Ayson's Reserve. Vic

Here we are parked up for the Duration

We had quite a lovely camping experience over the 5 day Easter Break after we left Deniliquin.  We were joined by lots of fellow campers, die hard fisherman and families on the banks of the Campaspe River at our old haunt Ayson’s Reserve in Elmore Victoria.

One of the sections in the camping grounds

We have spent many a night around the campfire solving the world’s problems. 

Anna, Me, Bill, Geoff, Julie and Peter around the campfire early evening

 Last night we made a damper in the camp oven.  1 Can of beer and 3 ½ cups of self raising flour and added a few cranberries and sultanas and it was delicious served with butter and drizzled with golden syrup.  It was cooked to perfection.  For dinner we had “toasties” in jaffle irons cooked in the coals. 

The beautiful Campaspe River

Most nights we throw a few spuds wrapped in alfoil into the coals, and grill some chops etc over the fire.  It is definitely a very pleasant pastime enjoyed with the company of Peter and Julie, and new friends Anna and Geoff from McKay in Queensland. 

More Campers

We will be here a few weeks as I am waiting for my phone to be sent down from Melbourne, it decided to play up in Deniliquin, so we had to take it to Bendigo to be sent away for repairs.  It is less than 12 months old.  Russell and Hedy left us on Monday for the home paddock, and we hope to catch up with them again soon. 

 Last Wednesday we met up with our friends from WA, Bob and Dtwana, in Melbourne for lunch and a quick visit.  We travelled by train into Melbourne and returned by coach.  It was a very pleasant 2 ¾ hour journey through picturesque countryside.  They drove over to Elmore from Buxton on Sunday with their grandies and joined us for a few hours here, we dined with them for lunch followed by our now infamous vanilla slice.  It was lovely to catch up with them again.

More Happy Campers Bill espied on his early morning chats around the camps (5am)

 Tonight is the Royal Wedding of Kate & William, so I guess everyone’s eyes will be glued to the television.  When we leave here we will travel to Swan Hill and up to Mildura, then into Renmark in South Australia, gradually making our way home. 

Talk again soon

Still in Deniliquin

We have had a couple of nights of excellent entertainment, Wednesday featured the Lady and the Larrikin a wonderful duo capable of producing the finest moments of Opera through to modern “Popera” and superb arrangements of evergreen ballads. Liza and Lachlan have many singing credits to their names and added with a little bit of comedy produce a wonderful enjoyable show.  Thursday night we were entertained by Grant Luhrs and the Chook Raffle Band, despite their unusual name they have performed in many country and Western music festivals around Australia.  Grant had the odd joke and with a bit of audience participation had most of us in stitches.

A Park in Deniliquin they also have a Santuary right in the centre of Town

  I attended one of the health seminars, while Bill has been busy absconded in the Men’s Shed doing lots of boys things.  Motorhome Conversions, HF Seminars, Computerised Routers, Pro Mar Demos, GPS Demos, RTA Shaker Demos and Geo Wiki Seminars just to name a few.



Deni is known for their Annual Ute Muster

 We haven’t been able to make it to a Poet’s Breakfast yet or the Rock N Roll Or Line Dance Lessons or the PC Workshops or the list goes on.  Maybe we will be able to see it all at the Kalgoorlie Rally in October, Closer to home Yahoo!!!! 

The Main Street into the CBD The Pastoral News is the local newspaper published on Tuesdays and Thursdays

 I enjoyed the Fashion Parade on Wednesday and a bit of retail therapy with the girls on Thursday, a lot of the stores had great discounts especially for us CMCA members.  Judging by the amount of ladies in Rockman’s, Just Jeans and Barklays I think everyone experienced a bargain.  I must comment that the Local Townspeople are extremely pleasant and helpful, many carry badges saying I am a Local just ask me, it is a joy for us to share their town.
 The ground has dried out nicely now with the last couple of days being fairly sunny, although the nights are still cold but with a $7.50 hot water bottle purchase yesterday I was pretty toasty.
  We are able to stay on for a few days after the rally for $5 a night so we may take advantage of that and top up with water and catch up on the washing, then spend a few days at Elmore, so that we can catch up with Bob and Dtwana from WA who are flying over here for a week.

Deni Town Hall

Talk again soon

Deni 25th Anniversary Rally

Sunday lunchtime and we were on our way, first stop for the night will be at Ayson’s Reserve at Elmore approximately 120kms North.  We previously camped here for a HF Radio Meet in November.  Ayson’s Reserve is a free camp situated on the banks of the Campaspe River.   We can still see signs of the recent flooding to the area with the communal shed sporting a red tag to show how far the water came up.  It was about our hip height so quite significant.  Most of the other motorhomers had left the previous day to arrive at the rally a day early.  If you sent your application in early for the rally you received a invitation to go in early.  Some fellow bushwackers were there, namely Christine & Garry, Hel and Karen and Salty, also a couple from the bus “Life’s a Bitch” whom we met earlier on a visit.  They also hail from Western Australia and supplement their income by helping out in the Olive harvesting in the area and are biding their time until the 28^th when they will again be joining the harvest.  

