May 14-20

14^th May Sunday

Leaving the Murray River camp spot this morning and driving into town at Echuca for a nice breakfast for Mother’s Day. Decided on a café called Black Pudding as it quite early we really wanted to sit in the sun. 

We spent most of the day walking this interesting place and looking at everything from shops to the paddle steamer, houseboats. 

Onwards we travel to check out some more spots near the river and found one after going through many muddy rutted tracks but the site was not the best, so we decided to keep going for an hour or so.

Following Wiki, we came into a town named Cohuna that allows RV camping for up to 3 days in a lovely park directly across from handy shops. We came across another BT from Tassie but they had 2 little dogs that didn’t stop yapping so we moved away and set up.

15^th May Monday

Freezing again when I woke up- but we are moving on this morning a bit further to Swan Hill region.

On the road we bypass a public weighbridge so we gave it a go….seems like we are overweight like 500kg. Maybe the scales are out a bit - yeah that will be it. 

We stopped after this at a Lake Boga for morning tea, very pretty lake.

Our camp for the night ended up at Nyah Nyah “River Bend’ which allow RV camping and wasn’t there a lot here. There is a race track in the centre so camping is basically around this with Murray River surrounding the outskirts. Again, the water is very dirty and banks are steep so not the best for Billy.

This afternoon we had a visit from a nice little boy who chatted away talking about where he has travelled giving us tips and places to camp. His family (mum, dad) are also on road for 12 months and today is their 12^th month. He asked us if we were at some stage camped at Mother of Ducks over the xmas break 2016 when we were trialling the BT…yes, we were, he said he remembers seeing our van and the sticker Witch Way. So it was obvious they were well and truly on their journey when they saw us there.

For the next day we decided to do the Painted Silo tour. This is artwork done by Matt Adante
and the works are fantastic to say the least. We spent hours admiring his work. It is the scale that gets you. 

  

After finishing the Silo tour, as rain was coming we camped in a RV friendly town for the night.

19th May Friday

Woke up to very overcast morning-little scattered rain showers.

We left the generator running this morning and went for a walk to the bakery here- very nice coffee and bakery goods.
I decided we should move on this morning towards Bendigo. The rain forecast has not happened as yet so I am happy to take the chance and head off.
Packed and ready by 10.30.
First stop was a top up of fuel just at Bridgewater to ensure we get to Bendigo.
Next is diesel then food shopping followed by Petbarn before finding a camp spot for the night.
Lockwood South Happy Jacks reserve.

20^th May Saturday

Leaving this park early and driving onto Ballarat. Today we have to do all our clothes washing in a laundry and we also would like to find some major shops for a few things.

Ballarat Bubble N Wash was located so all washing and drying done. Met some nice people whilst in the laundry as well.

Coffee shop next door which was wonderful, the weather was very cold and we had to sit outside where Billy met a Border Collie like Forest.

From here we continued looking for a place to make some lunch in the BT, so not far down the road we stopped next to the Botanical Gardens. It is hard to find large enough parking for the BT so we often take up at least 5 normal sites. We didn’t realise we were right beside a tram crossing but it was fine we were not in the way.

After lunch, we drove into the city of Ballarat and found Stockland where Sue was looking for Spotlight and Kmart while Russell found Super Cheap for car stuff.  We were fortunate to locate a library although closed for the day we accessed their wi-fi as we had to download some software, so with all that now done and the afternoon approaching we decided to leave and head out towards our camp site.

Along the way, we decided to stop and have a look at Lal Lal Falls which was flowing. Billy enjoyed the run before he had to get back into the car.

Our Wiki camp for tonight was Meredith Park which was opposite a pub that also offered free camping.