Day 2. Saturday 6th October, 2007
(Adam)First day and first night is over. I pulled up better than I had expected. While I was on the road walking I felt I could have just kept going. When we reached Turners Beach Caravan Park I stopped and strted to cool down, It was very windy and very cold, at that point started to struggle. For some reason I just couldn't get warm, no matter what I did or what I wore, Warmth just eluded me.
Later that night we were invited to a party at David and Christine Maine's place. They had massive standing gas heaters there and I loved it! Sweet warmth at last!
Earlier in the day we realised, as we walked, that our carts were far too heavy. When we reached Turners Beach we decided to lighten the load a bit. I threw away my blanket and half my clothes to make a lot of room in Telemachus to help divide up the weight amongst all three carts.
After talking with John about the self inflating matresses, we decided to purchase some of our own. Mum and dad threw away their blow up matress but I decided to hold onto mine but try out the self inflating one for a night to see how it went. They're not as thick as the full blow up matresses. I tried for half a night to get some sleep, but it the end I had to blow up my other matress and use that underneath my new self inflating one. They hurt to sleep on because they're so thin, there's not much between you and the ground. Or maybe after sleeping in a waterbed for 15 years has made me soft, who knows :P
Day 3. Sunday 7th October, 2007
(Adam)Owwwwww! Blisters are a joy ... No not really, I made that up. They hurt. But overall when you walk with blisters it's a pain you can push aside quite easily. When you take a step it's like a small stabbing pain that lasts for under a second and then is gone.
At the moment I sit in Hobsons Bay Caravan Park (11kms outside Melbourne) and I can count all my blisters on one hand, so far so good I reckon! When I start needing to use my toes to count my blisters thenh I'm in touble! I'm treating them with a mint based cream which seems to help.
OK enough about blisters!
Going back to October 6th. Wow big day! Big walk surrounded by good people. A very HUGE thanks to John who patiently walked at my pace (about 500m behind everyone else) for the entire day. The conversation and general feelings he shared with me were fantastic!
By the time we reached Devonport, I was absolutely wrecked.
When it came to boarding the ferry I was somewhat nervous, as the only experience I've had with the Spirit of Tasmania was an exceptionally sickening one from Sydney. When the captain reported we were going to be travelling at 25 knots and it was going to be a smooth sailing, I swear I nearly cried with joy! It was a truly fantastic sailing and we were in Melbourne before we knew it.
October 7th again. Sorry for the jumping around. I started my Diary a day late :P
(Adam)Today's walk was particularily hard for me. I had a good deal of foot soreness and blisters from the previous day's walk. Being as weighty as I am I find that my foot soreness wears me out well before my stamina fails. We walked 11 kms today and again I'm wrecked. My blisters are the same, but my feet feel like they've been crushed in a press. As I lose more weight though, life will be a lot easier as it will reduce my general foot soreness and the chance of getting blisters will reduce a little bit aswell.
The people of Tasmania are a wonderful and giving group. We've raised nearly $1400 so far and we've only walked 37 kms! So to all those that have donated Thankyou very Much!
A very special thankyou to Max, the pilot of the Torquay Ferry in Devonport for not charging us for the crossing and being exceptionally patient in getting the carts on and off the ferry.
Day 4. Monday October 8th, 2007
(Adam)Wow, this caravan park is ... unique.
We've got guys with bulging big pockets and arm bending issues to water filled syringe story tellers. People are driving their cars 100 metres to empty their rubbish in the big rubbish bin.
Dad's tobacco isn't safe either. He takes his packet out of his bag and under a second BAM we've got people wondering over to "talk" to us again. But the best story of all to tell of is someone actually scabbing dishwashing liquid off of us to wash his clothes... mmmm Lemony Fresh!
Today was a rest day, and sooo very much needed. We decided to give our aching bodies the needed time to heal a little.
We also spent a goodly amount of time re-organising our carts, again. We found that Mum's cart was carrying as much, if not more, than dad's and my cart. We very quickly rectified this oversight. We dumped more unnecessary gear and hope that the carts work well tomorrow.
On a side note; Boy my feet feel good! Mum has this jar of "Peppermint Cooling Foot Rescue Treatment" from the Body Shop. It's like fully sic for the blisters cous. Honestly, it works great!
Big thanks to the gentleman with the "West Coast Eagles" top on for his $10 donation.
Day 5. Tuesday 9th October, 2007
(Adam)We pushed out late today. We spent more time fine tuning the carts this morning and come 11 o'clock we pushed on out of the "Caravan park of Strangeness" and headed down Kingroit err, Koroit err, Krappy Creek Road. We were told if you follow the road straight down we'd hit the Honey Hush Caravan Park.
Fueled with fresh feet and re-organised carts, which felt perfect by the way, we hit the pavement with gusto.
With me leading, as I have been from the start, I averaged a 4 km/h pace and hit 5 km/h at a few points. After a bridge, a few roundabouts, one great truck driver and one prick truck driver we walked into the Honey Hush Caravan Park. It was 10 kilometres out and we all looked at each other wondering where the last 10 kms went.
I personally could have walked another 10 kms, I was feeling great.
But this was our stop for the night, so we walked in to be greeted by some utterly fantastic people. The girl at the reception was wonderful, she guessed we were walking around Australia somehow, could have been the "Walk Around Oz" logos on our T-shirts. She called the guys from the back room and then the questions started flying. I think they were in the planning stages of their own walk around Aus, so they were very interested in our answers.
They didn't charge us for our camp site, so we took their photo.
Today was a great day.
Day 6. Wednesday 10th October 2007
(Adam)Up and away at 9:45am. Both Mum and I weren't feeling 100% but we pushed on. Fighting a mental barrier is far harder than fighting a physical one. The feet felt good today though.
Today was the day we weren't able to plan ahead for. We spent weeks trying to figure out a route that enabled us to legally walk from Hopper's Crossing to Geelong. We couldn't walk the M1 Freeway as we'd have been a traffic hazard by way of a distraction, plus there's the minor inconvenience of it being illegal to walk on freeways.
No bike trails exist beyond Werribee. No Accomodation. Nothing.
Well today we faced that.
We walked a solid 13 kilometres along the federation trail. It started really well. After half an hour spirits were high, I was averaging 5km/h everything was going great.
Then the Federation trail led behind the slums of Hopper's Crossing. Spirits dropped a little. The place looked terrible, full of rubbish & graffiti.
When the trail ended it led out of a broken wire gate to a main road of Hopper's Crossing. We stopped to get directions. We walked into the Hopper's Crossing Bicycle Superstore and asked for a helping hand, hoping the locals would know of any camping areas. Well we were wrong. All mum and I got was one very rude woman who couldn't be bothered to help us because we werent buying anything. My spirits were dropping rapidly. My feet were sore and there was no end in sight.
We knew there was a caravan park 5 kms in the opposite direction. We chose not to go backwards. Forward we went, always the direction we want to go. We got about another 1km down the road and we hit a mental barrier. With nothing even remotely close and three people who were tired and very sore, we all made a decision.
We decided to move ourselves and our carts to the end of our problems. As we decided this, a tow-truck driver drove in and parked near us.
We approached him with a request: "How much would it cost to get our carts and us to the Geelong Caravan Park?"
$60 for two of us and the carts.
Dad Volunteered to get the train to Geelong. Mum was worried about dad being by himself so I volunteered to go with the carts. We'd meet up later, I was sure.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Rick who was the tow truck driver. A man who refused to simply dump me and the carts because we couldn't find the caravan park straight away. We drove around until we found it and he even drove me to the camp site so I didn't have to push three carts into the park. After all this he tried to only charge me $50. If I had $100 I would have given it to him. Sadly I only had $60 on me, so I argued with him till he took it. He's also from Tasmania. It's nice to get some home town support.
Mum & dad arrived about 45 mins later just as it started raining and I was lucky enough to have figured out how mum and dad's tent was set up. so we had shelter from the rain
The Barwon Caravn Park in Geelong is nice enough that we're staying here three days.
Day 7. Thursday 11th October, 2007
(Cindy)Had a sleep in. Felt better for it. Bernie & I went into Belmont for supplies. Had to find a new MP3 player as mine died during the night. I tried to become a Zen technician but alas it ended up in the bin in about 20 different pieces. I failed the tech course. Ha Ha. Had my hair cut off.
The road in the main street was a bitch. One long climb. Found the library & civic centre. Tried to get maps but was unsuccessful.
Had Hungry Jacks for lunch. They weren't very nice, they were cold.
Went to find another mp3 player but couldn't find one so went to Coles and bought a discman which was really cheap. I like to listen to Lee Kernaghan when I go to sleep so I had to have some music. We bought Adam some dinner and then walked back to the caravan park.
Still trying to find a map for the next leg to Warnambool. Bernie and Adam burnt a CD for me. Went to the camp kitchen and Adam started entering the diary into the computer. Made tea and went back to the tents. It's raining still. The weather has been shit. We bought some citronella candles so we tried them out. They worked really well as we caught a few mozzies. Went to bed for a good sleep. Listened to Lee, good to have music.
Day 8. Friday 12th October, 2007
(Cindy)Still at the Barwon caravan park. Have decided to stay another night. Asked the lady at the front desk if there was a service station near by. She gave us directions as if we had a car so of course we took it as the walking trail. We took the super long way around. Adam hurt his back earlier in the morning which didn't help that we had walked alot further than we had to.
The service station didn't have a map either. We parted company from Adam as he went back to the caravan park. Bernie & I went back up to the library to photocopy some maps from the Victoria Road's Atlas.
The people at the library were really helpful and gave us some great advice about how best to leave the town to head for Colac. We left the Library and headed for the shops as we were going to cook a roast with vegetables for tea.
We arrived back and Adam was in the camp kitchen doing some work on his book. We made lunch and then I went to for a sleep in the tent. Slept for a few hours. Went down to the camp kitchen to a beautiful smell of roast meat. We had a lovely dinner.
We had a really early night as we wanted to start really early the next morning. Had to get out.
Day 9. Saturday 13th October, 2007
(Cindy)Woke up really early. 6:00am. Had a shower and went for breakfast. Came back to find that some assholes had stolen Steve's safety flags during the night. Bernie said he thought he heard voices & velcro ripping but then the noises went away. They obviously thought that they had made too much noice & left. Adam was absolutely furious. It is hard to try and understand why people have to steal things just for the fun of it.
The people of Victoria have not been very pleasant to us so far. We have had a few nice people but mostly things in Victoria haven't changed that much. Hopefully as we move further from the cities & into the country things will improve.
We packed the carts & left the caravan park. We headed for High Street with good spirits. The hill was not as bad as we thought. We stopped at the toy shop to get flags to replace the stolen ones but they didn't have any. We found a $2 dollar shop and was lucky to find 2 flags in there. But they weren't $2.
The wind had started to pick up which didn't look good. Halfway up the hill Bernie recieved a phone call from Brian Egan. He was on his way to Albury and he said he would ring us when he got onto the Colac -> Geelog road.
We pushed on out of Town. The going was good except for the weather. It had started to rain. Oh well good for the farmers.
We stopped at Waurn Ponds Subway for Morning Tea. The kilometres were just falling away. It was a great day. We were hoping to reach Mt. Moriac for the night. Unfortunatly there isn't any town there. At about 2:30pm we saw a hill to one side surrounded by trees. We had climbed about half a dozen hills with a terrible head wind (Gale more like it). We pushed the carts to the opposite side & checked out behind the trees. It was ok but very close to the road and not alot of cover. Across the road was a B&B.
Bernie went across the road and asked the owners if we could camp on his property. He said that legally he wasn't allowed to and he could lose his license if we stayed. He was really nice and offered us his cabin at a much cheaper rate than normal.
Bernie came back and told us what he said so we all discussed the pros & cons of staying in the cabin. There were more pros so we went over.
The cabin was really nice. Bernie phoned Brian to tell him that we were staying at the Ebony Quill S&C Cottages on the Princes Highway.
We had just unpacked what we needed and were resting up when there was a knock at the door & a family of people, who we had never met, were standing at the doorstep. Kerry & Justin and their two boys introduced themselves.
They were from Aussie Helpers and had travelled from Horsham and were meeting up with Brian so they decided to meet up with us at the same time.
They were there for about an hour talking to us about their farm and Aussie Helpers. Then Kerry went out to make a phone call and came back with Brian Egan himself.
This was a big moment for all of us as it was the first time we had met face to face. It was absolutely grand.
We talked for hours, took photos, handed over all the money we had collected and had a great laugh. Brian gave us a video camera so that we could take some film of our trip. It was fantastic. He is really inspirational.
I can understand now how he has helped so many people.
He was on his way to a speech that night with Kerry and Justin and was supposed to be there at 6:00pm. He didn't leave us until 6:30pm. It was a great afternoon.
Well after they left I had a shower, something to eat and got into bed (a real bed). Turned on the telly & had a great rest.
The guys set themselves up for the night. Adam plugged in the video camera to charge overnight. He's really looking forward to having a play with it as he is going to be the camera man.
He will love it. It might take his mind off his blisters (They are much better by the way). Had an interupted sleep. Possibly getting too used to the tent and flat matress. Anyway tomorrow is another day.
Day 10. Sunday 14th October, 2007
(Adam)OK Well. After meeting Brian Egan, Kerry and Justin Howell and their two boys Jackson and Zane I was filled with a renewed drive. Amazing people tend to do that to you.
After what could be called an 'average' nights sleep for me, I was still bright eyed, bushy tailed and raring to go.
We packed the carts and on the way out, the owners of Ebony Quill met us to take photos. We thanked them for their hospitality and moved on.
Once we walked out of their yard we found out just how secluded and wind free their yard was. Got massive headwind? I think so!
The wind was in our face so hard we had to actually push the carts downhill! Walking uphill required tremendous effort and after 5 kilometres we were all stuffed.
We saw a memorial park and ducked in there to get out of the wind for lunch. There were a large amounts of trees around which gave us a good deal of wind protection.
We decided to set up camp early today. The memorial camp was really nice and the wind was far too strong to continue.
We spent the day relaxing, playing games, reading, whatever we wanted. It was a good mental refuelling day.
We also had alot of fun trampling down the tall grass :D
Day 11. Monday 15th October, 2007
(Adam)We broke camp fairly early this morning. We noticed some road work trucks at the back of the memorial park. We were moving before 8:30am and we were ushered through the roadworks by the guys doing the work. Good blokes. Guided us to an area where we wouldn't be in the way of the traffic. As we where walking out we heard over their walkie talkies one of the other workers say "What the fuck have we got here?!" We had a good laugh.
The weather was gorgeous today. Warm sun, cool breeze.
Our aim for today was a parking bay 7 kilometres out of Winchelsea. After walking for a few hours we stopped for lunch and found out that we churned through 10 kms already. After a good break we moved onto the parking bay hoping for a decent place to sleep.
We got there to find it was merely a dirt road just off the highway with no trees for cover. Definitly not a good place to sleep. Setting up in full view of traffic just invites danger.
7 kilometres out, with 13 kilometres already walked, we discussed walking on. It was left to me based on how my feet were. My feet and I held a heated discussion and in the end we decided to go for it! Heh stupid feet! I win again!
Doing the dash into Winchelsea would be our biggest day yet so we decided to get a cabin upon arrival to the caravan park.
Footsore we all trundled into Winchelsea. Walked into the caravan park to find no on-site caravans or cabins. We looked at each other bemused but paid for a camp site and set up the tents. It was dark by the time we finished setting the tents up and we were very tired.
Showers all round, it felt good to feel human again heh, we sat around amidst a swam of mozzies that could carry a cat away and ate a dinner of steak and salad. Yum!
Since I started walking I've re-introduced meat into my diet. My stomach problems have all but disappeared and I'm finding that I can eat many of the things I previously couldn't which is making me happy.
After dinner we cleaned up, secured the carts and went to bed.
I'd like to say a very big SuperMegaYay! for finally achieving some of my goals:
Walk a 20 kilometre day [√]
Going to a toilet within 5 metres of a major highway [√]
for mum, clipping her toenails on the side of the highway [√]
On a side note: The guy at the caravan park who first met us introduced himself with a suffix of "ex-military" to his name followed by a salute. Scenes like this just add soo much colour! I love it!
On another side note: Today, 40 years ago, Chuck Yaeger broke the sound barrier. The ex military man informed us :)
Day 12. Tuesday 16th October, 2007
(Adam)We walked about 13 kilometres today before we found a place to camp. After the 20 kilometre walk yesterday my feet were fairly sore. So to have to walk another 13 kilometres was fairly hard. After the first 5 kilometres my feet were already hurting.
We decided to buy breakfast and lunch at the local bakery on the way out of Winchelsea. I had a chicken foccacia for breakky and a hot chocolate. Big mistake. After about 9 kms my guts were churning. Massive pains up and down my sides. I'd mistakenly ordered a foccacia with cheese on it. My body isn't all that lactose tolerant. The hot chocolate didn't help either, usually I can get away with one every now and then but the cheese was just a no-no.
After having a break at the 9 km mark my guts got so bad I had to relieve myself. Blessed be there were trees on the side of the road. Thick trees too.
After spending about 45 minutes my body decided to fly the "All Clear" flags and we moved on. Worst toilet break, like, EVER!
I felt bad about holding everyone up but when nature calls that loud you'd better bloody answer it!.
We hit the road again and by about the 13 km mark I could barely move. The weather wasn't very friendly either. It would rain, the sunshine, then rain then sunshine, all while blowing a gale.
We setup camp behind a copse of trees located behind a guardrail. I was right under the tree to hide my bright shiny silver tent fly while mum and dad were a little further out of the tree. In retrospect, designing a tent that's shiny and bright doesn't seem like a good idea.
A small group of cows saw us setting up and decided to come over and watch the entire thing.
It was good to have a crowd...
Day 13. Wednesday 17th October, 2007
(Adam)Last night was freezing. (Yes I know I'm whinging again ..) I woke up tired and grumpy. Being so close to the highway tends to be noisy, trucks and what not. Dad was the high spirited one today. Mum and I were a little sandy eyed and still thawing out.
We took some time to break camp. Mum was developing a migrane and my feet were still sore from the previous day. Not blisters, although at this stage I have a few, just sheer foot soreness.
We pushed out onto the highway and simply grinded out some kilometres. After about 4 kms I could barely walk again. My feet were very sore and I developed a blister on my right baby toe which was agony. Mum's headache was getting worse and dad called a halt for lunch.
We setup under some trees near the railroad. Dad opened up Rommie and pulled out the gas cooker and started making some rice. After a nice meal, some shade with a cool breeze, we felt refreshed. Mum's headache was gone and my feet were feeling a lot better.
After lunch we packed up and hit the road again, everyone's spirits raised.
About 10 mins on the road Kerry from Aussie Helpers rang and spoke to dad at some length. Dad has mastered the art of pushing Rommie and talking at the same time.
Kerry was goin to meet up with us later in the afternoon, with promse of goodies.
After Kerry rang Channel 9 Melbourne rang to organise a film shoot and interviews the next day.
After about an hour ACE Radio rang Dad and we stopped by a nice big farm for sale so dad could do an interview. The further into Colac we pushed the more and more farms we saw for sale. It was a very sad sight to see :(
At about the 13 km mark we spied a likely camp site further down the road. At this point my feet were totally numb so I could basically keep walking. We started to push towards the camp site when a car coming towards us started to flash it's lights and honk it's horn. Kerry had arrived. We spoke briefly and organised to have her meet us at the new camp site.
