Griffith, 2010

December 7th, Left Gol Gol and travelled to Balranald. We booked into the Balranald Caravan Park, for 2 nights, on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River. The river was up, as there is still heavy rain and flooding across Victoria and feeding into all the rivers. We drove into Town, to check out the shops, and Val found out that the local Club was having Bingo to-night at 7.30pm. We went back to the Club and had a very nice Dinner and a flutter. Val played Bingo while I read my western, and she won 2 X $15 Vouchers that could be spent around Town. There were only a dozen ladies playing, including Val.

December 8th, I went to the local Museum, which was in the original Stock and Station Agents and found it had a very interesting collection of local items. I then looked through the old Schoolhouse, which was only one room and built out of timber slabs, cut from local trees. The last treat for me was the old Goal, which was built in 1887, and at one time held Ronald Ryan (famous for being the last man hanged in Australia) who was caught for robbing a Bank, at the age of 16. We spent Val’s vouchers at the IGA Supermarket and packed up ready to leave in the morning.

December 9th, We set off for Griffith, after some overnight rain, it was a lovely sunny morning and the drive was going well, until we were 20 Klms out of Hay. A Highway Patrol Car passed by us, going in the opposite direction. I quickly looked at my speedo and was happy that I was not speeding. Next thing I know, the patrol Car overtakes me, lights flashing, and flags me down. We were both surprised and puzzled, as it certainly wasn’t going to be to “Welcome” us to their Tidy Town, of Hay, I was sure. He informed me that his new camera equipment, recently fitted to his vehicle, had read our number plates, then run a check on both our car and caravan and came up with the fact that both vehicles were un-registered. I immediately protested my innocence and informed him that I had fixed the registrations up “online”, as we are travelling all the time, and our vehicles were indeed registered. He said “can you show me your receipts”, my answer, “I’ll check my files”. We walk to the Van and I go through my files looking for some proof, while he watches me. He is friendly and continues to tell me that the Fine for driving an unregistered Car is $1000 and Caravan $550, I said “Bloody Hell” under my breath. Also, failing to stop is also an offence and I should keep looking in my rear vision mirror, as I failed to see him when he came up behind me and flashed his lights. My search only turned up the receipt for the Green Slip and the rego papers. I was still maintaining my innocence and stated that obviously I had not printed a receipt when I did it all “online”. He believed me and said that he wasn’t going to write me a ticket, even though without showing any proof he was in his rights to do so, but I must drive directly into the Hay RTA and sort out the problem before driving any further. I said, Yes Sir, as many times as I felt necessary to convince him of my sincerity. After checking with the Hay RTA, I was informed that both vehicles were indeed un-registered as they had been cancelled approx. 8 months ago, when I didn’t respond to the reminder letter that was sent to me. The penny dropped as I realized that because we are Pensioners, we do not pay for Registration in NSW, but I still needed to validate the Registration with the RTA. I was under the impression that because I went online that I didn’t need to have it validated, so stupid me! And now the fun started! HA! I had to treat this as a new registration for both vehicles, so, hand in Plates, get a Blue Slip on both, renew the Green Slip Insurance on the car, with the NRMA and get it all back to the RTA before 4PM. We had lunch at the Services Club while we waited 2 hours for the Blue Slips, I left Val at the Club to have a few Chardys and a flutter while I ran around (by Taxi) and sorted it all out. Finally we were on our way again at 3.45pm, extremely frazzled, heading for Griffith. This had been an expensive exercise, started with $800 on the Visa Card when we left Gol Gol and arrived at Griffith with $17 on the card. After telling our tale of woe to the Griffith Caravan Village they booked us in for a week with the promise of payment to-morrow. Just when I thought all our troubles were over for the day, when I connected the power to our Van, the safety switch tripped off and we could not get power. After removing all the appliances from the power points and trying it again, it still wouldn’t work. Suspecting my 15amp lead was faulty, I rushed down to Bunnings with all the money we could find around the Van and bought a new 15 metre 15 amp lead, for $25. Rushed back and plugged in the new lead, still No Power. I finally woke up to the fact that I had forgotten that there were other power points in the cupboards for the fridge and microwave and guess what! When I unplugged the Microwave the Power came ON. That was the end of our worst day since we started travelling 4 years ago. So I’m off to buy a new microwave to-morrow.

