May 2017

The weather was predicted to be fine today for our trip today to Bendigo so that Di could go to the Bendigo Woolen Mills.

We were on the road at about 9:30 am and traveled west on Ballarat Road to the Western Ring Road, then north east to the Calder Freeway, where we headed north towards Bendigo. We found a parking spot in a street nearby to the Mill and walked to the factory outlet so Di could buy herself some wool for the next project. A 200 gm ball of wool is $14.00 compared to $6.00 for a 50 gm ball at Spotlight.

While we had intended to stay at Bendigo, we decided to press on to Echuca and check out the Christies Beach Free Camp site on the Murray River. Christies Beach turned out to be a bit of a disaster. The track taking us in to the camp site was narrow, very rough, rutted and potholed, with lots of water to negotiate. We decided to turn around when possible and retreat to a formed road. Using 4WD we were able to keep the van moving through the mud patches and water holes.

When back on the black stuff we drove on to the nearby Echuca Discovery Caravan Park. They gave us a drive through en-suite site at a normal powered site price, given we were only staying one night.

After setting up on the site we went for a walk along the River Murray, but before long the mosquitoes drove us back to the van.

Bendigo Woollen Mill.

The Factory Outlet at the Bendigo Woolen Mill.

Di's on a mission for wool for the next project.

The bargain room at the mill.

Bendigo Woolen mill main sale room.

Parked up near the Bendigo Woollen Mill.

More Autumn colour at Bendigo.

Drive through site at Echuca.

Plenty of mud to clean off the ute.

The Murray River at Echuca.

Another shot of the Murray River.

Mainly sunny in Melbourne today with a temperature of 19 degrees.

We dragged out the Myki cards and caught the bus from just outside the caravan park to the City, where we were headed for the Waterfront Restaurant on Southbank for lunch with Kirrily and Ian. They managed to fit us into their busy schedules for lunch - Ian had flown in that morning from Adelaide, and Kirrily was headed for Sydney the next morning. We had an excellent meal and caught up on their recent travels in the US.

Just to show how small the world is - while we were having lunch we got a wave from Pam and Steve as they wandered past the restaurant. Pam is the Newsagent at Howrah Point and was returning to Hobart from a week long holiday at Mooloolaba in Queensland.

No photos today.

In preparation for this year's trip we carried out a few modifications to the van,

First we decided to strengthen the floor (it was a bit springy between the floor supports) with 6 mm marine plywood screwed and glued to the existing floor, This gave us the opportunity to replace the vinyl, which is now a better match to the carpet.

While we were Working on the floor we took the washing machine home to see if we could find the cause of serious vibration during the spin cycle. It turned out to be a broken support in the base of the machine. Following some repairs we test ran the machine without any vibration during the spin cycle.

The toilet was repaired to fix a leak in the water inlet system which had leaked for a year or two.

The bathroom basin and tap system were upgraded to a more modern style.

The Tap over the Kitchen sink was also replaced with a more modern unit.

We had Pickers Canvas make us four carry bags for our folding table and our green mats,

The following photos show the results of our endeavors. Hopefully not too many kilos were added to our total weight!!!

New vinyl flooring in the kitchen and bathroom area.

New basin and tap in the bathroom.

New sink tap in the kitchen.

New carry bags for mats and our folding table.

The forecast for our crossing was for fine weather, with 1 metre seas on a 2-3 metre swell. Thankfully the rain had stopped and we only got about 25 mm overnight, which was considerably less than expected.

We lined up to check in the terminal at about 7:30 am and were loaded onto truck deck 5 at 8:00 am.

At about 1.30 pm we passed the other Spirit heading south, at a closing speed of 50 knots they were soon gone.

We were off the boat fairly quickly and arrived at Ashley gardens at about 7:00 pm.

The office was closed so we got our envelope from the clip board and set ourselves up on site 145.

This year we were booked on a day sailing on Saturday 20 May, but decided to drive up to Devonport on the day before. We had planned to spend the night at the free camp at the Forth Recreation Ground, but a forecast of up to 100 mm of rain overnight changed our plans, and we spent the night at the Discovery Caravan Park at East Devonport.

We were hitched up and on the road by 11:30 am, stopped for lunch at Oatlands, refuelled at Elizabeth Town, and arrived at East Devonport at about 3:30 pm. We were about half an hour late arriving because of extensive road works on the northern end of the Midland Highway.

No photos today.