Thursday, December 30, 2010

Murray River Cruise 30th December 2010

We had a lovely trip on the Murray today aboard the P.S Canberra. It was lovely to see the river was quite high compared to what it had been 13 years ago when we last visited. 





 
We left Echuca and headed for Ballarat via Bendigo, Daylesford and Creswick where 27 men were trapped in a flooded mine and 22 men lost there lives in the worst mining disaster in Australian history.  We arrived in Ballarat this afternoon and checked into the Big 4 Goldfields caravan park. The girls went for a swim before we went to dinner and the Blood on the Southern Cross sound and light show at

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Wednesday 29th December 2010

Left Tumblong and stopped at Holbrook to see the Submarine and the affectionately named “Ducks Arse” which stores the torpedoes.  Next stop was lunch at the Ettamogah Pub just North of Albury.  We meandered along the Murray via Corowa and Yarrawonga and arrived at Echuca for our second night’s stop. We looked at one of the rest stops but thought it looked pretty ordinary so we explored the option of camping at another stop on the Murray River which looked far more picturesque and inviting.  This spot was pretty full but Linz and Shaun explored and found a spot along a track where we could both fit.  We all got out, ready to set up for dinner only to be attacked by hundreds of mozzies! It was definitely time to use the Bushman’s with the 40% DEET (only to be used in the direst of situations) and this was definitely one of those times.  A tip we learned was when someone from the Murray River area tells you the mossies are bad, then the mossies ARE BAD!!!!  We doused ourselves in Bushmans and Aeroguard but there were literally hundreds all over each of us even biting through shirts and denim shorts.  We decided to move on out of fear of being carried away by the vampire like insects.  Just when we thought we’d be out of Mozzie central in a minute or so, The Harris Expanda was facing the wrong way and manouevering it to turn around on a narrow bush track proved to be harder than we thought!  Eventually, thanks to Linz and Shaun’s brilliant driving skills, we were thankfully fleeing Mozzie Central.  When we arrived back at the original rest stop, that looked ordinary before, it felt like Utopia because it was free from Mozzies!  Or so we thought, until about 9pm when we were once again found by the blood thirsty proboscus wielding insects.  We were forced to head for the protection of the caravans but at least we’d all had dinner by then.  Both families had to go on a killing spree of Mozzies before going to bed, it was not a pretty sight with blood on hands and caravan walls!!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Start of Holiday Tuesday 28th December 2010

We set off this morning for our
Great Ocean Road
adventure after a last minute stop at BCF and the obligatory stop at Maccas!  After an hour of driving we started to hear “Are we there yet?” and “How much further is it?” Aaaahhh it’s all part of the adventure!
We visited the Dog on the Tuckerbox and then searched for somewhere to rest the Cruisers and Expandas. We didn’t like the prospect of spending the night in the middle of the highway at the rest stop at Gundagai so we kept looking and minutes later found a quaint little pub with a spot of grass next to it at Tumblong.  The publican was very friendly and let us park there.  It was a bit noisy because it wasn’t too far from the highway but we were also blessed with being surrounded by some beautiful Australian landscape and sunset!