We pushed down to the site and found a better one just before it deeper in the trees and further from the road. Sure the chances of Ninja attack were higher but it was worth the risk. Heh.
We trampled to the back of a bunch of trees, flattened the tall grass and setup camp. While this was happening Kerry Joined us.
Her list of goodies is as follows:
1x tube of Sunscreen
3x Lip-eze lip balm
1x Newspaper (With our story in it)
1x Big <Secret> surprise at Colac
After Kerry whirlwinded through we finished setting up camp and zonked it.
Day 14. Thursday 18th October, 2007
(Adam)Another fricken freezing night! (I know, I know .. shush)
Waking up at 3 am and not being able to get back to sleep due to the cold is a wee bit annoying.
Dad got a call from the Channel 9 guys saying they'd just left Melbourne and should be near us about 10am.
Cool.
We broke camp early and got on the road about 8:30am. My feet seemed ok, although I was having to walk with my right foot point at a 45 degree angle to stop the ground from connecting with my baby toe. It wasn't really working.
There was exactly 17kms to Colac. We'd promised ourselves a two day rest at Colac in a cabin. After the previous two nights sleep the thought of a cabin was delicious. Delicious I say!
The general thought was that we'd take two small kilometre days to get to Colac. Fair enough, we were all hurting.
At 10am we got a call from Channel 9 again. They'd just gone through Winchelsea and were about 10-20 minutes away from us.
We were aiming for a parking bay that was 5 kms from our camp and as we crested a small hill we saw it. Also there was a car and two people looking in our direction and one had a camera.
I guess Channel 9 was there. I'm good at guessing!
We rolled into the parking bay with the camera man getting as much film as he could with us walking. We stopped, pulled out the chairs and sat down with the guys from Channel 9. Brett was the interviewer and Jim was the Cameraman.
For the next hour we were interviewed, the carts and ourselves were filmed, Poor Jim nearly went for a sixer and just as the Channel 9 guys were gearing up for their last shot of the day (us walking into the sunset .. kinda) a lady from the Weekly Times Newspaper stopped to talk to us. We said we had this last shot to do then we'd be happy to talk to her.
The last shot for the Channel 9 guys had us walking 5 kms. After they finished we pulled over to the side of the road for lunch and the Weekly Times lady caught up with us.
She asked questions, and satisfied with the information she'd collected, we gave her an Aussie Helpers DVD and she left to go to her next appointment.
At this point we only had 7kms to go to Colac. My feet were sore but I didn't care. Mum and Dad asked me what I wanted to do and I said "Let's go for it!" Cabin, Here I come!
We finished our lunch and pushed out to Colac. About 5 minutes down the road Kerry rang Dad again. It appeared that Brian had told Kerry needed to inform us of what was going to happen in Colac.
It seems that she had organised the Mayor of Colac to welcome us. There was going to be a barbeque and, wait for it, A FRIGGEN BRASS BAND playing when we walked in. Come on! a Brass Band?!
It was all arranged for tomorrow night at 5:00-5:30pm start. We decided to definitly hit Colac tonight so we could at least have a shower and get cleaned up.
The last 7kms felt like 20. It took so long because my feet were just pain, lots and lots of pain. But we pushed on and on. We eventually walked into Colac at around 5:00pm. We were aiming for the first caravan park which was on this side of Colac.
When we walked over the bridge the caravan park looked ... average. We decided to walk to the one further in town.
We passed an IGA on the way and Dad bought chips. Yum!
6:00pm and we, literally, stumbled into the caravan park. I was hunched over Telemachus trying to alleviate the pain in my feet. Dad went in and got a cabin which they reduced from $60 a night to $25 a night.
We wheeled our tired, painful and very smelly bodies into the cabin and all sat down.
Sweet merciful relief!
I took my shoes off as soon as I could and laid down on my bunk bed. No weight at all on my feet. Sooo delicious! After a while my feet settled into a dull throbbing ache that hurt a little bit.
But I don't want people to think that only I suffered. Mum and Dad were in alot of pain aswell.
At 7:00pm Kerry arrived at our cabin. The absoluetly wonderful woman had cooked us dinner and brought it with her. De-friggen-licious Stew. That was it's name.. Honest! :P
After dinner, under the advisement of Mum, I soaked my feet in salt water for a time then went for a shower which felt sooo good.
Everyone sat back, relaxed and talked all night. We didn't go to bed until about 11:30pm. Kerry stayed the night with us.
I don't envy her, I was probably going to snore tonight.
Day 15. Friday 19th October, 2007
(Adam)10:30am and my eyes opened. It's so wonderful to sleep in! Poor Dad couldn't though. He had a live phone interview with ABC Radio Hobart at 6:15am. We accounted for the time difference and Dad was up at 4:45am to get ready and wake up properly. Come 5:15am, which we thought was the right time, nothing happened. Dad was outside freezing his ass off till 6:15am. Still nothing. He went back to bed thinking they'd forgotten and at 7:15am they rang. Poor Dad.
When I woke up though he was fast asleep.
I spent the day lazing, staying off my feet and doing as little as possible. Dad tinkered with the carts and Mum caught up with the washing.
I like Kerry she's an absolute laugh to have around. After the walk I might visit her and Justin to see if I can help them on their farm.
Come 3:00pm and Kerry was getting restless. She'd turn Lee Kernaghan up in her car, stalk about the caravan park handing out Aussie Helpers brochures, basically not being still.
4:00pm and she disappeared down to the IGA to get a toothbrush and toothpaste. 45 minutes later she came back. What she did out there we'll never know. That's about four days in Kerry time.
When she got back we donned our high vis berlinwalkoz gear and left to go meet the mayor.
Kerry orgnised for a police escort to the destination but as we left the caravan park the police got called out somewhere. Oh well no escort. We'll use the footpaths. It's only 1km away.
By the time we got near my feet were sore again. I couldn't believe! Something had to be wrong.
We were told to expect about two hundred people or at least that was the amount they guessed at. We walked into a park square. Really nicely presented. We found where we had to go and headed in. As people noticed us they started clapping. I felt, well, embarrassed. What had I done to deserve claps from people I've never met before? I was in awe.
We walked into the middle of a group of about oooo thirty people. Poor Kerry, after all the media hype she organised only about thirty people turned up. The Mayor shook our hands and officially welcomed us.
The band was playing "It's a long way to tipperary" which I giggled internally at.
Then came the speech from the Mayor. He's a farmer in the local area and really supported our walk. It was a nice speech. Then Dad had to respond with a speech of his own. It was a damn good speech. After that we mingled.
I talked to a good number of people. Then halfway through it all I saw mum crying. I went over to see if she was ok but as I got near she walked to an older lady and hugged her. I drew nearer to see what was going on. The older lady had given mum a present, which was a box of a hundred envelopes that had already been stamped. The lady had said to contact family and loved ones with the envelopes.
What an amazing present to give someone! It touched mum very deeply. Kerry was teary-eyed aswell. I walked over and thanked the lady, who wouldn't give her name, very much for making my mum that happy.
I talked with that group until they left and at that point things were starting to wind down. We talked with the Rotary man there who organised the barbeque and he said he'd orgnise further contacts for Kerry.
All in all a great day.
We walked back to the caravan park when it was all over. Kerry parted company with us at the end of the barbeque.
We went to bed early to get ready for walking tomorrow.
I Would like to thank the people of Colac, The Mayor and the members of the Colac Rotary for making us feel exceptionally welcome.
Day 16. Saturday 20th October, 2007
(Adam)We woke up early-ish. Got everything packed to go. After two days rest I felt good.
At 9:30am we left the caravan park and walked into town. I wanted to use the information centre to email off some stuff to Chris and Kate back in Tassie. It was just down the road.
When we got there my feet were sore already. Again I just couldn't believe it. All my blisters were padded and wrapped. My feet were cramping, they felt bruised along the entire base of the foot.
In Dad and I went. Dad asked the lady if there was internet connection and sure enough there was. I settled down into the chair to see if I could remember how the internet worked.
What am I saying? It's only been two weeks! Of course I know how the friggen thing works.
I plugged in my USB Key and BAM, Nothing. Super restrictions. I tried every trick I knew of to try and access that USB key. Nothing, Nada, Nyet. Oh well. Sorry Chris and Kate those updates will have to wait. Heh that rhymed.
Dad grabbed some maps and mum grabbed some postcards.
After that we left to go to the Pharmacy and get some supplies for my feet. While parked at the shopping centre we made about $70 in donations.
Thanks everyone!
From there we moved to the next caravan park about 5kms away. My feet were getting worse and worse. We passed a Butcher and bought some steak for tea. Yum!
We walked further out of Colac.
After an hour or so my feet were in total agony. I could hardly walk, each step was like a lightning jolt up my legs.
On we went for another hour or so until we reached an abandoned service station. Dad called a halt and I sat down. After about ten minutes of brooding tears appeared in my eyes, in the corners, filling up fast and threatening to break free and stream down my face. I felt Pathetic, Useless, Weak.
I couldn't even walk 5 kms without being in total agony. How could I even come close to finishing this? Mum and Dad were sitting behind me. I thought I could mask my tears from them. They started talkin about organising a weeks rest for me, to let my feet heal completely. Send me to Camperdown and wait for them there.
I felt terrible. I know I'm holding them back. I'm in their way, they'd be alot further ahead without me here.
Tears swelled again and I fought them back from breaking free.
Useless kept echoing in my head. Pathetic.
We decided to get to the next caravan park, which blessedly was just down the road. I stumbled on, sniffing, trying to make it sound normal. After an hour of agony we walked into the Colac Caravan and Cabin Park. Dad booked a caravan and I did my best to avoid eye contact with my folks. We unpacked our gear into one hell of a dirty caravan, $45 a night .. pffft, and I took my shoes off.
I felt drained. Mum and Dad brought everything in, even my gear, and we relaxed.
Then I realised how stupid I was to think I could hide my emotions from my folks, especially my Mum. I decided to get up and help mum organise things, she just smiled.
Dad cooked dinner and I felt better after that. We had showers and soothed ourselves.
I went outside and talked with Dad and asked if I was slowing them down.
Dad said "Yes, but who cares? We've got as long as it takes to walk around Australia and you'll get stronger as you go"
I felt alot better after that.
I devoted the next hour and a half to figuring out how to fix my feet. I figured the main issue was my baby toe on my right foot. I tried some padding we bought at the pharmacy. It was a toe protector and when I put it on my toe it looked like a Grenadier Guard. I laughed and put my shoe on and stood up. Agony. I sat back down and tried something else.
Halfway through this dad came in and sat down next to me. We bounced ideas off of each other.
Once we were done we realised that my shoes wouldn't allow my feet to expand when I take a step, especially with my toes.
My shoes were no good! not me! At least I think so anyway. We decided I should try dad's sandals tomorrow as they allowed my feet to expand all the way with each step.
For the first time in days there was a chance things could get better.
Day 17. Sunday 21st October, 2007
(Adam)What an awesome sleep I had last night. I was on a double bed so I got to spread out.
I was eager to see how today would go. I packed everything, got my cart ready, did my strecthes and we got moving. My feet were taped in areas and padded in others to protect my blisters.
We didn't know what to expect from the sandals so we tried to be as prepared as we could.
I lead us out onto the highway and started walking. Cautiously. After twenty minutes I felt avsolutely no pain. NONE! I gave a little laugh and pushed a bit harder, still not totally trusting the sandals. If there's too much movement of my foot in the sandal all i'll do is grind out new blisters.
After an hour of testing the sandals limits to my feet I was in total bliss. I was walking at a 5 km/h pace, in some places 5.5, and felt no pain. Nothing still! Ha Ha!, So the problem wasn't me it was the shoes. My shoes are useless for me.
To any big guys out there reading this, if you're planning a decent sized walk MAKE SURE your shoes are wide enough and long enough for your feet!!
Our goal today was a pub in the town of Pirron Yallock 11kms from Colac. By 12:20pm we were there.
These sandals let me hammer out decent paces. I am over the moon with joy!!
We arrived as I said to the Mamre Hotel/Pub at 12:20pm. To celebrate I paid for lunch. Dad and I had a mixed grill and Mum had a rump steak.
The mixed grill was just enormous! I could barely fit everything in, Dad was struggling aswell.
Mum's rump steak was huge. She couldn't finish it all. We also had chips and salad with it. It was by far the best meal I've had in years. THE BEST!
So if you're near Colac drive to Pirron Yallock, it's west of Colac towards Camperdown, and visit the Mamre Hotel/Pub. It's an Irish style pub. You wont be disappointed. Just don't go on Monday or Tuesday as the kitchen is closed.
Just like to take a moment to say hello to a few people:
Chris Doolan, Kate Jowett, John and Rose Daniels, Libby Leicester, Frank Deak, Sue Fenton, Andrew Jacobs, Michelle, Geoff & Jan Harwood, To the Maine Family.
Saving the best till last a big hello to Jody and her Partner Chris, My nephew Brayden and my niece Ashley - I love you guys very much :)
A Special Hello to the Aussie Helpers Crew. You know who you are :D
Mum's Hellos: Bodge and Heather, The girls at Mainesafe.
Day 18. Monday 22nd October, 2007
(Cindy)After having dinner yesterday the lady of the pub (Karen) said it would be okay for us to camp out the back.
So we woke up to more rain. It had rained during the night so the tents were soaked. I had a bit of a sleep in for an extra hour before I arose to find Bernie had been for a walk to see if he could find us another camp spot.
There was a hall just 500 metres up the road so we went to see if we could find out who it belonged to. We were hoping it was the Council. We spoke to a guy who had pulled up across the road.
He told us it was owned privately.
He said to ask the people at the pub if they would let us stay another night. We thanked him and went back to Adam & the campsite.
It had finally stopped raining. Hopefully the tents would start drying.
We were going to see if we could stay another night when Shannon (Karen's husband) came over in the car. Bernie was talking to him for a while. He came back & said it was time to pack up & move on. Obviously Shannon wasn't impressed with having us there.
The tents were fairly dry so we packed them away and headed off down the road. The weather was pretty bad. It would rain and then the sun would be shining. At least the wind wasn't blowing.
We walked on until we found somewhere to have lunch. It was in a truck stop. The rain came again. We put up a Tarp so that we could eat in a dry place.
Adam's feet were going ok but they were soaked as he was still wearing the sandals. So with wet feet come some blisters. We taped them up and continued on.
We walked along further looking for somewhere to camp. Two trucks full of cows came past us and sprayed shit all over us. It was absolutely awful. We all stunk. Lucky we saw the funny side of it.
We came upon a Tractor Shop so Bernie went across to talk to the guys who were working outside. While he was over there a logging truck with trailer came down the hill. I think he must have lined Adam & I up because he gave us one hell of a shower from the spray on the road. I couldn't believe it. At least he got rid of the shit all over us. I just looked at Adam and we both laughed. I said to Adam "Do you think he lined us up?" and Adam said "Yeah for sure. I would have done exactly the same thing!" At least we didn't smell anymore. I reckon that truck driver must have had a grin from ear to ear.
Bernie came back and told us that the guy reckons we should ask the Farmer across the road if we can camp behind his trees. They said that they were good people. So dad went up to the Farmers Door with a barking dog at his heels. We saw him come out with the farmers wife.
He was talking to her for about ten minutes and then came back to us and said that we could use their shed for the night. It was dry and out of the elements.
Her name was Betty and she was marvelous. She made us coffee and biscuits. She stood outside with us for about an hour just talking about different things. They had two dogs called Rita and Jessie. They were great. They had half a tennis ball that they would give you and expect you to throw it so that they could chase it and bring it back. We had heaps of fun just playing with the dogs.
The farm was about as close as you could get to the movie 'Babe'. There was a duck trying to mate with the Hens. Jessie the dog was forever following the alpha rooster. Sheep going under the barbed wire fence instead of using the gate. All in all just a great farmyard.
When the farmer came home he introduced himself to us. His name was John. He was alright with us staying in his shed. We set the tents up in the dry. Spent some more time with the dogs and then headed for bed.
Day 19. Tuesday 23rd October, 2007
(Cindy)I woke up having had a good sleep. It was really early. The rooster obviously enjoys seeing the sun come up.
We made ourselves breakfast and started breaking camp. The tents were dry and the weather wasn't too bad but it was to get worse. Betty gave us a dozen eggs to take with us. We had photos taken all round and thanked them for their wonderful hospitality.
John told us that there were a couple of places we could camp along the way. One of them was at Weerite at the community hall. He gave us the name and the phone number of the man who looked after it. So again we thanked them and headed off, with Rita the dog, towards the gate. We said farewell to Rita at the gate and Bernie took some more photos of her.
So we moved on again. The rain came down again but didn't stay for long. It was replaced with a driving wind. We came across a truck rest area and we were going to stop when a car pulled up in front of us. A man and woman got out and gave us a donation. They had stopped in front of the entry for the truck stop and one of the truckies wanted to get in. He stopped and so did about three other semis behind him. We had almost caused a huge accident, although we weren't the ones blocking the entry, it was really scary.
The people moved their car so that the truckie could pass. We spoke to them for a while. All you could smell was the burning brake pads from the trucks as they tried to stop.
We went on our way again. John had given us directions on how to get to the hall. They were so exact it was scary.
The wind was blowing a gale and it looked like more rain.
We went into the hall grounds to escape the weather. Bernie phoned the bloke in charge and he already knew about us as Betty had rung him.
He said it was fine to camp there as long as we didn't block the front doors. He said that some people were going to be there later as they had some dance lessons or something.
Bernie thanked him and so we setup camp around the side of the hall.
Bernie recieved a phone call from the Treasurer of the Camperdown Rotary. They were having a luncheon for us in Camperdown the following day. He wanted to know if everything was still as scheduled. We didn't know if we could reach Camperdown by 12:00pm as Adam's feet had blistered yet again. We made arrangements to definitly be there by 1:30pm.
We had lunch/dinner as it was later in the afternoon. We setup the tents and then Adam and I played paddocks, hangman and Find-A-Word. Adam hung me. The first time this has happened.
The guy that looked after the hall sent his wife down to make sure that we were okay and to let us know that the dance people wouldn't be coming. She was really nice and gave us a donation.
We had a relaxing time and it was warm and dry in the tents.
Night time came and it was time for bed.
A big day tomorrow.
Day 20. Wednesday 24th October, 2007
(Cindy)I woke up early to a wet tent. It hadn't rained it was just a huge mist. We took the fly off and laid it over the play gym to dry. The day was fine. It looked like a wonderful day for a 13km stroll into Camperdown.
We had breakfast and packed everything away. We left at about 8:30am and took it nice and easy.
Rommie's flag mount had come loose but we didn't have a screwdriver. As we were walking along I found a screwdriver on the side of the road. It was also a phillips head. What's the chances? You'd never see it in a car.
Bernie had another phone call from Graham from Rotary asking us how far we had to travel. We were still about 6 kms out when we saw a guy in an orange ute pull up in front of us. It was Graham from Rotary.
He introduced himself and was talking to Bernie about what he was doing and where we had to be. It must have been about 10:30am. Graham seemed to think that we would be able to reach Camperdown by 12:00. We didn't think so.
Anyway he drove off and said he would meet us about 1km out of town so he could walk in with us. We said "Whatever".
