Swan Hill & Robinvale

There is no direct route from Warnambool to Swan Hill, a distance of around 400kms. I decided to let technology do the job, and got out the Navman and entered Swan Hill. We were off, blindly following directions. How amazing is this technology. You just follow that worm!! We had expected a late departure due to our caravan repair, but were pleasantly surprised to be on the road before lunch. The rain was teeming down, as we worked our way north, and it did not stop, just altering from steady to torrential. Our plan was to stop overnight along the way to Swan Hill, but with the incessant rain, we just pressed on, as the weather checks kept saying that the further north we got, the less rain we would find, and that Swan Hill was fine and warm!

Mr & Mrs Hay Bale!

The route was taking us through parts of Victoria we have never been before! We came into Lake Bolac, where we were devastated to find out we would miss the Annual Eel Festival by a couple of weeks!! Sounds like a real hoot!! Must be booked out months in advance!! How in God's name can there be an Eel Festival!!! We passed by Ararat and Stawell, two places we have visited and enjoyed, and even came upon a tiny village called Paradise, a misnomer for sure! When we reached St.Arnaud and stopped for fuel, we thought it looked a nice little town and the caravan park looked good, but it was still raining, so we decided to push on to Swan Hill and hope the weatherman was right! We called ahead, and arranged for arrival a day early, and pulled into the caravan park at 5.45pm. It was a balmy 28 degrees and fine!!

Lazy Time in Swan Hill.

The Big Murray Cod.

Our spot in the caravan park was lovely. An elevated site that looked down to the river. It would be a lovely spot to spend a week. It is very close to town as well. This was our first time staying in Swan Hill, which is a lovely town of around 16,000 people, so it has all the services you could want. It is a rich agricultural area, supporting a dairy industry, fruit trees, mostly stone fruit, and further afield are the vast grain farms of the Mallee Country. Three years back whilst at Carnarvon Gorge, we had met Carol & Neville Smith, who had a dairy farm near Swan Hill. We had kept in touch and let them know we would be in town, and looked forward to seeing them again. In addition, it was a holiday weekend in Victoria, and there was lots to do, including the Annual Food & Wine Festival.

With Carol & Neville

Wharf precinct.

It was lovely to see Carol & Neville again. They made us feel so at home! We caught up with them over a happy hour, and learned that they no longer dairyed, but had beef cattle. They want to enjoy a semi retirement, and do some caravan trips. We caught up on all their family news, visited their farm for a lovely lunch, and they showed us around town and the surrounding region. There farm is at Tyntynder, about 15kms from town. The thing that was evident as we drove around the countryside was just how dry it was. The area is in drought, and only surviving because of the irrigation water from the Murray River. The whole issue of irrigation and water allocation is an ongoing issue all along the Murray, with three states all having different views and ways in which water is allocated. It is a complex issue, but as an outsider, it did look like the Murray was healthy, with plenty of water in it.

Paddle Steamer PYAP.

Happy hour in Swan Hill.

Happy hour by the river each night was really lovely. For the holiday weekend, the caravan park was full, and there were people partying, kayaking up the river, and generally having fun. The BBQ's were running hot. God knows how many snags were consumed in the caravan park this weekend!. Each evening the paddle steamer Pyap would come past and scare the hell out of everyone with its loud whistle, and the trees would fill with 1000's of corellas squawking and flying around like kamikazis. It is wonderful times like this, that we realise how great and varied our life is, with a different backyard and different neighbours almost every week.

Tasting glass in hand.

Saturday we headed up to the Pioneer Settlement, just along the river from the caravan park, and venue for the Food & Wine Festival. Even with nothing on, it is a fantastic venue to visit with its recreated pioneer village full of old shops, machinery and cars, and the waterfront region where the river cruise departs most days. We have seen a few of these such venues, and this is one of the best! We paid our entry fee, got our tasting glass and lanyard, and headed off to the stalls. There were wines and food to taste aplenty, and we did our best to try most!! We walked in and out of the old shops and relived a past era, much of which we could remember!! It was a great few hours, but by mid afternoon the wine tasting was taking its toll and it was time to head back for a siesta!! The rest of the weekend we were wonderfully entertained by Carol & Neville, during which time I discovered a wonderful golf resort and country club called Murray Downs, so we stopped in for an afternoon drink, and I booked myself into the Tuesday Men's Competition. Neville is a passionate Bowler, and he was playing Pennants bowls on Tuesday & Wednesday.

