PORTLAND TO HOME
Thursday morning we took our time in packing up as Robert and Kathy won’t be home until 4.30pm, we left the caravan park at 10.00am heading north to Heywood and then onto Hamilton where we had morning tea in a nice little Park by the creek that runs through town. We then went through Dunkeld stopping on the banks of Lake Bola for lunch. Lake Bola like all other water courses in this part of the country is very low, from the high water level to where the water is today it would be 200 metres.
After passing through Westmere I was talking to Robert on the phone getting instruction on where to setup our van when we had a car behind us flashing its lights so we stopped on the side of the road to investigate why, our back bumper bar that holds our spare wheels and the ladder had broken and was being dragged along the ground held on by a small piece of steel. I had to take the lights apart and the wheels and ladder off the bar before I could break it off completely. We then had the problem of where to store them until we arrived at Robert’s.
Robert is a toolmaker by trade and has all the necessary equipment to replace the bar with a more substantial one, how lucky are we to be going to there place when this happened, that bar has travelled about 40000km before breaking although you can see where it has been cracking for awhile.
Without any further incidents we arrived at Robert and Kathy’s at 3.55pm and setup the caravan in there front yard where Robert had instructed when Kathy arrived home. It is Robert’s 58th birthday today so there kids Ben and Bianca came out and we ordered in Chinese for dinner. Kathy’s sister and her husband Jackson also arrived for a couple of days from Mansfield.
Robert and Kathy’s home is on 20acres of tree studded property and is a mud brick home very nicely appointed. Robert’s bird are beautiful he has over 100 parrots of all varieties some of them are worth over $800.00 each, Diane is going to take some photos.
Thursday morning we took our time in packing up as Robert and Kathy won’t be home until 4.30pm, we left the caravan park at 10.00am heading north to Heywood and then onto Hamilton where we had morning tea in a nice little Park by the creek that runs through town. We then went through Dunkeld stopping on the banks of Lake Bola for lunch. Lake Bola like all other water courses in this part of the country is very low, from the high water level to where the water is today it would be 200 metres.
After passing through Westmere I was talking to Robert on the phone getting instruction on where to setup our van when we had a car behind us flashing its lights so we stopped on the side of the road to investigate why, our back bumper bar that holds our spare wheels and the ladder had broken and was being dragged along the ground held on by a small piece of steel. I had to take the lights apart and the wheels and ladder off the bar before I could break it off completely. We then had the problem of where to store them until we arrived at Robert’s.
Robert is a toolmaker by trade and has all the necessary equipment to replace the bar with a more substantial one, how lucky are we to be going to there place when this happened, that bar has travelled about 40000km before breaking although you can see where it has been cracking for awhile.
Without any further incidents we arrived at Robert and Kathy’s at 3.55pm and setup the caravan in there front yard where Robert had instructed when Kathy arrived home. It is Robert’s 58th birthday today so there kids Ben and Bianca came out and we ordered in Chinese for dinner. Kathy’s sister and her husband Jackson also arrived for a couple of days from Mansfield.
Robert and Kathy’s home is on 20acres of tree studded property and is a mud brick home very nicely appointed. Robert’s bird are beautiful he has over 100 parrots of all varieties some of them are worth over $800.00 each, Diane is going to take some photos.
Ben has taken our car home so that he can have it first thing tomorrow to put a 3” exhaust system on it and to take the “T belt” warning light off the instrument panel.
While Diane and Wendy went shopping on Friday morning I went to work with my angle grinder and cut off the broken bar from the back of the caravan and prepared it ready for renewing. It took me most of the morning to complete this task. Kathy arrived home from work at 1.30pm so the girls went shopping again while I went into Ben’s workshop to pickup our Landcruiser that now has a 3” exhaust system on it, even though the exhaust has been increased in size it doesn’t sound any louder. I arrived home just before Robert arrived home from work at 3.30pm. We both had a cuppa tea and then went into town to buy a new piece of steel to replace the old broken bit on the bumper bar of the caravan, when we arrived home we started preparing the new bumper bar and didn’t knock off until 6.30pm. We then had a nice Barbecue meal and a couple of bottles of red wine with the meal.
Saturday morning Robert and I went to work in his shed reconstructing the bumper bar while the girls just had to go to town for another shopping fix, poor old Jackson (Wendy’s husband had to go with them to carry there shopping bags, he also has to be watched all the time because of his health problems in case he fits).
During the morning Robert and I went into town to get some bird seed for his birds and also to get some flat steel and Galmet paint to complete our job. It took us until lunchtime to construct the bar ready to be put onto the van, the welding had distorted the bar and it had about a 10mm gap in between the bar and the two middle support brackets.
