St Arnaud Nat Park - Cherrypool Highway Park

St Arnaud National Park gets a thumbs up from us, a lovely camp site in the bush with basic amenities and a water tap, plenty of fire wood and fire pits and picnic tables, well done to the Shire.



Vickie and i walked to the damn wall it was hard to believe that 10 years ago the valley we were looking at was full of water. We walked around the rim along a man made walk trail, plenty of Kangaroo's grazing and flocks of Major Mitchell Cockatoo's squarking their calls. Back at camp i decided to get some firewood cut to take with us, i went to start the truck and was surprised the battery's were down on power, the truck has two large starting batteries and both were less than a year old, no accessories run off the starting batteries and with no warning they had decided to pack it in.






I have a 3rd battery fitted under the truck to power the accessories but it was down on power due to running the engel but i gave it a go with some jumper leads but with no luck. I could have stuffed around and got the batteries out of the van but being AGM deep cycle and worth a few dollars i didn't want to risk damaging them when i knew there was a farmer down the road, so the next morning i set out to go get some help. The walk was around 5k's and i saw hundred's of kangaroos, this area is very picturesque now that it is green with recent rain.

Peter the farmer drove me back and after letting a good charge get into the batteries i was able to start the truck. With much thanks we said goodbye and drove to Stawell to see about getting the batteries checked out as they were still under warranty. Peter Baker owner of Baker Automotive and authorized Century Battery agent confirmed the batteries had failed and organized two new ones to be delivered the next day, so we went and camped up at the Gateway Caravan Park in Stawell. That evening i had some very painful chest pains, Vickie insisted i get to the Hospital to be checked over. The Stawell Hospital staff were excellent, i was seen straight away and had an ECG and oxygen the local Doctor came in and thought it best if i stay in overnight and have a heart monitor fitted and another ECG, X-Ray plus some blood tests done in the morning. That meant Vickie staying in the van by herself overnight so i was concerned that she was comfortable with that, i shouldn't have been as she jumped at the chance to have a peaceful sleep by herself.

I didn't get the results back untill 2pm the next day and was given the all clear, feeling silly i was told that i had done the right thing and better safe than sorry. Then it was back to have the new batteries fitted and another night in the van park, the weather was cold & wet so we just lazed around playing cards. The next day we drove down to Ararat and then back up to Halls Gap and into the Grampians, what a lovely area this is, but the weather was still wet & cold but we did get to visit McKenzie Falls and walk some of the walk trails. We stayed a night at a camp site called Smith Mill Campground, [# 545CAW] in the Grampians and left this morning to drive to Horsham and then head back down again towards Hamilton.




Tonight we are camped beside the river at Cherrypool Highway Park [#706CAW] at present the sun is out but temperature is still around 11 degree's outside, thankfully we have the Webasto diesel heater working perfectly to keep us warm.

Paringa - St Arnaud Nat Park

Back to Paringa but this time we had the company of Kimbo & Ned, before getting to the camp we stopped at the cemetary and filled our non potable water tanks whilst the girls walked around reading the headstones, We like visiting cemetarys to get an understanding of the local history but it's always a sad time reading of people who die far to young.



We had the camp area all to ourselves and relaxed and watched the houseboats cruise up & down the Murray. We shopped in Renmark and visited the local Antiques store at Paringa and two days later we moved on down to visit Mally & Lynne at Maldon Victoria, Mally is Bro # 3 and the oldest, another Internet mate from the 'old' Campertrailer days whom i met years ago when my Father died, Mally was there with his huge arms & shoulders. Mal & Lynne have visited us at home in Perth and we showed them Ningaloo, between the 3 Bro's we manage to catch up as we all travel around / some more than others but this was to be the 1st time we had all been together, the Inaugral Bro's Muster ....




