FRIDAY MAY 12 WARRACKNABEAL TO MARYBOROUGH 190kms
Another cold night, followed by a nice day. Pretty typical weather for this part of the State at this time of year.
We were away at 9.50am. While we had been packing up, the caretaker was working around the park, cleaning a couple of vacated en-suites. First time we had seen him doing this, although of course he could have been on previous days while we were out.
Morning reflections in Yarriambiallik Creek
Took the highway back towards Donald – same way we’d come the other day. Not far out of Warracknabeal, a car and caravan going the other way, trying to dodge a bumpy section, got into the gravel at the road side and kicked up a spray of stones, much of which hit the windscreen on my side, and put a star shaped crack in it. Hope this can be repaired at home, without having to have the whole windscreen replaced – technically, it makes Bus unroadworthy!
After Donald, it was onto a new route, for us, to St Arnaud. We were still travelling through sheep and grain growing country. Could see a low range in the distance – maybe the Pyrenees?
The road was absolute rubbish. It was bad enough before Donald, but really dreadful after. There is so much truck traffic, carting grain and fertilizer. The surface was really bumpy and uneven, and there were sections where the road edges were crumbling badly.
I found it really annoying that, for some of the way, we were travelling alongside a railway, yet there were all these trucks frequently passing us, and no trains. There should be some sort of government intervention forcing these things to be carried by rail and then only by truck for a very short distance from the nearest rail stop to or from the farm concerned.
Quite clearly, State and local governments cannot keep up with the scale and cost of the road repairs that are needed. The answer seems to be to put up “Rough Road” signs!
Out of St Arnaud, the trucks going both ways were bouncing around badly, too – just making matters worse.
Typical Wimmera scene – long, straight road and silos of a small down in the distance
We stopped in St Arnaud for a coffee break. It appeared a pleasant, well-kept small town, somewhat marred by some rough looking, somewhat intimidating youths, hanging about in the gardens area by which we parked. Their presence made us decide not to go out of sight of Bus, but there was a small café nearby that sold me coffees and jam doughnuts.
We sat on a seat near Bus to have these. An older man walking by stopped to comment on the dog. Just another of the many people who comment on her lack of a tail and to whom we have to explain that she was born that way, and that a Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog is an actual distinct breed.
Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog – made this way!
The man was obviously in the mood for a chat and was very talkative about where he had lived and worked in Melbourne, including as it turned out, at Dunlop Rubber at the same time as my father had worked there, in the 1960’s. He certainly would not recognize that area, these days.
Managed to extricate ourselves from our new friend and continued on our way, towards Avoca, on the Sunraysia Highway, so called. John was relying on the GPS for directions, rather than this navigator, but for once machine and I agreed, and after a while we turned off, towards Natte Yallock.
Just after St Arnaud we had driven into an area of hilly scrubby forest, with an unusual speed sign: 70kmh during the dusk to dawn hours. Obviously this was for the protection of both wild life and drivers.
Then we segued back into farm land, but much more undulating country than before, and with a lot more trees.
Natte Yallock was a hamlet of a school, church and a few homes.
Ahead of us, it became very hazy – a combination of smoke, fog and cloud. We’d heard on the radio that Melbourne was subject to a poor air quality warning today, and this seemed to have spread north of the Divide for some way.
Maryborough is a larger town, of some 8000 people, with a layout that reflects its origins as a gold mining town. It proved easy, though, to find our way to the Maryborough Caravan Park, mostly on a road that skirted the edge of town. Reached there at 1pm.
We took a powered site and were charged $28 a night, after a $4 Seniors discount.
Our allocated site was a pleasant one, albeit rather well-used and bare, backing onto a bank, beyond which was Lake Victoria. Another body of water for the swamp dog! The site was slightly sloping, but parking nose in meant that, at night, our heads would be “uphill”, so we did not bother with the levellers.
The park had a new amenity block in the individual bathroom style, but we were closest to the older, conventional block, so used that. It was well set up and clean. The park seemed fairly full. There were a lot of permanent residents, but a fair number of tourist sites also.
At Reception, we had seen a lot of displayed photos of gold nuggets that park patrons had metal detected in the region, so no prizes for guessing why some of the visitors were here.
There was no water tap to our site. John had to lay the hose across a neighbouring site to reach the tap that served our site. Not the best arrangement, as the occupants of the next site had no choice but to drive over our hose. There were no sullage points either, but a notice that Council rules forbade sullage hoses being run on to the ground, that buckets or containers had to be used and emptied into dump points. However, all the vans around us had their hoses emptying onto the ground at the back of their sites. There was a CMCA type dump point by the amenity block, but it had a sign that only toilet cassettes and similar were to be emptied into it. I never did find a place where sullage waste was to be dumped. We did as the neighbours were doing!
As soon as we arrived on site, were investigated by some busy ducks, but they wisely gave the tethered dog a wide berth. She knows that “birdies” of all descriptions are supposed to be off limits, but was no doubt hoping, as she watched them closely, that one might be tempted to stray too close and she could have some fun.
After set up and lunch, drove to find a Woolworths, as I needed milk and some salad makings. Whilst there, John decided he wanted skinless franks and hash browns for tea, so I bought those too.
I had to visit a chemist to try to get some dressings for a sore that had developed on my leg. John and dog waited in the car, in a parking area behind the main street. By now, it was after school hours, and the town was quite busy. On my walk to and fro, saw some interesting shops, one with quilting materials and another selling knitting wool. This had a really eye-catching knitted jumper on display in the window. The Information Centre was nearby, too, but out of consideration for John waiting in the car, I was very strong and kept walking past all of these.
Back at Bus, John took Couey for a walk on the very attractive lake circuit path. Of course, as soon as he let her off the lead, she was straight into the lake! John thought it was funny, so he got handed the pile of old towels and left to do the drying session alone. That took ages because she has a really thick double coat.
John’s meal was enjoyable, if not healthy! I had salad and tinned fish.
Football featured on the evening’s TV. John was quite happy with the picture quality here.
On a sort-of site, right next to the clothes lines of the amenity block, there was a really long bus type of motorhome parked – too big for the normal sites. It occurred to me that backing it in there must have been a challenging exercise.
We had not visited Maryborough before, so this short stay would give us a bit of an idea whether it would be worth coming back for a longer visit. The caravan park was one I’d certainly return to – provided we could get one of these “back” sites and not one of those against the road at the front – open, noisy.
This Adventurous Age 