Victoria - The Green State.

Our day in Bendigo playing tourist was very interesting and enjoyable. The Bendigo Woolen Mills was a compulsory excursion to enable Gail to fill every remaining empty crevice in the caravan with wool and knitting cotton - all at bargain prices of course..
It was then my turn to choose somewhere to go, so off to the Bendigo Pottery we trundled. This pottery, one of the oldest still operating in Australia is chock full of history and memorabilia. After perusing all manner of pottery items for sale we went on a tour of the facility. The original brick kilns where the country's first clay drainage pipes were fired have been carefully restored and now serve as unique display rooms in which to display the varied items which were manufactured in this method over 100 years ago. The pottery still operates, producing mostly glazed household items. A large number of items are now manufactured using mechanised procedures, however it was pleasing to see that hand throwing of plates, urns and jugs etc are still in use there.

From Bendigo we continued south west through Ballarat towards Geelong. The lush green countryside has benefited from recent rain with everything looking very fresh and alive. Our overnight stop was half-way betwen Ballarat and Geelong near the small settlement of Elaine. A late afternoon rain squall meant that we barely ventured outside the van. Local TV station reception was excellent with the standard antenna, so we watched some afternoon quiz shows on TV before preparing dinner.

Arrived at Claire & Lou Crameri's in Torquay shortly after lunch. During our three day stay there we caught up with Peter & Caroline and went to see their completed house at Jan Juc. Gary & Sandy Crameri are currently building a new house which Gary is building with Sandy's help. It is a huge undertaking as the house on a sloping block is being built on 4 levels with connecting walk-ways linking the various sections. Once again it is a most unusual design, but it will no doubt end up being magnificent, like the last one they built.
Torquay has grown enormously and now includes a massive Crown Plaza Resort complex, built on the site of the old Zealy Bay Caravan Park.
We all went to the Geelong Football Club at Kardinia Park for lunch at their relatively new "Club Cats" restaurant. Excellent day out.
It is most pleasing to see Lou back to normal following his very serious heart operation last October.

From Torquay we headed up to Melbourne, however our first stop was to Homewood near Yea to drop the caravan off at Rosie Moffat's bush house as there is no where to park it in suburban Preston. Glenice was pleased to have us stay with her in lieu of in the Caravan at the Coburg CP park which we have done on previous visits to Melbourne when we have had the van with us.
I took the opportunity while in Melbourne to have the Landcruiser power steering pump replaced as the old one had developed a serious leak over recent weeks.

Gail & I had a day out on public transport, venturing into the city, Docklands and surrounding areas. The cold wind in Melbourne was a vivid reminder why we chose to stay in Sydney back in the late 70's.
We were invited to Mark & Sharon Hughes for dinner one night and caught up with Daniel, and Tim who turns 18 in a few days.

Departed Melb on Friday morning, returnig to Homewood to hitch up the caravan once more, then on to Kinglake, Healsville, Cockatoo (where we heard Puffing Billy in the distance) and eventually to Pakenham where we joined highway 1, the Princes Highway. We encountered very strong gusty winds during todays travel.
From Pakenham we travelled to Rosedale near Sale where we stopped at a great rest area, called "The Willows" for another overnighter.
Saturday morning we continued on to Bairnsdale, stopped to visit the magnificent St Mary's Catholic Church with it's incredible ceiling murals and stained glass windows.
Then on to Lakes Entrance for a two night stay at North Arm Caravan Park. Unfortunately Gail picked up a stomach bug and spent most of Saturday afternoon and night between the toilet and bed. Come Sunday she was a little better so we went for a drive in the sun. The wind is still incredibly strong and making things quite unpleasant. Still we can't complain after such a fantastic run with great weather.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055

Back to the Cooler Weather

Three very pleasant and relaxing days were spent at Darlington Point camped beside the Murrumbidgee, giving us the oportunity to catch up with some washing etc. We were entertained each afternoon when a few cows and their calves came down to have a drink from the river. The young calves were so intent on running up and down the steep bank that several times they overshot the mark and ended up toppling into the water. The only concerning part of this hilarity was that they found it very difficult to get a foothold to get up onto the bank, but eventually they managed to get back onto terra firma, with the vocal assistance of their "playmates".

Upon departing Darlington Point on Saturday morning, we continued south to Jerrilderie. A visit to the museum where a lot of Ned Kelly memorabillia is housed took up most of the morning. After passing through Finley we then crossed the Murray River into Victoria bound for Cobram. We arrived at another very pleasant overnight campsite on the banks of the Murray by mid-afternoon in time to watch the last quarter of the Geelong v WCE AFL match on TV.

As we were approaching Cobram something unfamiliar landed on our windscreen. We determined after a brief discussion that it was RAIN, the first we had seen since mid June. It rained on and off throughout the night but we were quite cosy inside the van with the gas heater. We are beginning to understand what all you people in NSW and Victoria have been telling us about the weather over the last four or so months.