Yummy!!

Carol & Neville at home.

While I went off to golf, Carolyn acquainted herself with the shops of Swan Hill, and she assures me they were surprisingly good. My golf day was a beauty. I was put with three local guys, two Johns and a Sam, so names weren't hard to remember. They were great fun to be with. I shared a ride in John Tripodi's cart. Now John is a good golfer, and also happens to own one of the best restaurants in town! God knows these things!! The restaurant has been his families passion for 30 years, with John running it for quite a few years. Called Quo Vadis, it serves high quality Italian food, as we found out that evening when I surprised Carolyn with dinner there. John really spoiled us, and we had a fantastic evening sharing wonderful garlic prawns, a top notch spaghetti marinara, the fish of the day, and at John's insistence, finished off with a home made fresh nectarine semi fredi which was unbelievably good! To finish off the night John joined us for Limoncello and espresso! One of those special nights. Oh, and the golf course was excellent as well, where I was happy to sign for 33 points on a difficult, but wonderfully presented, championship golf course. My host had 34 points.

Morning Tea with Carol & Ella.

A Ferry across the Murray.

The next day we helped Carol look after her Granddaughter Ella. We headed down to the Spoons Café on the river for a delicious morning tea. It is a great venue with a big shady deck out over the river. From there we headed over to Lake Boga, where Neville was playing his Pennants Bowls. Carol also showed us around this huge lake, which we had seen before. You might remember us telling you a number of years ago about the lake where the WW11 Catalina Flying Boats were serviced, far away from the war zone. well, that was Lake Boga. It is home to both of Carol & Neville's daughters, and just a short drive from Swan Hill. It was fun watching Neville bowl, and he assured us we were not putting the pressure on him!!! That night, we all headed out to The Federal Hotel for a farewell dinner, which was very good. It had been a lovely time catching up with Carol & Neville.

Nuts everywhere.

Next morning we packed up in the rain!!! Hasn't bloody well rained in Swan Hill for months!! It was mostly a storm, and gone by 9.30am. Didn't do much more than settle the dust, which was a blessing as it was blowing like mad. We weren't in a hurry as we were only heading 86kms down the river to Robinvale. It was a tough ride in the gale force winds. A truckie going the opposite way was pointing furiously at us, so we pulled in to find that our awning had started to unravel!! The wind was so strong that we had to find a place to turn around so the awning would be protected from the wind as we had to pull it out and retract it again. When we did this I noticed that there was a lot of play in the roller, so deduced that the spring had lost tension, so worked out a way to strap the awning down. We literally limped our way to Robinvale. We were getting our van serviced in Mildura next week, so this would be an extra item on the list! Along the way we passed an interesting plantation, which stood out among the fruit trees and endless grape vines. It was The Australian Cricket Bat Willow Project, a huge paddock full of slender, tall willow trees! Not sure at what stage the project is, but the trees looked pretty mature!!

A great spot.

Relaxing by the Murray.

Robinvale sits on a lovely section of The Murray River. It is wide and quite deep with Weir No.15 just down stream at Euston. We had stopped at the Riverside Caravan Park for one night 3 years back, and vowed to come back, as the sites back right onto the river, and the park managers keep it pretty lush and green all year round. There isn't a lot to do in Robinvale, but it is a fantastic spot to kick back and relax, throw a line into the river, read a book, or just snooze. The balmy weather was just perfect. Across the river in NSW is the smaller town of Euston, which boasts a fantastic club, called Euston Club Resort. On our last night we had the courtesy bus pick us up, and we had a great meal in the Bistro. The place was packed and it was Monday Night!! There are a lot of fruit pickers in town, and many of these are Asian. The gaming room was also packed!! The other nationality that surprised us as to how many were in the district was pacific Islanders. We have not seen many in rural areas, but this area has heaps of them.

Robinvale also has a very strong ANZAC connection. It is a sister town to Villers-Bretonneux, and the name Robinvale, honors the death of Lieutenant George Robin Cuttle MC, a local identity killed at Caix near Villers-Bretonneux in 1918. Today, the region produces vast quantities of nuts, almonds, walnuts & pistachios, as well as table grapes, stone fruits, and citrus. It is quite a sight to drive for miles, surrounded by such heavy cultivation, spreading out in every direction, as far as the eye can see. At the moment it appears that grapes are being removed in favour of nuts, as there are lots of new plantings of walnuts, and lots of dead looking vines!