Mally met us at Maldon town center and showed us where they lived, a lovely old timber home full of character on 5 acres with a large shed that Mal uses as an Art studio, he has quite a talent and should do more. We were shown around the district and as Mal & Lynne were heading down to Melbourne for the weekend to help their Mum shift we decided to go down and visit Vickies sister Sue again and take Kimbo & Ned with us, so we unloaded the boat and gear out of the ute and travelled down to Mt Eliza together, Unfortunately when we arrived Sue was in bed with a migraine so we entertained ourselves untill Greg arrived home from work, for tea we bought some delicous Pizza's, washed down with a few drinks.



The next day Sue was feeling better so the 5 of us drove down the coast to Portsea stopping at Arthurs Seat along the way. Arthurs Seat was the site of the famous Chair Lift that Vickie and I have ridden on many years ago, it has closed now due to maintaince & Insurance issues. At Portsea we again visited Fish Fetish for another great meal of Fish & Chips and then headed back to Mt Eliza as we were going out that evening to the Melbourne Crown Casino. Greg & our Neice Lee drove two cars which was great as the F250 is not Melbourne Parking friendly.



Vickie & Sue played their usual games, Ned tried her luck but ended up watching and Greg, Kimbo and myself put in $50 each and played Blackjack. Things were going up & down and then started to get worse, we were sharing the playing around and it wasn't untill i got in the seat that things picked up, i'd like to say it was the skill but more so the luck of the cards. Regardless we managed to scrape our money back with a small profit plus drinks etc paid for.

I am not known as a lover of Casino's but we all had a good night and we all enjoyed myself, even the looser Wife's.

On Sunday we drove Kim & Ned up to St Kilda and showed them the street markets and had lunch in Ackland Street, took them to the Tasmanian Ferry terminal so they could see what they had to deal with when they eventually head to Tassie in the future.
Monday it was time to head on back to Maldon and catch up with Mal & Lynne again. We spent the rest of the week being shown around the surrounding districts and just generally having a good time. The Gold detector was given a workout with no luck and the Music Machine was cranked up with plenty of singing and throats being lubricated with cold beverages.




Friday it was time to say our goodbyes as Mal & Lynne were heading back to Melbourne and Kimbo & Ned home to Newcastle, we headed for Saint Arnaud Range National Park where have set up camp in beautiful surroundings, the Satellite dish is set up in preparation for the weekends Bathurst Car Racing event, and here we will stay untill Monday.




Dinner for tonight was a camp oven roast beef & vegies which was superb.

Mannum - Hogwash Bend

Vickies eye treatment wasn't exactly what we were hoping for, the Dr decided to give her another injection of Avastin in the eye and see how she is in 6 weeks time and then perhaps give her some laser treatment. If that's the case she wont have to go back for 3-4 months which gives us a longer time & further distance to meander around.





But we make the most of our chances and were quite happy to leave Adelaide once again and head for Mannum on the Murray River and meet up with Kimbo & Ned and Brian & Liz who were already there waiting for us. As usual the weather god chucked everthing at us with cold & wind and wet weather but we were doing better than one family who had nothing but a tent and all their possesions inside a car. Three young chidren whom we could see not getting much food, a mother who was ill and all she was drinking was river water and a father who looked down on his luck. Apparently they had been evicted for complaining about no running water in the house they were renting. Brian & Liz cooked them up a meal, Ned kept them supplied with filtered drinking water and Vickie and i bought 3 pairs of shoes for the kids to wear. It made us feel very thankfull for what we have and our lot in life.

We stayed at Mannum for 5 nights even though it was a 48hr camp the weather was lousy and not conjusive to packing up. When we did go we only went down the road a 100k's and set ourselves up at Hogwash Bend just out of Morgan and Waikerie. Here the weather has been all 4 seasons in one day but the camp is lovely with us set up right beside the river. Kimbo & I got our boats off the roof's and set about going for a play to finally see who had the fastest boat. It was a no brainer as i kicked his butt every time and then his motor decided to play up and not idle and hard to start so after a lot of mucking around with fuel / air mixture's and idle screws we decided to best leave to the experts.