We carried on slowly when another car pulled up and it was the president of the Horsham Motorcycle Club. We were talking to him for about fifteen minutes. He asked if he could put a link on his webpage to ours and we said "fine, no worries".
Camperdown has a huge hill about 2kms before the town. It was probably the biggest one we had seen yet. Before we got there though Graham from Rotary pulled up again and said perhaps he could push Adam's cart and Adam could drive the ute into town. We said Thanks but no thanks. Firstly Adam can't drive a manual and secondly Adam wanted to walk into Camperdown. He drove off and Adam said "What the fuck would I want to drive his ute for? I've got my own cart". This guy was getting just a bit pushy. It was still only just after 11:00am.
We had a rest before we tackled the big hill. It was really hard but we managed to get up it. We had another rest at the top. Adam's feet were really sore by this time. We were just having a sit down when Graham from Rotary showed up again. He had a lady called Pam with him. She was the President. We also saw a sight for sore eyes in the shape of an Aussie Helpers Ute.
It was Calvin. He is the replacement for Kerry. He will be doing all the Public Relations and also drumming up some support for donations along the way. We introduced ourselves. Graham from Rotary said that we only had about 1km to go to the centre of town and get another BBQ.
Adam put his socks and sandals back on, we put the chairs away and continued into town with Graham pushing Telemachus.
We finally made it into town. We had the BBQ. Calvin was also invited.
He told us what he would be doing and just general talk about Aussie Helpers.
We finished eating and then two women arrived. One was Kate from the local paper and the other one was the photographer. She took some photos for the paper and asked a few questions but Kate didn't say a word.
After the media commitments were over Adam and I went to find a shoe store hoping to get him a new pair of shoes. We found a Shoex shop and went inside.
The service was incredible. Hans, the owner, couldn't help us enough. He was asking us all about our trip, the carts, everything about Aussie Helpers. He must have brought out about a dozen pair of shoes for Adam to try on. His wife Carol came over and started talking to me aswell. She was lovely. They were both so interested in what we were doing. She gave us a $50 donation and Adam only paid $50 for his new shoes. These people were marvelous. So if you want some excellent service and friendly people shop at the Camperdown Shoex Store.
We finally left the shop. I think we had been in there for about an hour. We walked back to the BBQ to find Bernie all on his own. The Rotary people had gone leaving him by himself. Calvin had to go somewhere else. When we got to the BBQ area we sat down. I asked Bernie if we were going to head for the caravan park but he said no. One of the blokes who brought the BBQ had offered to put us all up at his house. This was great. It was just a little way out of town. Calvin was to meet us there later.
The mans name was Vince. He was part of a group called Aspire. People who suffer from depression. We packed up our things and headed for Vince's place. On the way we went back to the shoe shop as I wanted to take photos of Hans and Carol with the carts. As we were walking down town a young guy came running up to us and asked if we had somewhere to stay. He had read about us and saw us on the news. He said we could have his unit for the night as he was going out of town. We thanked him so much for his offer but had to decline as we had already been offered a place to stay. People have been so kind to us. People who we have never met before.
We moved onto Vince's place. It wasn't too far. When we got there Vince was already there. He couldn't have been nicer, He invited us into his home and said use whatever you want showers, washing machine, computer. It was everything we needed.
I had a shower (the first for about three days) and felt human afterwards. I did all the washing.
We had a roast lamb donated to us from Aspire. So Vince put it on the Webber. We just relaxed and talked to Vince. He has not had the best of life recently but he is on the mend and that is the most important thing.
Adam updated the Diary and sent it by email to Chris who will hopefully get around to putting it on the web page as soon as he can. So all you people waiting for updates, they're coming.
Vince was having problems with his computer so Bernie cleaned it up for him. It was the least we could do for him after his generous hospitality. Vince also offered us the place for as long as we needed to stay. It was a very kind and generous offer.
We did decide to stay another night.
We had a beautiful roast lamb and vegetable dinner. Spent another couple of hours talking to Vince and Calvin. Went to bed as I was really tired. Adam stayed up to finish the Diary. Bernie stayed up for a while checking to make sure that the computer was okay.
Day 21. Thursday 25th October, 2007
(Cindy)Woke up after a great nights sleep. Had breakfast. Didn't have to pack the carts. Bernie was going into town with Calvin, Adam had some computer work to do and I just wanted to laze around. In the end Calvin gave Bernie the keys to the Aussie Helpers ute and said "Maybe you and Cindy might would like to go and see the town from the scenic lookout then you can go and do some shopping." So that's what we did.
It was weird being in a car again. Haven't been in one since I dropped the BMW to Jody in Melbourne. The lookout over the town was beautiful. It's hard to believe that we are in a drought with so much greenery. The lakes are low though which is a worry as Victoria is long past its winter.
We headed back to the Aussie Helpers ute and went into town. We had supplies to get for the next week on the road. We also bought a chicken and salad for tea. We went back to the house and unloaded everything.
We looked at everything we bought and both thought "Where are we going to put all this stuff?"
Adam had been having a good old chin wag with Vince and Calvin while we were gone. Calvin had to leave straight away but we would be seeing him again real soon.
I checked the washing and most of it was dry so I brought it in and folded it.
I decided to have an afternoon nap. I went to bed and found one of Vince's books on the bookshelf. It was a collection of short stories from different writers. It had one from James Herriot and one from Darling Buds of May. I read them both and fell asleep.
I must have woken up at about 5:00pm. The clothes were all on the bed. Bernie must have brought them all in. Bless him. I folded them and put them into piles so that they could be put in the appropriate carts.
I could smell dinner cooking. I went into the front room where the fire was warm and homely.
Adam was asleep and Bernie was on the computer watching Discovery in space on the NASA webpage. Then the mobile phone went off but it was a SMS message from Brayden my grandson.
I have no idea how to SMS and he couldn't wait so he rang me. He has just got a mobile phone. It was lovely to hear from him and my granddaughter Ashley. I told Brayden he would have to be patient as I was only learning. I will get better.
We had a lovely chicken dinner. We did the dishes and relaxed after another lovely day. We had packed the carts ready all but our bedding. Bernie and I went to bed about 9:00pm. Adam and Vince stayed up playing computer games until 11:30pm.
Adam said "it felt so good playing the computer again." He says "Now he knows how an addict feels when they get a hit."
Day 22. Friday 26th October, 2007
(Cindy)Had another great sleep. Woke up and headed straight for the showers. Who knows how long it'll be before I get another one. Have to take every chance I can get.
Came out and started cleaning up the bedroom. Bernie was already up, showered and breakfast eaten. I started to make my breakfast when Adam came through the door. I asked him if he had a good night and he said it was great to have played the computer again.
We sat down and ate breakfast. Photos were taken of Vince and the carts. He is walking to the top of the hill with us, which is about 2kms. He is going to push Steve. We double checked that we hadn't forgot anything and then once again started on our way. I also had three SMS's from Brayden that morning. I am getting better and faster.
We headed off up the hill and before we knew it it was time to say goodbye to Vince. He signed my cart and we said our farewells. We thanked him for everything he had done.
We waved goodbye to him and before long he was out of sight.
I said to Bernie "Did you offer him any money?" and he said "Yes I did but he got very angry and upset." So he took the money and then said "Here give this to the Aussie Helpers Donation." What a wonderful person.
We headed off down the hill heading for Terang. We didn't know whether to go the 25kms in one day or not. Adam's new shoes would determine how far we went.
The weather was fine, NO rain. We headed off at a rather brisk pace of 5.5 kms/h. We stopped after 5kms for a break. Adam's feet were doing fine and his little toe was good as it had been badly blistered. We set off again for another 5 kms and had another stop for something to eat. Adam was still fine. We headed off again although we were starting to look for campsites. Adam said he thought he could make Terang but could we stay in a caravan as he wouldn't have the energy to put up a tent. We said that would be fine. So we headed off again.
We stopped every two kilometres for a rest. We eventually got to Terang at about 4:15pm. In town we didn't see any signs for a caravan park.
A man and his young son came up to give us a donation so Bernie asked him where the park was. He told us it was at the very end of town. His son had his photo taken sitting on Steve. He thought it was great. We thanked him very much both for the donation and the information.
Bernie suggested we should stop at the IGA and get some steak for tea. Adam and I stayed on the opposite footpath while Bernie went into the shop.
While we were waiting for him a lady came around the corner and gave us a $50 donation. She said that she first saw us in Colac and she thought that we were doing a fantastic job. It makes it all worthwhile when that happens.
Bernie came back and we headed for the caravan park. It is run by Apex and as we wheeled into the park we couldn't even find the office. I did locate the Caretakers caravan so I knocked on the door. A man with half his dinner in his mouth opened the door and said "What do you want?" I asked him for a caravan or cabin. He said "We don't have any." So i asked him what he did have and replied "Nothing."
"What about a camp site?"
"Do you want power?" By this time Bernie and Adam had joined me. I told them the bad news. Adam couldn't believe it. This is the second time this has happened. Bernie asked him how much to camp. He said $8 per tent. $16 per campsite. What if we don't want power. Still $16 dollars.
Okay not much else to do. We took a powered site as Adam needed to recharge his phone.
He gave us the keys to the toilets. We set the tents up and then started on our Tea. Steak, Pumpkin, Carrots, Peas and Brocolli. By the time we were half way to cooking it the light had just about gone.
It was pretty hard eating tea with a headlamp. Never Mind. Tea was still beautiful. The awful man came over to get his money. He only charged us for one tent. How good of him.
How do people like him manage to get a job like he has?
I did the dishes and cleared things away. I went to bed early listening to Lee Kernaghan an my CD Player.
Day 23. Saturday 27th October, 2007
(Cindy)Woke up. Had a shower. Had Breakfast. Patched poor Adam's feet. Cleared things away. Packed the carts and left in a big hurry. Adam was not in a very good mood. The weather was awful and it was raining. The wind was howling. Adam's feet were a mess again. We had decided that we would not walk very far. We went up the hill out of the town and what should be there but a Golden Chain Motel. Nobody said anything.
We'd only walked about 4kms when an orange combi van passed us and tooted loudly. Then as we went over the rise we saw it coming back the other way. It stopped in front of us and a lady got out. She was so excited to meet us. Her husband came over and shook our hands. They asked all sorts of questions. We told them we were about to stop for a rest so we invited them over to sit with us. They took photos and then the lady said "I have always wanted to do this" and she took $100 out of her purse and gave it to us. I couldn't believe it.
Adam said "Are you sure?" and she said "Definitly. You deserve it."
We talked some more. They are from Newcastle in NSW. Their names are Gabby and Joe. Thankyou so much. Two lovely people.
We headed off again feeling so much better. A little bit further a lady stopped her car on the Princes Highway and donated $10 just as well there wasn't any traffic.
We walked a little bit further and found a big clump of trees. Bernie crossed the road to see if it was okay. He gave it the thumbs up.
We dove in under cover. We setup camp and had something to eat.
I was really tired because I had taken a Sinutab tablet as my hayfever has got really bad. My eyes are extremely sore today.
The tablet knocked me out and I had a few hours sleep.
There was a bike race from Melbourne to Warrnambool. We saw them pass at about 2:30pm. Just as well we weren't on the road.
I woke later and helped set up the tents. The wind was blowing so it wasn't easy. We can't put the tents up till after dark as we don't want people to know we're there.
It's hard to pitch a tent in the dark but we are getting very good at it. We cleaned up around us, locked the carts away and went to bed. For the first time in ages we actually had a really warm wind at night.
I took another tablet so I didn't have any trouble getting to sleep.
Day 24. Sunday 28th October, 2007
(Cindy)Woke up but couldn't open my eyes. They had glued themselves together. I had woken several times during the night with the same problem. I pulled them apart but they were really sore.
I am not a person who likes having things put in my eyes, especially eye drops. Bernie always carries eyedrops and begged me to put some in. I let him and the soreness was gone for a little while. They continued to itch like crazy.
I managed to get up and have some breakfast. I took a hayfever tablet and some panadols. We broke camp and headed for another campsite. We hoped to walk about 13-15 kms today. We were told that there was a place we could camp in a town called Panmure.
Adam was in a better mood but the wind was really strong. My left eye was really hurting and kept weeping all the time.
We had walked about 6kms before we stopped and I got Bernie to put more drops in my eye. I also got some gauze and made a patch for my eye. I taped it to my face and my glasses kept it in place. That felt much better.
We walked about another 2kms when we came to a small town called Garvoc. It was a lovely little town with a shop, a pub and clean toilets.
We stopped for lunch and had a couple of pies and pasties. They were great. The lady at the shop said that she was sure the next town had a camping ground.
We continued on. We met a truck driver who we see all the time on the road. He stopped and came over to talk to us. He said he did the run from Colac - Warrnambool - Portland - Mount Gambier - back through Hamilton in a loop every day with his son and that he'd seen us several times.
He gave us his number for the truck and his personal mobile number and said if we needed anything at all to give him a quick call and he would be only too happy to get it. We shook hands and thanked him. You're a great guy Doug. We also told him to thank all the truckies out there. They have been fantastic.
So we walked on until we hit Panmure. Another pretty town. We stopped off at the shop and Bernie went in to get directions.
The lady in the shop knew who he was and wrote out a check for $50. She told us about the camping ground. We walked down about 500 metres and there it was. There were other people in the ground which is a good thing. It's always good to have company.
We set up our tents in the daylight, made ourselves something to eat and then did nothing. Talked about different things. Adam got some credit for his phone so he has been SMSing all night. I went to bed after we all agreed that we would have a rest day tomorrow.
Great a sleep in. Can't wait. My eyes are a lot better.
Day 25. Monday 29th October, 2007
(Cindy)Hooray we had a rest day.
We didn't get up early.
We stayed in bed.
We didn't walk.
Except to the Toilet.
We didn't break camp.
We cleaned out our carts.
Bernie lost his 'Rommie' Hat.
We can't find it anywhere.
We had lunch at 11:00.
Tea at 4:00.
The man from the paper came.
Took more photos for the News.
Bernie went with Calvin in the Aussie Helpers ute.
To talk to some farmer who may have needed help.
Have had a Sms from Brayden.
And some from Heather.
It's been raining and raining and raining.
I hope it's nice tomorrow.
I am sick of writing.
So no more today.
Good news today
The man we call Brian (Egan) was awarded the Pride of Queensland award.
So now he is Brian POQ
Some quick hellos from Cindy:
To Heather and Bodge my friends
Jody and Chris
Brayden and Ashley
My wonderful brother Kim and Suzy
Hellos from Bernie:
To Doug our truckie mate
To Vince
Hellos from Adam:
To Chris
Tracey
Kate
Libby
Frank
Wendy
Sue - How's your face?
Jody, Chris, Brayden and Ashley
And a big thankyou to all the truckies on the road so far. You guys & gals have been utterly brilliant!
And from all of us to the Aussie Helpers Crew
Peace Out.
Day 26. Tuesday 30th October, 2007
(Cindy)Woke up to a dry morning but very windy. Went to the ladies and when I was walking back noticed a car by our camp. The car drove off but the lady had stopped to leave us her paper and a $10 donation.
We were in the local paper on page two.
I cut out the article and put it in my purse. We have been in most of the papers and I try to keep the articles. I have just started sending my grandson and granddaughter a postcard from the towns we stay at so I have been sending the clippings to them.
We had breakfast and packed the carts. Adam's feet seemed to be alright but he did get a nasty blister on one of his toes. Hopefully it will be ok after I have taped it up.
Calvin said goodbye and said he would catch up with us later. He was going to Warrnambool to try and get accomodation for tonight and tomorrow. We were just about to head off when the mobile went off. Bernie answered it and was talking to someone. He hung up and told us that a woman called Ulla had just invited us to stay at their caravan park in a brand new cabin for free. Bernie had thanked her. Calvin had obviously done his job for us tonight.
So we headed off in good spirits.
We had about thirteen kms to walk. The caravan park was about two kms the other side of Allansford. Calvin met us on the road and swapped places with Adam. He pushed Telemachus for a kilometre and Adam drove the ute. We made the town at about 1:30pm and we stopped for a break.
We had no idea where the park was. We headed off again and walked about two kms but still no signs. Bernie asked a guy who was mowing his lawn and he said it was up over the hill and then to the left.
So we climbed the hill and finally saw the sign. We crossed the railway line and saw a couple of hills but no park. A guy in a ute pulled up so we asked him if he knew where the Hopkins River Caravan Park was. He said it was just over the next hill. So we kept walking.
Adam was not fairing well.
We finally made it to the park. The guy in the ute was actually the owner. We were shown to the cabin. It was absolutely beautiful.
We thanked them again and started unpacking the carts.
I needed a shower pretty badly. I think it's been about 4 days. I showered and felt 100% better.
The cabin was a two bedroom unit with all the mod cons. The park was a brand new village with spa, pool, gym, BBQs, entertainment room and computer gaming room. It is right on the banks of the Hopkins river. It is a really pretty place.
Calvin rocked up a little later so Bernie and I took the ute and went to get some shopping. We needed steak for tea.
We drove to the Westgate Plaza just five kms down the road. We got back and started tea.
Calvin asked if it would be possible to meet the Mayor by 11:30 in the morning. Adam didn't know if he could walk tomorrow so Calvin said maybe we should put Telemachus in the ute and he would drive him to the plaza.
Bernie and Adam were going to go for a spa but by the time they got around to going the spa was closed.
We watched some TV, NCIS and Numbers, then I went to bed. Hopefully tomorrow would be good when we met the Mayor.
Hungry Jacks for lunch. Something to look forward to.
Day 27. Wednesday 31st October, 2007
(Cindy)Woke up after a great nights sleep. Got up and had another shower and came into the kitchen area.
Bernie and Adam were already up. I had just finished the last of my perfume and I had thrown the bottle away. But then Adam gave me a hug and said "happy birthday Mum" and handed me a new bottle of perfume. I said "Have you been carrying that bottle with you for a whole month?"
Bernie said "I can't believe you never saw it in his bag." He gave me a kiss and a hug. Calvin also gave me a hug and said "Happy Birthday."
We had breakfast and then Bernie and I set off for the plaza. We stopped off at the office to get some photos of the wonderful people who let us stay at the park for free. These people were originally from Forth in Tasmania. So if you are somewhere near Warrnambool call in to see Rob and Ulla Killury at the Hopkins River Caravan Park. You definitly wont be disappointed.
We were about to climb a hill when the mobile rang. It was Christine, my old boss from Mainesafe. She rang to tell me that the shirts I had ordered would be sent to Port Fairy post office. Also to wish me Happy Birthday. It was lovely that she remembered. I also spoke to Heather and Carmel, the girls from work and also my ex boss David.
We arrived at the plaza a little early so we went to Hungry Jacks to get a coffee. The Mayor must have seen us and came over and introduced himself. We walked over to the plaza expecting the media to be there but nobody showed, probably because they had done the story just two day before. Anyway we went into the plaza and talked to shoppers and received some donations. Adam and Calvin came and told us how they had just been given a $500 donation from a lady who had waved them down when they were driving. They had followed her to the bank so she could give them the money.
She had also seen Brian Egan on Australian Story so she phoned Brian to see how she could donate. She saw the Aussie Helpers Ute and waved them over.
What a wonderful lady.
We stayed at the plaza for about an hour. The Mayor had to leave early as he had to go to Melbourne.