Murrumbidgee meets the Murray.

Nearby, at the small village of Boundary Bend is the point where the two great rivers, The Murray & Murrumbidgee, meet. We took a drive out to see what we thought would be a major tourist attraction. It sure sounded like it in the book!! It took us some time to find the well hidden sign, and then at a fork in the track, we just took a lucky guess!! The track is pretty well 4WD only, and we didn't see a soul until we found the sign heralding the junction of the rivers. While taking a couple of photos, and old guy and his dog walked up to us, saying how glad he was to see us!! He introduced himself as Ron, and told us he was camping a short way along the river, fishing for Murray Cod, and had managed to bog his ute in the sand along the river bank. He just could not get it out. He said he had waited all the previous day for someone to come along, and had now started to walk the 7 or 8 kms out to the highway, when we came along!! Lucky for him, and lucky I had my snatch strap in the back!! We quickly had him hooked up and dragged out of the sand and onto solid ground. A little bit of adventure in the bush!!

Dragging out Ron!

Track to Murrumbidgee Junction.

Sunday we walked up to town and were lucky to get a Sunday paper. Nothing was open except the IGA Supermarket. There were a few people standing around, and they told us they were waiting for the bike riders to come through town. Apparently there was a Black Dog Ride, a charity to aid depression. We have seen a number of these rides along our travels. This lot were terribly disorganized. One young guy stopped his bike near us and proclaimed that some riders had taken a wrong turn and headed off to Euston, whilst another group of speedsters had gone so fast no one wanted to try and keep up!! They were straggling through town in dribs and drabs as we headed back to the caravan park. It was another beautiful day to do nothing!!

Tuesday morning we slowly packed up to head into Mildura for Easter. The caravan park was pretty quiet now, but we were assured that the ski boat crowd would arrive in huge numbers for the holiday weekend. If the photos in the office were anything to go by, this idyllic spot would soon be wall to wall ski boats!!

Port Fairy

As we hooked up in Melbourne, I saw we had a problem. The handle that holds the jockey wheel in place would not tighten up, and on close examination, I could see that the thread had stripped. Doesn't seem like much, but without the jockey wheel you can't easily get the caravan on and off the car, so the drive to Port Fairy would include some repair planning!

Fire along The Great Ocean Road.

Fire right to the sea.

We decided to take the scenic route (is there any other way!!!), to Port Fairy, along the Great Ocean Road. It was a lovely sunny day, and as we had never done the drive from east to west, we were really looking forward to it. In addition, we had seen all the Bush Fires that had ravaged the area over the New Year holidays, closing the Great Ocean Road for several days. So down the Freeway we headed, and just before we reached Bell's Beach, Carolyn spotted  our morning coffee stop, a quaint nursery with plenty of room to park the car & caravan. It proved a lovely spot, with an excellent café, a gallery, a gift shop and of course, the nursery. We enjoyed our little break, and a stroll through all the shops, where the standout were some fantastic iron sculptures of all shapes and sizes.

Welcome to Port Fairy.

It's a huge festival!

Back on the road we passed through Airey's Inlet and on to Lorne, and it was along this section of road around Wye River & Kennett River that we saw the full extent of the Bush Fires, burning right down to the water's edge. We also saw the sad remains of many homes, mostly holiday homes, that the fire had claimed. As we drove past Apollo Bay, and up and over the ranges at Cape Otway, it brought back many great memories of our trip through here with Robyn, in November 2014. We passed by the Twelve Apostles and Port Campbell, and arrived in Warnambool in search of a caravan repair place.

Homes along the Moyne River.

Port Fairy waterfront.

We found one place, but that only proved our problem was bigger than we thought, as both the handle and the receiving nut were stripped, meaning that we now needed the complete coupling to be cut off the A Frame, and a new one welded on! This place couldn't help but gave us another number. Gary at Warnambool Caravan Repairs was most helpful. Very laid back, telling us his welder was away, but if we just went on our way to Port Fairy and used the jack to get the caravan off, we could simply call in when we were leaving Port Fairy, when his man would be back, and they would do the job on the spot! Sounded good, so off we went to Port Fairy.

Luxury homes a plenty.

Near the river entrance.