Ned's sister Liz and husband Bill also came and stayed with us for a couple of nights on their way back to Newcastle and Brian & Liz also came for 3 nights and will leave this afternoon to head back to Adelaide. We accomplised some small jobs whislt here, mainly making up charging cables with anderson plugs for everyone so vehicle auxillary batteries could be charged from the Van's solar system. Kimbo and i also modified our van door handles by strengthening them with epoxy as they are prone to breaking, Brian did his also but made a bit of a mess and upon cleaning up the solid epoxy sliced his thumb open with his leatherman knife, some Doctoring by Kimbo & myself soon had him fixed and instructions of not to touch anything else.





The Bro's intend leaving here tomorrow and heading to Paringa which is East of Renmark for another few nights alongside the Murray.

Jeparit BOG Muster - Glenelg

The Bushtracker [BOG] Muster was great fun, the weather we copped was not. Winds & dust storms are not fun along with temperatures around 30C for 3 days. But we always had someone to chat to and something to do, the organised events broke up the time we were there, the spit roast was great and the open garden day very enjoyable, but the highlight was the 'Dimboola Wedding' what a fun time that night was! The play was very entertaining & meal delicious.







With the winds still howling in the afternoon's we used the lull in the morning to put everything away in preparation for an early leave on Sunday morning, we got to say goodbye to many but other's we missed so please take this as a 'See ya & catch ya on a track somewhere' goodbye.






The winds picked up again as we were heading to Mannum where we were catching up with Kimbo & Ned again for a couple of nights before we had to head to Adelaide for Vickie's eye treatment. As usual we had a great time with our Mates and have planned on catching up again on the weekend and travel along the Murray River with them.









Back in Glenelg at our daughters place we have caught up with all the washing and gave the rig a clean. We lashed out and bought a Lemair washing machine and a 150lt water bladder to enable us to stay out in the 'bush' for longer. The Effy is booked in tomorrow to have it's windscreen replaced, then a last minute re-stock and we should be back on the road in the Afternoon or Saturday at the latest.

Darlington Point - Jeparit

At last a beautiful camp beside a river, the Murrumbidgee at Darlington Point was our camps for a few days, having not seen the river before we were unsure as to what condition it was but we could be certain that it wasn't like it looked a 100 years ago, much like the Murray it was low in water in parts.



We had rain the last night we were there and the drive out was interesting as the track had turned to bog and the rig was slipping and sliding even in 4WD it was at crawl speed that we used to eventually get onto some hard surface. Two kilometres and the wheel arches of the truck & Van were clogged full off mud. Luckily it continued to rain and once on the bitumen most of the mud soon cleaned itself off.



Heading down to the Victorian border we stayed again at Vinifera Forest where we camped a few months earlier. Another lovely spot and no mud but we were rained upon for most of the time we were camped there. It was then time to head to Swan Hill and go to a Van Park so we could re-stock, fill the water tanks and catch up with the washing. Two nights in a Van Park is long enough for me and i was itching to get back out in the 'bush', we had 5 nights before the Bushtracker Muster at Jeparit so we headed to Sea Lake looking for a camp, it wasn't untill we found a beautiful spot called Yaapeeta Beach that we decided to prop for a few days. We camped on the lake that dry and covered in lush green grass, plenty of firewood and mob's of Roo's & Galah's to keep us interested.

On the 3rd day we were joined by 3 other Bushtrackers enroute to Jeparit, Brian & Marg, Murray & Judy, & Rosco & Chris. It was great to catch up and we had a roaring fire and enjoyable evening. The next morning we drove the 45klms for Jeparit and Lake Hindmarsh where already around 20-30 Vans were already set up, we didn't waste time in choosing our patch of ground and getting our camps organized. Then it was just a matter of having a walk around and doing the meet & greet and putting names to faces.











Now the 2nd day we have been here, the weather is ranging from blue sunny sky's to overcast, wind rain & cold, last night was beautiful with clear sky and no wind and a group of us sat around a large fire chatting away & enjoying each other's company.