18th Feb

Well it was time to leave our place by the beach at Rye West and head North and Home. On the way we dropped into Debs to say goodbye and set about getting out of the City on the big motorways to the North.
We started to feel we may be in trouble, after listening to the Radio and looking in the direction we were heading.

Seemed like a big grass fire at Craigieburn, which unfortunately for us and about 1000 other cars, closed the Craigieburn Bypass which we happened to be on at the time. The Police fed us off into side roads unable to handle the volume of traffic, which created gridlock. Our only hope was to try and get to Sydney road which is the old Hume Highway and try and get out from there.
Thank goodness for the GPS which got us out of the mess, 2 hours later!!
All this meant was we didn't get to Tocumwal on the Murray river until 8.00pm.
We set up by the river in the dark and settled in for the night

A nice spot which we have stayed at before ($50.00 per week), though not in the middle of Summer. Boy it was hot and dusty. 35deg and it didn't cool down until well after sunset. We are starting to get
a bit sick of the heat as it hasn't dropped much under 30 deg of late.

Anyhow we did a trip to Echuca for another look. We have been there before but this time it was pretty quiet, as a lot of work was going on at the old Wharf. We did have lunch at the Wisteria Cottage though, which was very nice and was nicely shaded and out of the Sun.

A nice place with good food and we had a lovely meal.

On the walk around town I found this sitting by the side of the road.

A motorcycle powered by a 350 Chev engine. Not small by any means and not one you could chuck around on a twisty bit of road.

Back at Tocumwal we got on the bikes and went for a trip around town and had a look at the historical railway bridge.

I'm not sure why the centre bit was made to lift up but I suppose boats must have been sailing down the Murray past the Bridge. I hope the train driver knew when it was lifted!!

We did a trip across the Wangarata to see where my Grandfather was born and saw this
nice Church in the middle of town.

While at Wangaratta we made a visit to Brown Bros winery. We do like their products!
A very established winery with lovely gardens and surroundings.

After a week by the River we headed away North again straight into a strong head wind,and made it to Forbes and found a nice free camp by the river close to the centre of town.

 Unfortunately we had run into rain by this stage so sat it out until it stopped. We then hopped on the bikes and did a tour of the town,had a Subway and got back to the van just before it started to pour again. We stayed a couple of nights waiting for the wind to moderate and headed away on a nice windless morning for Narrabri. On the way we passed a milestone,just missed it by 2km.

 Well thats it for this episode, nearly home.

Till next time,cheers

Dave and Helen

26th Jan

We arrived back in Melbourne from New Zealand and things got back to normal pretty quick.

Yep its nice to lay on Nana and Grandads bed and watch the TV in nice quiet surroundings.

We took Hayden and Damien to  Science works,one of those interactive places that kids love.

Hayden had been there before but Damien hadn't.

We walked through the door and the boys disappeared trying all the things on offer. Of course Grandad had to have a go and enjoyed it as well.

The Lego model of central Melbourne was well done and gave us the position of the Botanical Gardens which we wanted to visit later on.

Melbourne has some pretty impressive bridges and flyovers and this one we passed under to get to Science works.

One other thing I wanted to do this time was to find the Footscray cemetery and look for my Great Grandfather and Mothers grave.

We found it with a bit of help from the guy on the gate and this is it. Another piece of the Jigsaw.

While at Debs, it was back to school for all the young ones and a group shot before they headed off.

 We did a trip into the City on the train and did the river trip, out to the Port of Melbourne.

A very interesting trip and worth doing if you are in Melbourne.

 Then it was time to head away and have some quiet time at the beach on the Mornington Peninsular at West Rye.

A nice spot under a tree to keep it cool in the afternoon, but a bit close to the road ,so a bit noisy.

There was a nice beach with warm water, so we swam a bit and finally got some biking done, with a trip down the foreshore and later on out to Fort Nepean on the tip of the peninsular.On the way we passed the beach where Harry Holt the then Prime Minister of Australia drowned in 1967

There is a memorial set up above the beach.

Just to prove we went there on the Bikes.
 From here it was on to the Fort but we had to walk the last 1km as bikes were not allowed.

There were some interesting things to see,I thought so anyway, not sure about Helen though!

The Port of Melbourne was the second most heavily defended Port in the World,the most defended was Gibraltar.

The first shots of the First and Second Worlds war were fired from here and these are the gun barrels that did it.

While we were at Rye we met up with our friends Helen and Brian and took the Ferry across to Queenscliff.

There are some nice old buildings over there and after having a meal and a walk around we headed home.

Well that's enough this time. Next post we head North and the last leg home.

Cheers Helen and David.

29th Jan
We are back in Melbourne after our trip to new Zealand, which I will put a bit of on here.
9th Jan
We left Melbourne and headed for New Zealand with Jet Star and arrived to a Sunny warm day.
Just right for a swim in the Pool.

And a bounce on the Trampoline

And a bit of Nana Bonding in the Kitchen,making Biscuits.

The trip to Nelson was uneventful but the Kaikoura Coast is always beautiful. Better than the Great Ocean road in Victoria in a lot of ways.

The Sea was perfectly calm and bright blue, with Seals, seen from the road as you pass by.

We set up at Tahuna Motor camp in Lois and Terry's Caravan which they left for us up there.

Ness and Jeremy arrived the following day and set up behind us in their Tent.

Not before a certain amount of slacking was observed.

Just testing the safety of the Hammock I was assured!!

 Our accommodation for 11 days. A Caravan holiday! just the ticket.
A nice comfortable little Van but no Luxuries like the one at home.

 Still time for a Cuppa in the Sun,though the first few days were a bit grey and rainy.
Once the weather cleared we got out and about and Jeremy and Chanelle had a go at Ice skating at the rink set up in the Park.

Love the Orange skates.
Nana and Grandad couldn't be coaxed out on the ice again as it was a long time ago that we could do this and a broken leg wasn't in the plans!!
Ollie liked the bouncing Castle so didn't try the Ice skating.

The kids playground by the Caravan was a favorite with the kids.

Ollie liked the Helicopter game on Nana's IPhone and had to have it rationed otherwise he would have gone cross eyed playing it.

Our morning wake up call was via Chanelle and the end window.

The Kids wanted to try out their new Fishing rods so Dad got them set up for the following day.

The next day at Rabbit Island they went out in Jeremy's Friend Tommy's boat and Caught some Fish. Unfortunately only one was big enough to bring home,and that was caught by Ollie.

He wasn't keen to pick it up so Chanelle did the honours for the photo shot.
They were all a bit hesitant when it came to filleting it. Tommy doing the Honours.

There were other ways to amuse the Kids and sometimes it involves getting a bit wet.

Well that's about it for New Zealand and this post. I will try and get a bit of Melbourne on the next one before we head away North again at the End of the week (approx 10th Feb)

Cheers Helen and Dave.