Port Fairy is gorgeous. It is one of Victoria's oldest towns, dating back to the early 1820's when it was a whaling & sealing station. We had booked at The Gardens Caravan Park at East Beach, due to its close proximity to town and the river. It proved an excellent choice, with a lovely grassy site looking across to the Moyne River. We backed the van in and got the jack ready, for removing the van without the jockey wheel. All went well until the final second, when the coupling released itself from the towball, moving slightly sideways and prompty falling off the jack!! Guys appeared from nowhere, and soon there were three of us with jacks, trying to get the caravan back up and level. Disaster was averted, and beers were quickly in hand as the post mortem was held!!

Restored cottage & garden.

Grand old home.

We had initially tried to book in Port Fairy for two weeks, but were thwarted due to the fact that the second weekend was Victoria's Labour Day weekend, and more importantly, Port Fairy is home to one of the biggest Folk Festivals in Australia, held every year on this holiday weekend. We were astounded to find out what a huge event this is, with up to 70,000 people descending on Port Fairy for the long weekend. Everything is booked out for miles around, and huge marquis are constructed in the towns parklands. We have not seen anything bigger than the tent city that just kept getting bigger every day. We will be putting this on our list for a future year!

A lovely grassy site.

Relaxing on East Beach.

The town itself is situated on the Moyne River, that was deepened to create a safe harbour to cater for larger vessels. The entrance to the river is protected by Griffiths Island, situated just metres from the mainland, and accessible by a causeway. The river is lined by huge Norfolk Island Pines, as are a number of streets in town, and as is our caravan park. There are some wonderful old homes along the river, and the town itself contains one of the best collections of restored old buildings of any town we have seen. There are some grand old homes, regal banks and commercial buildings, great old pubs and quaint cottages, all beautifully restored and still in use. The waterfront is home to a small fishing fleet, mostly crayfish. The town itself, whilst not big, is a treasure trove of classy shops, restaurants, cafes and pubs. It is hard to get a bad coffee!!

Great food & coffee.

The Folk Festival is huge.

Our weather in Port Fairy was quite cool. We kept reading about the heatwave gripping south eastern Australia, but believe us, it was missing Port Fairy. In our nine day stay, we had two warm days in the high 20's, whilst the rest of the time it was stuck around 20!! We did our town walks, and tried coffee in a number of places, all of them good. Of those we visited, we would mention Rebecca's Café, which is a Port Fairy institution, and does good coffee and excellent cakes. We also had a fantastic breakfast at Ramellas Café & Restaurant, where there is a Turkish influence, and amazing flavours. The Farmer's Wife Harvest Café, Gregory's and Slitti, were all worthy of mention as well. It really was hard to get a bad coffee and meal in Port Fairy.

A round at Port Fairy Links.

Fantastic scenery from many tees.

Port Fairy is also home to a great golf course, the Port Fairy Links. It is a wonderful links style layout set in the sand dunes along the beachfront. The scenery on most holes of the back nine is breathtaking. As is the case with all links courses, there are hundreds of bunkers, and not a tree in sight. We enjoyed a game on a day when the breeze was thankfully light. The course was in excellent condition, with the greens a standout. Plans to tackle the layout more than once, were thwarted by the windy weather. It was hard enough out there already!!

The drought has taken its toll!!

Memorial to lost airmen.

Our caravan troubles hadn't ceased! You know how these things come in Threes!! We had the screaming Brake Controller, which I had now fixed with the replacement of the flat battery, we had the broken jockey wheel coupling due to be fixed next week when we leave, and now we the lights in our ensuite have stopped working!! Bugger!! I chased down the number of a local, mobile Auto Electrician who drove over from Koroit, around 40 kms away. He quickly located the problem, and hey presto, we had light again. The bill was a staggering $50.00!!!! Come on!! In Sydney when I needed an Auto Electrician, there was a call out fee, a minimum charge, an hourly rate with a minimum one hour, an admin fee and credit card surcharge!!  

The Craggs

The big slide at Lake Yambuk.

We took a drive along the coast to The Craggs and also to Lake Yambuk, quite near the big Wind Farm. The Craggs is a rock formation on the coast. There is a lookout that looks up and down along the coast, as well as out to Lady Julia Percy Island, scene of an aviation mystery where an Australian Air force plane that was on manouvres, tried to land on the island with deadly consequences. No one knows why?? At Lake Yambuk, there is a small caravan park,which would be ideal if you sought peace and tranquility! They say the fishing can be good, but not at present as the Lake has been isolated from the sea for too long, and needs a refresh!

