Through Victoria, South Australia and home.

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Our time spent in Batemans Bay was pretty cold and wet but did not deter us from having a good time there.
From there we set off to visit friends in Victoria, at Eagle Point which is near Paynesville at Lakes Entrance. On the way we stopped for lunch at Tilba Tilba, a delightful little village that feels like time forgot. Not an easy place to take a caravan but we found our way OK and wandered round the shops, buying a few little mementos for home. Back on the road again we crossed the border into Victoria passing through Cann River and little places with curious names like Bellbird Creek and Cabbage Tree Creek. We stopped at Orbost for lunch and found a wonderful bakery, and just sat on a seat outside and watched the world go by on a peaceful Sunday morning. Dropping down into Lakes Entrance was a sight to behold. What a wonderful place, just lakes and rivers as far as the eye can see and the famous ninety mile beach. Our intention was to get settled into a caravan park and meet up with Carole and Doug but they insisted we stay in their garden which was very kind of them. Some garden - 5 beautiful acres settled in between a river and a lake. Their property is on a silt jetty, one of only two in the world. We settled our caravan in with views over the river and enjoyed 4 days of very good food and good company. Our little Millie is the size of a rabbit, Carole and Doug have two huge hounds, Beau and Panza, the size of small horses and it was wonderful to see all the dogs getting along so well. It has certainly cured Millies fear of large dogs, she loves them all now. Carole and Doug took us for a ride around the area calling into Metung (home of the rich and famous) and back to Lakes Entrance to have a good look around. They also have a boat moored on their own river jetty and we had a leisurely trip along the silt jetty into the lake, which is like a sea with waves to match.
Trevor and I took a short ferry ride to Raymond Island and saw the wonderful sight of koalas living in the wild. They were in all the trees and we got a crick in our necks from looking up. I wished Calvin and Lucy had been with us, they would have been mesmerized.
Soon time to move on and during this time we had kept in contact with Pat and John and arranged to meet up at Ballarat which meant driving through Melbourne. We did our home work and with the aid of our GPS got through with the minimum of fuss. Westgate Bridge is a sight to behold but unfortunately we only got a fleeting glimpse as we drove over it. I think a holiday in Melbourne is on the cards as it is a very interesting city with much to see and do but not with a caravan on the back.
Ballarat is a very interesting city, being the site of the Eureka Stockade but as this was the end of our long journey we were all a bit tired to do much site seeing but have decided to come back to Victoria at a later date, make a base at Ballarat and take drives out from there. The Great Ocean Road is a must and will be done at this time. We did drive out to Clunes, a little village near to Ballarat, where Johns great Grandmother was born, another place time forgot, and we sat outside Widow Twankeys tearooms and enjoyed a pot of tea. Pure bliss.
By this time we had home calling us and basically made a dash for it, but of course because of the huge distances we still had to travel we had to stop to rest periodically. Our next stop was Tanunda in the Barossa Valley, a place we stayed on our last trip. There are severe drought restrictions in South Australia and it was so sad to see dead and dying grass, shrubs and trees in an area once so lush. We stayed there for two nights then made a long drive up to Mildura and stopped at Gol Gol, again at a site we have already visited. It was SO hot we sizzled when we hit the swimming pool, and had a very uncomfortable night in very humid conditions. After much deliberation we decided to take on the long drive to Port Augusta, although the weather conditions were not good. We absolutely sweltered even in the car with the air-con on full. The temps rose to 47 degrees (that was in the shade and there was none) heaven knows what the temperature was in the full sun. At one stage Trevor could see something flapping on our caravan and we stopped to find out what it was. We stepped out of the car into 100km 47 degree winds to find that the trim on our caravan had actually melted in the heat. We stood on the side of Highway 1 trying to stick it back with duct tape (with trucks hurtling past) which was also melting as we pulled it off the roll. It took two attempts to get it to stick and by this time we realized that we had to find a caravan park to get out of the heat. Luckily we found one which would take dogs, absolutely no grass or trees but most importantly we had a plug point to plug our air-con into. We sat this out for 3 days and nights and it felt like hell on earth. When we drove into the site we noticed that Pat and Johns caravan was down on one side. On closer inspection we found that one of their caravan springs had collapsed (as a result of dropping into a pot hole) and was only inches from the ground and dangerous. After hours on the phone to the makers of the caravan and getting nowhere John managed to get on to the spring makers. Then it took hours trying to find out the serial number of the part he needed, Trevor was under the caravan, still in the terrible heat, trying to find numbers, then they had to take off the wheel and photograph the offending part and email the photos to the suppliers. Eventually the part arrived up from Adelaide by courier and they found a very obliging mechanic who fitted it with no more problems. Port Augusta is somewhere we will not forget in a hurry.
Day 4 we set off across the Nullabor plain, stopping at Ceduna for the first night. Talk about a change in weather, we went from a high of 47 degrees to a high of 17 degrees in 24 hours. From the air-con being on day and night we had the heater on instead. We had another stop in a free off road site on the Nullabor the next night and made it into Esperance the following day. We had travelled something like 2000 km in 2 1/2 days. We needed a rest in Esperance and caught up with laundry and a bit of caravan cleaning but mainly had a nice, well deserved rest.
On leaving Esperance we made it to Boyup Brook where we had a very comfortable site and that left us with only 135 km to do the final day, making it home mid morning with the rest of the day to get our house up and running again. It took a lot longer to empty the caravan and we still have not cleaned it.
Well, we drove almost 20,000 km, covered 6 states, saw amazing sights and witnessed such wonderful things. It truly was a journey of a life time and will give us plenty of things to talk about in the months and years to come.
Pat, John, Freckles and Buddy are the most wonderful friends to travel with and we had such fun with them and we want to thank them for everything. They remain firm friends and we have plans to travel with them again in the not too distant future. We have the travel bug now.
Thank you for reading our blog as we have gone along our way, and thank you to those who sent messages. It was so good to hear from you when we were in far flung, distant places and so good to have your friendship.
Just time to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year. And most of all - happy travelling.
Marilyn, Trevor and the long distant dog Millie.

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