Here we are now in Mount Gambier, South Australia, with a lot of kilometres, visits with friends and family and mishaps along the way.
After we left Lismore we headed to both Glenn Innes then Bendimeer, free camps that we have stayed at before. Then on to Coolah behind the golf club for a couple of nights and where Chris got in a game of golf. We caught up with friends Chris and Wendy and had a lovely afternoon/evening with them, catching up on each other’s news before saying our goodbyes.
Next stop was Ponto Falls reserve just out of Wellington. This was where we had all the hale damage about 15 months previously. This visit was much less eventful and with good weather and company we enjoyed a few relaxing days by the river.
Next stop was Cowra Showgrounds ready to have our car serviced before heading to Boorowa to spend time with Emma, Graham and the kids. We had a good week with these guys and I helped Emma by cutting and pinning so many curtains/nets that she wanted for all the windows around the house. I counted 44 in total.
We all made a trip out to Ainslie, a suburb of Canberra where Phil and Graham’s older brother Chris lives with his family. They had recently moved there and it was our chance to see them and their new home. The cousins had a great time together climbing the old tree in the front yard.
While we were at Boorowa the annual agricultural show was on and both Emma and I entered, me with pickles and Emma pickles, jams and photographs. Emma won a few entries and I got a third prize for my tomato relish which I was pleased about. It was a good little country show and we all enjoyed the different events through the day.
As we left Boorowa we headed to Jugiong for a couple of nights before getting to Corowa and a catch up with more friends Colin and Renate. We had a good night at the pub for dinner with Colin and Renate along with Colin’s daughter Jenny and her husband Gus. Then the next day Colin and Renate came out to us at the caravan for afternoon tea.
While we were in Corowa our battery charger in the caravan died on us and had to be replaced so we made a quick trip to Albury to buy the charger and had it fitted by a local auto electrician.
Now we are heading to Victoria and a good little free camp at Tungamah. This was a first time here for us but we’ll definitely be back if we’re this way again. A lovely camp by the river, noisy cockatoos, friendly locals and a small free food/book swap at the visitor information stop.
We left Tungamah to meet our friends Dennis and Christine at Mansfield. They were in their van as well so we had a few days with them there before both vans moved on to Porepunka where we had a few more days together. We drove around the area, exploring Mount Buffalo, Beechworth, Yakandanda and Bright.
We said our goodbyes to Dennis and Christine at Porepunka knowing we would see them again soon at their new home where they have recently moved to in Ocean Grove.
From Porepunka, we spent a couple of nights at Loganwood and then on to South Werribee caravan park. From here we drove to Williamstown where we met our niece Suzanne with her partner Grant and two children George and Elsie. We had a lovely catch up and lunch with them at the Old Customs House.
After our few days at South Werribee we headed to Ocean Grove, staying with Dennis and Christine. Their new home is beautiful and they are very happy to be there. Not once have they missed their property at Wallington and all the work that it needed. There’ll be no more two man jobs on the old property for Chris to help Dennis with now!
While we were at Ocean Grove we also managed to catch up with our friend Carol, the wife of David who Chris used to work with back at Australia Post parcel centre all those years ago. Carol and David now live in Brisbane but Carol was down in Geelong visiting her brother and sister so we made the most of the opportunity of a quick visit.
Now, remember the battery charger that we had fitted in Corowa? Well, it’s playing up so we had to take the van to another auto electrician who found the problem, something about a fuse was bent and not in correctly. Adjustments made and money paid we are now ready for the off again but not before I invested $6 at an op shop for a black Oodie. I wondered if I really needed it as it’s quite bulky to carry around and not used. I have to say it’s the best $6 I’ve spent in a long time as we have had nothing but horrible weather since. Cold, wet and very windy!
After leaving the Watson’s we start our trip along the Great Ocean Road, first stop Peterborough where we had three night then on to Warrnambool for two. We drove along the Ocean Road, calling into all the lookouts and doing the walks, dodging the rain and battling the winds and cold temperatures. Chris even managed a game of golf at Peterborough on the windy course overlooking the ocean.