This is what Val reckoned I looked like at the end of the day.

December 10th, We carried on with our Christmas Shopping and picked up a new Microwave from “The Good Guys”. We called into the Griffith Leagues Club to check it out and found that they had Christmas Raffles on, so we stayed for dinner, raffles and pokies. Didn’t win anything to-night, so better luck next time.

December 11th, To-day we drove down to Leeton, only ¾ hrs away, to pick up a special present for one of our special girls. We were surprised at the number of Vinyards we passed along the way. Leeton was a reasonably big and very busy Town, for a Saturday. We dropped into their Services Club for lunch and a flutter, before heading back to Griffith. It was still early, so I started to pull out the Fridge, in the Van, to allow me to fit the new Microwave. I didn’t realize how much trouble I was going to encounter, seeing that I hadn’t done this before. My approach was based on how fridges are installed in a home, ie, Switch Off Power, remove any fixings and simply shuffle the fridge forward, as all cables and tubes will all be flexible and long enough to allow the fridge to come clear of the opening. HAH! Not so in a Caravan. I now know that you must remove the 2 outside vents to gain access to the back of the Fridge and disconnect, power connections, Shut off then disconnect the Gas line (copper tube), remove the Drip tray drain hose and the heat vent tube. Now the fridge can be removed easily and safely. Here comes the easy part, remove 2 U-clamp nuts then lift out the old Microwave and place it in Big Bin. Next step is to put the new Microwave in place, but it is a slightly smaller size, so the holes in the locating bar do not line up. So, after drilling new holes in the locating bar, the new Microwave is in position ready to fit the u-clamp. The new Microwave is an inch lower than the old one so with a garden stake, donated by the Park Manager, I made a spacer and secured the clamp. Now I moved the Fridge back into position and made the wiring connections to be able to run the Fridge, overnight. I need to buy a new drip tray drain hose from Bunnings, in the morning, to complete the installation.



December 12th, After picking up the drain tube, from Bunnings, we phoned Dianne to pass on our Birthday Wishes (21 again). I had to disconnect and remove the Fridge to fit the new drain tube then re-install the fridge. I can’t believe what a huge job it ended up being. Val kept herself busy re-organizing and cleaning out all the drawers and cupboards in the Caravan.

December 13th, Val did the shops today, hoping to finish off most of the Christmas Shopping. I drove up to the Lookout to check out the views and visit the Hermits Cave. In the early days there was an old local character (hermit) that lived in the Caves in the hills around Griffith. I found that the caves were no more that overhanging rock formations that gave him shelter. The only inhabitants living on the rocky hillside is a herd of Mountain Goats. I picked up Val and we checked out the Ex-Services Club and found out that they are having a huge Christmas Raffle on Wednesday night. Need I say anymore.

December 14th, Today I visited The Pioneer Park Museum, which also includes the Griffith Italian Museum and Cultural Centre. In the early days, this area was populated by Migrants, who were mostly Italian. They came with very little and struggled against the harsh conditions to make a good life for their families. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the Pioneer Park Museum and I’m sure it would be even better when it’s the busy holiday season and the tractor train is running. The walking was very rough going. We had no power from 9am to 3pm, as the power lines in this area were being worked on. While the power was off, the fridge was running on LPG. It was a very hot 30deg. today so we spent the afternoon in the air conditioned Shopping Centre. My last task for the day was to empty and clean out our “Porta Potti” and, bugger me if, the flush outlet disappeared inside the flush tank and cannot be retrieved. So now we need to buy a new Loo, what next.

December 15th, Went to 5 different shops around Town, looking for a new Loo and couldn’t get one the right size to go under our bed. It looks like we will have to get one in Sydney, in 3 days time. I did however find a bargain at Supercheap Auto, while looking around, that was too good to pass up. A Reversing Camera for the car at $145 and the last one they had in stock. I spent the rest of the day fitting it to the car and it works well. I will have to make a few of my own improvements on the mounting methods, before I will be truly happy. We leave here tomorrow for Young, so packed up before heading off to the Ex Services Club for dinner, Huge Christmas Raffles and pokies. We didn’t win at the raffles but had a good meal and a fair run on the Pokies.