 A wild, windy and night (weather wise)was endured, we dreaing seeing the results in the morning.  It wasn’t as bad as it sounded and the ground was still hard enough to withstand the 20 odd tonne we were subjecting it to.  So we set off for the rally about another 100kms up the road just across the border into NSW.  Russell was in the lead and we arrived at the venue mid morning.  They had a few problems siting everyone as they also experienced rain the day before and a lot of the grounds was wet and soggy. 

They parked us up finally and as usual we were parked with a 19 metre rig into a 16 metre spot so we hang out onto the road a little bit.  However we have a Birdseye view of the vehicles slipping and sliding along the track.  By Wednesday they stopped all vehicle traffic in the area to try and smooth the ground out.  We were the only members of our chapter so we opted to carry the banner on opening night.  That also was a bit of a drama as we had to go around the outskirts of the chairs waving our banners and half of the area was under water.  But like all good soldiers we joined into the spirit of the theme and laughed and smiled with everyone else.  Our chapter, The South West Wanderers was the 28^th chapter to form in 1995.  So with 99 other chapters (the parade was in numerical order of when it was first formed) in the parade , we were lucky and our stint ended early and we were able to slip off home to have some tea.  It was also the 25^th Anniversary of the club so the speeches and banner carried on longer than usual. Yesterday I attended a seminar on photography using Adode Elements No 9, I just managed to squeeze it in amongst catching up with friends.  We did a tour around town to see what was on offer and the locals were very friendly and chatty, afternoon tea at the local RSL then back for “Happy Hour” with the Bush Wackers, a rushed tea and then to the entertainment.  We were serenaded by a group of 4 females who sang hits from the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, these high stepping ladies had us toe- tapping and singing along to songs like “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”, “I only want to be with you”, “Mr Postman” and “Sop in the name of love”.  The Fabulous Chandeliers are in an entertainment class of their own .  They were really good. 

The rain seems to be holding off so we are hoping the ground will harden in the  meantime the volunteers are doing a sterling job working endlessly with graders and shovels of sand to make it more endurable for everyone.

Talk again soon

Return to Hanging Rock

Before we leave this lovely area there were a few things to tick off the bucket list.


This is the Hanging Rock

   Tuesday saw us back again at The Hanging Rock, this time to attempt to climb it.  There were two choices a steep, graduated climb or steps.  So we started up the path and then climbed up the steps.  


The path up the rock

  Oh boy! I nearly had a heart attack the old ticker was going a million miles per minute and the old legs were like jelly.  Talk about not being fit.  I made it up to the hanging rock platform but rested a while before I came back down.


I just love some of these trees

I guess "moir"  won’t be entering the run up the rock event on the 9^th April. LOL  

Russell and Bill (behind camera) climbing the rock

 Russell and Bill soldiered on up the hill and I am sure the view was well worth it. 

The view from the top

 It looked spectacular if the photos are anything to go by. 


Another view from the top

We had also just had a lovely lunch at the Hanging Rock Cafe so that didn’t make the climb any easier. Bill sort of staggered back to the car so I figured it must have taken a bit of a toll on him also.  Russell took us back home along the road via Kerrie so that we could have a different aspect again of the area.  Today is bus and trailer wash day making sure everything is spicky again for the rally.  We had to fork out for completely new batteries so I maybe mechanically we will be fine.  I must say the weather has been perfect although rain is predicted for the weekend

Talk again soon
 

Lancefield

Woke up today to wet weather and it was pretty cold as usual so didn't venture very far out of the Motorhome.  Here are some photos of local buildings taken in the last few weeks.

This Original Hotel is now a Bed and Breakfast

This old building houses an Antique collection and Cafe

Lancefield Hotel we have dined here a few times

This church is situated in Romsey

Talk again soon

Daylesford



This is me arriving in Melbourne.



I arrived back to Victoria on Wednesday 30th.  I am already missing everyone from home.  To make matters worse it is so cold here at the moment and as it is only Autumn I imagine it will only get worse. I think this last year will be a lot harder for me as I am getting rather homesick.  We are here for another week and we head for Deniliquin on Sunday in readiness for the Rally.  I have really enjoyed Victoria as the countryside is rather stunning but we don't want to wear out our welcome and we have been here rather a long time now.  At least daylight saving ended today so the time difference has reverted back to the 2 hours.  Many thanks to our long suffering hosts Russell & Hedy, we thank them most sincerely for allowing us to enjoy this lovely section of Australia.  Today we drove over to Daylesford for the day after briefly stopping at Woodend on the way.  This is obviously an older part of Victoria as it boast lots of old stately homes and old buildings.  We arrived in time to enjoy the local markets at the Daylesford Railway Station.  Lots of different foods and wares were on offer, some of european origin but also lots from the Himalayas too.  We enjoyed browsing the markets and meandering the streets of Daylesford, stopping for a lunch at the Modern Bakery Cafe.  We returned via Castlemaine, which again was a lovely old town, they too had markets but they were closing up so we just missed out.

 These photos are for your benefit Colin & Beryl, for obvious reasons.

  Guildford was a very small town on the Midland Highway and we stopped at the lookout and made it back to the bus in time for an early dinner. 

View from lookout of Guildford

Guildford is also a suburb of Perth, Western Australia and is on the way to Midland hence the mention of the Midland Highway which seemed a bit of a coincidence.

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Talk again soon