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Published: February 19th 2009
Giant Spider
This is the terror that was holding the shower block to siege.Day 103
We had completed most of the blog yesterday evening for publishing today, so when I got up at around 7.00 it was kettle on, then boot the laptop up, this gives me a good jump on the day before Caroline gets up.
Caroline went to have her shower, however within seconds of going Caroline was back, asking for my camera, explaining that there was a big spider in the ladies shower room she thought it maybe a wolf spider, or something like it so wanted to take a photo.
Showing me the picture I was not certain, so Caroline bravely went and had her shower and said when she approached it reared its two front legs up, which I think is just a defence mechanism.
C: I have to say that if any of you had seen that spider then you may have been hesitant too, the size and the look of this spider was enough to put anyone off having a shower, I very nearly went without, but thought to myself I must be brave, I cannot let this thing stop me. I went back to the washbasins and cleaned my teeth; keeping
GlenRowan
The place where Ned Kelly fell, and he was hung in Melbourne one eye on the spider and noticed that when it thought that I was gone it walked to a safer location.
With the spider safely out of my way I went to the one of the shower cubicles, choosing the one nearest the exit as I thought this spider may “trap” me.
Showered and dressed I gingerly opened the cubicle door only to find that the spider was back he was on the floor opposite. Now the corridor here is not that wide probably only 3 feet, so you must have some sympathy for me to have to walk past this spider and be so close. However when the spider realised that I was there, he scuttled off.
While Caroline was in the shower boiled a pan of water to boiled some eggs for breakfast, Helen gave us the eggs yesterday, fresh from her own “chooks”. They were delicious; I also boiled a few more so that we could have egg sandwiches for lunch.
We only had a brief stop last night at Wangaratta, so we didn’t have too much to do this morning, though as it was so quite we did not intend to rush
Ned Kelly
This is how big he really was, (Honest) he was a big man leaving the campsite.
I quite liked the town of Wangaratta it was a busy little town with a lot of little shops that were quite chic, We got on the road heading South down the Hume Highway with about 400k’s drive to Melbourne. As we are driving out of town we drive passed the local public conveniences, they are not now called public toilets but “Comfort Stations” I have now heard it all.
Yesterday Caroline complained about the journey being slow, whilst today she said it whizzed along, I suggested that today she must have the ‘fast map’.
Yesterday Helen suggested that we should stop at Glenrowan, which had been the place of the final shootout of the infamous outlaw Ned Kelly and his gang “Ned Kelly’s last stand”. We walked around the museum, which was excellent, with loads of artefacts associated with the family and some of the gang members. There was also a replica house of the Kelly family.
We had a good journey and was not very exciting, not a lot happened unfortunately, as we got nearer to Melbourne the landscape started to change and became charred remains of trees, grass and sadly
"Keen as"
Is this where the saying "As keen as mustard " comes from? we saw a house that had been burnt, the roadsigns were also charred, it was like this for several kilometres. The Hume highway is not too far from some of the areas surrounding Melbourne that were sadly raised to the ground on “Black Saturday”.
We arrived in Melbourne at around about 3.00pm and found our camp site that we had pre booked, though the cost of the Big4 was higher being a major city, however the fuel costs are some of the lowest we have seen in Australia, with Diesel being the same price as unleaded at about 0.51 pence per litre.
A message to the people who are coming over to Australia Jarvey and Daryll and Sarah, join Big 4, and you get 10% off the cost of your campsite, it wont be long before you get back the 40 bucks you lay out to join.
Anyway we got there, set up the trailer and zipped in the awning as we are here until Saturday morning. Although we have an early start on Saturday morning, we will have to leave the Big4 around 6.00 for our 30 minute drive to the ferry port for the Spirit
Hat Box
An Akubra Hat box of Tasmania. Check in time is from 7:15, but we do like to be early, so we will pack up on Friday night and throw the swag out as it only takes 10 minutes to roll away.
Around 6.00pm we had a quick swim in the pool, the day has been warn around 30 degree’s but blimey the water was cold. other things we needed to do was grocery shopping and we found a Safeway’s to stock up on things for Tasmania.
We got back and rustled up an evening meal, and by the time we sat down it was dark.
Last time we came over in 2007 their were a good few companies doing vehicles for travelling around this huge country and the one we chose was Maui, as they had new vehicles, with a country wide support network, ours was a long wheel base Mercedes Sprinter, now Australia is inundated with these companies doing all kinds to vehicles from Winnebago’s to 4x4 trucks to Hippie campers
What we have seen a lot of is a company called wicked, which are hand painted and very beaten up, and no one vehicle looks the same, but I
Ned Kelly
Of Irish decendant, this is a picture of the man. Outlaw or Hero? suppose in this tough economic climate the dollar speaks, it would concern me travelling these huge distances not knowing if or when the vehicle had been serviced.
Anyway we finish the evening playing cards, our first game since we started the trip.
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Darryl and Sarah
Wallaby Wanderers
Big 4!
Hi both, still following your progress with eagerness as our 'due date' comes ever closer! We're busily looking for suitable vehicle/sleeping thing (4WD and caravan probably) and we almost pounced on a Nissan Patrol but it's older than yours and I suspect a lot thirstier!! We'll defo join up with Big 4 - they look pretty good and are in lots of different places. Loving the HUGE spider pics!! Showed it to a 'jungle man' in our office and he proclaimed it's not a Wolf spider cos they don't live in Oz ... but he didn't know what it was! Fair shout to Caroline for having a shower with it hanging around - good on ya!! You've shown that mobile broadband is a fabulous thing ... we'll defo getting that on arrival too!! Speak to you soon Darryl and Sarah