We had our lunch and pondered over how we were going to bend the bar straight again. We put a block under each end of the bar and then put a jack in the middle of it and then tried to jack up the Falcon Ute by putting the jack under the tow bar of the Ute, after several attempts we managed to straighten the bar ready for fitting. It was a hard job for Robert welding the bar to the brackets as he had to do it from under the van and there wasn’t much room for him to work and some of the welds were done when he couldn’t see what he was doing.
Robert did a marvellous job and we can’t thank him enough for the work that he has done. We have become really good friends with them both and I think we will remain friends for a long time and I have invited them up to Laurieton to stay when ever they want and I will take Robert out fishing in the Barcrusher.
Bianca and her husband Nathan came out and we had spaghetti bolognaise for dinner and watched a Meat Loaf and The Corrs music DVD until we went to bed, it was a good night.
Sunday was a more relaxed day, Robert cleaned out his birds and fed them in the morning and I emptied his tri axle trailer of some packing sand for him. Robert took us for a drive out to Smythesdale to have a look at some birds but the place didn’t open until 2.00pm on Sundays. The rest of the day we stayed around the house, Bianca and Nathan came out in the afternoon and cooked us a roast Pork dinner which was lovely and Diane cooked us an Impossible pie for dessert.
It was time to leave Ballarat and Robert and Kathy’s home, we thanked Robert for his help and hospitality as he left for work at 7.30am on Monday morning. After breakfast and packing up the caravan we said goodbye to Kathy, Wendy and Jackson and left at 8.30am. We will remain in touch with Robert and Kathy as we have struck a great relationship with them.
Robert told me how to get through Ballarat without going through the main street that worked fairly well until I think I took the wrong turn somewhere and ended up out past the racecourse, our GPS came to the rescue and after our scenic drive we ended up on the road to Creswick, Daylesford, Castlemaine and finally Bendigo. Daylesford and Castlemaine are both quaint little towns with heaps of old heritage buildings.
We stopped at Bendigo Pottery for morning tea and a look through the factory and shop, while we were there Melissa rang us up to tell us that she has just had a scan at 19 weeks and the baby is health and due when they expected it, she also knows the sex of the baby and by the way she sounded and how happy she sounded my guess is that it is a GIRL. I don’t really care as long as it is healthy.
We travelled to Shepparton after Bendigo and we are staying at the Top Tourist Park by the lake, as we have found with most water storage areas down here the lake is dry with grass growing on the bed of the lake.
I have been trying to get in touch with Sid and Sandy over the last couple of days to see if we can meet each other as we cross paths on the way home, he has been out of phone service as he has been fishing near Griffith on the Murrumbidgee River, he rang me back today and we will try and meet up at Batemans Bay.
Diane did a load of washing through the day and we both went for a walk around the (dry) lake in the afternoon.
Tuesday morning we went for a drive out to the SPC Ardmona factory outlet that is no longer at the cannery it is now out at Mooroopna, we ended up buying about $100 worth of goods. After the cannery we drove around Shepparton for a look and found “Office Works” where we purchased an external DVD burner so that we can put our photos onto DVD’s. The DVD player in the computer itself is not working properly.
We did a couple of loads of washing to get it up to date during the day and stayed around the camp for the rest of the day although we went for another walk around the lake in the afternoon.
Wednesday we left Shepparton and went to Benalla that is situated on the Hume Highway, we then headed for NSW crossing the border at Albury and stopping at the Etta mugga Hotel Complex for morning tea. We had lunch at The Truck Memorial at Tarcutta then went to Tumut and booked into the caravan park with a site right on the banks of the Tumut River a beautiful site.
Saturday morning Robert and I went to work in his shed reconstructing the bumper bar while the girls just had to go to town for another shopping fix, poor old Jackson (Wendy’s husband had to go with them to carry there shopping bags, he also has to be watched all the time because of his health problems in case he fits).
During the morning Robert and I went into town to get some bird seed for his birds and also to get some flat steel and Galmet paint to complete our job. It took us until lunchtime to construct the bar ready to be put onto the van, the welding had distorted the bar and it had about a 10mm gap in between the bar and the two middle support brackets.
We had our lunch and pondered over how we were going to bend the bar straight again. We put a block under each end of the bar and then put a jack in the middle of it and then tried to jack up the Falcon Ute by putting the jack under the tow bar of the Ute, after several attempts we managed to straighten the bar ready for fitting. It was a hard job for Robert welding the bar to the brackets as he had to do it from under the van and there wasn’t much room for him to work and some of the welds were done when he couldn’t see what he was doing.
Robert did a marvellous job and we can’t thank him enough for the work that he has done. We have become really good friends with them both and I think we will remain friends for a long time and I have invited them up to Laurieton to stay when ever they want and I will take Robert out fishing in the Barcrusher.
Bianca and her husband Nathan came out and we had spaghetti bolognaise for dinner and watched a Meat Loaf and The Corrs music DVD until we went to bed, it was a good night.