Lighthouse on Griffiths Island.

Another grand old home.

A walk around Griffiths Island, reveals the history of the whaling and sealing industry that first saw this region settled. Not surprisingly, it was a John Griffiths who ran things here. The island is also a sanctuary for Shearwaters or Mutton Birds as they are commonly known. Each year around September, these birds arrive from the Arctic, some 10,000 kilometres away. They nest in the same nest as they did every year before, and then feed and raise their chicks, before flying back to the Arctic at the same time each April. Two weeks later, the chicks start off on their first trip, with only about half of them ever making it. The annual migration of Shearwaters is a natural phenomenom that involves millions of birds flying thousands of kilometres. It is so hard to get your head around it.

Wisdom on a Pub wall!!

Sunset in the caravan park.

By the time we were ready to leave, thousands had started to arrive for the Folk Festival. The Caravan Parks were all filling up, and the streets of town were much more crowded. The cash registers were starting to really ring!! On the morning we were leaving it was raining. A strong cold change had arrived, and we packed up in the rain. With trepidation, we started to get the caravan ready to go. This time the jack did the job, and we got the caravan hooked up without trouble. We headed into Warnambool to see Gary. We simply drove the car and caravan into his big shed, Gary made a quick call to the welder who arrived 5 minutes later, and in less than an hour we were done. When it came time to pay the bill we were flabbergasted. The welder guy said we owed him $50.00 for his work, and Gary said we owed him$16.00 for the coupling!!! We backed out of the big shed into the pouring rain and headed into town. We could still afford a coffee!! We found a spot to park, enjoyed a passable coffee, then were back in the car, put Swan Hill into the GPS, and off we went. We really had enjoyed our time in Port Fairy. It is our kind of town!!

Victoria Trip 2016 Part 1.

Victoria here we come! It has been a while since we spent time in Victoria, and decided Spring would be a good time to visit some old favourites, as well as some new places. Heading straight down the Hume Hwy is boring, so we sought a scenic route, and there is nothing more scenic than a trip through the wonderful High Country of NSW & Victoria. This is one of our very favourite regions. The scenery is spectacular.

Tumbarumba Creek.

First stop along the way, was to be lunch at one of Carolyn's top spots, The Long Track Pantry at Jugiong. As we approached the turnoff, there was a huge groan. We had both read the sign at the same time, "Long Track Pantry Closed Tuesdays". Yep, you guessed it, today was Tuesday. Our waistlines were probably the better for it! We continued on down the highway, until Gundagai, where we turned off and took the scenic road through Tumut and Batlow to Tumbarumba. The scenery of rolling hills and grazing country full of fat cattle & sheep, giving way to the vast forests of radiata pine, and then around Batlow it is just acres of apples. Everything looked a picture.

A quiet time in Tumbarumba.

We arrived in Tumbarumba, which was wrapped in orange and black bunting! Seemed that the proposed merging of various NSW councils, was not going down too well in Tumbarumba! We drove into the caravan park which hadn't changed at all. In the office, the familiar face of Malcolm welcomed us, despite it being over three years since we were last in town. The fruit picking season was almost over, so the caravan park was quite empty. We picked out our site, and settled in for a few days. That evening it was lovely to have Mary Ann, the other half of the management team, call by to see us. She remembered us well, and we spent a considerable time catching up. We heard all about the proposed council merger which was being vehemently opposed by the locals. Seems the Tumbarumba Shire passed all the independence tests, but may still be forced to merge with the larger Tumut Shire,which failed the independence tests!! We wish them success with their future fight.


Not a lot has changed in Tumbarumba. It remains a bright friendly town. The main street looks a picture, with beds of petunias in full bloom. Our favourite old haunt, The 4 Bears Café, has just changed hands. The old owner, Anthony, was about as Aussie as you could get, whilst the new owners are Indian Sikhs. The ambience has somewhat changed!!! Mary Ann had told us that the best coffee was at The Nest, also the local theatre, and that proved to be great advice. We did the long walk along the river at the back of town, and took in the small changes that had taken place since we last were here. Generally, we just lazed around under the big trees in the caravan park, reading our books, in the most gorgeous weather. 

