Well I’ll Be Blowed

What a surprise, we left this morning just before 10:00 after a lot of garden watering because of the 30+ maximum expected. The drive up the freeway was thankfully uneventful. We stopped for a pilot change and snack at Coonalpyn then on to Kaniva. Alex has promised we can stop there on the way back to get photos of the wonderful sheep. At Horsham all traffic was being stopped we told the people we were heading for Ballarat and they said we had to take a diversion via Rupanyup because there was a bushfire at Dadswells Bridge. When Alex saw how far that was taking us away from Halls Gap we went back to the junction and were able to turn onto the highway we wanted ……… for a while n we were stopped again. A nice police officer gave us some very involved directions and between these, a paper map (how quaint) and our cyborg we arrived at Halls Gap.

Our jaunt had taken us over dirt roads, farm roads and 1 lane “hot melt” where you had to drive with half the car off the road every time a vehicle came the other way unless it was a semi then it was wisest to put the whole car onto the dirt shoulder. The Gold Escort Road was an interesting one. We had forgotten to take into account that it’s Melbourne Cup on Tuesday and hoardes of Victorians are off for a long, long weekend. We did manage to get an unpowered site at a Caravan Park though then went for a delicious meal at the Hotel Bistro.

I have no worries about all the ghosts, ghoulies and witches roaming about but I hope the winds don’t make it impossible for me to sleep.

UPDATE!!!

What a wild night! At least 6 times we were up trying to tie down the front awning which has always stayed in place with its Velcro. Sometime I abandoned Alex and the camper and retreated to “sleep” in the car, at 4:30 I thought it was calm enough and I was cold enough to go back to the camper. Who would think the car alarm would go off just because you wanted to get out of the car? Luckily after only 2 blasts of the horn I managed to switch it off. For the first time since Jurien Bay and since we learnt to tie down the corners we had rain blasted in onto the camper floor.

The groundsman calmly inspecting for damage this morning acknowledged, “She was a cracker!”

Now reviving with lovely hot drinks at LiveFast Cafe.

These elastic things are GREAT.

Wallabies taking advantage of local park.

Innovative lampshade