We left there and went to Hungry Jacks for lunch. Adam and Calvin had decided that they would go to Portland so that Adam could have a weeks rest to fix his feet. We had discussed this and so put the plan in motion.
So they left and Bernie and I continued our way to Warrnambool. We had a cabin waiting for us at the Claremont Caravan Park.
So we headed off into town.
We found the park and went to book in. There seemed to be a bit of a mix up with the bookings. The manager thought that we were going to be there last night. Anyway the boss Greg rocked up at that precise moment and sorted everything out. He gave us a cabin and said we could have it for free.
We thanked him and he started asking all about our adventure. He said he could give us a donation but he thought it would be better to give us free accomodation so that we could continue our trip just that little longer. He was so nice.
We went to the cabin and unpacked our carts so that we could shower and change. I had decided to do some washing as we were running out of clothes.
It must have been about 5:00pm when the Aussie Helpers ute rocked up and Adam was in the passenger seat. Apparently there is a festival of sorts on in Portland so there was no where for Adam to stay for a week. The only place that would put him up wanted $1000 for the week so he came back to Warrnambool.
So Bernie and Adam went down to the office. They came back with a key for the cabin next to ours for $200 for the week.
So we took Telemachus out of the Aussie Helpers ute and set Adam up in his room.
Bernie and I went to the supermarket to get Adam some food for the week as his feet were no better. We came back with a feed of fish and chips so the three of us sat down together again and ate dinner.
Bernie and I had decided to walk to Killarney tomorrow as there was a motel there. I think it's about 18kms.
It was going to be different without Adam. His feet are not going to get better until he rests them properly. We also have to change a few things as far as the walk.
We need to find some consistency in the amount we are walking each day. It is just about getting into a routine.
I went to bed after having a very different birthday.
My big brother Kim phoned me aswell and wished me a happy birthday
Day 28. Thursday November 1st, 2007
Woke up late. Had breakfast, showered and packed the carts. Adam woke up before we left.
We said our farewells to him and walked to the managers cabin. The owner Greg was there. He asked us if we were going to Portland and we said that we were. It would probably take us about a week. Greg said he was going there today and that he would organise another free cabin in his park in the middle of town.
We thanked him very much, we took some photos and headed off to Killarney, again the rain was with us. We are seriously considering hiring ourselves out as drought breakers. It seems all it has done is rain.
Bernie and I moved along at a pretty good pace. It seemed to take ages to get out of Warrnambool.
A council worker mowing the grass on the opposite side of the road came over and gave us a donation. We were stood talking to him for about fifteen minutes.
We continued on our way and was just about to come to the end of the town limits when we saw our truckie mate Doug who had stopped the other day and given us his mobile number in case we needed anything.
We got to the truck but it wasn't Doug but his son. We spoke to him for a while and asked him to tell his dad that he saw us. He said he would.
We continued on our way, we were getting very wet by this time. Most of the truckies were still being really good and moving over so that the spray didn't wet us. Sometimes it was just too hard.
We arrived at Killarney in good time. We found a motel so we asked how much it was.
The lady said it was $70 but because her daughter had been really sick she wasn't cooking tonight. We could not cook in the room as it was against her rules and there was no where to buy anything. She obviously just didn't want us there.
Bernie and I decided that we would look for something else. I had trodden in a huge puddle and my socks were absolutely soaked.
We decided to walk on and see if anything else turned up. We walked and walked but couldn't find anything.
We came across a truck rest area and information centre.
I was busting to go to the toilet so I went behind a tree and a man in a car pulled up. Oh well too bad. He gave us a donation. A lady and a man came into the stop and also gave us a donation. A truckie stopped but I think he just wanted to sleep.
I changed my socks and put on Bernie's high vis waterproof as it was getting very dark.
We set off again for Port Fairy.
Bernie and I had been to this town before and was not very impressed with it four years ago. Maybe things had changed.
We also had not eaten anything since breakfast. It was now 6:00pm. We finally got to the town and had a choice of caravan parks to choose from. They were all very expensive. We continued into town and decided to get some tea first.
We phoned another caravan park and the lady said that we had better hurry as they closed at 7:00pm. It was about 6:50pm.
We got our tea and dashed over to the park. We took a cabin for the night.
We were absolutely soaked. Bernie turned on the heat pump. I jumped into the shower and changed into some dry and warm clothes. Bernie then had his shower.
We ate tea as we were showering and sorting out the bed and the carts. The cabin didn't take long to warm up.
We discussed what we were going to do and decided to stay another night. We needed to do some washing and have a rest.
We went to bed feeling much better. We also talked to Adam on the phone and all was well.
We had walked 34 kilometres today. Way too far.
Wonder if we'll be able to move at all tomorrow.
Day 29. Friday 2nd November, 2007
(Cindy)Woke up late. Had a wonderful night. Went to the office to see if we could spend another night. We paid and went for a walk to the shops. We also picked up the shirts from the Post Office.
Went to the supermarket and bought some bacon and eggs, some bread and filling as we were going to make our lunch for tomorrow.
We went to the information centre. I got a postcard for Brayden and Ashley. We went home and had our late breakfast.
I had to go and do some washing and drying. Bernie fixed Rommie's front wheel and then went for a nap. I came back an hour later with all the washing done. I decided to have a nap aswell.
Adam phoned later in the day to tell us that he'd been into town and found an Atheletes Foot shoe shop. The lady had fitted him out properly and gave him some socks and cream for his blisters. He said he went for a 5km walk and his new shoes were excellent.
They are Brooks brand. Exactly the same as ours. Hopefully they will turn out to be as good as ours. He seems to be eager to go again.
I got up and had a shower and then made some tea. We watched some TV and then went to bed.
We had a lovely relaxing day, caught up on the diary and opened the new shirts to find a wonderful birthday card from the people at Mainesafe.
Thanks guys it was great.
Adam said that we had 700 people looking at our webpage. This is great.
Day 30. Saturday 3rd November, 2007
(Cindy)Check out time is 10:00am. We didn't wake until 8:30am. We gathered our things together and packed a lunch for today.
The weather was once again a disaster. I look forward to the warmer weather coming.
It was raining and windy. Who says there isn't a climate change?
It is now November and I have forgotten what the sun even looks like.
It has been extra hard for us as there are not many places in Victoria to bush camp. We have been very disappointed with the truck stops. Victoria is probably lagging behind its eastern states rivals when it comes to camping and parking bays.
So we headed off to Portland. We had to fill our gas bottle. The service station was in town so we went back to it.
Te lady at the "Service Station" couldn't help us as she didn't know how to fill it. She said we needed to come back at 2:30pm. Yeah right. Is it just me or is it time that the tag "service" should be taken out of these places.
So we headed back onto the highway. We were heading to a town called Yambuck. It was 16kms or so it told us as we left Port Fairy. Again we were disappointed with the town and the lack of response from the people. It seems the further from the country areas that you travel the less people want to donate or just show an interest. Maybe things will get better when we get back to good old South Australia.
I would say that within half an hour Bernie and I were both drenched. We continued walking trying to find somewhere to get out of the elements. Because the rain was coming straight down it was hard to shelter ourselves from it.
We continued to walk.
Bernie's shoulder has been giving him some soreness. But today with the wind and the camber of the road he was in some pain. Rommie is still way to heavy so we need to rethink some things. We need to share the load more. I offered to push Rommie to give Bernie a break. Steve is so much lighter for him to push.
We finally found some trees to hide under. We had some lunch and messaged Adam on what we were up to. He told us there was a historic Hotel in Yambuck. Something to look forward to. We rested for about half an hour and then had to head off again in the rain.
My feet were cold and wet but at least the town was only 3 kms away. Rommie is very heavy! I don't know how Bernie pushes her all day.
We finally made the hotel but the owner said he was full. A man who was at the Hotel told us about a backpackers about 500 metres up the road. He said his wife, who runs it, would probably be able to help us out.
We continued on our way and made it to the backpackers.
The lady of the house said that she was full as it is a long weekend in Victoria. Melbourne Cup. She was really nice and offered us a small room in the house. We were extremely happy with it. Anything is better than a tent in this weather.
The people who booked the backpackers were all very nice and were not upset at all that we crashed their party.
We had showers and changed into dry clothes. There was a huge open fire in the main room. It was warm and inviting.
We tried to dry our clothes but to no avail. We spent the rest of the afternoon talking to the other visitors.
I made tea and sat and watched the TV. The weather report is not good. There was a severe weather watch for our area. A storm was coming with more wind and rain. We may have to stay put for a couple of days until the weather gets better.
The room was very comfortable. I went to bed at abut 10:30pm. The weather was seriously getting bad.
Bernie stayed up in front of the fire just listening to the storm. We will have to ask in the morning if we can stay another night.
I finally fell asleep.
I hope tomorrow is a better day.
Day 31. Sunday 4th November, 2007
(Cindy)Had a sleep in as we weren't walking anywhere today. We finally got out of bed at about 9:30am. Most of the women had gone to Port Fairy to see the art galleries. We thought that we were on our own so we had breakfast and then sat in front of the fire to stay warm.
Our shoes still weren't dry so we put them in front of the fire.
At about 10:30am Christine rolled out of bed and came into the dining room. She is the Bursar from the school. She is irish and we had a wonderful time just talkig in front of the fire for about four hours.
We had lunch and then Bernie went to bed and had a sleep.
Christine told me that the group of people were the Brigadeens and that they went away together often. The Brigadeens are the nuns that own seven schools throughout Victoria and South Australia. They are catholic schools. These women all work at the same school.
I had a lovely afternoon just talking. The other people started to arrive back home at about 4:30pm. By 5:30pm everybody was back and our peace and quiet was gone forever.
Bernie woke up and asked about tea. It seems that the ladies were going to have a BBQ. They also roasted some potatoes, salad and sausages. We had been invited to eat with them.
We made some rice and had sausages. The dinner was a big affair. Christine's daughter had just anounced her engagement so they were all celebrating.
Dinner over they decided that they were going to play cards. They were extremely noisy, but they were having a great time.
I phoned Jody my daughter as my granddaughter Ashley was going into hospital tomorrow.
We said goodbye. I was ready for bed and so was Bernie. We collected our things and went off to bed. The party didn't last too much longer. They were really good and didn't make too much noise.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better and we can get back on the road.
Day 32. Monday 5th November, 2007
(Cindy)The weather is much better today. A little overcast but at least it's dry. We woke up and had breakfast. Packed the carts. A few of the ladies came out to say goodbye and take some photos.
We finally said our farewells and thanked Wendy for letting us stay and headed for our next stop. We had to go to the service station as we wanted to fill up our gas cylinder.
The guy at the service station was really good. He filled up the cylinder without any problems. We bought some food for lunch and continued on our way.
It was cold but at least it wasn't wet. There was water everywhere. Paddocks had flooded and the river had burst it's banks.
We had been walking for about an hour when Bernie got a call from Adam. He and Calvin were coming out to see us. At about the 10km mark for the day Calvin and Adam rocked up just as we had stopped and brought the chairs out for a rest.
It was good to see them. We exchanged news and info. Adam said they could go ahead and see if there was somewhere for us to stay the night.
They also said they would go to Portland and get us something for dinner.
They drove off and then Bernie and I headed on. Adam phoned about half and hour later and told us of a couple of places we could stay at. There was nothing at Codrington and 19kms to Tyrendarra.
There was a truck stop near Codrington and Adam said there was an old road out the back of the bay that leads to a fence but there was very thick scrub and couldn't be seen from the road.
Bernie said we would check it out.
Calvin and Adam came back to us on the road with our dinner. They said goodbye and headed back to Warrnambool. We would be seeing them again in two days when we get to Portland.
We made our way to the parking bay. Adam was correct there was a good covering of trees out the back. Unfortunately the trees were gum trees. We did manage to find an area in the clearing so that no trees were near the tent. Nobody could see us from the road.
Adam has done a great job of finding us somewhere safe for our home tonight.
There was heaps of flies and mozzies so we put the inner part of the tent up. I set our bed up in the tent while Bernie cooked the steaks that Adam had bought us. I cleaned and cut up the salads. We ate in the tent away from the bugs.
The steak was beautiful.
I did the dishes and cleaned everything away. We put the fly on as it was getting colder. I read my Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince book. About two and a half hours later it was finished. I don't have my last book as Adam had started reading it. Now I have nothing to read. Oh well I will just have to do the diary instead.
Night time came very quickly. I phoned Jody to make sure all was well with Ashley. She was fine and all went well. She was just about to have her tea. That was good news. I went to bed happy in the knowledge that all was well.
It was good to see Adam today. He was looking better. His feet were obviously a lot better too. Time to go to sleep, hope the weather is good tomorrow.
I would just like to say thankyou's to:
- All the great truckies on the road. You have been absolutely marvellous to our little group. Moving over to give us room and slowing down when it was raining so that we didn't get spray from the road.
- To all the people of Victoria who kindly donated money for our cause.
- To all the wonderful Caravan Park people who have given us free nights at their parks, it is greatly appreciated. It makes our journey just a little easier.
- David and Christine Maine for the six new long sleeve HiVis shirts.
- To Mainsafe staff for my lovely birthday card.
Day 33. Tuesday 6th November, 2007
(Cindy)We woke rather late. I had a fairly good sleep but Bernie didn't sleep too well. I got up and started breakfast. Bernie had a bit of a lay in. Unusual for him.
The weather was a little better, the wind was still blowing a gale but at least it would be a tail wind. We finally got going and broke camp. It was abut 10:30am before we hit the road.
We walked 5 kms before we hit our first town. Not even a pub. We moved on another 5 kms then found a place to rest for a while. We were only 5 kms from Narrawong. We started on our way again.
I forgot but today is the Melbourne Cup. I couldn't name one horse running. Funny how some things don't matter anymore. We made it to the town and saw a garage/take away food shop. We went in and ordered lunch. The owner showed us a short cut to the caravan park. He also gave us our lunch for free. We thanked him and took the food outside and ate lunch.
We walked on to the caravan park and got ourselves a tent site. We set up the tent and then went for a shower. The park was really nice and we were right on the river bank.
We sat and talked about all sorts of things. Forgot about the cup until I went to the toilet and heard it on the radio.
We rested for the rest of the day.
We then took the carts to the camp kitchen where we made our tea.
Met a family and had the usual conversation about our trip. They had been to the Grampians but had been washed out.
We ate our tea. By this time it was very dark. We went back to our camp. The tent was really hard to see. It was good to know that the tent was that hard to see especially as we bush camp alot.
Bernie's shoulder is still not good so I rubbed it with some cream, hope it gets better soon.
We will definitly have to lighten the load on Rommie.
It was time for bed again. I have been getting soreness in my left leg just behind my knee. It is probably because we have been really pushing ourselves a little since Adam hasn't been walking. Hopefully the pain will not last too long.
Time to sleep.
Day 34. Wednesday 7th November, 2007
(Cindy)It was our day to walk into Portland. We will join up again with Adam and Telemachus. Lots of people have been asking where they have been.
Woke up to a brighter day, the wind was still blowing hard though. We packed up the tent and took the carts over to the camp kitchen to have breakfast. We cleaned up and headed off for Portland. It is 15kms to walk. KFC for lunch today.
We have a cabin waiting for us at the Claremont Tourist Park right in the middle of town. We met and talked to on old guy who was telling us about his years in Portland and how he had never, in forty years, seen a storm like we had on the weekend. I think he would have sat there and talked all day but unfortuantly we had to move on.
We had walked about 6 kms when Adam and Calvin rocked up in the Aussie Helpers Ute. They were on their way to Portland. But they were also going to head to Nelson to see what is ahead for us over the next week.
So they took off and we said we would see them at the caravan park. We continued on. Adam had told us that there was a huge hill before Portland. Well we found it. It was one of the biggest hills we had seen. It took a few stops along the way but we did finally make it to the top.
We saw a scenic lookout sign and decided to go in and take a rest. The bay filled up very quickly while we were there. We headed off again.
It was only 5 kms to go. The road was divided so we had to cross right over the four lanes. The shoulder on the right disappeared as we came into town. Luckily though there was a footpath. We were looking for KFC. We finally found it and went in for lunch. It was lovely to eat junk food. The first time since Warrnambool.
We took our time over lunch. About an hour later we headed off for the park.
We went through town. When we were in town we passed a bike shop. So we went in to see if we could get another flag for Steve. The guy in the shop had one and gave it to us for nothing. We will return on the way out of town to take photos. It was very generous of him as it was a good quality flag.
We couldn't find the park. Met up with a couple of guys who showed us how to get to the Claremont Caravan Park.
We went to reception and the lady said that the rest of our crew was already there. We went around the corner and saw Telemachus and I started calling out "TellyTubby we see you." Adam heard us and came over.
They were just about to come and find us even though they had just got there themselves. We pulled up outside the cabin, it was really nice. We decided to stay for an extra night as we really need a rest and do heaps of washing and shopping.
It was great to see the three carts together again.
We went inside and sat down to rest. Calvin was in a hurry to get back to Warrnambool so we had to clean out Rommie as we were putting stuff we didn't desperatly need into the ute. So we did that and said our farewells to Calvin. We will see him sometime soon, probably in Mount Gambier.
We went back inside and rested for a while. Adam had done a great job on checking out possible camps for the up coming week to Nelson.
Adam and I went outside for a walk as he was hungry. We found a fish and chip shop for him. We came back and ate tea.
We had a big talk and Adam said that he had a good rest and his feet were a lot better.
We watched a couple of shows on TV then I had a shower and decided to go to bed. It was lovely to get into a hot bed. "Electric Blanket" is all I'm going to say.
Bernie and Adam stayed up for a while then Adam went to bed. Bernie stayed up for a little longer. He had some time to himself. He needs this time.
Hope tomorrow is a nice restful day. The bed is excellent.
Day 35. Thursday 8th November, 2007
(Cindy)We woke late as there was no hurry to break camp. I had a mountain of clothes to wash, plus Adam hadn't done any washing either. So I set off to do that. Luckily there was enough machines to get all the loads done at once. Adam and Bernie spent time putting Telemachus back together, his front wheel back on and his mirror. He would not fit into the Aussie Helpers ute with these still connected.
I came back from the laundry to see that the first test between Australia and Sri Lanka had started. I knew that not too much else would get done for me today. Bernie and Adam finished Telemachus and then decided to go for a walk to the Library so that they could check their emails. They had a few to send aswell.
Adam had typed up all the diary notes onto our laptop while he was in Warrnambool ready to email to Chris. Unfortunatly Calvin had taken off before we could unload the laptop. Doesn't matter, we will get there eventually and people will be able to read the next installment soon.
They came back from the Library and we decided to go into town for some lunch.
Bernie received a phone call from the local paper and made arrangements for the photographer to meet up with us at the caravan park at 3:30pm.
We went into town and found a book shop. Bernie needed some reading material. We then found a LifeLine shop as I needed a few clothes.
We went back to the fish and chip shop that we were at the night before as their food was beautiful. We took our lunch home and I ate it in front of the TV watching the cricket.
At 3:30pm the photographer showed up. So we had to get changed and sort the carts out. Photos were taken and fifteen minutes later it was over.
I finished drying and folding our clothes ready for tomorrow. We then went across the road to the IGA shop for the coming trip to Nelson.
Rested for the rest of the day. We had a very quiet evening. Went through Adam's notes again to check out possible camps and distances we would travel each day.