New Visitor Centre Corryong.

Leaving Tumbarumba, we headed south along the mountain range, past the Southern Cross Memorial, remembering where the famous old plane wreck happened so long ago, headed for the Murray River, passing the tiny towns of Tooma & Towong, en route to our lunch stop in Corryong. This is a lovely country town, steeped in High Country tradition. Jack Riley, the real Man From Snowy River, is buried in the local cemetery, and each year the town hosts The Man From Snowy River Festival, which we attended a number of years back. If you are ever looking for a true Aussie experience around March/April, it is fantastic, complete with bush poetry and a rodeo, and of course, a reenactment of that famous ride! We found a lovely café, Black Sheep, just opposite the new Information Centre, and enjoyed excellent coffee and huge country style sandwiches!

Ovens River near Bright.

Funny barns near Myrtleford.

From Corryong, we headed down the Murray Valley Hwy, turning off just past Tallangatta, which is famous as a town that was relocated in 1951, due to the construction of the Hume Weir at Albury. There isn't a lot in Tallangatta!! We didn't stop, but continued on our way to the beautiful Victorian town of Bright. The short, but very steep road from near Mt Beauty across to Bright, was much steeper and much narrower than it looked on the map!! As well, the battery that powers the BreakSafe system on our caravan, decided this was a good time to go flat. This wasn't a major safety concern. Just a constant loud pitched scream coming from the monitor we have installed  in the car, to warn us that the battery is low. You can't turn it off or turn it down. If you can imagine someone blowing a whistle in your ear for 20 minutes, you will have some idea of how our heads were ringing!!!

The Swimming hole in Bright.

Bright's riverside beach.

At Bright, we stayed at The Big4 Caravan Park, right on the edge of town, and alongside the river. It is a lovely walk along the river into town, just 5 minutes away. Lots and lots of trees, and the way we parked the caravan, so we could get a satellite signal, had others in the caravan park completely confused and convinced we just couldn't reverse park!! Still, we had TV and most others didn't!! Bright is a beautiful town, famous for its trees and gardens, which are a blaze of colour in spring and autumn. So many huge deciduous trees line all the streets. The town itself is a favourite getaway all year round. Cyclists and hikers come all year round, to use the Rail Trails that wind along the Ovens River between here and nearby Porepunkah and Myrtleford. In winter, the skiers come to the Victorian Ski Fields of Mt.Buffalo and Mt.Hotham.

Dinner at Ginger Bakers.

Bright markets.

The town is chock full of cafes and shops, and we visited most! There was a very nice market on Saturday, with lots of local produce, and locally made goodies. Stone fruit and apples are in season and we stocked up. Being fresh, they last more than two days!!! The Bright Brewery is popular, not just for their local brews, but as a good place to eat. Our favourite spot though is Ginger Bakers, a Tapas restaurant that spills out into a huge lawn area with rustic tables and chairs. With daylight saving meaning it is light until 8.30pm, we had a lovely Saturday evening under the stars, dining on great food and local wine, before slowly wandering home along the river.

Canyon walk in Bright.

Along the canyon walk.

The weather was wonderful while we were in Bright. On the Sunday we did the Canyon walk along the Ovens River, which starts in town and follows the river towards Myrtleford, before crossing a suspension bridge and heading back to Bright. The walk is through an area full of the gold mining history of the region dating back to the 1880's. It was well signposted and had lots of story boards recounting the history. The hardship these early miners endured must have been incredible. The amount of earth and rock excavated by hand was incredible. The scenery along the river was lovely, and even though we didn't see a platypus, they call this area home.

Main street of Beechworth.

Sampling Bridge Rd Brewery
 Beechworth

Monday, we took a drive over to nearby Beechworth, another favourite town. In fact we usually stay here when we visit this area, but this time decided to give Bright a go, which we didn't regret at all. There haven't been many changes in Beechworth since our last visit to the area. The famous Bakery is till churning out millions of pastries, pies and coffees, and the Bridge Road Brewery is still making some great brews. This is one of the few Boutique Breweries that works for me. In our opinion, the famous bakery is the last place to go for a great coffee, but there are lots of other good choices, even though the coffee roaster we frequented last time was closed for renovations.