Gol Gol, Mildura

November 27th, Travelled to Gol Gol and booked into Rivergardens Tourist Park. It rained all the way up, so we opted to take an ensuite site instead of a riverfront site, which meant a long walk to the amenities block. At only $25 a night we thought it was a bargain. This looks like a good place to stay once the rain stops. The boat ramp access is on the side road and the riverfront is set up to tie up boats and leave them in the river. We are only 5klms out of Mildura, so we took a drive across the NSW/Victorian border into Mildura, to refresh our memory of the place. It must be at least 3 years since we were here last. On the way back from Mildura, we decided to drive down to the boat ramp then along the waterfront homes. The homes were huge and had well kept gardens. I saw what looked like a dirt side road and turned in, to make a U-turn on the narrow road, and head back to the Park. When the back wheels hit the 2” deep soft mud, the back of the car slid sideways and towards a downhill gully. Attempts to drive out were fruitless and made the situation worse. I was trying to use a couple of mats under the wheels to get a grip and hopefully drive out, didn’t work. Val thought she would get out of the car to size up our situation, immediately loosing her footing in the mud, and only just saved herself from sitting in the mud, by grabbing hold of the car door. I rushed around to help, heaving her bodily back into the car and retrieving her shoes from the mud. We were on a backroad which has very little traffic and as I was wondering what to do next, 4 trail bikes turned off the highway into this road. I flagged the bikes down and the guys were only too happy to help. They all pushed from behind while I drove and after a few attempts they succeeded in pushing us up onto the tarred road. They were covered in mud from the spinning back tyres. We thanked them and were about to leave when they decided to ride their bikes around the mud track heading towards the River. One of the boys said he would try it first, so off he went down the slope and around the track, then called back and said “Yes, it will be OK”. When he attempted to ride back up the slope his tyres couldn’t get any grip in the mud so the other 3 had to push him up to the roadway. What a fiasco!

November 30th, The rain finally eased off this morning, so, in-between showers I took the boat off the car, ready for launching and hosed yesterdays mud off the car. Mildura is a big Town and we have used the wet days to get started with our Christmas shopping.



December 1st, Rain has stopped, the skies are blue and now the boat is in the water. I went out fishing but came back empty handed. There is a lot of activity on the river here, lots of houseboats, water-skiers, Paddle Boats and tinnys.

December 3rd, Our days have been, fishing in the morning (nothing caught yet) and Shopping in the afternoon. One of our neighbours, up from Swan Hill for the weekend, was telling me that, on the first day, he caught a 70cm Murray Cod and returned it to the river as he thought he would catch a bigger one. We couldn’t believe it, Val would have loved to try some MC for her dinner. We decided to treat ourselves to-day, so went to “The Working Mans Club” for dinner and a flutter. Nice Club, nice dinner but Val didn’t have any luck on the pokies.

December 4th, I came back from my fishing trip to-day with my first catch here, a Yabbie. It didn’t want to let go of the line so ended up in the boat. This prompted me to put down a couple off yabbie pots and so Val had 2 yabbies for her dinner. She did say she wanted to lose weight. Her request now is to catch 12 Yabbies, so she gets a decent meal.

December 5th, No fish and no Yabbies this morning. Our neighbour from Swan Hill was leaving for home to-day and didn’t catch another Murray Cod, wouldn’t that make you spit chips. We took a drive out to the “Inland Botanical Gardens” only to find it closed, so just around the corner was “Orange World”. It’s an orange & avocado Farm that runs train Tours but we were too late for the last Tour, so just had a free orange juice and bought some souvenirs.

