Day Six - Monday

Peaceful night even with the highway a stones throw away.

St Lawrence is an interesting little spot - no marina -yet, no casino - yet - no big tidy up - that would strip all the character away - it has the remains of an old meat works down by the inlet - it is a great little spot with a very large and generous free camp at the show grounds just outside of town.

We headed for the hills to get off the highway - there is a small dirt road that heads due West - we stopped by a small creek crossing for morning tea - an old fig tree was stimulating company as we sat on a log with a cuppa and Alison's fruit cake - really nice.

The range might be sealed but it is steep - 19 degrees in one spot. Futher on we came to a road crew regravelling the road - we had a short wait to get past. Then the roller driver told us we were the only car that had come through and it was after 12 by the time we got there.

We drove West with the hordes of hell hard on our heels - well four B-double gravel trucks - it might as well have been those hordes.

We past by Lotus Creek servo - this would have been a gold mine back when the Marlborough Stretch was the main road north - now it is nearly dead - things change.

The Marlborough stretch is all wavy and rough but the traffic is light. We ran North and after an ice cream at Nebo we arrived at Lake Elfinstone about 3.30pm - found a nice spot by the lake and settled down for a couple of nights.

Day Seven - Tuesday

The night was cool with a gusty breeze and old mates generator hummed like a thousand hungry mosquitoes, the occasional vehicle swished past in the night and all the many dogs lay quiet, the water birds honked and croaked under a crooked moon and all was peaceful beside the lake.

The dawn came slowly with a scrambled sky and ruffled water. Mal wandered down to take a snap of an old tree against the colour scrubbed sky.

Sue set up her studio in Vicki and slaved away on her next gypsy wagon, painting, sawing, gluing and muttering to her self, while Mal fussed with his paints and made a mess working on several landscape pieces he has going.

In the afternoon Mal went for a ride in a foldaboate with the chap next door and took some nice photos of a bird he had never seen before.

They had steak for tea which was as good as the best restaurant could serve - just mouth melting tender.