Went to bed late as we watched too much TV.
Day 36. Friday 9th November, 2007
(Cindy)Woke early, had showers and breakfast (soy yoghurt, Yum!), packed the carts and headed to town. Stopped at the Logan bike shop to take some photos, then carried on through town. We headed out through the back end of town as we didn't want to walk 4kms back up the highway so we detoured around the town.
It turned out to be a good move as we came across the Kalari Truck Depot. We have been seeing these guys on the road for days and they have been really good.
Bernie and I went into the office and spoke to a truckie who knew exactly who we were. He went and got the manager for us. We received money from two of the truckies while waiting. They were asking us all about our trip. The manager came out and Bernie and I shook his hand. Bernie said that he just wanted to say thankyou to his company and drivers for their courtesy on the road. I think he was taken aback a little bit as he said "The only time people say anything is when they want to complain." He said "It was nice to have positive feedback from us."
We thanked him again and then left the office.
We proceeded on our way to Nelson. we were heading for a place called Gorae West where there was a hall and we were told that there wouldn't be any problems staying behind it.
We walked about 10 kms and then stopped for lunch. We had made rolls before we left. They went down a treat. We finished lunch and Adam said his feet were really good. This was good news.
We continued on and started looking for this hall. It wasn't where we thought it was. 15kms was where Adam had marked it. We continued on and then a lady pulled into her farm just behind us, so Bernie went and started to talk to her. Her husband came about five minutes later and the three of them were talking for ages. They came over to me and Adam and were talking about the trip and how they had been to Tassie lots of times.
In the end we had to move on as time was getting on. They gave us a donation and told us that the hall was about 3kms away. We thanked them and moved on.
We finally saw the hall. But before it was an area where the old school used to be. There were lots of trees and an old toilet block. It was better than behind the hall so that is where we made camp for the night.
We made tea and sat around talking for a while. It was quite nice where we were.
I fell asleep as I had a bit of a headache. I think maye a little too much sun, plus we had walked over 20 kms today.
Day 37. Saturday 10th November, 2007
Woke up with a terrible headache. Had woken a few times during the night and taken panadol. Unfortuantly my headache is about to become a migraine. Bernie said I was to take my migraine tablets and just rest. I got up and went to the toilet feeling sick the whole time.
I went straight back to bed. Bernie had opened the windows and the back and front flaps on the tent to let in a breeze.
I must have slept for hours.
I woke up later in the day. Bernie came in to see if there was anything I needed. Was I hungry. No I took some more tablets and fell back to sleep.
I woke up really late. It was dark outside. I needed to go to the toilet. I still had my migraine. I got up and went for a walk. Bernie said that we would stay here another day so go back to bed and rest.
It is dangerous to spend too much time in one place when you bush camp. I was a little worried but couldn't seem to care as my head was throbbing.
I went back into the tent and fell asleep.
I don't know what Bernie and Adam did all day but I'm sure they will tell me later.
Day 38. Sunday 11th November, 2007
(Cindy)Woke up and still had my headache. Got up and went to the toilet. Almost vomited halfway there. Washed my face in cold water and went over to the camp. Bernie was already up, took one look at me and said "get back to bed."
I took another tablet and fell back to sleep.
I woke up again at about 3:30pm. My headache has subsided.I stayed in the tent for another hour just to make sure. I then got up and went to the toilet. My head was so much better and I was really hungry. This is always a really good sign that the migraine is over.
I had a couple of slices of toast and then sat with Bernie and Adam. They had been doing all sorts of different things for two days.
I sat around for about four hours then decided to go back to bed. I was really tired. I know I have slept for two days but I needed rest. We would be walking again tomorrow, still had a long way to go before we hit Nelson.
Day 39. Monday 12th November, 2007
(Cindy)Woke up feeling much better, albeit a little weak. Spending two and a half days laying down doesn't help you when you have to exercise by pushing a heavy cart. I hadn't eaten alot either which never helps. I will make up for lost time I'm sure.
We had breakfast and packed up our camp. Bernie seemed a little strange and when I spoke to him he said he was a little worried with the water situation.
Because we had spent two nights longer at one bush camp we still had two more nights before we hit Nelson. Bernie was also running out of tobacco. Not a good thing. Food was not a big problem as we carry lots of rice. It would just be boring meals for two days.
We set off to walk as far as we could. Adam's feet were sore but two days rest had helped. It must be very frustrating for him.
We walked about 19kms so we started looking for somewhere to camp. Adam and Calvin had scouted this area a while ago so we had a fair idea of what to look for. We found a pathway that lead to a pine forest behind a huge row of trees.
Bernie and Adam went to check it out and gave it the ok. We pushed te carts around the back and had a rest and something to eat. We could not be seen so we put up the tents ready for another nights sleep.
Adam's blisters have returned on his little toes again. I tried to come up with ideas as to how we could tape them so that they weren't touching the ground. We tried lots of different ways. Tomorrow would tell us if any of them were any good.
Unfortunatly Bernie's chair broke. So he had nothing to sit on. He and I took it in turns to sit on the chair and the bucket we use for the toilet.
We settled in for the rest of the day. The campsite was great. We have been pretty lucky lately. But that is probably because Adam knew what to look for. I was feeling much better.
Unfortunatly the donations had all but stopped coming in. Probably because the road we are now travelling is mainly for log trucks. We may do better in Nelson.
We went to bed ready for another day. Bernie's tobacco is getting as low as the water.
Day 40. Tuesday 13th November, 2007
Cindy)We woke up early to a beautiful morning. Had breakfast and broke camp. Spent a time taping up Adam's feet.
We all felt grubby this morning. We hadn't showered for four nights now and we still had another bush camp tonight before we would reach Nelson.
We are heading for a truck stop at the Dartmoor turnoff. Adam said it would be good if we went right up the back behind the water tanks. We would see when we got there.
We headed off down the road. About 6kms into the trip we stopped for a break and Adam's feet were getting pretty sore.
The day was hot and the flies were really thick. The hills were getting harder and longer. I think we have been climbing hills now for about five days straight.
We stopped at about the 12km mark and had a light lunch. Adam said the parking bay couldn't be too much further. He was right. About 4.5 kms we saw the turnoff to Dartmoor and on the left was the truck stop.
We crossed the road and entered the stop. It was strewn with rubbish. We got out our chairs and sat in the shade. I went for a walk to see if there was any water other than in the tanks. There was none. You cannot use the water tanks as they belong to the fire service just in case of bush fires.
Bernie then went for a walk, as I pinched the chair to have a rest, he came back and said that there was some great places to camp up the back. We picked up our chairs and pushed the carts up the hill behind the tanks. There were heaps of trees which meant shade. So we set up camp in the middle of them. We also found anoter area furter back where we would set up the tents later.
The trees we were under were all gum trees and there is no way Bernie will put up a tent under one of those. So later on we could go to a clearing and put the tents where no tree could fall on us.
Nobody could see us even if they did come into the parking bay.
Adam's feet were very sore again. I could see that he wasn't coping well. It was time to have a real talk. I know we were going to wait until Adelaide but I don't know if he can make it. He was not happy. This did not make Bernie and I happy either. All we want is for our children to be happy and do what they want to do.
He would sleep on what we had talked about and possibly come up with a solution.
We had a good evening. We put the tents up so that the two openings faced each other and we were able to converse and joke around without getting eaten by mozzies.
We had a fairly early night. Bernie's tobacco is very low now. I don't know if he will make Nelson before he runs out. We will find out tomorrow.
We filled all our drink bottles up with water and made our tea. I think there was about one and a half litres of water left. Hope nothing goes wrong. We have never been this low on water and food since we started.
We are so sick of rice. We need to shop smarter. I hate rice!!
Tomorrow is yet another day.
Happy birthday to my brother.
Day 41. Wednesday 14th November, 2007
(Cindy)We woke up after a good nights sleep. We had corn thins and peanut butter for breakfast. The corn thins were stale so the half dozen left Bernie and Adam threw as frizbees to the birds. Hope they enjoy them more than we did.
The tents were a little wet this morning so as we packed everything else it gave them some time to dry.
We finally got under way. It was about 17kms to Nelson. A shower and something yummy for lunch. Can't wait. Should only take about four hours to get there.
We started off well. 5kms and we had a break. Adam's poor feet were so sore. We think it is because of the sheer fact that he is carrying so much body weight. His poor feet just cannot cope with the constant pounding on the road.
We went along another 4kms. Big hills don't help but today it took so much effort from Adam just to keep his body going. We stopped again for a rest. Bernie phoned Calvin as he was supposed to be meeting us here today at Nelson. If we could get him here we might be able to persuade Calvin to push the cart and for Adam to drive the ute just for a little while.
Calvin said he was in Hamilton and that it would be at least and hour and a half before he could reach us.
Adam said not to worry he would soldier on but we would be going very slowly and taking a lot of breaks. We said we didn't care how long it took.
We continued to walk and have breaks for about three hours. I think it took us six hours to reach the outskirts of Nelson. Calvin showed up and he pushed Telemachus for the last kilometre and Adam drove off to get lunch and tobacco for Bernie.
We stopped at a grassed area in town and ate lunch. Calvin scouted the town and found us a caravan park only 500 metres away and all down hill. We headed over but the owner wasn't there.
We found ourselves a campsite and rested our bodies all afternoon. We had a huge talk. It was personal so we wont be writing it in the diary. The outcome is Adam would stay in Nelson tonight and tomorrow he and Calvin would scout out the road to Mt. Gambier for bush camps. Adam would do some shopping for us in Mt. Gambier. He would then get Calvin to take him and Telemachus to Mt. Gambier where he would rest until we got there. This day is the last day Adam would walk with us. He is very sad about this but the damage he is doing to his body could be irrepairable. It is not a decision that has been made lightly. He cannot enjoy the walk while he is in so much pain. We all agreed.
The owner of the caravan park came back so I went and paid for the two nights. She gave us the keys to the toilet blocks. Now we can have a shower. I asked for an extra key and had to pay a $10 deposit. As there was three of us it is hard for us all to use one key.
I went off and had a shower. We had walked to the service station and the pub and decided that we would eat at the service station. There is no supermarket here only a kiosk which sadly closes at 5:00pm. It is now 6:30pm. The servo closes at 8:00pm.
Adam then went for a shower. Then Bernie. I made up our beds while he had a shower. It was about 7:30pm when Calvin came back and drove Adam to the servo. Bernie and I walked. We discussed the situation with Adam and came up with a good plan.
We ordered when we got there and sat outside as the night was mild.
We finished dinner and Calvin drove off to where he was staying. We had some phone calls to make on the way home. It has been decided that Adam will go to Mt. Gambier tomorrow with Calvin. We will stay behind for an extra day in Nelson. Adam has decided that he will go to his sisters place for a while with Telemachus. He will get a job and start getting himself fitter and stronger. Jody, his sister, will help him. He will then join back up with us when he feels better within himself.
We all agreed that this was the best thing to do so I phoned our daughter and she was only too pleased to have him.
We would work out Telemachus over the next few days.
We went back to the caravan park. We all sat around for a while feeling very strange indeed. Things were certainly going to change.
Went to bed. Listened to Lee.
Day 42. Thursday 15th November, 2007
(Cindy)We woke the next morning fairly early as Calvin said he was coming aty 8:30am to pack Adam up. We didn't realise that he meant for Adam and Telemachus to leave straight away as we didn't know of his plans.
I went and did my usual chore of washing all the clothes. I had put them all in to wash and went back to the campsite to find Bernie taking down Adam's tent. Adam was nowhere to be seen. It seems that Calvin wanted to take everything there and then but nobody was ready. So he and Adam went to Mt. Gambier to find a bush camp along the way. Then they were scouting between Mt. Gambier and Millicent then back to Mt. Gambier to do some shopping and then home to Nelson.
I helped pack up Adam's things and helped Bernie prepare Telemachus for his trip to the Mount.
At about 2:00pm with all the washing done and hanging out to dry Calvin and Adam came back. They unloaded the ute of our shopping and while we were talking to Adam about bush camp sites Calvin started loading all of Adam's things into the ute. They put Telemachus in and with hugs and kisses they were gone. However Adam still had the key to the toilet block and with a $10 deposit on it. We phoned him and told him that Calvin would have to bring it back on his way through to Warrnambool.
Bernie and I were so hot and there was no shade in the caravan park so we decided to cook our dinner over at the playground right next to the river and the caravan park. So we pushed our carts over there and started cooking dinner. Just as we were about to eat Calvin rocked up at the caravan park to give us back the key.
We ate dinner and then sat under the tree and read our books until about 5:00pm. We then pushed the carts back to the caravan park cleaned our dishes, brought in all the washing, folded it and packed the carts away as best as we could.
It was strange without Adam. But we will just have to get used to it.
We did talk to him and he had got himself a cheap cabin in Mt. Gambier. He was settled and looking forward to seeing us in two days time.
Time to hit the sack. Early start in the morning.
Day 43. Friday 16th November, 2007
(Cindy)We woke early and had showers. The tent was soaking wet. We took off the fly and laid it over the fence to dry.
We had breakfast.
We used the towels to dry the tent and then I put the towels in the drier so that we didn't have smelly wet towels in our carts. We finished packing everything up and waited a little longer to let the fly dry properly. We pushed off at about 8:30am. We had a couple of phone calls to make and we needed to see if we could get some gas for the cylinder.
We went to the servo but unfortuantly the ladies there didn't know how to fill it. So there wasn't much to do but hope that we would have enough for one night. It's becoming a big problem trying to find places to fill it. Bernie has been looking at replacing our gas stove and cylinder with a smaller set. The other one is just so heavy.
We really need to start thinking seriously about our load as we wont have the third cart to carry other stuff anymore.
We pushed on out of town. It was a really hot morning and it didn't look like it was going to get any cooler for a while. We walked more hills with millions of flies.
We stopped after 5kms. We needed to drink heaps so we didn't dehydrate. We discussed a change in tactics and decided that in the heat we would rise at 5:30am, break camp, have breaky and get moving as soon as possible. Walk for about three hours then rest for about four hours and then walk for another two hours and hopefully still find a place to bush camp from about 7:00pm onwards. At least we would not be walking in the heat.
So we decided that was what we were going to do as of tomorrow.
We continued walking on. I had the radio on as the second test had started. It is weird listening to the cricket instead of watching it.
We went on for another 6 kms but it was getting very hot. We found a tree stop so decided that we would have lunch here.
We ate across the road from the Gypsum pick up point so we saw all the guys and gals from Kalari Trucks coming in and out.
After about half an hour we decided to move on. We were coming up to some of the camp sites that Adam had found for us. He has done such a great job scouting and found us some really fantastic bush camps.
We came across a truck stop and decided to rest for a while. The flies were awful. Bernie then remembered that we had brought some fly nets with us. We hunted them down and it was wonderful not to have those filthy flies on us.
We stopped for about three hours. The day was getting cooler. We continued on until the next truck stop. We were going to stay there but someone else had decided to use it as a dumping ground.
We continued on and really started to look for somewhere to camp. It was getting late and dusk was upon us. Soon it wouldn't matter but I was hungry and didn't feel like putting up a tent in the dark. We tried several places but all we got was prickles in our shoes and socks.
We came to an armco and a hill on both sides. Bernie went for a walk down the hill and around the back and said this would be fine. There was a cross on the side of the road. All it said was "Jen's resting place" it was a bit eerie but what the heck, the campsite was good as nobody could see us from the road. There was two or three houses below us but that was all.
We put the tent up but couldn't get all the pegs in as the ground was rock hard. We tied the guy ropes to Steve and put bricks in other places to stop it moving. I made our bed while Bernie made tea.
I had noticed that I had a big blister looking ball on my legs. I thought it must be mozzie bites as I have been bitten in several places on both legs. Better keep an eye on them.
We ate tea. I got into the tent and Bernie sat outside smoking. We went to bed faily early. I think I must had nodded off before Bernie even got into the tent. Unusual for me as I don't normally sleep well in a bush camp.
Day 44. Saturday 17th November, 2007
(Cindy)The alarm went off at 6:00am which was really 5:30am South Australia time. We had crossed the border the day before. The tent was dry and I had a great sleep. We got up and had breakfast. We saw our very first sunrise. It was magnificent. I had forgotten how beautiful they can be. We see lots of sunsets but this morning was lovely.
We emptied the tent, cleaned up and packed the carts. I noticed that my other leg had got a blister type bubble on it too. I showed Bernie and he said that I should cover them. I was going to burst them but he said no wait until we get to Mt. Gambier. They weren't hurting so I just put band aids on them.
Everyday that I walk I take a hayfever tablet as I suffer pretty bad especially in South Australia.
We headed off to the road only to be met by some council workers.
Bernie said to them "What did you do to deserve overtime?" One of the guys said that they were detouring cars as there had been a fatal car accident that morning at 3:00am. He said we'd have to walk about 10kms further out and then get onto the Pt. Mcdonnell road into Mt. Gambier. We couldn't believe it. By the way it was raining again!!
We got up early and now this is going to stuff it up.
We had to look at our map a decided that we would walk to the next road block and see what would happen.
They said "Did you camp here last night?" we said "Yes"
"Nasty bit of road" he said "See Jen there?" he pointed to the cross "Came across the road in front of a B-double and her head got decapitated. Gruesome hey." He said that six young people in two cars had crashed further up the road. Three were dead the other three were critical. What a waste of life.
We thanked them for the information and walked towards Mt. Gambier.
A man in a 4WD was coming the other way. He stopped and showed us on the map a better way to go. He said it would probably only add 4kms to our trip. We thanked him and continued on.
About half and hour later a police man stopped us and told us what had happened. We explained where we were going and he said that would be fine. He drove off and about ten minutes later he was back again. He asked us what we were doing and why. we talked for about fifteen minutes and then he left us with a "Take care guys".
We found the roads we had to take for the detour. We stopped on the side of the road for a rest and several people, mainly farmers, told us the news and how to get into Mt. Gambier. They were all very helpful.
We started moving again but I was beginning to get bad pains in my knee and in my groin. The hills were terrible and I couldn't put any pressure down on my right foot. I had no idea what was wrong, but it hurt heaps. I had to rest alot. It was really annoying. The hills were the worst because I couldn't push off.
We finally got to the outskirts of town. There were no shoulders for us to walk on so we had to use the road. We got to the Blue Lake and luckily there was a footpath all the way round. It didn't take long to get into town as it was mainly down hill. It has taken so long today.
We got to the caravan park. Adam was in the cabin and it was great to see him.
My leg was killing me. I hope it isn't anything serious.
We went inside and told Adam everything that had happened.
We rested and then I went for a shower.
Bernie was so tired that he just fell asleep on the bed. I was sat watching the cricket. Bernie woke up and he and Adam went to KFC to get dinner. They came back and we ate.
Bernie went for a shower.
Adam had phoned his sister and the whole family were coming down tomorrow to pick Adam and Telemachus up and take him back with them. I was so happy I would be seeing them all tomorrow. I couldn't wait.
We decided that we should burst my bites as it was a cleaner environment. They were awful, but we cleaned them and covered them up. I also rubbed some cream into my knee. It was feeling better already.
It was lovely to relax in the cabin. No mozzies.
We had heaps to talk about and then it was time for bed. I was exhausted.