December 6th, Last fishing attempt this morning resulted in the same outcome. We leave to-morrow for Balranald, so the boat is out of the water and packed up for travelling. I drove into Mildura after lunch, had to go to the Telstra shop and get a new sims card for my phone. While I had a little “Poppy Nap” a couple of days ago, Val thought she would see what games I had on my phone, for her to play. God knows what she did, but when I awoke my phone was no longer working and she had been trying to punch in codes, when it asked for it, without having a clue what she was doing. It locked up completely when it couldn’t accept anymore wrong codes. With my phone problem solved I then went down to Auto Barn to pick up the “Reverse Camera” that I had ordered, only to find that it wasn’t in, so I’ll have to get one somewhere else. Probably when we get to Griffith, as it’s a big Town.

Robinvale 2010

November 20th, We moved to Robinvale and booked into the Riverside Caravan Park, for a week. They were able to put us on a riverfront site, which was great. The first thing we noticed was the large number of ducks in this area. They were a small duck with a narrow beak and we identified them as Wood Ducks. After setting up the Van I had plenty of time to get the tinny off the car, set up and in the water, ready for use. I put the shrimp trap in to catch some live bait. A quick run around town didn’t take long, but I did spy their Museum which was going to be open next Thursday, so looking forward to that.

November 25th, I have been out fishing every day since we got here and still haven’t caught a fish, Pathetic. I went to look through their “Rural Life Museum” today and was very impressed with the great collection of local memorabilia. They continue to exist on entry Donations and very dedicated few volunteers. They had just finished resurrecting an old manual “hand operated” Petrol Pump and done a great job.

November 26th, Still no fish today, so, time to get the boat out of the water and packed up. We leave in the morning for Gol Gol, just 5 minutes before Mildura. We went to a local Club at Euston tonight, for dinner and a flutter. Euston is a small town over the border in NSW and has a very nice, modern Club with great meals.

Swan Hill 2010

November 10th, Travelled to Swan Hill, only 152 Klms, and booked into the Swan Hill Riverside Caravan Park (Top Tourist), for a week on a riverfront site. Fabulous, only a metre from the river and a tree to tie the Tinny to. We set up and walked around the Park and would recommend this park to everyone. It is right next to the Pioneer Village which will be a must to visit. Dropped my shrimp trap into the edge of the river, overnight, to catch some bait for to-morrow.

November 11th, Put the boat into the river and went out for a fish, late in the afternoon. Only caught 3 shrimp in the trap, which was disappointing, but proved to be plenty. I only went a short way down river, just past the road bridge, and had 2 lines in. Used shrimp on one and soft cheese on the other. Wasn’t there more than 10 minutes when I pulled in a good sized fish, caught on soft cheese, measured at 40 cms. I identified it as a Cod Trout and unfortunately this is an endangered species so, after a photo I released it back into the river. That was my only catch of the day.

November 13th, Had a rest day yesterday, rain started late afternoon and is still raining today. We went to the local Grain Shed in the afternoon for their Expo and Market Day. All outdoor stands were washed out but we enjoyed the undercover Shed displays and stalls. Went to check out the RSL, had a Chardy and made a donation through their pokies. Always willing to keep the local economy buoyant.

November 14th, The rain stopped so, pumped the rainwater out of the boat and went out for a fish. No fish today.

November 15th, tried my luck again today and was thrilled to come in with a 40cm Yellowbelly. It gave us 2 good sized fillets. Val had one for her dinner tonight and loved it. She coated it with flour and fried it in butter.

November 16th, I caught a 37cm Murray Cod this morning, so took its photo and returned it to the river. Two reasons for that, it’s the closed season for Murray Cod and the minimum legal length is 50cms. Val went to the local Medical Centre to get new scripts written up for her medication.

 November 17th, I went to look through the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement today. Val wasn’t interested so I went on my own while she did some reading. We took out a temporary membership the Swan Hill Library and borrowed some books. The Settlement is similar to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. It had 47 items on display and 10 of them were manned by Volunteers. I had a ride around the Settlement in a 1920 Dodge and that brought back memories, as my first car was a 1929 Plymouth and my Dad had a 1926 Chevrolet when I was a young boy. It took me 4 hours to look through all the exhibits and I took many photographs, only stopping when the camera battery went flat. I thoroughly enjoyed walking back through time and the most fascinating item was the Steroscopic Theatre in the Mechanics Institute. It had 50 old photos from around the world shown in 3D and was built in the 1800’s. I couldn’t believe that they had the 3D technology way back then. I also enjoyed a nice coffee and cake break at the Bakery and later an icecream at the General Store. After a late lunch we went into Town and had a Chardy and a flutter, on the Pokies, at the Swan Hill Club. Didn’t win but enjoyed a good run of luck in very pleasant surroundings.

