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