Sunday was a more relaxed day, Robert cleaned out his birds and fed them in the morning and I emptied his tri axle trailer of some packing sand for him. Robert took us for a drive out to Smythesdale to have a look at some birds but the place didn’t open until 2.00pm on Sundays. The rest of the day we stayed around the house, Bianca and Nathan came out in the afternoon and cooked us a roast Pork dinner which was lovely and Diane cooked us an Impossible pie for dessert.
It was time to leave Ballarat and Robert and Kathy’s home, we thanked Robert for his help and hospitality as he left for work at 7.30am on Monday morning. After breakfast and packing up the caravan we said goodbye to Kathy, Wendy and Jackson and left at 8.30am. We will remain in touch with Robert and Kathy as we have struck a great relationship with them.
Robert told me how to get through Ballarat without going through the main street that worked fairly well until I think I took the wrong turn somewhere and ended up out past the racecourse, our GPS came to the rescue and after our scenic drive we ended up on the road to Creswick, Daylesford, Castlemaine and finally Bendigo. Daylesford and Castlemaine are both quaint little towns with heaps of old heritage buildings.
We stopped at Bendigo Pottery for morning tea and a look through the factory and shop, while we were there Melissa rang us up to tell us that she has just had a scan at 19 weeks and the baby is health and due when they expected it, she also knows the sex of the baby and by the way she sounded and how happy she sounded my guess is that it is a GIRL. I don’t really care as long as it is healthy.
We travelled to Shepparton after Bendigo and we are staying at the Top Tourist Park by the lake, as we have found with most water storage areas down here the lake is dry with grass growing on the bed of the lake.
I have been trying to get in touch with Sid and Sandy over the last couple of days to see if we can meet each other as we cross paths on the way home, he has been out of phone service as he has been fishing near Griffith on the Murrumbidgee River, he rang me back today and we will try and meet up at Batemans Bay.
Diane did a load of washing through the day and we both went for a walk around the (dry) lake in the afternoon.
Tuesday morning we went for a drive out to the SPC Ardmona factory outlet that is no longer at the cannery it is now out at Mooroopna, we ended up buying about $100 worth of goods. After the cannery we drove around Shepparton for a look and found “Office Works” where we purchased an external DVD burner so that we can put our photos onto DVD’s. The DVD player in the computer itself is not working properly.
We did a couple of loads of washing to get it up to date during the day and stayed around the camp for the rest of the day although we went for another walk around the lake in the afternoon.
Wednesday we left Shepparton and went to Benalla that is situated on the Hume Highway, we then headed for NSW crossing the border at Albury and stopping at the Etta mugga Hotel Complex for morning tea. We had lunch at The Truck Memorial at Tarcutta then went to Tumut and booked into the caravan park with a site right on the banks of the Tumut River a beautiful site.
We rang Rachel from outside the Hospital to remember the day we bought her home from Hospital. We drove out to Blowering Dam to have a look and were shocked to see it at 26%. On the way back into town we called around to see Sue Baker who called her mother Judy and sister Wendy who came to Sue’s house to see us. Sue used to work with me at the Bank when we were here 30 years ago. Wendy made Rachel’s Christening dress and they all used to look after Melissa and Rachel on occasions for us. Jimmy Ryan who taught me to barefoot water ski is still alive and still working as an Electrician and is 80 years of age.
We had to put up with strong winds all the way today, Melbourne had disastrous winds that killed two people today, blew over trees and washed boats ashore so we were lucky that we were heading North all day.
Thursday morning we left Tumut and went to Gundagai to fuel up we then followed the Hume highway and the Barton highway to the outskirts of Canberra where we went around and came out the other side at Bungendore. We had lunch at Braidwood that is another small old and quaint little town. After lunch the road became very hilly and had some very steep downhill grades as we came off the Great Dividing Range into Batemans Bay. After Batemans Bay we travelled up the Princes highway and turned right at Termeil and went to Pretty Beach which is in the Murramarang National Park.
Sid and Sandy arrived about an hour later they came down from Sydney and we are going to spend the next few days with them before we go up to Nowra and see Madge and Andy. We went out to dinner to the local restaurant and had a lovely meal.
Friday, Diane and Sandy sat around talking and Knitting most of the day although Sandy didn’t feel like doing much more because she had a headache all day. Sid and I fiddled with one of his driving lights as it wasn’t working. We also set up the Gazebo that Sid and Sandy gave us, they have purchased a new one that Sid can put up himself.
Sid and I checked out the beach and it had some good looking holes that we thought would produce fish. At 5.00pm we went fishing but the sea had came up and was fairly rough the so-called good fishing holes didn’t produce even a bite let a lone fish. We went back to camp for dinner and to sit around the fire and drown our sorrows. We didn’t really drown them we only had a couple of port wines and talked.