November 18th, Went out fishing this morning and caught a 40cm Cod. All these Cods look very similar but I’m learning that if it looks like a cod, it will either be endangered or a Murray Cod and has to be released. So I keep praying to catch a “yellow belly” which I know I can keep, if it is above the legal length. We have seen on the News that there is an impending locust plague, in the direction that we are heading, so went and bought some “flyscreen” and taped it over the front of the car, just in case we run into a plague, on the move.

November 19th, This is my last day to go fishing here, so with the 7 shrimp, caught overnight, and a block of cheese off I go. I anchored just past the road bridge and the first fish I land is a 59cm Carp. A huge fish, biggest I’ve caught in the Murray River and it was fun to get it into the boat. I followed that up with a 40cm Cod and a 37cm Perch, both endangered species, so back into the River they went. That was my best days fishing and I brought the Carp in for Val to do a photo shoot. It was pack up time again and the boat had to come out of the River. On the way to the boat ramp I was to toss the Carp onto the small island, in the middle of the river opposite our site, for the birds and foxes to clean up. Val was watching as I took off to complete this task and as the river is narrow at the end of the Island the current runs very fast. I had difficulty and did a couple of 360’s trying to position the boat alongside the Island, then grabbing the Carp by the tail I took a mighty swing and launched it on its way, only to land just on the edge and roll back into the River. I just shrugged and said under my breath, DAMN, while Val could not stop laughing. The rest of the packing up went smoothly and to-morrow we are off to Robinvale to continue our Murray River Trip.

Echuca 2010

November 3rd, We moved to Echuca and booked into the Riverlander Caravan Park for a week. We were a little disappointed that we could not see the Murray River from any of the riverfront sites, so opted for a site in-between the Cabins nearer to the Amenities Block and opposite the Pool. This Park is 7 klms out of Town and is provided with river water in the taps and rainwater tanks for drinking. It has its own boat ramp so I’m expecting to finally get the boat into the water and do some fishing. I ducked into Town to pick up some groceries and took a quick look around the Port Precinct. It was amazing as it felt like taking a walk back in time. Val is going to love this Town.

November 4th, I unloaded the boat off the car and started to set it up for fishing. I’ll go to a fishing tackle shop, for some local advice. After lunch we went into Town to the Workers Club to watch the Oakes Day Races and have a few bets. My pick is still running but Val got the Quinella up and a place win as well, so she was off to good start. We decided to have a little flutter on the Pokies while we finished our drinks and for a $20 investment, took away a $100. We went down to the Port Precinct and walked through the area, taking in the wonderful old buildings and shops. We did some wine tasting, bought some delicious fudge and checked out the Paddle Steamers Cruises. We were amazed at the number of Paddle Boats and Houseboats in this part of the River. The Paddle Boat Cruises run all day every day and plenty to choose from.

November 5th, We started to-day with the “Main Power Board” blowing up, at the Park, so no electricity for 4 hours. We had to change over to LPG for the fridge and boil water for coffee in a saucepan. I finished setting up the boat and we went into Town to look at the other half of the shopping area, which included BigW and Target.

November 6th, I put the boat in the Murray River this morning and was happy to find my new Towing Hitch, which I had made with scrap aluminium from Greg’s place, worked perfectly. Went for a fish, using plastics, but didn’t get a bite. We went on the Paddle Steamer “Emmy Lou” Lunch Cruise, 1 ½ Hours on the Murray River. That brought back memories of our Houseboat Cruise on the Murray at Murray Bridge with Joan & Robert, a couple of years ago. We were envious of the holiday makers in the Units, right on the river front. It was a very pleasant and relaxing cruise with a nice lunch and a glass of Chardy. We drove around Moama, on the NSW side of the river, to check out the Town. The Sunday Markets are on there to-morrow.

