could see the attraction as a holiday place for people of the area, or even as a permanent home for retirees and the like. But, when the Lake dried up – not so nice, just dry sand and dust.

Like at Copi Hollow, sunsets across the Lake could be spectacular – hence the name.

We parked and wandered about on the little “beach” and dog had a run and explore. The breeze was making little wavelets at the water’s edge that she was none too sure about. This was one very cautious dog.

Back at camp, John got under Bus and reconnected the drain system.

We decanted a ten litre cask of water into our fresh water tank. The gauge indicated it was getting low-ish. Did not want to risk not having enough water and damaging the hot water service or pump. If it was up to me, I’d have used lake water boiled on stove to do the dishes, and left the hot water turned off, but John didn’t want to do it that way.

The caravan park was getting much busier as people arrived for the weekend – mostly into the permanent structures.

I made tea of frozen battered fish, with French fries.

May 18, 2022
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2013 Travels July 4

THURSDAY 4 JULY COPI HOLLOW

It was so quiet out here. I slept really well and, despite the previous early night, didn’t wake up until 8am.

During the morning, the wind got up and it was quite gusty through the day.

We spent the morning relaxing, reading, computing.

**Lawned lakefront reserve at Copi Hollow**

After an early lunch, John tackled the grey water problem. He’d packed a small heat gun, in case of needing to work on the hot water service again, so he used this to soften, then remove without damaging it, a section of the drain hose under the bus. He then poked a piece of small diameter pipe up the opening – and liquid began pouring out! He had been smart enough not to be directly under the pipe he was working on……..

It drained for ages and was a bit smelly, but nowhere near as bad as I’d anticipated. There must have been over fifty litres in there.

The pipe was left open, and draining, to be repaired tomorrow.

It was all not as hard, nor as nasty, as John had feared. Now he knew what to do, this was something else that could be fixed if it happened again.

He thought the problem might be related to the fact that there were a number of right-angled joins in the drain system, rather than one smooth curve. I would try to lessen fats and larger food particles from going down the sink hole. To that end, I made up three small, square flat strainers, from my wire mesh. One can be slapped over the sink outlet as soon as the plug is pulled out, so wash up water will filter through it. The actual plug hole was really small and I couldn’t find, back in the hardware store, a ready made strainer small enough to fit inside it, hence my home grown solution.

After that success, took Couey for a walk along the levee, again.

On the way, we noticed a back section of the park dwellings that seemed a bit divided from the rest. I wasn’t sure if it was an exclusive little enclave, or what, but there was a sign in front of it saying “Welcome to Redfern”. Hmmm……A joke in poor taste?

The wind had dropped a bit by evening and there was another great sunset.

Tea was steak, mushrooms, potatoes, beans.

May 6, 2022
by wendyviney 2 Comments

2013 Travels June 28

FRIDAY 28 JUNE GOL GOL TO BROKEN HILL 323kms

We seemed to be settling into a sleep till 8.30 routine! I remained surprised that Couey was so good and didn’t stir from her seat nest until I was up and dressed.

After breakfast, John took out the stopcock part and drove off to get a new one. It seemed he had, tacitly, agreed that there was a problem, after all!

I packed up as much as I could and took Couey for a couple of short walks around the grounds, while we waited……and waited…..

It was nearly midday when John got back. The park manager had stopped by to see if we were leaving. I offered to pay for an extra day because we were still here, but he said no to that.

John fitted the new part, but still nothing drained out of the tank. So I then wondered if the outlet was blocked by grease or the like? Would just have to worry about it later. It was high time we got going.

Refuelled just up the road at Buronga. $1.509 cpl. This time my calculation had us achieving 5.8kms per litre. Better fuel economy on flatter ground, than going over the Dividing Range.

Stopped at Orange World, a citrus farm sales outlet on the road to Wentworth. Bought oranges and mandarins. As had become normal, to get out to buy the fruit, I had to deal with dog jumping at me and the door, frantic to get out too. It was so weird, how desperate she was to get out then, but once we were camped up, was happy to wander in and out with no drama.

There were fairly frequent “comfort” stops for John.

