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.