On a Clear Day ....... you can see, well not always but the next day was great.

We leave Mansfield today for Healesville just outside of Melbourne. Victoria true to form has gone from absolutely cooking to dam cold and we have had to dig out the long pants, shoes and sock, jumpers and coats. We both could very very easily turn around and go back north. LOL

"Congratulations to Bec and Tim and the twins girls"

For Ron's birthday he finally got a dog. He had been at me for ages to get something that we could take to parks that are "Must have pet" parks eg. Kunanarra in WA and we found the perfect pouch.

Salvadore the First , a quaint little thing and very very much like his owner. Salvadore snores and his cheeks blow in and out, much like his owner, he makes strange noises and his backside moves, much like his owner and after an exhausting day at the vineyard he sleeps - just like his owner.

Salvadore was a big hit in downtown Yackandandra where he met the local hounds and provided the human population with much mirth. Then onto the Wood Park Vineyard which is where this pic was taken. Unfortunately after 4 hours of celebritiy status he just couldn't hack the pace and had a stroke causing him to cease most of his bodily functions (just like his owner). Gone but not forgotten.

It's great being back in the Alpine area. We went for a drive yesterday down to Milawa Cheese factory where they have great wine, cheese and lunch.

The trip around the mountains was fantastic but the ever present reminder of the bush fires earlier this year jumps out at you at every corner. The devastation is horrific with almost no canopy in the forests and at least 75% of the gum trees are dead. On a happier note the trees that are surviving are coming back into leaf and there is even the sound of birds that have returned to the area.

Just Laying around at Beechworth,  just have been the long lunch and good wine - life's tough

About time I did something about all those dam roads that were making the map look very messy. Here is the updated map which has only the roads we have travelled on it.

Yesterday was a new experience. RAIN !!!!!!!

We woke to a steady downpour in Benalla, gutters running, puddles, soggy grass, all very unusual experiences for us LOL. We then had to work out how to pack up Miss G in the wet without us getting totally drowned. We failed LOL. It continued to rain all the way to Beechworth (which has now been renamed Beachworth). Again we had the new experience of unpacking in the rain and again we pretty much failed in the keeping dry department, although Miss G sailed on through without a problem. Beechworth is a very pretty little town and one of the few places that has banned new development from the town centre so it is very much a turn of the 20th century town. Great food town, lots of antiques and book stores and lots and lots of local wine - yum.

Last night we went to Provenence for dinner and had the degustation menu (samples of lots of things with selected wines). This was Ron's birthday present and what a surprise it was when the chef came out with birthday wishes from Hans and Roli in Zurich, well done boys you caught him out LOL.

It's a roo but.......

It's the only BIG RED that we have seen in 25 months and 78,000 kilometers. We spotted this one at Kenchega National Park a couple of weeks ago and he was dam big. I think standing he would have been 7 - 8 ft, not the roo you want to meet on a dark night.

We have one more night here in Benalla and then it's off to Beechworth for dinner at Provenance
tomorrow night for his birthday. We still have two weeks today before we are due in Melbourne so have no idea what we are going to do to fill in the time.

The heatwave has finally broken with a cool front blowing in yesterday taking the temp from 38 down to 25 with very gusty winds and sand storm ahead of the muddy drizzle that continued all night. This morning is cool and overcast with the forecast of more rain and possible storms. Of course this would happen now, as we took Miss Guided through the car wash on the way out of Echuca and for the first time in 6 months she was clean.

After a lovely quiet 2 weeks with Hans and Roli rolling through Jordon, They are back home and I am guessing about to make up for some of my comments left on their blog LOL LOL LOL.

Glad you are both home safe and sound and the trip looked fab, even if you got lost more than knew where you were going, had more flat tyres than Beaurepaires, saw lots of ruins that resembled your face and generally put the west on a war footing with the Arab world. We missed ya LOL.

We are in Benalla where we have bought a new TV and are about to head up to Beechworth for his lordships birthday. Rumour has it that there is a good restaurant up there so we are off to find it. Weather yesterday 40 and dam dam hot, today 38 with storms this afternoon. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh another day at the pool.

Is this the story about the Loaves and fishes ????

