“Emergency Code Spam”

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DAY 104


We both didn’t wake until 8.00am after our inaugural card game last, it was nothing heavy just funny.

So really today, we got up, had breakfast, did the laundry, tidied the back of the truck and sorted a few things out, went into Melbourne, and after a few hours came back to base camp.

That’s all we did really, but I am sure we can find something to flower up the day with.

I did not have one single good map of Melbourne, just several maps from the information stand on the camp site, so really finding our way into Melbourne was going to be relatively easy as all we had to do was follow Elizabeth Street, right! Wrong! Somewhere in the middle Elizabeth street changes and moves, then moves again. Whichever way you look at it, we still managed to get into the City Centre and park no problem at all. So a proper map of Melbourne is beneficial, not just a map of the CBD and a map showing you how to get there, because not all of the streets are marked.

We parked at Melbourne Central, they use a SmartPark system, you either pay $8.00 per hour or for every $10.00 you spend in Melbourne Central Shopping Centre you get one hour for $4.00. I am sure that if I was on one of my usual shopping sprees I could get my full day parking for half price, but today we came in for some very specific items and for one reason or another we could not get what we wanted.

One thing that we wanted is a publication called Camps 5. Camps 4 is currently on sale and it has been recommended to us by some fellow travellers, it is a comprehensive guide on free campsites around Australia. Now when you are out and about as long as we are then this is very beneficial and may save some dollars. However Camps 5 is imminently due on the market so we have waited and waited for it to come out but today we find it will be out on 1st March.

Then we went to sort out the Telstra internet, actually found someone from Telstra that knew what they were talking about, however we also find that they have a new dongle due out in 2 weeks which instead of download speeds of 7.2mbps it will be 21mbps, so we decided to wait a little bit longer.

We should be ok for internet on Tasmania, they are with the rest of Australia in the 21st Century, there are Twelve Golden Arch outlets there with the free WiFi service that we have come to rely on, however we may find that we will be a bit remote from time to time so we may not have regular access.

I also wanted a can of air. As I have a problem with my camera which I think is caused by dust, Oh yes, caused by the kangaroo at the Warrumbungle National Park who dropped it on the floor for me, I need some air to help remove the dust which I think is causing a problem. Also really to discuss the problem with someone in a camera shop who may also be able to advise (the flash is malfunctioning). The can of air will also be good to help clean the laptop as again we are using it in very dusty environments so keeping it clean will be beneficial and hopefully prolong its life.

Camera shops were not the most obvious thing to find in Melbourne, despite being in the middle of one of the main streets, so we went into Myers Digital Photography store, I asked if they had cans of air and the sales assistant looked at me as if I had just asked a funny question. I had to explain that there was such a thing.

Anyway long and the short of it is that we eventually find some in Dick Smith Electrical so now I can clean the camera and the laptop.

It is very hot down here in Melbourne. The sun is shining, yet the day started off quite cloudy, I was convinced that today it would rain.

We got back and rested up, well I had a snooze whilst Caroline beetled about, and later this evening we had planned to have the other half of the steak we had last night.
Now ! we have this Evacool fridge and it is really good, but we were not using it properly, and everyday we re-evaluate our equipment to see if it can be used better, more efficiently etc. This fridge had a dividing wall between fridge and freezer, and more often than not we don’t keep frozen food so this side is empty, so what we used to do was put empty cordial bottles full of water in this side to keep the space as full as possible. Anyway we decided to remove the dividing internal wall and have a larger fridge, what we didn’t anticipate was the efficiency of the fridge when the dividing wall was taken out.

When we took the steak out it was solid, there was no chance of having it for dinner and the two small round hot chillies we planned to cut up with an onion were also solid and some what reminded me of poor jacks missing testicles as they swung loosely in the polythene back beneath my hand.

Emergency code Spam, we pulled the food box out of the trailer and rummaged around for a can of Spam, but we had had a leak of Balsamic Glaze, in the box so had to turn everything out.
It was going to be Spam fitters and Salad, Gordon Ramsey eat my pants, this cooking lark is a piece of cake.
All the contents of the box had to be cleaned and repacked for our onward journey but at least we know what we have, we could feed a small third world country with the amount of Chicken Curry we have.

Finally this evening I finished off the blog that Caroline had started whilst I was catching some Zzzzzzzzzz, we had another challenge match at cards and Caroline came away victorious with five games to four, then we scurried of to bed, it really was a warm night.

Overall today I really didn’t think much of Melbourne, though we only saw the city, but you honestly felt a vibe in Sydney and Brisbane and possibly Canberra a vibe certainly that was not felt in Melbourne.

Sweet dreams bloggers.!!

Andy & Caroline.Xxxx

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