It is now Tuesday and for the last two days I have been trying to put the photos of our trip around Australia onto a DVD along with some music, I have had two attempts but I’m not happy with it yet. Each afternoon we have gone for a walk around the headland and back that is about 3km’s, the views are beautiful with a lot of wildlife everywhere. Today we are going to Andy and Madge’s in Nowra.
We left Pretty Beach at 9.30am and drove up to Nowra and went shopping for some food supplies, we arrived at Madge and Andy’s at 12.00pm. Julie came out in the afternoon to say hello and we went out to dinner at Cindy’s Chinese Restaurant. We had a lovely meal and a good entertaining night with Julie and Brian and another doctor Leigh and his partner.
Wednesday morning Julie took us all for a drive up to Shellharbour via Gerroa and Gerringong; it is a beautiful area with lovely beach scenery. The women shopped while Andy and I waited for them. We had lunch at the shopping centre and then came back home via Berry.
In the afternoon I lifted the front gate up as they have had the driveway tar sealed and it was scraping on the ground as you opened it, I also tightened the bathroom taps for them. I also had to replace two pop rivets in the front hatch of the caravan that had broken. The DVD in the bedroom and the video in the family room weren’t working so I set them up for them to use.
Thursday morning we left Andy and Madge wondering if it would be the last time that we saw Andy alive, but we were both surprised how well he looked after the ordeal that he has been through.
It only took an hour to drive to Unanderra where we had morning tea and lunch with Aunty Muriel, Colin and Carolyn came over for morning tea. We had a nice couple of hours and Aunty Muriel’s home is lovely.
After lunch we drove out to Kanahooka to Herman and Marilyn’s where we stayed the night. As we arrived there were police cars everywhere and we wondered what was going on, Herman said that there was a drug bust four house along the street and the police were there all day. They have a lovely home and John Wilson lives only two doors away.
We went out to dinner into Wollongong to the Collegians club, the meal was nice and the company was good also we had two other couples with us also.
We left Wollongong on Friday morning on the second last leg of our trip we took the Picton road and then turned onto the Highway heading north. The highway runs into the M7 motorway that takes you right through the southern suburbs of Sydney and brings you out onto Pennant hills road and then it is only a short trip to the F3 motorway. We stopped at the Hawkesbury river bridge for morning tea before heading up to Rathmines to see Karen and Warren. We had a lovely lunch with them before going to Lochinvar to see Peter and Lynn’s where we stayed for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
Saturday we stayed around the house all day as Lynn had to mind Sienna for the morning. In the afternoon we had a look at some display homes and there was one in Rutherford that we liked the colour scheme of so we took some photos to look at later. We went to the Greta Bowling club for a Chinese dinner that night, it was a good meal.
Sunday was quiet a different day Pete and I went into Rutherford to have a look at the Police Auction to see if there was anything that we would be interested in, we didn’t stay as they wasn’t anything of particular interest to us. There is another general auction next weekend and there was a lounge suite there that I thought Diane would have been interested in. Diane hasn’t made up her mind about colours yet so we didn’t go back to look at it.
At 12.00pm Pete and I went canoeing down the Hunter River, our aim was to go from Luskintyre Bridge to Aberglassyn. Pete didn’t tell me that it was about 20km’s or more. We paddled for four hours sometimes we had to walk the canoe over shallow sections. By about 3.30pm we knew we were still a fair way from our destination and the weather was building up and it looked like hail clouds so we decided to find somewhere were we could scale the bank to see if there was a road within walking distance. It was 4.00pm and we had rung Jason to come and pick us up when we were dragging the canoe up a 30 metre steep river bank to get to the top and then it was about a 600 metre walk through paddocks and through two fences before we got to the road. We had just got through the first fence when it started to hail and they were as big as Golf balls and stung like hell when they hit you so we turned the canoe over on top of us and sat down on the ground until the hail stopped. The hail stones were bouncing off the ground and still stinging us when they hit us on the bounce. By the time we got to the road both Pete and I were stuffed. A hot shower and a few beers were very welcome when we arrived home, soaking wet and cold. A good day was had by all.
Our final leg of this wonderful trip around Australia was on Monday the 14/4/2008, we left Lochinvar at 7.30am and as we were near Beresfield we heard on the radio that there had been a car accident and that the road was blocked so we took a detour through Beresfield and Woodberry as nothing was going to slow us down in getting home to see our kids and Grandkids.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and we arrived home just after 10.00am to see Melissa and George waiting for us on the driveway and they had put up a “WELCOME HOME” sign on the Garage door, each of the Grandkids had coloured in part of the sign, it was lovely.
It was great to be home and during the day all the kids and grandkids had visited and we had dinner together that night, a great end to a great trip.
UNTIL NEXT TIME.
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