The Trip Home on the Mainland

Monday morning, the 16^th, we woke to a reasonable morning and the first thing I noticed was the temperature was a good three or four degrees warmer than we had been having for several weeks before. But it was not the temperature that was the main thing. It was not raining and blowing a gale. Did not think I would be praising Victorian weather.

We left Donnybrook which is a semi-rural area just north of Melbourne. Oh how good it was to be on roads that were not tight windy bends and huge climbs. I realise this was the Hume Hwy and that when you go some back roads there will be more bends etc, but those windy and hilly roads are just not near as concentrated on the mainland.

We had a good run all the way and stopped at Holbrook for lunch. We could tell there was a lot of history there but we did not have time to see it. We had decided to stay at Gundagai which would give us time to see the town there but if we took to long at Holbrook we would not have time.

The camp at Gundagai is right in town in a nice spot. It is a short walk to toilets in the town park.

After a quick set up we had a walk around town. An interesting story was that of the flood of 1852 which resulted in 78 recorded deaths. This was Australia’s major natural disaster until Cyclone Tracey or the 2009 Black Saturday Victorian bushfires.  Despite warnings from aboriginal folk most of the town was built on flood plains. There had been a flood in 1844 which indicated the dangers but the people could not afford to buy on higher ground.

When the flood hit two aboriginal men, Yarri and Jacky Jacky, risked their lives to save 69 lives. A memorial to their memory was sculptured.

This post indicates the flood levels. The 1853 flood was even higher. I imagine by that time the town was decimated anyway. Rebuilding did commence after that on higher ground.

The old mill, built in 1848 is the oldest remaining building in the town. It was built on the lower ground but still survived the 1852 and 1853 flood. It continued as a flour mill into the 1860s.

There are lots of historical buildings in the town. The gaol held Captain Moonlite at one time. I will just let the photos tell the story.

 

We had a few pleasant chats to other campers that evening and settle in to a relaxing night. The next morning, Tuesday the 17^th April, we headed off home. We stopped for fuel at Jugiong which I had planned to do as fuel there is 11 cents per litre cheaper. It is off the highway on the Yass side of Jugiong.

It was to early to grab a coffee so we kept going. I think that we were so single minded about getting home by that point, and the entertaining radio we were listening to that we did not give coffee another thought and we got home by just after 1.30pm. It was a great run as there was no wind and the Hume Highway is so good with lots of downhill runs that we were able to do a good average speed.

It was good to be home especially to see our girls and son-n-law. We also have two house guests, mum and 4 year old daughter that we were blessed to have staying with us. The little girl calls me Peter Pan because she thinks that is the correct name for people called Peter. Many thanks to Jan & Ross for mowing our lawns and keeping our pool in order and doing odds and ends and Bec for her housekeeping and efforts to look after the pool. Thanks to Col and Di for their emails which gave us great notes to run off for our trip.

So here ends another great trip seeing our wonderful country, the best in the world. Technically I cannot say that myself, not having been outside Australia. Anecdotally though I feel I can say that, coupled with the experience of the travelling we have done. We met a German guy in Arthur River in Tazzie who was touring in Australia and had been so for 15 months but was going to settle in Merimbula before the end of this year. He said that why do you need to travel anywhere else when you have the best country in the world right here.

Our 11 weeks in Tazzie were awesome. I know I whinged a bit about the weather and about the hilly and windy roads but I did love the trip. We had a great time touring with Kay & Derek and staying with Darren & Maria & family and hanging out with them. The highlights of the trip for me were Cradle Mountain (especially the summit walk that I did with Derek), the Bruny Island Cruise, the Heritage Wilderness Cruise of Maquarie Harbour and the Gordon River, Leven Canyon and Gunns Plains, Remarkable Caves at Port Arthur, Cape Hauy and Cape Raul walks and Gordon Dam. So much eh!

For Linda, Cradle Mountain was her main highlight and seeing the wombats there, but being the people person that she is she loved staying with Darren & Maria & Family and Kay & Derek.

Many people said that as Tazzie is so small we would run out of things to see well before our 11 weeks came up, but that was not the case. We were not sitting around twiddling our thumbs at any time. We were on the go most of the time. There might have been a few things (miniscule) that were not worth the effort but you did not know that till you had a look.

We met some nice people but for some reason there were not any close friendships formed as we have done on other trips. Had we had more time we may have developed more of a relationship with people we met on our second last night in Tazzie. That was at Penguin when we had the campfire with Lyle and Carol, Ron & Ann, from Woolongong.

I definitely would not want to live in Tazzie but it has been a great place to visit. The weather is predominantly to cold for me. Probably even more compelling than that is the problem of Bass Strait. It cost us $2200 return to travel on the Spirit of Tasmania.

So that is it for this blog. Thank you for your interest in reading it. As always I have enjoyed doing the blog. Not a burden but a labour of love. It is a permanent record of our memories.

As I said before it was a great trip and we have been so blessed in many ways by our Lord Jesus Christ.

As for our next trip we are thinking of touring down the east coast of NSW and going across the bottom of VIC, visiting travelling friends we have met on the road who live east of Melbourne. Then going west from Melbourne to Geelong and doing the Great Ocean Road and winding up at Adelaide and then home. It will take at least a month I reckon. We would be looking at doing that in spring this year.

I will send an email to all those on my mailing list that I will be ‘blogging again’ when the time comes. Until then God Bless.