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

Desert Sculptures

Approximately 15klms from town on top of a hill is a series of sculptures done by carvers from all over the world. This amazing display is in a very arid area with kangaroos and emus wondering around and of course the odd snake and lizard.

We planned to go out to one of the more isolated national parks and check out the local rock art but unfortunately when I took the truck in to get the tyres rotated we discovered that the two rear tyres where totally shot and too dangerous to drive anywhere let alone 260klms of very ordinary dirt road. So here we sit waiting for two tyres to find there way here from Melbourne. With luck they should be here tomorrow and we will head out of here on Monday to the Kinchega National Park. Weather fine and hot 36 today, might be a pool day LOL.

Mad Max or Bitchy Beryl?

Yesterday we went in search of the road used for the Max movies and found it just past Silverton. As you can see they are quite proud of the cult movies.

Just in case you haven't heard, they are about to start making Max 4 and the town is starting to buzz with excitement. They could pick the extras out of the local hoons that do burnouts every night at 3am or drive down main street acting like demented baboons. Perfect place for another Max movie, don't even need to hire actors LOL.

Today we are off to the desert sculptures so tomorrow should have some good pics.

Ron's Rock

Hello from Broken Hill. We finally decided that we couldn't stand the wind and cold any longer and left Petersborough yesterday. The trip was a bit wild with strong winds particularly the last 50 - 70 klms through the open plains. Lots of dust in the air but the weather slowly got warmer the further we went.

Ron's Rock finally arrived and is very impressive, definitely the best stone we have found so far. It is approximately 3.3 cts and 10.8ml long by 5.4 wide and when in the sun is dazzling.

Broken Hill seems to be loaded with art. Gallery's everywhere so I will be in seventh heaven while he will grin and bare it, or just send me on my way while he goes to the supermarket LOL.

The romantic 30's posters of TAR

Lately we seem to be doing lots of train things. We arrived at Peterborough on Friday afternoon and what a pleasant place it seemed to be. As we were setting up at the park I thought I heard a familiar voice and sure enough two sites away Denis and Caryll were setting up their van. We last saw them at Derby WA 12 months ago. Of course that evening several drinks were had exchanging tales of adventures over the last year.

Yesterday (Sat.) we did the Steamworks (NO not a sauna) which has the most amazing collection of trains and carriages. Some great examples of sleepers from the 30's and 40's. Ron and I could happily spend some time here getting them back into shape, especially the first class lounge. An Erte here a Chirparis there and a couple of good painting and the carriage could be rolling around again.

Today we were meant to be heading to Broken Hill but last night the weather blew in and all night we had a gale with heavy rain and this morning we woke to 10 degrees and a vicious southerly. We managed to get the awning in without being blown away, so we are going to sit here until things improve.

Funniest thing happened yesterday. Denis and Carol are here on a Rock Art tour which has been invading (in the nicest possible way) farms in SA looking for new art sites. Yesterday they were about 50klms out in the hills checking out some carvings and 6 car loads went out and 6 cars came back but NOT everyone was accounted for. One women who shall remain nameless left her travelling companion out in the bush !!!!!!!!!! Much drama occurred about 6pm when it was discovered that they were one short LOL LOL LOL.

When the Lyns ask you out for lunch you should be worried.

We have just arrived back in Port Augusta after four great days in Port Lincoln with the Lyns. Wining, dining and picnics were the order of the day and we all had a great time catching up and telling new stories.

Off to Peterborough tomorrow and from there onto Broken Hill

Toot Toot and we're off

All aboard the Nichi Pichi railway to Quorn. Thanks to the company of Maryln and Kev the trip to Quorn was a fun day and the conductor and car captain made sure we all had a good time and lots of laughs. Quron is an interesting little town with lots of great ol' pubs etc but badly needs bucket loads of money thrown at it to get everything back to original condition. The train trip was great. It's been along time since I have been on a steam train and of course the first thing I did was stick my head out the window and get a face full of soot LOL.

We finally left Port Augusta for Port Lincoln yesterday and arrived here just in time to catch the Moto GP on TV. Go Casey, what a race. Last night we had dinner with the two Lyns and LD even baked a banana cake for us. We're being spoilt already LOL. Today off to see a couple of new foals from LP's horses and then we are cooking dinner at LD's.

Welcome back Bruce and Di where are you ????? Estonia WHY ??????