Day 45. Sunday 18th November, 2007
(Cindy)Had a sleep in. Got up and had breakkie. Bernie and I were going into town. We had a a few things to buy from Coles. Adam said he would stay behind and start getting Telemachus ready. We didn't know what time to expect the family so somebody always had to stay at the caravan park.
Bernie and I found Coles and did the shopping. We also decided to buy ourselves a smaller gas burner. So the other one will go back with Adam, so will the gas cylinder as the new one takes individual cans. It is all much lighter and we will always know how much gas we have left.
We walked around town just to have a look. We had been gone for about three hours so thought it was time to get back. We still had washing to do.
I was hoping the family would be there but they were still a couple of hours still to drive.
I watched some cricket. It was pretty boring though or maybe I was just too excited to see the family.
Adam got a message on his phone and sent a message back to let them know where the caravan park was. They would soon be here.
I was inside watching the cricket when they arrived. It was lovely. Hugs and kisses all round. The kids were a sight for sore eyes, I miss them all so much.
I grabbed the two kids and said "C'mon lets get ice cream and drinks." So we went to the deli. It was such a hot day and the kids had been in the car all day.
We came back and all sat in the cabin. Told each other all our news, what was happening and general chit chat. The kids told me about their new house. They had just moved. They are really close to the beach. They think it is really great.
Before long it was time to pack up all of Adam's things and Telemachus. Chris had brought his trailer but unfortunatly Telemachus wouldn't fit.
Chris and Adam went to KMart to buy some rope so they could tie Telemachus to the top. They came back and everything started getting thrown into the trailer. We checked our carts and sorted out anything we didn't need as this was a great opportunity to lighten the two carts left. They tied Telemachus to the trailer. We double checked that Adam hadn't left anything behind, then before we knew it it was time to say goodbye. I hugged everybody and said farewell. I asked Adam to ring me when they got there, otherwise I would just worry.
It was lovely to see the family, but I was so sad to seem them go. I don't know how long it will be before I see them all again. I will miss Adam very much. He makes me laugh and I loved having him with us. Hopefully he will be able to get his feet right and then he can join up with us again somewhere along the east coast. He will always be welcome.
Bernie and I went back into the cabin and started tea. Steak. Yum. We did some washing and drying. Bernie got onto the internet and answered some emails. I got one from my auntie and uncle in England. It was weird to think that they have been following my progress from the other side of the world.
We are sorry if we take a long time to answer but we don't always have access to a computer or the internet.
We went back to the cabin and watched T.V. We decided to we would stay another night as it was going to be really hot tomorrow.
My legs were no better either. They were now oozing poison all the time.
Time for a rest. Adam rang at about 10:30pm to say they had arrived safe and sound.
Day 46. Monday 19th November, 2007
(Cindy)Had a lovely sleep in. Bernie went to the reception and paid for another night. We had some things to do in town. Bernie still needed to organise his vote for the Federal Election. We went to the Post Office but they weren't much help, but they did tell us the name of the street for the Electoral Commission.
We also needed to go to Target as I needed a new pair of track pants as I had put mine in the trailer thinking they were Adam's. Luckily we found a pair. We then went to KFC for lunch.
Bernie went to vote. He is much happier now that he has done this.
We then went to the chemist. We spoke to the pharmacist and she said that they weren't mozzie bites but looked very much like spider bites. I have about five bites on my legs. There must have been a spider in my sleeping bag when I was still using it zipped up. We now use the sleeping bags as a quilt.
She asked me if I was taking any anti-Hystamine. I said I took one everyday. Just as well I do. She said it was why the bites hadn't got any worse. She gave me cream and padding for them. I also stocked up on migraine tablets and got a nasal spray as my hayfever is sooo bad.
We then walked back to the caravan park and spent the rest of the day just reading, watching the tv and writing the diary. We watched the weather report and it is going to rain heavily tomorrow. I can't believe it.
Got into bed where it was warm and Bernie and I decided we will have yet another rest day. It would do my legs good.
Day 47. Tuesday 20th November, 2007
(Cindy)Woke up to heavy rain. Bernie got up and paid for another night in the cabin. I went back to sleep. Me legs felt better. I got up later and had a shower. Cleaned my legs and reapplied the cream. They at least have stopped weeping.
We went into Woolworths to get supplies for tomorrow. Got something for tea.
We were real bad and had Pizza for lunch. Have to make the most of it.
We got back to the cabin, ate lunch and started repacking the carts. We had heaps of room in them now. It was still raining but not so heavy.
We spent the afternoon reading and writing the diary. Bernie had a nanny nap while I wrote the diary.
We made tea and settled in for the night. Watched TV and then went to bed. Hope we get moving tomorrow. It is good to rest but it makes it hard to get going again.
Got lots of messages from Adam, also one from Calvin. He is still at home. Don't know when we'll see him. Probably when we get to Robe.
My brother rang and said hopefully we would see him on Sunday. That will be good.
Day 48. Wednesday November 21st, 2007
We woke fairly early and did our usual routine. We were out of the Park by 9.30 and heading off towards Millicent. The hardest part is getting out of the town. It takes such a long time! We finally made the outskirts and headed for open country. We knew there was a town before Millicent but we didnt have any idea about any camp stops as Adam and Calvin had only checked out the township of Millicent It was pretty hard going as we had stopped for a couple of days rest. It is hard to get up to speed.As we were leaving the city limits a young man was heading towards us. He stopped to ask us some questions and then said "I have got the right people then!" He was from the A.B.C. and asked if we could do an interview and then take some photos. We agreed. Anything for the cause. It took about half an hour and then we said our goodbyes and headed off. I said to Bernie "we forgot to ask when it was to be aired". Not to worry we will just have to put the radio on and listen. We continued on our way resting every 5 kilometres or so. We had just stopped at the 10 kms for our drink and rest. There was a fairly big climb ahead of us and the best way to deal with this is to take it one step at a time. We were nearing the top when we noticed a person on a bike just ahead of us. He was waitng right at the top of the hill. When we finally got there he had a huge grin on his face. We just looked at him. He says "well now I have seen everything". We just laughed. WE pulled over to a clearing and started talking. His name is David and he is riding around Oz on a bike that is 100 years old. He is retracing the steps of a man that he read about that had done the same thing on a bike exactly the same as his. He is also doing it for the Cystic Fibrosis Charity. WWW.cysticfibrosis.org.au.bikeride.davidnelson He had done over 16000 kmsand still doesnt finish until he gets back to Sydney. You should have seen the size of his legs! We decided to sit for a while . He was telling us about his crossing of the Nullabor. He said we would be better to do it in the cooler months.Something we have been seriously thinking about! It was great to talk to a fellow traveller. He was just about to leave when 2 more riders rocked up. Dave obviously had met them before as he started introducing them to us. We all decided that it would be a good idea to have a cup of tea. Bernie set up the stove and the rest of us sat around and exchanged our stories. The guy was from Mexico and I cannot remember his name and the girl was from Germany and her name was Claudia. It was great listening to all their stories. We must have been on the side of that road for over an hour. We took photos all round and then that was when Claudia realized that they had left their tripod back at the caves at Tantanoola some 20 kms back. The mexican guy phoned the hosts at the caves and somebody had handed it in so he said he was going to ride back and get it. I just looked at Bernie and we both must have thought the same thing. 20 kms back. No way. We dont do back!! David and Claudia were heading on to Mt Gambier we were heading who knows where and the crazy Mexican had gone to get his tripod. So we headed off feeling really lazy. I could of stopped by the first set of trees for the night but knew that we hadnt walked any where near far enough. About 10 kms further on we came across a community hall. The gates werent locked so we went in. We were looking for a phone number on the board but couldnt find one. We pushed the carts round the back and took out our chairs and had a rest. We decided that we would sit it out. Wait to see if anybody showed up and if they didnt we would spend the night here. I went for a wander just to have a look around and when I came back Bernie was talking to a man. He lived at the back of the hall about a km away. He said it was okay for us to stay as long as we didnt light any fires. He got in his car and left. We set up the tent early which is always good. Nobody could see us and we were out of the wind. We made dinner and cleaned up. Because of daylight savings it takes a long time for darkness to come. This is sometimes good as it ginves us time to do other things in the light of day. I usually read or write this diary. Bernie makes sure the campsite is safe and then relaxes with a drink and maybe a book or he just listens to the radio. Luckily we can get the ABC anywhere. Adam sent us some messsages to see how and where we are. I really miss you Adam. I miss Hangman and Paddocks. Hopefully you will join up with us again later in the walk?
Day 49. Thursday November 22nd, 2007
We actually were very lazy and didnt get moving until very late. The guy from last night has already driven his car up and is talking to Bernie about our trip. We thanked him again and he headed off for work. We were walking to Tantanoola today. It is a small town Off the highway. We dont usually do this but Adam said we could camp in the town so we have decided to give it a go. The road is getting dificult to walk on as the shoulder is getting thinner all the time. Most times we can walk on the road but when cars or trucks come we have to get off quick smart. Most people have been really good and give us a wide berth if they can. But it is hard when you have to pick up the cart and heave it across the dirt so you dont get hit. This is how Bernie originally hurt his shoulder. It still hasnt recovered properly and it will probably be like it for the remainder of the journey. So this makes the going very slow. We continued on our way until we saw the turn off to where we had to go. At least we were off the main drag. The road was good and hardly any traffic. Tantanoola is a very small town but it does have a big legend. Apparently about 80 years ago a circus came through the town on the train. The train derailed and the Tiger escaped. The story is it is still roaming the area. Must be an old tiger!! We finally made the township and headed for the local shop. We bought some food and then asked the shopkeeper where we could camp. She said most people just camped along the medium strip. We walked across the road and looked for a place to set up the tent. It was okay and it was free. Unfortunately the closest toilets were about a km away. Never mind we will set our own up once it gets dark. It started to rain so we headed for the old railway station. It was nice and dry in there. We made our tea and sat in there for about 4 hours. There was a power point so we thought we would plug in the mobile phone. I couldnt believe that it still worked. Free power. This is great. Pity they had closed off the toilets. I went for a walk as I needed to use the ladies. It was located at the footy ground. When I came back Bernie was on the phone. He was talking to Brian. Seems there was some problem with Calvin. We dont know what happened but he was no longer with Aussie Helpers. Calvin rang a little later wanting to know what was going on aswell. Bernie told him to ring Brian. The sun was starting to set and the rain had stopped so we decided now would be a good time to put up the tent. We were right opposite the pub as it was the only place that had any trees. Later in the night I was woken up by some woman yelling at the top of her lungs. She had obviously had a skinfull. Bernie was still up and said that there had been all sorts happening. People urinating in the streets, drunks staggering around. Arguments and loud mouthed women. He said that we were okay as they couldnt see us from over the road. I went back to sleep just as it started to rain again. I hope the tent isnt to wet in the morning.
Day 50. Friday 23rd November 2007
Slept really well. Got up early as we didnt want the tent still up when all the kids went to school. Made breaky and went on our way. We were really hoping to make Millicent today.It is only about 15 kms so we should be there by lunch. It was a good walk today. There were a million flies but our nets are doing a great job. We made the otskirts of the town and were walking along the footpath as it is easier than on the road in a town, when a council truck pulled up next to us. We went over to the driver and realised that he was the man that had told us about the fatality in Mt Gambier. He said that he had seen us a few times but wasnt in a position to stop and talk. He asked if there was anything we needed or if there was anything he could do for us. We said no but thank you anyway. He said he had better get on and maybe we might meet up again soon. Its always good to meet people again and catch up with things since we last saw them. We continued into town with our tummies grumbling. I was starved. We passed a supermarket and decided to do some grocery shopping so then we wouldnt have to go back out again once we made it to the Caravan Park. Bernie went in and I stayed and looked after the carts. Quite a few people came over to ask the usual questions. I answered most of them with the same old answers. Bernie came out and we headed for the park. We stopped off at the take away for something nice to eat. We were sat on a bench eating lunch when Kerry phoned. I dont know the whole situation but something wasnt right somewhere. It seems that Kerry is going to get on the P.R. trail again. They also have another couple from inner Adelaide who want to come on board.and we should know more soon. Bernie asked after Calvin but she said she didnt know what was going on. A few people gave us donations as we were eating lunch. The Donations have all but dried up but hopefully if Kerry is back on the job they might improve. Hopefully she will contact the media before we get into town not as we are leaving. I do think the awareness has grown though because more and more people we meet already know what we are doing. We headed on through town to the Lakeside Caravan Park where our hosts Mark and Desi Dommenz were really kind and gave us the camp site for free. It is a lovely Park with a grest camp kitchen and bbq area. The grass is lush and easy to put the pegs into.There was only one problem.A black and white one! A mother magpie didnt think we should have been there and she let us know it everytime we went across to the toilet blocks. Bloody magpies!! We have been really lucky as this is the first time we have been swooped. Bernie set up the tent while I went for a much needed shower and then I made up the bed while Bernie went for his. I know we are in a park but we still do not trust people with the carts so we try not to leave them on their own unless we absolutely have to. We settled in but I needed to do some washing as we dont carry many clothes so I wash as often as I can. The weather is good so it wont take long for them to dry. Several people came over and some gave us money and others just wanted a chat. We love talking to people about our trip and also listening to their trails aswell. One couple was telling us about a guy on a bike who had camped here two nights ago and it had to be David. We told them that we had caught up with him on the road two days ago. It was getting late so we went to the camp kitchen to make our tea. They have a tv in the room so Bernie got to see Friday Night Download with the guys fron FNL.(friday night live big brother) We are only staying one night, so Iwent to bed early so that I could get a good nights sleep. Before Adam left he gave me his Ipod and put heaps of music on it for me. It is lovely to fall asleep listening to my favourite music. Thank you Adam!!!
Day 51. Saturday 24th November 2007
Woke up ater a great sleep. Well today is Election Day. What would the day bring? We broke camp and said farewell to the Park owners and thanked them again. We are heading for Beachport, 36 kms away. We will walk to Rendelsham for lunch which we have made and packed in our day packs, and then start looking for a place to camp. All was well. No shoulders, Shitty roads,no truckies. We stopped at the town for lunch in a park under a huge willow tree. There were toilets and an information rotunda. It was lovely. We should have stopped there but we had only walked about 13 kms. We both felt good so we decided to carry on. We walked about another 5kms and found a track leading into the scrub. We went in but unfortunately there wasnt enough flat ground to put up the tent. We stayed for about half an hour and said that there might be some more further on so we headed off again. There wasnt anymore and we were starting to think that maybe we had stuffed up again. It is so hard to know what to do or where to stay. It is always our biggest problem.I had decided to push Rommie as Bernies shoulder is very sore. Steve is much lighter.Rommie is great to push. It is just like coming home. I guess you have to push the carts to know what I am talking about. She is really solid and just goes exactly where you push her. I also thought that I had been whingeing a little bit too much lately so this was my way of saying sorry. We couldnt find anywhere to camp and we still had a long way to go before we were at Beachport.We kept on walking. At about the 25 km mark Bernie found a track. He went to check it out but all he found was heaps of prickles. He spent about half an hour pulling them out of his socks and shoes. We sat and discussed the sitiuation and decided that we would just go for it. I phoned the caravan park to see what time they closed. 8.00pm. It was now 5.30 and we still had at least 10 kms to walk. We were really tired but we headed off. Bernie turned the radio on so that he could listen to the Election live on the ABC. We stopped again at the 30 km mark as I had to go to the toilet and then I had to pull all the prickles out of my shoes and socks. We continued on and at about 7.30pm we pulled into the Caravan Park. We found a tent site and sat down to rest for a while. Bernie had taken Rommie back with 10 kms to go. I was really proud of myself for pushing Rommie for so long. We then set up the tent made tea had our showers and sat back and listened to Kevin Rudd win the the election. We had walked way too far today but no matter how many times we say we wont do that again we always end up doing it. I guess that is partly what this trip is about. Nothing is ever the same as what you think it is. I guess you just have to go with the flow. Bernie recieved a call from Calvin. He said that he missed us and Bernie said that he was still welcome to be with us even if he wasnt with Aussie Helpers anymore. We have decided that we will stay here another night. It is very windy. hopefully it will blow itself out. Went to bed very tired.
Big Hellos to :Jody, Chris, Brayden and Ashley.
:Heather and Bodge
:Christine, David, Thomas and Ebony.
:Kim and Suzy.
:All the great truckies out there.
:To David Nelson. Hope you made Melbourne in time for
your media commitment!!
Day 52. Sunday 25th November2007
Had a sleep in until 10.30. Had showers and then went to pay for another night. We walked into town to spoil ourselves and have a big breakfast. Bernie bought a Sunday Mail which is odd because he doesnt normally buy papers. It was good to read all about S.A. We lived here for most of our lives so it was good to hear all about places that we were familiar with. We dont miss S.A. Its way too hot and my hayfever plays up but it is good to be here. We walked around the town and out on the jetty. It is still very windy and we are both glad that we are not walking today. We went back to the park and had a nanny nap. We dont have enough of these! We woke at about 4.00pm and decided that we would be really bad and go back into town and have fish and chips for tea. We then bought supplies for on the road tomorrow. We had an early night as Bernie has to be up at 5.00am as he has another interview with the ABC in Hobart.
Day 53. Monday 26th November2007
Woke up really early But Bernie wasnt in the tent. I forgot that he has his radio interview. He came back in the tent about half an hour later. He was absolutely freezing. He snuggled in close to get warm. He said that the interview went really well and had them in stitches with some of the things he was telling them. He said that the wind was blowing at about 35 to 40 knots. It is a gale again. I wonder if it will be any better when we get out of the town. We ummed and ahhed about whether to go. By 7.30 we had decided that we would stay another day. Went back to sleep and didnt wake until 11.00. We finally got up and went to the desk to pay for one more night. We continued on to town and had a coffee and then went to buy some meat for lunch. We went back to the park and had a beautiful bbq even though it was only 3.00pm. Isnt it great when you can do what you want when you want! We definately need more of this. I also did some washing. Cant pass up a great opportunity like this. We rested and listened to the radio. I did some work on the diary and have finally caught it up. I would also like to take this opportunity to say Happy Birthday to my sister in law Suzy. Hope you have a great day.
Day 54. Tuesday 27th November 2007
Woke early. Weather is much better. Started early but then got talking to a few people. One we met in Nelson and one from England. A man who had been a policeman in my birth town of Leeds. We got talking about England and holidays. We finally got moving about an hour later.The roads were no better and I think we were carrying just about every fly in Aust. We are heading for Robe but it will take us three days to get there. We were going to walk about 20 kms today so from the 15 km mark onwards we will be looking for somewhere to stay. We found a side road at the 18 km mark and follwed it down to the beach. We pushed the carts through a gate that was open and headed across the beach. We found a great camp spot among the trees and the flies all disappeared. It was still really early as we had made really good time today. We had a wonderful view of Lake George. We went for a walk to the waters edge. We had something to eat and then set about relaxing. It sounds easy but it seems to take a lot of effort to try and relax. I read my book for a while and listened to the radio. We set up the tent and prepared for a great sunset. Took some great pictures but they are never as good as the real thing. We didnt know if we were allowed to be there but we wont destroy anything or leave anything behind. We had a couple of late night visitors. Bernie thinks that they must have cray pots in the lake. They didnt know that we were there so we could spy on them. I went to bed and listened to my music. I did hear another car pull up but Bernie said it was just another lot of people checking their pots.