November 7th, We never did get to the Markets and it was too windy for fishing, so after lunch I went into Town to look through the Holden Museum. It was a great collection of Holden vehicles, starting with a 1946 American built prototype through to the Commodore. They had a video showing the Holden history from the horse and cart days progressing through to 1975. A very interesting story for any car enthusiast. I have owned a few Holdens in my time, including the FJ, FE and Commodore models, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to have some memories re-visited.

November 8th, Went out for a fish to-day and had been told that cheese was a good bait for Yellow Belly (Golden perch) and other guests had been catching them. Obviously the fish didn’t like my cheese and I returned, once again, empty handed. I ducked into Town mid afternoon to have a look through their Historical Museum, which used to be the old Police Station, only to find it closed. I settled for a drive around Town and photographed a few of the interesting buildings.

November 9th, Had a chat with the Park Manager and was given a few tip on the best bait to use here. Soft cheese or Shrimp, caught in the river with dry dog food as bait. So will give both of them a go. I thought I had a shrimp net, from our previous Murray River adventure, but was informed that what I had was not a shrimp net. So armed with a borrowed shrimp net, I set off to try my luck. 15 minutes later I had caught a dozen shrimp and went down river to select a fishing spot. It wasn’t long before I had caught my first fish in the Murray River, unfortunately, it was a 40cm European Carp and not an edible fish, by western standards. It was a good fish to catch but being an introduced species are not to be put back into the river when caught. I’m told that Asians and Germans do eat Carp. I took a photo as proof of my catch then disposed of it humanely. Time to pack up again as to-morrow we move to Swan Hill.

Yarrawonga 2010

October 23rd, According to Doris (our Navigator) we had a 55minute drive to our destination, but as I refused to turn into a single lane road and take other suggested dirt tracks so we arrived by main roads 2 hours later and it rained most of the way. We booked into Yarrawonga Holiday Park and set up on our waterfront site looking onto the Murray River. This was exactly what Val was wanting. We are now on the Victorian side of the river. We were 100 metres from the Power Station Weir and it was releasing water causing a frothy foam to be floating down river. It didn’t look attractive and we were told that they had only started to release the extra water the day before. I went down to check out the boat ramp only to discover that this part of the Murray River is “closed” to any form of fishing until the 1st December, very disappointing. I was told that fishing is allowed in Lake Mulwala, which is the man made lake created by the Weir but that doesn’t suit me. My unregistered towing device only allows me to tow the tinny within the Park grounds.

October 24th, Had a quiet day, settling in, so I had a nice walk around the Park and over the Weir and took some photos.

October 25th, Another quiet day, did some reading and the highlight for me was to go uptown for a haircut. We are enjoying sitting under our awning, looking and listening to the River passing by, while reading. Yes, Val has taken to reading books also. We drove across the Weir into Mulwala and visited The Ski Club, which had been recommended to us. It was a very nice Club, on the lake front, but was not doing anything special for Melbourne Cup.

October 26th, I was in the Van making lunch and happened to look out the kitchen window and couldn’t believe my eyes, as I spotted a 5 to 6 foot long brown snake on the grass in-between us and the next Caravan. Fortunately our neighbours had gone out for the day. Val was sitting out under our awning , reading. Being petrified of snakes I wasn’t about to take the snake on myself and did not want to alarm Val. I phoned the Park Reception to report the snake siteing and seek some help. Of course that activity alerted Val so I had to tell her about the snake. Val moved into the Van to see the snake while I waited for the young fellow from the Office to arrive. Val had the presence to take a photo of the snake as it was moving away, towards the river, as it had gone off into the grass by the time the rescue party arrived with a long handled shovel. A search of the grassy slope along the River didn’t find our snake. We are hoping we don’t have a return visit. After lunch we went uptown and walked the length of the shops and made a few purchases on the way. We called into Club Mulwala (RSL Club) on the way home and found that they were planning a “special lunch menu” for Melbourne Cup and will have the race on a big screen, so looks like that where we will go next Tuesday.

October 27th, Still on snake patrol to-day but I ventured out to visit the Pioneer Museum at Mulwala. This is another group of local volunteers who have done a great job of restoring and displaying a large and diverse collection of local memorabilia and equipment and are continually expanding their display. I was extremely impressed and would recommend that it is well worth a visit.




