HOPEY40 TRAVELS AGAIN!

3 SEPT., 2013

Having completed a somewhat stressful session of house clearing & selling, we decided to relax by taking to the road once again.  We left Portarlington Caravan Park at 8am on the 3rd of September in thick sea mist.  Visibility was very limited & Victoria was showing us a face that we didn't recognise.  This was Spring but the early part of the morning was more reminiscent of Autumn in the UK.  However, the sun was already struggling to break through & would soon burn off the mist.

We had never experienced Spring in this part of Australia before & were delighted to see the swathes of brilliant yellow created by the sour grass (or oxalis) that flourished along the verges & in the pastures.  Apparently, farmers & local people do not share our delight & regard the plant as a rampant weed.  They feel the same way about Patterson's Curse, which we've often admired for the beautiful areas of purple that it produces throughout the countryside.  It is said that such weeds can even affect the taste of milk if the cows have been eating them - not surprising then, that they are so unpopular.

Back to our new adventure!  Our first catastrophe occurred in Moolap when Bob's question, "What's that silly bloke doing?" was followed by the said bloke flagging us down & informing us that the left indicator light on the caravan wasn't working.  Silent apologies from my "Mr Fix-It", who promptly whipped out his test meter & discovered that, although the bulb was OK, one of the wires was not connecting.  That, plus the fact that the light fitting was full of water, had combined to cause the problem.

At the next set of lights, a lady informed us that we had left some pliers on the tail bar of the caravan, so Bob dashed out & retrieved them before the lights turned green!  This meant that two observant motorists had already helped us along our way before we'd even reached Geelong!  Are we really safe to be let out alone?  We hoped that the remainder of the journey would be less eventful & I could hardly believe that I succumbed to pancakes & syrup further along the road at Macdonald's - it's amazing how stress weakens the resolve!  Bob had an egg & bacon roll, so we both felt guilty but well fuelled to face any more rigours that might lay ahead.

By 10.30am., the sun was shining brightly & God was in His Heaven!  The hills were beautiful & greener than we'd ever seen them before.  Wattle bushes & even a few blossom trees flowered in the countryside, which was clothed in its Spring mantle.

A call came through on the mobile from Jennifer & John who have bought our house.  Having locked themselves out of No.11 last evening, & having been lucky that I was able to direct them to Jodie & Wes's house opposite for a spare key, they were now ringing to report their latest disasters.  They had flooded the laundry floor whilst doing some washing (the machine obviously wasn't connected up properly) & the light wouldn't work in the main bedroom (probably needed a new bulb).  Poor things, they sure do attract problems.  Jenny had already hit the bridge of her nose on an open cupboard door in the kitchen, before we left!  A lost document, that was holding up settlement on their purchase of our house, still hadn't turned up & John's sister was preparing to borrow money from the Commonwealth Bank, using her house as surety, in order that they would be able to pay us & so avoid any further penalties.

Back to our travels again!  "Far-away places, with strange sounding names" began to crop up - Puckapunyal; Wodonga; Wangaratta, Narrambie & Yarrawonga to name a few.  Pronunciation of these produces such satisfying sounds!

The new metal finish, on the front of the caravan, glared blindingly in our overtaking mirrors &, as usual, the sun shone fully on me, in the passenger seat of the car!  It was so hot that I had to fix a sun shade on to the window &, because I couldn't reach my T-shirts, I changed into my pyjama top, confident that no one would realise what it was.  However, I wasn't complaining - the weather was superb!  Sheep & cattle grazed contentedly &, for once, they all had lush, green grass to eat & plenty of water in the creeks & ponds.  A far cry from the dry, brown contryside through which we normally drive.

At 3.15pm., we drove over the Murray River at Albury, so crossing the border between Victoria & New South Wales.  Albury is a substantial town with numerous lovely old buildings.  However, it posed a real problem for us, as we couldn't see any signs to Wagga Wagga, which was the direction in which we wanted to travel.  Having re-fuelled, we finally found the correct road out of the town & drove as far as Culcairn, by which time it was already 4pm.  It had been a long day & Bob was tired, so we settled down in a caravan park & made a couple of new friends, with whom we enjoyed drinks & a chat before retiring for the night.

A second call from Jenny & John revealed that the offending document had been located & payment to us will now take place without further delay - hurray!