Next stop after Bright, was the big smoke of Melbourne. Carolyn's trip to watch the tennis had whetted her appetite for a Melbourne fix of shows and fancy food. We love the cosmopolitan buzz of Melbourne. We checked in at the Big4 Melbourne in Coburg, which to our surprise, had undergone a facelift, with lots of new double slab sites, and new amenities. We set up alongside John & Val from the Gold Coast, who were such a lovely couple. Next morning, while we were enjoying a quiet time in our hectic Melbourne schedule, we could hear the strains of music coming from what appeared to be a piano, next door. Turns out, Val had been a concert pianist before retiring, but still brought a keyboard with her on every trip and practiced every day. It was simply beautiful. She played every day for an hour or more. Another of the amazing people we meet on our journey.

Melbourne Caravan Show.

Our week in Melbourne was very busy indeed! First was a visit to the Melbourne Caravan & Camping Show. This is the biggest show of its kind in Australia, and we have never been, but always wanted to go. New caravans & accessories galore. We spent a whole day drooling over the latest and greatest in designs from every conceivable maker. It is quite amazing what has happened in the three years since we bought our caravan. Almost all manufacturers now have models with slide outs. We brought some new little gadgets, and replaced a couple of others that had worn out. We escaped without buying a new caravan!!

Lunch with Angela at South Wharf.

A catch up with Angela is always on our agenda in Melbourne. This girl knows her way around the Melbourne food scene! She is so bright and full of fun. This time it was a long lunch at the reasonably new South Wharf part of Melbourne. This area near the Melbourne Convention Centre & Hilton Hotel, has become a hub for dining and shopping options. Angela had chosen a place called the Meat Market, right beside the Yarra. Food was excellent, and we spent the entire afternoon comparing stories of the past, present and future. What a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

A Show at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Sunday we went to a show. We saw Georgy Girl, the story of the Seekers. It was fantastic hearing all those old songs. The cast was excellent and you would swear it was the original Seekers up there on stage. Though, I am so used to seeing Ian Stenlake on TV, cast as a cop, that I was waiting for him to cuff someone or pull out a gun!!! We went to a matinee, and afterwards wandered down into Chinatown where our car was parked, and decided Chinese would be good for dinner. We saw a longish queue outside the Shanghai something Dumpling & Noodle House, and joined the line. A waitress came up and asked how many in our party, then promptly gave us menus and said "you order now, then food ready when you are!!" Hard to argue with that logic!! It was only ten minutes and we were inside with the noisy throng of mostly Chinese, and our plates of steaming dumplings arrived. They were fantastic, and we had ordered too much, so we had take away as well!!

Warnie!

The Don, Greatest of
them all.

On our last day in town, we took ourselves off to the MCG to see the National Sports Museum. For sports nuts, like me, this is a wonderful experience, and I was grateful to Carolyn for reminding me, as we usually leave Melbourne regretting we missed it!! The main emphasis is on cricket and AFL, but the 1956 Olympics, Horse Racing and most other sports are represented. The room with the hologram of Warnie in the dressing room was well done, and the MCC (Melbourne Cricket Club) museum, was packed with so much cricket memorabilia and history. There was an 84 year old volunteer there, dressed in his MCC Blazer, who grabbed us and took us around the main exhibits. He was so passionate and knowledgeable. There are the Cricket & AFL Halls of Fame, as well as the Australian Sporting Hall of Fame. It was a fantastic few hours.

Dinner at Chin Chin.

Carol & Leia at Chin Chin.

After that, we caught up with Leia, Bev & Fred's daughter, and had dinner at one of Melbourne's happening restaurants. We love catching up with Leia, as she is such good company. We had heard so much about ChinChin, where you can't book, and thought Monday would be a quiet night. Wrong!!! There are no quiet nights at ChinChin!! After 45 minutes in the bar, we were shown to our table. The food is Asian inspired, and our gay little Chinese waiter was just delightful. As first timers, he suggested we try the "Feed Me" option, where he picked some of the best loved dishes and some of his own favourites. With assurances that his favourites did not include things like Monkey brains, we let him loose. The food was excellent, and all designed to share. The most incredible Asian flavours. The sticky pork ribs were to die for, as was a salmon dish, and the Massaman Curry was the best we've ever eaten. We finally said "enough food!!", and out came dessert which was equally as great. The bill would have run a small African nation for a week or two, but hey, what an experience of wonderful food.

So our little visit to Melbourne was at an end. Nothing like a Melbourne fix!!