Blocked Roads and Punky Pigeons

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We slept in a bit this morning and had a leisurely breakfast. Ray and Sandy popped by to say goodbye and then they were off. By the time we’d got things fixed up to leave and hooked up the van we noticed that there was a lot of activity around the entrance to the Showgrounds. We went over to investigate and saw that council workers were pouring tarmac onto the road across the entrance. There was no way we were getting out.

We talked to the foreman who told us that they were repairing the road ready for the Show that was on the following weekend. Evidently many participants start arriving with horse floats and trucks a few days earlier so they had to get the job done now. He said they would be done in about half an hour. That was no problem for us as we were not in any hurry. It was actually quite pleasant standing and watching all the activity, including the heavy roller flattening the new surface.
After less than 10 minutes, he came up to us and said they had moved some of the equipment out of the way to do the second area so if we left immediately we should be able to squeeze through. He was right, we managed to swing into a side road that led, with a few turns, back to the main road. We were finally on the way.

We had an easy run to Benalla, where we stopped at the Gliding Club of Victoria to see who was on the field. Barry has been a member of the GCV since well before I met him in 1978. In fact, it was because of gliding that we met, when he was the temporary summer instructor at Lasham Gliding Club in England and I had just joined as a student.

The only familiar face was Rhonda in the office, who said that things had been quiet for a while during the weekdays, the joys of winter coming on. Barry strolled over to the hangars and found someone working on his glider to chat to. I noticed some crested pigeons, with the funny black spike on their head and the red eye rings, feeding nearby. They looked like a bunch of punks who’ve had a heavy night! Then, we had lunch at the picnic tables outside the club rooms. It was pleasant in the sun.

After that, we continued on to Shepparton, where we were staying at the Strayleaves Caravan Park. They were chopping down big beautiful trees all around the park, which seemed a shame, but we were told they had been shedding branches and damaging property in recent storms and the owners wanted to remove the danger before anyone got hurt. Eucalypts are beautiful trees but they do have that bad habit. That’s why you should never camp or park under them. I guess they’ll have to change the name of the park from Strayleaves with no leaves left!

The tree removal had blocked some of the access roads within the park so we had a bit of a wait and rather more fiddle manoeuvring to get into our site than would be normal. It seems to be our day for getting stuck!! At least the site was very flat so we didn’t need the ramps this time.

Once we’d set up we called our friend, Christine, to let her know we’d arrived and she said to come straight over. She wanted to see the van so we picked her up and took back to the Park. She was very surprised at how big and comfortable the RV is. We invited her to have a meal but she’d already cooked a lovely dinner for us so we went back to her place and had a relaxing evening catching up and sharing recipes. I haven’t seen her for several years so there was a lot of family news, too. Time just flies when you’re having fun – and the evening was over before we knew it. Then back to the van for our last night away on this trip.

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Photos

Wodonga Showgrounds, Victoria
Roadworks blocked the only exit from the camping ground, but it was nice to watch others working!

Gliding Club of Victoria, Benalla
The GCV hangers and apron with some punky crested pigeons feeding

Gliding Club of Victoria, Benalla
Some Crested Pigeons who look like punks after a hard night.