Day 55. Wednesday 28th November 2007
Woke after a great nights sleep. Had more cray pot visitors. Dont think that they saw us! We made breaky without flies and repacked the carts. Poured all the sand back onto the beach fron out of our shoes, clothes and bedding! Headed off down the road and picked up all our fly friends. It certainly doesnt take them long to find us. We settled into our normal walking pattern. Dont know where we are heading but I am sure we will find something. It is way too far to walk to Robe. The day was good and the weather is getting better. I think we are in for a hot summer over here. We found a few more tools on the side of the road. We will have a whole new tool box by the time we have finished. It is taking us a while to find somewhere to stay. Not too much around. There are a couple of Parking bays coming up. The first was terrible as someone had decided to use it as a dumping ground and there is crap everywhere. We stopped for a rest and checked the map. There is another bay in 5 kms so we will head to that. Made the second bay and it is better than the first one but not too much flat ground. The only flat ground is under a pile of dumped grass clippings so we will have to clear this before we can set up the tent and of course it will be full of mozzies so I wont be up late tonight! We made dinner while we waited for nightfall. The cover we have is not the best but once the sun goes down you wont be able to see us anyway. The mozzie came out and bit me so I went inside the tent and was talking to Bernie through the netting. He never seems to get bitten mind you he puts heaps of lotion on. At least now I have my cream which stops the bites becoming infected. I have also been taking some multivitamins and I am feeling much better. This part of the trip is a little bit boring for us because we have travelled this road many times before. We sit and listen to the radio. We have this announcer on the ABC and his name is Peter Goers and he is really funny. Bernie loves listening to him every night. He has some great guests. We tried to ring him but so far have been unable to get through. Hopefully tommorrow we will be in Robe and I will be able to see my brother.
Day 56. Thursday 29th November 2007
Suprisingly had a good nights sleep! It was a bit hard on the back but not too bad. Heading for Robe and have decided to stay there for two nights. We have been to Robe lots of times before so we know what to expect. It is a nice place right on the beach. Hopefully the wind wont pick up again. It is going to be a pretty hot day today. We will get a cabin for the two nights as we deserve it. My brother phoned and said he would be there by about 2.30 so that gives us plenty of time without having to rush. We headed off and plodded our way to the 5 and 10 km marks. A few nice hills greeted us just before Robe. Had to walk past the road that will take us to Kingston. This is the second time this has happened and it certainly wont be the last. This can be a little annoying as we dont like retracing our steps and it adds kms to our trip which really dont count. I know what you are thinking but every 4 or 5 kms every time suddenly become a days extra walk for us with nothing to show for it. We have decided to stay at the Lakeside Caravan Park as it is the closest one to walk to and it is probably the best one! The centre of town is still about 3 kms away but I Will see if Kim will take me into town to do some shopping. WE went to reception to book in and the boss offered us a cabin for $25 per night. It was very generous of him. He also gave us free ice blocks that went down a treat as it is really starting to warm up. WE thanked him very much. The cabin was surrounded by trees and was really cool inside. My brother was coming soon so I went and had a shower so that at least I would smell okay. I came back but he hadnt arrived so Bernie said he would go for his. I was getting all our things that we would need from out of the carts, when he pulled up. It was great to see a familiar face. He gave me a great big hug and nearly made me cry. He had brought his father in law with him who I know fairly well. It was lovely to see Peter again. I havent seen him since Kims 50th birthday party and that was 6 years ago. Kim said he needed to use the toilet so I showed him where it was. Peter and I went into the cabin and sat down and caught up on some gossip. About 10 minutes later both Kim and Bernie both came into the cabin and sat down and joined in with the conversation we were having. Suzy my sister in law has just moved to Tassie and I was asking Peter if he was missing his daughter. Kim will soon be in Tassie aswell. It will be good when we get back to have some family close by. We talked for a while longer and then Kim offered to take me into town to do some shopping and to get something for dinner as we havent eaten since breaky. We went to the local fish and chip shop and bought tea. Then we went to the local supermarket and then Kim took me for a drive around the town and then we headed back to the park. We sat and ate tea and talked some more and then it was time for Kim and Peter to say goodbye. We took some photos and then before we knew it we were once again on our own. Kim said that he would try and catch up with us again real soon. Hopefully he will bring some new maps with him. They are CFS maps and go into much more detail so that should be good. He also has another single burner that he says we can have. We decided that the big camp stove was taking up too much room and way too much so we have sent it back to Adam and we now use a single burner and disposable gas tins. It is much lighter and gives us a bit more room. So with Kims we will now have two which is great. Time was getting on and I was really starting to get tired. I was hoping to do some washing but I guess that can wait until tomorrow. It will be lovely to sleep late tomorrow. Watched a little telly just to catch up on things. Went off to bed. It was nice to sleep on a mattress although we never sleep as well as when we are in the tent!
Day 57. Friday 30th November 2007
Woke late which was good. Bernie got up and went to pay for another night. Geoff and Robin Moloney who are our hosts have once again let us have the cabin for $25. They are wonderful people and have been marvelous so if you are in Robe at any time we suggest you use the Lakeside Tourist Park. I got up and did the washing. We have decided to go for a walk into town. I know, we must be mad. We really need the exercise or we get very stiffand anyway they have a great Bakery in town. I have finished my last Harry Potter book so I am going to send it off to Adam as it is silly to carry stuff we dont need any more. We walked the 3 kms into town, bought lunch and went to the foreshore park to eat it. The day is gloriously warm. Went to the Post Office and sent the book. Looked through the town for more books but couldnt find a second hand book shop. Went into the chemist for some more supplies, padding, bandaids and hayfever tablets then onto the supermarket and the bottlo for some relaxation in a bottle and then walked back to the Park. Bernie cleaned Rommie out and then started filling up water bottles. We had a very relaxing afternoon. Spoke to Adam and Jody. All is well. We had dinner, folded the washing, packed away all our things into the carts ready for the morning. We made some sandwiches for lunch tomorrow. Had showers, watched tv and then it was bedtime again. It has been a good two days and was great to see my brother and I am looking forward to seeing him again real soon.
I would like to take this time to thank all the people who have been so kind to Bernie and myself as far as accommodation in Caravan Parks. Those who have given us free nights and cheaper rates. It means a lot to us as it helps us to go just a little further. You are wonderful people and again we thank you. You know who you are.
Day 58. Saturday 1st December 2007
We woke early as we wanted to get moving before it gets too hot. I sent a messsage to Brayden, Our grandson. Today is his 9th birthday. I cant believe how fast the years have gone. It was lovely to talk to him. Seems he has had a good birthday already going by all his presents. Have a happy birthday. We finished packing and then we went to take the key back. Bernie thanked our hosts once again for their wonderful hospitality. They said that they would keep up with our journey on the web page. Peter had told us about a hall at Mt Benson so we have decided to head there for our campsite. The weather was warming up and we had just made our first stop at the 5km mark. It is very dry out here and the snake season it well and truly upon us. We had just headed off again when a car load of guys in a commodore came past us really close and one of them tried to hit Bernie with a cricket bat! What a bunch of morons. They were probably doing about 100kms per hour. If they had of connected they could have killed him. Why are there such dickheads out there? We have been very lucky up till now. It is a little scary when you start thinking more deeply about the incident. We continued on when about 10 minutes later another car load of idiots, also in a commodore, came past us and tried to grab Rommies flags. You can imagine how close they came to us. They didnt get them but for this to happen twice was a bit of a worry for us. Unfotrunately we didnt think about taking down their rego numbers as you are to busy trying to get out of the way. We know that the roads are always busier on the weekends but we always keep to our side of the road. We can certainly do without these types of morons on the road. We stopped at the 10km and had a much needed rest. We discussed the two incidents just to get it out of our systems. We continued on although we were very wary for a while and I walked on the dirt for some time until I got my confidence back. We came across the Mt. Benson Hall. Bernie had a good look around. It wasnt too bad as there was an area around the side where we could camp. There were a couple of houses so Bernie did the right thing and went to see if it was okay for us to stay the night. He came back but there was no one home. He had a strange look on his face and so I asked him what was wrong. He said that he had seen a snake trail across the dirt road just by the house. We will have to make sure we make lots of noise. One good thing is that there is a toilet here and the door has been left open so at least we wont have to wander into the bush to go. We had set up our chairs and were just relaxing when Bernie noticed that there was a wine tasing centre across the road. He went over and I stayed with the carts. It was really hot now and he said that they might sell something cold for us to drink. He came back after about 15 minutes and said that the lady had invited us over there under the shade. So we pushed the carts over the road. It was really nice over there but the flies were terrible. She gave us some beautiful ice cold water from there own aquafir from under the hall. It was the best tasting water since Tasmania which is unusual for S.A. because they have terrible water!!We stayed there for about 2 and a half hours. The lady told us all about the area and how they had only just started to reap the rewards for all the hard work they had put in. They grow vines and sell their wines here along with the rest of the community. So this was the original hall but it had been converted for the sales. It was a lovely building and a lovely afternoon. Bernie helped her to pack up the outside chairs and tables. WE were just about to leave when she gave us the bottles of wine that had been opened that day for tasting. We got about three bottles and they were almost full. We thanked her and then the usual photos had to be taken. We said our thanks and then pushed the carts across the road. We now had permission to stay there so that always makes us feel better. We set the tent up around the side and cooked up our dinner. We washed the dishes and had everything done by 7.00 so now all we had to do was relax and Bernie had 3 bottles of good wine to sample. He reckons there isnt too much better than free grog! We got another call from Calvin and it seems he still would like to help us when he can. He is on his way to Kingston so we will meet up with him there. Hopefully we will also get to meet his wife. Kerry also rang just to make sure we were okay. They have some people in Adelaide who have joined Aussie Helpers so Brian will be in Adelaide soon. Hopefully he will come through this way and maybe we can sort out what is going on. We settled in for the night lstening to the radio. Do you know how hard it is trying to listen to a Basketball match when you cant see the action? 36ers won! Havent followed them for years. See what happens when all you have to listen to is the ABC. It is great to listen to it again. ABC grandstand on the weekends are great. Any sport you want and youll get the score. All the cricket. This is great. Hey the wines were really great too!!! Time for bed.
Day 59. Sunday 2nd December 2007
Woke up and the tent was full of mozzies. Not inside but in the front part of our verandah. Luckily our tent has two exits so we went out the back way and then came round and sprayed the front part and watched them all fall to the ground. We had a really quick breakfast and broke camp really fast. We dont know if we will make Kingston today or not. Hopefully we will! I am very tired and my body hurts so I think it might be time for several days rest. It isnt until you really start thinking about what you have done everyday and how far you have walked that you can understand just why you are so tired. It doesnt seem like much each day but when you add it all up its a bit mind blowing. Bernie is tired too and really fed up with the flies. It is the one thing that can really get him down. He cant stand flies! They are just so thick. We spray everything but it doesnt make any difference. You see, we are in "cow" country. They stink and all the flies love it. Because we sweat and dont shower all the time they love us too. Love it though when the wind blows because they hate it. We head off down the road. 26kms to Kingston. Long way. We made stops at the usual km marks. Nearly got run over by a car that was overtaking another car from behind us. He didnt have to go so wide. Came really close to me but I didnt see him. Bernie is starting to worry. Its a really crappy road with no shoulders at all so we are walking in the dirt. Be glad to get back on the main highway again. Not a good day today. We got to the parking bay about 7 kms from the town and decided to have a rest. We will walk to Kingston today but first we will rest. We move off again and finally come to the outskirts off the town. We have never stayed here before but have driven through it many times. It is not a huge place but it will have everything we need. It is probably best known for its Giant Lobster at the other end of the town. Again we had to turn off the main road and walk another 3 kms to the town centre. The Park was right on the beach but unfortunately they seem to have a seaweed problem. Every year they scrape it up and cart it away and use it for fertilizer but the smell is horrendous. If you have ever been to Rotorua in N.Z. then you will know what I am talking about. We got to our cabin and set ourselves up for the night. It was so good not tohave any flies on us. Somebody told us that this is the worst that they have seen the flies and that it has something to do with the late rains which helps with the breeding. The caravan park had a take away menu which was great because we were too tired to cook so we ordered dinner and then had showers. The dinner was absolutely disgusting just as well I wasnt that hungry anyway. Next time I will just cook. Kim rang and said he would see us on Wednesday and that Suzies mum would be coming with him. Calvin also rang and he will be here tomorrow so we made arrangements to meet up in town. Nerida Egan rang to make sure that we were all alright, she didnt know that Adam had gone back so Bernie explained the whole story to her. It seems such a long way back when Adam left. We watched a bit of telly. I went to bed. I am so tired. I feel like I have a really bad flu but I know that I havent. Maybe my body is trying to tell me something.
Day 60-62. Mon-Wed 3rd-5th December 2007
We decided to stay at KIngston for 3 more nights. We will stay in a cabin and totally rest. We had a cabin with an ensuite so we dont have to go to the blocks for showers or the toilet. We could stay inside and never go out and nobody would be any the wiser. We have everything we need except food so we will go into town for a walk and get supplies. We headed off and to our suprise we ran into Calvin and Betty. They were waiting for us in their winabago. We talked for ages about all sorts of things. They were staying just up the road from us. We bid them farewell and said that we would see them later. We headed on into town to get food. Walked back to the park, did the usual washing and rested for the rest of the day. We basiacally did this for two more days. Slept and read books and watched telly and slept some more. Kim came and brought Pauline with him. It was really good to see them. Kim brought us the new maps which are fantastic, some stickers for the carts supporting the CFS his new cooker with extra gas bottles so that was great too. They stayed for a few hours and then had to leave as they had a fair drive home. We thanked them both for coming and for all the things they brought us. We keep in frequent touch with Kim. I know he isnt too happy with what we are doing because he worries so much about us but he is always there if we need anything. We love him for this. Calvin and Betty came again to see us and Calvin said that he has arranged for us to recieve a free pair of shoes from the Brooks Company. They were happy to hear that we had chosen their shoes when we first started our walk. Cool!!! Free shoes. Over the last few days Bernie and I have had many discussions about our trip. We have made many changes and had lots of different ideas. This is why right at the beginning we rejected sponsors because now we can do as we want not what they want. The freedom to do so is great. We can change anything we want when we want. Which is exactly what we plan to do!!Changes are in the air!
Day 63.Thursday 6th December 2007
Woke up ready to continue. We take on the Coorong. Kingston is the last place to get supplies until Salt Creek which is just a roadhouse about 85 kms away. It is like a mini Nullabor. A practice run. It will probably take 4 Walking days to get there. We have enough supplies for about a week. we have filled water containers and bottles. We have our new maps and they are great. So we head off through town and back onto the main highway. We have a shoulder. About time! Seems the state government has spent $15 million on the upgraded road. So they should. We are going to head for a place called the Granites. The road is good but it seems that we are going uphill all the time. The vegetation is changing. Teatrees and scrubland. We are getting closer to the ocean. Very sandy. We are going to be walking on the old Coorong road. This is the area where Storm Boy the movie was filmed. Bernie and I used to come here all the time when we were living in S.A. There is hardly any traffic on this road. We need To find the turn off for the Granites. It doesnt seem long before we see it and turn left onto the dirt road. We see a few dead snakes on the road. Must take extra care. The flies are really bad but really slow. The weather is very strange. A huge thunder storm is on the way. We have been listening to the radio and keeping up with the storm.It has already caused several fires out west at Nullabor and Weruka both started by lightning. It is so dry. We make the granites but there is only a carpark there. We chain the carts up and go down to the ocean. Try to find somewhere to camp but we would never get the carts back up the sand dunes. We sit out on the beach and kill flies for about 2 hours. Several bus loads of people come to the lookout and walk along the beach. Lots of photos and then they are gone. We meet a lady who is camped in a 4wd up at the carpark. We head back to the carts . Luckily they are still there! We dont leave them often unless we have to. We put up the tent but leave the fly off as we will cook indoors as the flies are still with us. It is nearly dusk and the skies are really wierd. Kangaroo Island is on fire. 5 Fires are burning out of control. We have spent lots of time over there. It is a lovely island and it is sad to think that it is burning again. As the night wears on the storms are now in Adelaide and have caused havoc everywhere. You can smell the rain in the air. We listen to the radio for a long time as the storm isnt due to hit us until midnight. You can see the glow from Kangaroo Island. Bernie is a little worried as there is nothing else in the carpark. No trees. which means if we do get lightning there is more chance that we will get hit. There isnt much we can do about it. We put the fly on and try to get some rest. The storm hits but not as bad as we first thought. Lots of thunder and we can see the lightning but it is not close to us. It doesnt rain very much. I must have fallen asleep beacause I dont remember anything else.
Day 64. Friday 7th December 2007
Well what a night! The thunder woke me up in the middle of the night and I was too scared to go back to sleep. I was really worried that if the tent caught on fire we wouldnt get out in time. I must have gone back to sleep at some time and yet I feel like I didnt sleep at all. So now I am really tired. We had to have breaky in the tent again because of the flies. This really is getting beyond a joke! Packed up real quick and headed off for the road again. We are hoping to walk 20 kms today. We had our usual breaks. Bernie is not good today. He has had enough of these flies. I guess in a car you can at least get away from them. Because we are walking there is no escape from them. I think they will be our downfall!!! There are hundreds of them all over us every day. We have seen a couple of dead snakes and heaps of stumpy lizards dead on the side of the road. We have seen dead koalas not too many kangaroos and a few dead deer but Bernie is only concerned about the snakes. We continued on, the weather isnt very good but then after a storm what do you expect? We hadnt decided where we would stop today so at the 20km mark we started to keep our eyes open. The Coorong is a National Park so there are always places to camp. We didnt want to stay where there are other campers as it is a risk as you may lose anything that isnt tied down. This has happened to us before! Plus we like to be on our own. We came across a dirt road leading towards the beach on the left hand side. There was a house just 300 mts on the right. The road was called Pontenburg Rd and we saw a clearing about 200 mts further down. This was just what we needed. We pushed the carts in through the trees. There was another clearing about 150 mts even further in. This was great. Nobody could see us and nobody with a car could get in either. We were surrounded by teatrees. But the best thing was that the flies had pissed off. The ground was very sandy which means the pegs will go in nice and easy. This is bliss! We set up camp. Put up our chairs. Had something to eat and then relaxed for the next couple of hours. We didnt hear any cars only kids from the house across the way. We could here the beach. I love the sound of the sea. It is amazing how different things are from one day to the next. We decided to put up the tent early and get everything done so that we could relax until bedtime. There was no undergrowth so we had no problem with snakes. It was really lovely here. I think we would have stayed longer but Bernie still worries about the supplies just in case I get another migraine, plus we need to keep moving as the days are getting hotter. We have been having lots of talks lately about the trip. I guess it was bound to happen as we have had so many days where it has just been so hard. We have now decided to discuss what we are going to do. We were just going to call it quits and go home. It has been nothing like we thought. Nothing ever is. The flies are unbelievable and Bernies biggest problem. The snakes are another. The weather is getting hotter. We dont want to give up just yet. We have to get a better mindset. So we have decided to break the trip up into sections. The main benefit will be that we will only be walking in the cooler months. Hence: no snakes, less flies, less heat and safer conditions. It would be a folly for us to venture out into the deserts during the heats of the summer. The stages are as follows. Stage 1: Ulverstone to Adelaide. Stage 2: Perth to Adeaide. Stage 3: Darwin to Perth. Stage 4: Katherine to Melbourne. Stage 5: Melbourne to Devonport via Hobart. That sees us completing all we had set out to achieve but in manageable and more interesting stages. The only problem is time. We will have to stop for longer periods to work and get the necessary funds to keep going. Upon reaching Adelaide we will organize passage for the carts and us on the Indian Pacific to take us to Perth, Where we will say goodbye for several months while we improve our finances and sit out the hotter months. In April 2008 we will hopefully head off again walking across the Nullabor finishing yet again in Adelaide. Then we will take the Ghan up to Darwin and then work again until we head back to Perth. Then continue through the stages as it takes our fancy. So this is our new plan of attack and has made a big difference to our mindset.We both feel much better about the trip. Lets see how things go from here. It makes it easier having campsites like this. Well it is time for bed and I know I will sleep much better tonight. It feels like a great weight has been lifted.