Well not quite LOL. We finally left Swan Hill behind and arrived here in Echuca a couple of days ago. We decided to try a park out of town a bit called "River Bend" because it had an ok review on the Badger web site. The Park is about 24klms out of town and half of that is dirt, not bad but still dirt. The park itself is on 44 acres and it's lawn from one end to the other - and we are in the wort drought in history !!!!!!!!. Situated along the Campaspie river ( I think, it's definately not the Murray) it is single handed draining it with sprinklers going 24 hours a day. We are the only van here, a couple of permanents in huts and the owners and that's it.

The park used to be a nudist park up until 2 years ago and is now in the process of reinventing itself. There is a very very strange person working (and I use that word loosely) here, put it this way you wouldn't want to run into him on a dark night, well even in daylight it's scary.

Off to Echuca proper today, two days out here in Deliverenceville is enough for this vegimite.

Your right this is NOT Swan Hill

This is a great pic of the salt lakes at Woomera. Not much news as we are still waiting out the heatwave up here. Yesterday we spent most of the day trying to track down a new TV we found in the retrovision catalogue. After calling 6 stores around the state we finally found one at Benalla. So the plan is to go to Echuca tomorrow and then onto Benalla early next week.

This means that we get a slightly bigger screen but we get rid of the dam ant that crawled behind the screen and died, dead centre of the screen.

OK the map means no new pics LOL

We have moved on down the Murray to Swan Hill but have not left the heatwave behind. Yesterday was 40 in the shade and today is expected to be more of the same. Thank goodness we are in a nice park on the banks of the river so it looks coolish and we have a great lawn site about 50 meters from the pool, so life is not too bad LOL. The heatwave is expected to last all week so we might just sit here and wait it out.

Last night at Kenchega

Could be a painting, this was our last night and the power upstairs really turned on the view. It was not as misty as the pic but I just love the pic and it is in line for future painting.

Mildura is being very kind to us, we are almost next to a strawberry farm so you know what we were up to yesterday afternoon. We also dropped into an elderly Italian couple's place just up the road and bought some home grown tomatoes, apricots, peaches and then into Stephenos for some REAL bread. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgh seventh heaven.

Off to the Perry Sand Dunes this morning so with luck should have some great shots. Called into the Art Vault yesterday and had a quick chat about a possible exhibition some time next year. Hopefully they think the works are good enough as I would love to have an exhibition and I almost have enough work completed.

Kenchega National Park

What an unusual place LOL. We arrived on a day that was 45 and the only saving grace for us was that we had a great spot on the banks of the Darling river (where it still has some water between the weirs) so we spent the day jumping in and out of the river to cool off.

Day two was 18 and rained on and off for most of the day and day 3 was perfect 25 and clear blue sky.

Each day was filled with wonderful little surprises. Unfortunately there aren't any planned walks so most of the time was spent close to our van. You will see from the van pic we had no neighbours, I think the closest person was about 5 klms away.

The emu family in pic one was a part of the welcome committee, dad and the teenagers wandering up the road.

The sunset was day 2. Unbelievable sunset that went on for almost an hour. This is one of many pics and on that night the river was perfectly still so I have some great mirror pics as well. Day 3 we witnessed the fight between the Willy wagtail and the goanna that can be seen in the pic. This little battle went on for about 15 minutes with the willy winning eventually. The biggest problem for the goanna was that safety was to go past us and he needed some convincing to do that LOL.

On the last day I walked around the river and climbed up a tree just before sunset and watched the kangaroos, wallabies, emus and everything else come down to the river for a drink and they didn't know I was there - amazing.

We have moved on to Mildura and I must admit it was great to be back in Vic. The food is great the service is fantastic and the wine selection has dramatically improved.

Red Rock

Here is the latest installment on the art front. Red Rock was inspired by Palm Valley in the West Macs just outside of Alice Springs and yes it is very very red.

We leave Broken Hill today and head out to the Kenchega National Park. The temp at the moment is 31 and it's only 9am so I am not sure how long we will last without power to run the eggnichner let alone the espresso machine LOL. We will be off the air for probably 3 - 4 days.

Hans and Roli I keep checking the blog but NO posts ??????? Does this mean no internet in Jordon LOL

Which way did Gulliver go ?

or Ron just had a wash and has shrunk LOL !!!!!!! Everything is big here in Broken Hill LOL