**Stopped beside the Silver City Highway**

The skies ahead of us were vast and quite dramatic, with big cloud banks. I wasn’t sure whether rain was forecast, or not. Somehow, the large windscreen area of Bus accentuated the sense of space outside. Perhaps the small Defender windscreen had limited our outlook more than we realized at the time.

I experimented with taking photos from the moving Bus. Stopping to take photos was not going to happen, with dog prone to making such a fuss. John had never been encouraging of photo stops for me, anyway. I was fairly pleased with my photo results through the large front window.

We had a proper stop at Popiltah Lake, for a late lunch, and to give dog a ball chasing session.

Reached the Broken Hill Tourist Park just after 4pm. local (S.A.) time. So 4.30 to us. Again, I’d phoned yesterday to make a booking.

I was so pleased with the en-suite site we’d been allocated. It was huge. There was a wood chip base – acceptable in this arid region. We were on the end of a row, against a fence, so the site was quiet and private, and the bathroom roomy and clean. The dog had plenty of roaming room on a long rope.

Broken Hill site

Putting the awning up was easier, but I thought we were still not doing things in the right sequence.

The site cost $41.40 a night, after discount.

After we were set up, texted John’s daughter to say we had arrived and invited her to come share a fish and chip dinner with us. After a while, she phoned – just as John was about to set off to buy our tea. That was lucky!

Having visitors in Bus was so much easier than in the van, because the beds could be used as lounge seating, even though the dinette table only works for two.

The fish and chips , that John went out and bought, were not great. It was a long way from the sea!

Daughter didn’t stay long, but said she had arranged to take some days off from work while we were in town. That was positive, if easy, as she was now running her own business.

My arm was not as sore today, but looked really dire – black to the elbow and bruise streak 4-5cms wide.

May 4, 2022
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2013 Travels June 27

THURSDAY 27 JUNE GOL GOL

We slept until 8.30 again. I was first up, took Couey for a walk, then fed her. After that, she just wanted to stay inside, close to John, while I had my breakfast sitting outside.

John and I spent much of the morning using our laptops. The new Telstra modem gadget worked well and allowed us both to be online at once – a big improvement over the previous dongle. I looked up directions for setting up the awning!

A few days ago, John’s daughter had talked about us bringing her an exercise bike she was probably going to buy, from Mildura. John phoned her to see about that, but then thought she may have changed her mind. She told him she would investigate it, but then we didn’t hear any more from her through the day.

I walked down to the river bank and took some photos. The Murray River level was down a little from when we were here last year, but still at a healthy height.

After lunch, drove into Mildura. Compared to last year, it was so good to be able to get in the car and go somewhere. On the way in, drove into and had a look around the river side caravan park at Buronga. It looked much better than where we are. Whilst not en-suite, the sites were spacious and the outlook over the river much nicer – not blocked by cabins like at Gol Gol. Thought we’d go there next time.

Did a supermarket shop, mostly for fruit and vegies, having not previously stocked up because of the quarantine zone.

At Auto Barn, bought window shades for my side windows in Bus, to keep the direct sun off as we are going along. Yesterday, it had become quite hot through the big window.

At a pet supply shop, bought a couple of dog chew bones, but not the sort I’d hoped to get. I’d managed to leave Couey’s good one at home. It occupies her for ages, without getting noticeably smaller.

Back at camp, took dog for a walk along the nearby street. John came too, but he couldn’t go very far, so we turned back.

John had suggested spag bol for tea, but I’d bought some fresh fettucine instead. He loved that.

Couey came inside at teatime and just crashed. Somehow, she’d had a tiring day.

I didn’t think the sullage hose was draining the grey water tank. If that was the case, it must be getting pretty full! Only a dribble seemed to be coming out of the hose John had attached to the outlet. I went out in the dark after doing the tea dishes, to have a look at it. Thought that the stop cock tap wasn’t turning anything. It seemed to be both bent and loose. I wondered if it had been like that since we bought Bus, last year? John didn’t seem convinced there was a problem, but said he’d investigate tomorrow, as he was watching football on TV.

The bruise on my arm looked worse today – darker and almost up to the elbow.

This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

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