Our planned route from Cobram is via Shepparton, Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong to Torquay to spend a few days with Claire and Lou. Now that we are back into "civilized" country the distances between towns seems miniscule. It is also noticeably very lush and green compared to the country side we had become accustomed to in our travels up north.

We called in to see friends in Shepparton for a couple of hours on Sunday morning and also caught up with Gail's sister Glenice, who was visiting there.
Our Sunday night rest area is at Eaglehawk, just outside of the City of Bendigo. Tomorrow we play tourist in and around Bendigo.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055

The Kidman Way.

Heading south from Cunnamulla, we crossed into NSW north of Bourke. This road is known as the Kidman Way and extends from Cunnamulla in the north to Jerrilderie in the south passing through Bourke, Cobar, Griffith and the most delightful small town called Darlington Point.
We had been told about some terrific camp spots on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, so that's where we decided to spend a few days. The weather is lovely during the day but quite chilly once the sun goes down. Because we are only a few kilometers from the town we have full mobile phone coverage - first time for ages. Firewood is readily available so we have been doing our cooking etc on a campfire which we keep going most of the time. The river water is not suitable for drinking but meets our needs for showers etc.

The river is very low but still flowing, with huge fallen redgums being exposed in many places adjacent to our sunny campsite.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055

A sample of recent photos.

Yowah Opal Fields and Eulo.

We departed Quilpie on Saturday morning, bound for the Yowah opal fields. What a desolate, dry and uninteresting place. Camping on the town common complete with free hot showers (artesian) and very clean toilets was one of the highlights, the other being Gail's opal find.
After settling ourselves in we walked about 1km to the public fossicking area where we scratched around for about 1/2 hour before Gail literally tripped over her opal bearing rock. Another 2 hours was about all we could handle in the hot afternoon sun. We had intended to stay there on Sunday also so that we could attend their weekly open air opal trading market on Sunday morning. However at 11am Sunday we learned that the market did not start until after 2pm so we decided to hit the road.

The lovely little town of Eulo was the next place we came to as we headed toward Cunnamulla and civilization. We saw a very extensive boulder opal collection in Eulo at the general store. The stones had all been polished and contained magnificent traces of opals in a variety of spectacular colours. Prices were fairly high for any that really appealed to us. The opal miner there also owned the general store and spent considerable time polishing and setting his opals.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055

Day trip to Eromanga.

Having resolved our electrical problems we now felt confident to venture off the beaten track once again. Consequently it was decided to drive the 106km from Quilpie to the remote settlement of Eromanga and have a look at the oil fields in that area. Eromanga is also best known for two other things. The first being its geographical location, the second as being the place where Steve Fossett, the round the world solo balloonist made his unplanned decent back to earth, having flown across the Indian Ocean but miscalculated his planned landing spot in Western Australia.
They have retained a number of artifacts from his equipment which are on display along with photos in the cafe.

Geographically, Eromanga is the town furtherest from any coastline in Australia. Hard as this may seem to believe, I actually took dividers on a map of Australia and found it to be true. Whilst we may think that Alice Springs or other similar isolated towns would be furthest, consider such coastlines as the Gulf Of Carpentaria for example.

Extensive oil fields have been found in the area and we observed many "donkeys" pumping oil from the ground. They have established a mini oil refinery at Eromanga which strangely enough has a retail outlet at prices similar to everywhere else. Work that one out!

The town is very small, having a Hotel, Caravan Park/Motel, a primary School, Cafe and Police Station. We saw the school kids, six in total playing in the school yard with their teacher and five emus also in the yard. Not a sight you see everyday!.
Most of the housing is of a portable nature with a few exceptions. Oh and yes, they had a combined CWA and RFDS rooms and clinic. The road is sealed all the way from Quilpie, so it was refreshing to be able to zoom along without the caravan for a change.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055

Fuse Blowing Problem resolved.

After a mostly sleepless night trying to understand what may be the answer to the intermittant fuse blowing, I suddenly remembered that the LP gas gauge had also failed when the fuse was blown. This led me to think about the recent gas leakage and gas shut-off problems. So first thing next morning I once again climbed under the Landcruiser to check the wiring associated with the LP gas installation. Straight away I observed a polished ring around the tail shaft adjacent to the LP gas cylinder solenoid wiring.
On closer examination I found the live wire to the solenoid had partially worn through the insulation and a bare section of wire was visible. Apparently when the mechanic in Mt Isa had tightened the solenoid at my request, the cable ties securing the wire out of harms way had not been replaced. This had allowed the slack in the live wire to come into contact with the rotating tail shaft. Tape up the wire and secure with new cable ties and problem resolved.

The disturbing part of this whole saga is that had I not persisted and tracked down the problems myself, we may have still been stranded in the middle of nowhere as the RACQ were simply not available and nothing was in place to provide alternate road service. Nor was mechanical or automotive electrical assistance available once we were in Quilpie. The NRMA were happy to accept our extra payment for "Total Care" coverage during this trip, but their affiliated interstate body were unable to deliver. They have not heard the last of this.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055