We visited Flagstaff Hill, the heritage village in Warrnambool and attended the evening light show giving the history of the shipwreck coast. We also remember the movie “Oddball” which is based on a true story about the maremma dog that guards the penguins on Middle Island off Warrnambool. The movie starred Shane Jacobson and is a really great family movie. We have watched it so many times with Olivia and Ruby. These maremma dogs are now used in other places as well, guarding against foxes and predators. With Easter coming up we leave the Great Ocean Road and decided to stay put at the Tyrendarra/Fitzroy River Reserve for a week. It’s a large grassy camping area halfway between Port Fairy and Portland, not far from the beach and popular with families and fishermen alike. The horrible weather was typical for school holidays and we felt sympathy for the poor people who only had these few days before heading back to work after Easter.
It was here that we started having trouble with the car. Our hazard lights are coming on for no apparent reason and will only stop if the fuse is removed. We called the NRMA who sent out the Victoria RACV equivalent. This guy couldn’t do anything and suggested we take the car to Mount Gambier Toyota. We rang them and said we were heading there the next day when this guy would ring us to book us in. We got the phone call the next day but not the answer we wanted. We were told that Toyota were very busy and he was going to have to put us on a cancellation list. This was no good to us as we were not confident we should be driving the car in this state, especially with a caravan on the back.
The next Toyota dealership is Millicent so I ring there and talk to Ian in the workshop department. I told Ian what was happening and he asked a couple of questions. Had we had the windscreen replaced lately? Yes. Had we had any water inside the car? We had had a little but never gave the windscreen a thought as we hadn’t been in any bad weather for a while until now. There’s the problem, he says. So the first thing to do is get the windscreen resealed. Easier said than done. The guy at O’Brien Glass in Mount Gambier didn’t want to do the job as it was warranty work and because of the trouble we are having with the electrics. Neither O’Brien or AAMI, our insurance company were being very helpful. It has taken me many phone calls and much persistence to finally get a call from Tony, the South Australian area manager for O’Brien Glass. He was actually on leave but had been told of my persistence. He called and apologised for the runaround and bad service that we had received. We will now get the windscreen resealed by the Mount Gambier O’Brien agent on Tuesday and then we are booked into Millicent Toyota on Thursday to assess any damage and rectified with the bill going to O’Brien Glass at Lismore where the original job was done. This is all we could ask for and we are so very grateful to Ian for his intervention. This is what should have happened at the beginning and we shouldn’t have had the stress and fight that we have had. Hopefully by the time I make my next blog entry, this will be an unpleasant situation well behind us.
While here in Mount Gambier Chris has been covering the windscreen to stop more rain getting in and while it’s not raining we’ve been able to look around the area. I even managed to get some washing dry which has not been possible lately.
We walked down and around the Umpherston sinkhole. The beautiful garden was developed by James Umpherston in 1886 and it’s a pleasure to visit. We saw one of the resident possums up in the rock wall where they call home. The garden was so pretty and made me think of a little girl’s fairy garden. We didn’t see any fairies but we did see so many bees flying about and their natural honeycomb high in the rocks. Another sink hole we visited was the Cave Gardens, like the Umpherston sinkhole this one has been made into an attractive feature right in the centre of town.
We drove the 21 kms out of town and visited the Tantanoola Cave. A large and very beautiful cave with so many stalagmites and stalactites (mites go up and tites come down) then did the loop drive back to town seeing the many turbines of the large wind farm in the distance.
We drove around the Blue Lake that Mount Gambier is famous for and walked up the 170 steps to one of the lookouts. Because of the weather the lake was not as blue as we had seen it when we last here about 20+ years ago.
We saw another sinkhole as we drove to Port McDonnell. A little seaside suburb known for having the largest lobster fishing fleet in South Australia. This sinkhole is fenced off with the road splitting around it.
We are enjoying some pleasant happy hours here at the Showgrounds where we are staying and even celebrated the first birthday of the cat, owned by the caretakers here at the Showgrounds. Everyone at happy hour got to share a beautiful Black Forest gateau.
This weekend there is a medieval festival on nearby so weather permitting, we are expecting to see some action with horses, jousting and re-enactments. At least I’ll only be a spectator at this battle!