May 2012

Woke today to another clear blue sky day, 9 degrees at about 8:00 am but rose to 18 degrees during the day. We had an uneventual trip from Horsham to Murray Bridge - a drive of 358 kms - very little traffic going our way and not much more going the other way. On the way we stopped for an early lunch at Tolmer Park at Border Town. The Bakery and the Information Centre are located at the Old Police Station and the cells have been modified as the toilet block.

Tolmer Park at Border Town

Gaol cells have a new purpose

Between Border Town and Murray bridge we stopped briefly at a very small town of Ki Ki in the Coorong.

Slow down Kiki

Our rig at Ki Ki

We arrived at the Long Island Marina and Caravan Park at about 3:00 pm, and after setting up camp we paid a visit to Woolies for groceries and diesel.

Long Island Marina

Murray River from the Long Island Caravan Park

You guessed it - raining again. We managed to get packed up between showers, and got away from the caravan park at about 10:00 am. The drive was a fairly easy 280 km from Melbourne to Horsham and we gradually left the showers behind us. After an early lunch at Beaufort we arrived at the Horsham Caravan Park at about 2:30 pm. Would you believe it - The Horsham Caravan Park is a Julia Gillard Memorial - perhaps Julia is chasing the Grey Nomad vote.

Julia's Memorial Caravan Park

After setting up camp in a drive-through site we went for a walk around Horsham - the temperature was 18 degrees. Horsham is a substantial regional centre with good shopping.

Downtown Horsham

They even have a branch of Conways Fine Foods from Artarmon.

Conways - great food made fresh

The caravan park is located next to the Horsham Botanical Gardens which was established in the 1878.

Di in the Horsham Botanical Gardens

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!

The day was cold and wet. In the morning Kirrily did the Mother's Day Fun Run and we went to her place to re-program her watering system, before walking to The Smith - a pub in the High Street just off Chapel Street. We had an excellent meal, Kirrily had Magret duck breast with faro & almond pilaf, spiced fromage blanc; Di had Twice cooked caramelised pork hock with chili, garlic & steamed rice; and David had a 400g dry aged, pasture fed rib eye with hot mustard horseradish. The French Cote Du Rhone we ordered was not available but the waiter recommended the John Duval 'Plexus' Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvedre, 2009 from the Barossa Valley.

We had a great lunch - the food, the wine and the company were outstanding. After walking Kirrily back to her place we returned to the caravan park for a quiet night in front of the TV. Kirrily needed time to pack her bags for the ACTU Congress in Sydney. I wonder what they will make of the designer clothes and the Gucci handbags.

Our plan to start packing up in preparation for our Monday departure were thwarted by more rain.

Michelle and Kirrily had the day to themselves and did some shopping in Chapel Street. We went to the Chadstone Shopping Centre so Di could get her shopping "fix". Because our Ute is more than 2 metres high we cannot use the multi level car parks, and did three laps of the open air parks looking for a spot. Eventually we gave up and parked beside a nearby sports oval and walked up a couple of laneways to get to Chaddy. We had a quick lunch at the Sapore restaurant before returning to the Ute. A men's Lacrosse game was in progress - the men wear helmets and engage in a bit more Biffo than when kirrily played women's Lacrosse. We spent a quiet night back at the van watching the TV.

Michelle returned home on Saturday night loaded down with Haig's chocolates for the kids???

Prior to leaving Hobart we had ordered a new TV with a PVR from Kogan Online in Melbourne to be delivered to Kirrily's place. After waiting for a week for it to be delivered we decided that if we wanted a TV we would have to pick it up from the Toll/Ipec Depot. We spent half the day today looking for the Toll/Ipec depot at Dandenong South. The address given to us was 77 Princess Highway, Dandenong South, but that completely flummoxed the Tom Tom. After 2 more phone calls seeking directions we finally found their depot about a kilometre off the highway in the bowels of the old GMH factory. They could not explain why no attempt had been made to deliver the TV - methinks somone took a fancy to it and put it in a corner.

In the afternoon we went to Kirrily's place to do a few maintenance jobs. That evening we had an antipasto platter followed by a delicious lamb roast with Michelle and Kirrily that had been perfectly cooked on the Everdure BarBQ.

An antipasto starter

Michelle and Kirrily with Di