We drove through a part of Victoria we hadn’t seen before
which we enjoyed. We stopped at a place called Manangatang, where there was
free overnight camping opposite the pub. They even had clean toilets and
showers! We set up and tried out our diesel heater again, but it still sent out
clouds of smoke! We went over to the pub and had an enjoyable meal. One lady
came to sell us tickets for a meat tray and asked us if we were in the caravan
that was sending out clouds of smoke. We didn’t realise we had left it on when
we went over for tea, fortunately it got dark and no one really noticed it!
We arrived at Echuca and checked into the local caravan park
there. They were offering a ‘stay 4 pay 3 deal’ so we took that up, and then
asked if there was room to extend our stay. The girl at the desk implied that
it may not be possible, but we checked in anyway and decided to argue the point
in the next few days when that girl was not on the desk.
Katie and Matt and baby Otto were heading up this way and we
were so looking forward to seeing them after 41/2 months of travel. Our caravan
park was right by the river and we could hear the ‘toot toot’ of the riverboats
as they went past. It was all quite enchanting.
We were so pleased to see little Otto again, but it took a
while for him to get used to us!
We spent a week at Echuca, and did lots of walking from our
caravan park to where Katie and Matt were staying. We couldn’t win on the
caravan park deal. In the end, we had to move literally 10 metres across the
road to another site for the last 2 days. If we hadn’t done that we would have
had to pay for the ‘free’ night. We really didn’t get it!!
Katie and Otto came with us on one of the Riverboats – the
EmmyLou. We thought that it was only a pretend steam engine, but no, it was a
real one and very interesting at that! It was lovely sitting on the deck and
looking at the riverbank passing by.
We offered to look after Otto one night so Katie and Matt
could go out to tea. It was a bit of a disaster as Otto wasn’t too sure about
us and worked himself up into a real tizz, so we couldn’t get him to go to
sleep. Katie and Matt could hear him crying as they got out of the lift! He
only needed his mummy to settle him instead of Grandma and Pa strangers!
After Echuca we drove back to Melbourne for the last part of
our trip. We set up outside Nikki and Shannon’s house in Greensborough and
drove the Western Ring Road many times to visit Katie and Otto during the day.
It was lovely to see Nikki and Shannon waiting expectantly
for their new baby – only 2 more months to go! And lovely to see the grand dogs too!!
And so, after 21 weeks of holiday, we drove onto the newly
refurbished Spirit of Tasmania for the last bit of the journey.
We got off the
boat and had breakfast with an old friend from Jane Franklin Hall days –
Heather and her husband Phil. It was a lovely way to finish the holiday before
heading south. What a beautiful day it was as we drove down the highway. It was
cool but sunny and we loved reconnecting with our little island state. When we
got to the Derwent River it was flat calm, and the mountain looked a treat!
We had driven over 20,000 kilometres and seen some amazing
sites but there really is no place like home.