October 28th, I drove down to Wangaratta to visit my favourite place, Centrelink, and lodge my last 2 lots of forms. This was the nearest Centrelink Office to Yarrawonga and only a 45 minute drive. Wangaratta is a large Town with around 16,000 population and I wanted to check out the Camping Store, K Mart and Big W for small outdoor folding tables. I didn’t find any tables that were what we wanted but the drive was enjoyable.



October 30th, We had to move to another site this morning, as they had a previous booking for our riverfront site. We still have 4 days to go before we move on. It had rained last night and was still raining while I had breakfast then thankfully stopped for a few hours, allowing us to get our move done. Our new site still had some river views from each end of the awning, so not bad. The weather forecast is not good for the week-end but hopefully it will brighten up for The Melbourne Cup on Tuesday. We are thinking of going down to the Corowa Races for the Cup, so will make a final decision based on the weather, on Tuesday morning.



October 31st, As predicted, rained all night and still raining to-day. A good day to catch up on reading. We went to the Mulwala Ski Club to pass away a couple of hours in the afternoon and Val had such a bad run on the pokies that she said “that’s it, I’m not playing the Poker Machines ever again”. Hah!!! I’ll believe that when I see it.

November 2nd, The rain did ease up yesterday afternoon and although isn’t raining today, the wind is very cold. We decided just to go to Club Mulwala for Melbourne Cup so headed off around 11.30am. They had a nice lunch special, Chicken and Salad with a glass of Champagne for $10. We bought 4 X $10 shares in the Punters Club Betting Group, seemed like a great idea at the time, numerous sweeps, tickets in a Wine Fridge raffle and bet on a lot of races, all to no avail on my part. Val did well with her betting and came out in front. Val also had a little flutter and pulled $250 out of one machine. At the end of the day, we had a very enjoyable time and came home with a $100 clear profit. We packed up ready to leave for Echuca in the morning.

Howlong 2010

October 20th, Had a lovely drive to Howlong, the Countryside is very green with rolling hills. This is mostly sheep country. We stopped at Tarcutta for a break and had a look at the Truck Drivers Memorial and also found out that this was the mid point between Sydney and Melbourne and explained why we saw two semis changing over Rigs. This means that a Melbourne driver drives his load up to Tarcutta then it is taken the rest of its journey to Sydney by the Sydney driver and the same method for the Sydney load. Each driver is then only away from home for one day. We got all our information from a truckie who was transporting a load of 303 sheep but told us his rig could hold up to 500 sheep. It would be a bit squashy for the sheep. The top of his trailer wasn’t covered so we were surprised that the sheep didn’t try to jump out. We stopped at Holbrook for lunch in the park alongside the Submarine Museum and had a look at the huge HMAS OTWAY sub on display, out front. We noticed the signs of the recent flooding as we crossed over the various rivers and gullies. We booked into the Kismet Riverside Lodge at Howlong, about 30 klm from Albury. After setting up we went for a walk down to the Murray River and found it very brown and running very fast. I think that was due to all the local flooding in this area and the floods are still in progress in some areas north of here. This looks like a good place to stay, a lot of permanents and only 10 Caravan sites. I would recommend that you should take an ensuite site as the Amenities block is a good walk away. Another first, we do not have to pay for our site until we are leaving, WOW!

October 21st, Drove into Corowa to check out the Caravan Parks and look around Town. Val wants to find a Park, on the Murray River, that has absolute riverfront sites, so she can sit at the Caravan and see the river. She can’t do that here at Kismet Riverside Lodge. All the Parks in Corowa were on the river but were not absolute riverfront, so not suitable.She has found one at Yarrawonga and we have made a booking and will move there on Saturday.

October 22nd, Went down to the River this morning to throw a line in, using plastics. Snagged 3 lots of rig and no fish, typical. We drove into Howlong after lunch to look around. That didn’t take long so we popped into the Court House Hotel, built in 1902, and had a Chardy and a flutter before going back to the Van. We packed up ready to leave in the morning for Yarrawonga.