Day 65. Saturday 8th December 2007
What a great nights sleep. Isnt life better when you have a positive approach. Woke early. Didnt really want to leave this great spot but knew we had to! Calvin rang to tell us that our shoes are waiting for us in Murray Bridge but they will take 10 days to get to the Post Office. It will take us longer than that so that will work well for us. Great, new shoes!! My shoes are just about at their end. We had a good breakfast and cleaned up. Packed the carts and headed off. We are hoping to walk about 20 - 25 kms today. That way we will only have about 18 kms into Salt Creek tomorrow. The weather is hot today so we have put our short sleeve shirts on. I need a tan again anyway! The sun is burning but the wind is cool as we are still pretty close to the beach. I hope we can find another good campsite. We stopped at our usual breaks and had lots to talk about with our new plans. I love trains so I think it is going to be great. I reckon that they are the best way to travel. The day wore on and we have walked a long way. My legs are very sore and so is my lower back. I dont know why. Steve is pretty heavy still as I am carrying a lot more food. We have done about 25 kms so I said maybe it was time to start looking for somewhere to stop. There is a rest area about 18 kms east of Salt Creek so that is what we headed for. When we arrive it is the entrance to the 42 mile crossing camping ground. The actual campground is still another 3 kms further in but because we have the carts we can go anywhere. We found an opening and then searched around for some clearings. Saw a couple and chose one. Nobody could see us. We had shade. We decided to stay put for the night. The sun was now a bright red due to the fires on Kangaroo Island plus it was very smokey. We have found another great site. We set up the tent. The pegs went straight in the ground which was like a damp clay. We gad a great dinner. Did the dishes. Set up everything that we would need and then settled in to listen to the 36ers play again on the radio. Unfortunately they got beat but it was lovely here in the Coorong. Nobody around, NO FLIES and just the radio. The night was good. No mozzies until just before bed time. Things are certainly feeling much better. Bernie and I have a lot of fond memories here at the Coorong. We have camped here many times and have always enjoyed our time while on holiday. Mobile phone coverage is not good but we were able to get a message out to Adam. We always like to have somebody know our whereabouts just in case something goes wrong. At least then they can check the last place we were. Went to bed feeling tired but good.
Day 66. Sunday 9th December 2007
Another great sleep. I remember not too long ago when I would stay awake half the night because I was so worried about somebody getting us, now I just nod off so easily. I guess when you have had as many bush camps as we have you are bound to get use to it. We will make Salt Creek today. We have never been there before because we always took the dirt road when we went camping. I think there is only a Roadhouse but there should be a caravan park another 3 kms further on. It has just started to rain so we quickly break camp and head off down the road. We are wearing our raincoats today. We have travelled the Coorong for 4 days and the weather has been different each day. At least when it rains there arent any flies. We headed for the first parking bay for our first stop. When we get there some really awful people must had killed a deer and stuck its head in the rubbish bin. It was awful. We moved further down the rest area away from the sight. I keep thinking how awful it would be if you pulled in with your kids and they saw that . We live in terrible times!!! We headed off again. I couldnt get out of there quick enough. We were walking along when a car slowed down right in front of us. It nearly caused an accident as there were other cars behind it. The car came to a complete stop and who should get out but our friendly neighborhood police officer that we met on the road to Mt Gambier. We stopped and had a chat and told him about the deer in the rubbish bin. Hopefully he will have it removed. We also told him about the idiots who tried to hit us and he said next time it happens take down the rego number and give him a ring and he will deal with them! It was great to see him again. We said our farewells and headed off for our next stop. I wonder what the people in the other cars thought when he pulled over and got out and spoke to us? They probably thought we were in trouble. We carried on, The sun has come out but the wind is cold. We finally made it to Salt Creek. It was a big Roadhouse with a restaurant inside. I am starving. We decided to sit in the restaurant and have a big meal. We ordered and then Bernie went back outside and locked the carts up. We ate as if we hadnt eaten in days. The food was great. We sat and talked to a couple from England who were on their 9th trip over to Aust. They love this country but they cant afford to move here. They have their son here in Qld. We will have to get some supplies here. They dont have much but we get enough to last until Meningie. We sat outside for a little while and met another couple from England who were not having much luck. Their camper van leaked water all over their bedding when it rained earlier today. They had been trying to get hold of the van company but werent having much luck. We spoke for a while and they gave us a donation the first one since Beachport. We wished them luck and headed off down the road. We still have another 3 kms to walk to the caravan park. We walked on until we saw a sign that said we were at a place called the Gemini Downs Caravan Park. We turned right and followed the dirt road. There were signs pointing in every direction. We headed for the Reception but there wasnt any home. Bernie needs to use the bathroom so we find the toilet blocks and in he goes. I saw a lady in one of the cabins and asked her where everyone was. Apparently they had all gone for a xmas dinner. We sat around for a while. The place was very dry and not much shade. I phoned a number that I found on the kitchen wall and left a message. I got a call back after about half an hour. We had to walk up this great big hill to get to a different reception area. Bernie vollunteered to go and I stayed behind to watch the carts. He was gone for ages. When he finally came back we headed off to a cabin. He said he couldnt stand the flies while he was walking up the hill. I said thats fine we can stay in the cabin for one night. Bernie says no two nights!! Oh well I can do some washing. Cant wait to get in. It has an ensuite. Gosh a shower, I cant wait. I absolutely stink no wonder the flies hang around so much. I quickly got my things together and went and had a great wash. I feel human again. I wasnt hungry so I didnt eat anything. I sorted out what I needed while Bernie had his shower and then I locked up Steve. Bernie did the same and then locked Rommie away for the night. They have an indoor pool here but I dont think we will use it. The place ues to be an old farm. Cattle I would say by the smell. They are slowly turning it into a village. There is only one other lot of people here at the moment. There is no shop so you have to go back to Salt Creek if you want anything. There isnt too much to do. They have an entertainment room but you have to walk up to the reception to get pool cues and balls if you want to play pool. No thanks. They do have lots of books but you cant exchange them. We went back to the Cabin as it was getting late and the mozzies have started to bite. We watched some telly. I must do some work on the diary as I am a long way behind. Ihavent written anything for about 10 days and I am starting to forget where we have stayed. Never mind I will worry about that tomorrow. I am tired so I am going to bed now.
Day 67. Monday 10th December 2007
Good sleep. Sunny day. Slept in. Not much happening today. Did some washing. Charged the phone. Talked to Adam. Caught up on the diary. Charged the ipod. Had some lunch. Checked the maps for the next couple of days. Talked some more about our plans. Cant wait for the train ride to Perth! Xmas is coming! Where will we be? Does it matter? Did some more writing on the diary. Folded the clean clothes. Bernie is reading. Now he is looking at me! I just read him everything I have written. We had dinner and then watched friends on tv. I went to bed and read my book while Bernie watched some more tv. Now thats what I call a lazy day!!!
Day 68. Tuesday 11th December 2007
Woke up and had a shower. Made breakie and then packed the carts. We are hoping to make Woodwell today as there is a caravan park there. It is about 14 kms so it should be a nice short day. We headed off and met up with the owner of the park. We were talking for a while about our trip. I think he must of thought that we were crazy, but then most people think we are! We finally hit the road. We are going to have an early lunch at Policemans Point which is about 5 kms up the road. The owner did tell us some bad news about the caravan park we are hoping to stay at and that it doesnt exist any longer. Oh well we will see what comes. We got to the roadhouse at the Point and went in and ordered lunch. It is always a hard thing to do to eat a big lunch and then have t push your cart up hills so that is why we dont have big lunches so often. We ate our food and the owner came out and was talking to us about her business and how they were building a new housing development right where the caravan park use to be. She was hoping that it would improve her sales. If not she would have to sell up and move back to the city. we continued on our way not feeling much like walking. We must have walked about 10 kms when we stop[ed for a rest. We checked the map and there is 2 parking bays coming up. We will check them out for suitable sites. As we were walking along I found a huge grapefruit on the side of the road. I kicked it forward and then Bernie started kicking it along. It was something so simple but lots of fun. Eventually it went onto to the road so we left it there to get squashed by a car. We had another couple of stops to rest and then started to look for a camp. We found an old gravel pit so we went into it and behind some trees and there was a clearing. We couldnt be seen so we decided that this would do for the night. We put up the tent straight away and made up the bed. Had some dinner and realized that the cricket was on so we settled in for the night listening to the radio. All of a sudden swarms of tiny little bugs were all around us. They started attacking us. We couldnt understand where they had come from. We ran into the tent and stayed there for the rest of the night. I must have been really tired because I didnt even hear the end of the cricket. I must have dozed off.
Day 69. Wednesday 12th December 2007
Woke up to the sound of swarming mozzies. Bernie looked out and the whole tent was covered in the same tiny bugs as last night. We set a plan in motion. Get the tent down as quickly as possible. Throw everything into or onto the carts and get the hell out of here. Ready, set and go. We have never taken the tent down so fast. Within about 10 minutes we were pushing those carts back towards the gravel pit and away from those bugs. We found some flat ground under a tree and started to sort out all of our things. We had breakie and then packed the carts properly. It wasnt much fun at the time but I suppose sometime much later we will sit back and laugh about this. We have 30 kms to walk today if we want to reach Meningie. We could stop after 15 kms but there isnt too much on the map so we will have to see. We headed off down the road. I felt a bit strange this morning but I put it down to the fact that we had to rush so much that we didnt have our normal routine. It taook a while to get back into stride. We had stopped at the 10 km mark for a drink and were just heading off again when two guys on bikes rode past us. They didnt stop which we thought was a bit unusual. We continued on a little way and then I turned back around and to my suprise one of the riders was right behind me. We stopped and chatted just for a liitle while. Obviously they were in a great hurry. He asked us all about our carts and the trip. He was from Germany and his friend was from Denmark. They were in a hurry as they had to be somewhere by the end of the day. He took some photos and then he was off. It was really wierd because the other guy just stayed up the road. You would think that he would have come too. Maybe he didnt speak English. I dont know but it was odd. We continued walking and when we hit the 15 km mark we stopped to check the map. It was very hot and dry. There werent too many trees around either. There wasnt anything on the map except for a lodge but that was 3.5 kms off the beaten track. So we have decided that we will head for Meningie and have an extra days rest instead. We were just packing up our chairs when a couple in a tandem bike rolled up next to us. They were from England and had ridden from Adelaide and were heading for Melbourne via the Grampians. We talked for a while and then they said that they had to be on their way as they had a big days ride ahead of them. They took photos of us and then they were gone. We moved on too. We managed to drag ourselves into Meningie at about 5.00 pm and we were so tired. We found the Caravan Park. We needed something for tea so we went into town first. We grabbed a chicken and some chips and headed for the Park. We were talking to the Owner when he said "hey, you are those guys doing the walk for the farmers". We nodded and asked how he knew. He said some guy came in here the other day and asked if we would hold onto a shade cloth for you guys. He must of been talking about Calvin. I had forgotten that we had asked him to leave it here for us. Just aswell this guy remembered because we had totally forgot. Anyway the owner gave us the campsite for nothing. He said that he and his wife used to work the land way out at Kimba but decided to get out so they bought the Lake Albert Caravan Park. I think they did the right thing! He was really good to us and we thanked him very much. He said we could camp anywhere but suggested the treed area by the camp kitchen. He went and retrieved our Shade cloth and then we went to find our campspot. It wasrght under a couple of big shady trees. We set up our chairs and just rested for a while. We ate our tea which was great. We had showers and then set about putting the tent up. The weather has cooled down so we decided to try and set our shade cloth up. It works a treat. We get the breeze but it keeps the flies and other bugs out. We put our chairs in there and rested. We have walked over 60 kms in 2 days. We listened to the weather report and the next few days are going to be very hot with temperatures of 34 tomorrow and 38 the next day. We will not walk while it is that hot so we will be here for at least 2 more nights. Because the weatheris getting hotter Bernies heels are starting to crack open and they are very sore so the extra rest will do him the world of good. Hopefully there will be a cool change on the way. We went to bed fairly late as there were a few people in the park and we said our hellos. It is nice here but still very dry. The lake is very low.
Day 70. Thursday 13th December 2007
Woke up to a very hot morning with the knowledge that it was only going to get hotter. We went into town to get supplies. Came back and did some washing. Went into our shade cloth and sat listening to the radio. I read my book for a while and then decided to phone my old workplace to say hello. The bosses werent there but my friend Heather was. I spoke to her for a very short time as she was very busy with customers and had no-one to help her. So I rang off with the promise that I would ring again later. We spent the afternoon in the shade cloth just resting and reading. We met a couple called Matt and Evie. Matt is an Aussie from Victoria and Evie is from Belgium. They camped right next to us. I had to go over and kill a big spider as no one else would go near it. We got talking about different things. What they were doing and what we are doing. Matt said that they were going into town and was there anything we needed or did we need a lift. It was really nice of him and the first person so far on our trip to have asked us other than family members. We thanked him but said no. I brought in the clothes as they had dried beautifully out in the open. They smelt so clean. I folded them and then put them in the carts. Adam phoned and I talked to him for a little while. We had a bbq for tea at about 7.30 and then spent the rest of the evening talking to Matt and Evie. We had a great time and learnt heaps . Evie also copied some photos from the camera onto a disk as she has a laptop with her. I think it was about 12.30 before we all got to bed. A great night was had by all. I think there will be a few headaches in the morning though!!
Day 71. Friday 14th December 2007
We woke early as the tent was boiling hot. It is supposed to reach 38 today. I went and had a shower early and when I got back Matt and Evie had already left. They were heading for Adelaide today. Lucky them! We are staying again as it is too hot to walk. We are going into town to get more supplies for the next couple of days. We are going early so that we are not out there in the heat of the day. Our shade cloth is doing a grat job and it is a pity that we didnt have it earlier. It is wonderful to have no flies around us. We headed into town . Got what we needed and headed back. We cleaned out the carts and then spent the rest of the day just resting. Bernie had a nanny nap and I tried phoning people again but nobody wanted to talk to me! We have to move some things around in Steve to make room for the shade cloth and the poles in Rommie. When Adam was with us they all fitted in Telemacus and then Calvin took them as we didnt think we needed them. Now that Calvin has gone ahead of us we have to carry them ourselves. Im sure we will be able to fit them all in somewhere. Tomorrow we head for Wellington. We checked the maps for camp spots. We know there is a town about half way with a hall so we will probably stay there. We went for a walk around the park before we turned in. It is nice here at Meningie. I just wish it would rain so that these places had a better water supply!
Day 72. Saturday 15th December 2007
It rained during the night and our tent is wet at the front. Bernie went for a shower and then we had breakfast. It is really overcast and windy but at least the temp has dropped by at least 20 degrees. It is supposed to rain for the next 2 days. we packed the carts after towelling off the tent. I had all sorts of problems trying to get the shade cloth to fit in. In the end poor Rommie had to carry it but I will make sure that when we stop tonight I will have enough room to fit it in Steve. Rommie is carrying way too much and it isnt helping Bernies shoulder. We set off and it has started to rain again so we stop and put on our raincoats. We walked through the town and head for a place called Ashville. Hopefully it will be only 21 kms today and that will leave us about 25 kms for tomorrow. We stop at our usual km marks. While we were sitting at the 10 km mark a lady in a car towing a trailer pulled up and was talking to us. She was waiting for her son and husband who have ridden from Gawler and are heading for Melbourne to pick up the ferry to take them to Tassie. After she left the two riders rocked up and rested while talking to us. They are riding around Tasmania whith a group of people who ride for a charity called "Bikes for Bibles" and they are all riding the west coast to Queenstown. Good luck to them. We asked if they were aware of how hilly that area was. They just smiled and said that they would take each km as it came. They left and we packed up our chairs and headed off ourselves. There are a few good camp spots but we have our hearts set on the hall. We journey on for about another 5 kms. The terrain has changed again and all the lakes in the area have all but dried up. The grasses are all yellow and the trees are scarce. Luckily we have a tail wind. The flies are still with us and the day is getting hotter. I dont know what happened to the rains. We had a few good hills to climb but nothing that we couldnt handle. We knew we must be getting close as there are a few houses clumped together. We walked up a rather steep hill and when we reached the top we could see the hall on the right hand side. We headed down and when we were level we realized that somebody was actually living in the hall. They had obviously bought it and the map hadnt been updated since it had been sold. We walked towards the gate. Bernie said he was going to ask if we could camp outside the gates under the only tree for miles. He was just about to go when a lady came out of the hall and started watering her trees. Bernie went over and was talking to her for ages. He came back and said that we could camp in the garden around the side. The lady came over and introduced herself as Catherine. We shook hands and told her our names. She said we could set up anywhere we wanted and that if we needed the toilet or shower we were quite welcome to come in and use theirs. We were very greatful and then we pushed the carts round the side and took out our chairs and sat and rested. We would have put up the tent but we always like to wait until the man of the house comes home just to make sure that he is okay with what his wife has offered. I went to use the toilet and as i was leaving the house Catherine said to tell Bernie that Coffee was on and to come in for a rest. We went inside the hall and Catherine made us feel so welcome. We talked for hours and she showed us what they had done with the renovations to the hall. It looks fantastic. Catherines husband pilots joy flights in his Tiger Moths out of Meningie. We did see the place as we were leaving the town. He is the last of the original Barnstormers who toured our country in the 60s and 70s. They would fly from town to town selling joyflights to the people of the town. She had some amazing stories to tell us. And she spoke about the planes as if they were their children. Her husband, Captain Boggles rang to say that he was on his way home. I hope he is okay with us being here. Catherine also writes a small column in the local paper so she sort of did an interview while we were there. She also gave us a lovely donation for the farmers. When her husband came home he was quite the character. He was okay with us staying so we took our leave as we still had a tent to put up and our dinner to cook. They did offer for us to eat with them but we graciously declined and said that they had done quite enough for us already. We put up the tent and made up the bed. There was a small alcove around the side that we used as a wind break. We cooked tea and ate in the alcove. We cleaned up and then settled back for the night. We listened to the radio. It was very pleasant here are we are very lucky to have met these wonderful people. I went to bed when the mozzies started biting but Bernie stayed up for much longer. I was very tired and it wasnt long before I was fast asleep.
Day 73. Sunday 16th December 2007
Woke up. Cleared away the tent. I went inside to use the toilet and Catherine greeted me and said come back for breakfast when you are ready. Went back to Bernie and finished packing everything away. We went inside for coffee and toast. We sat around the table and had a great time talking about our lives and listening to their lives. We must have been there for about 2 hours. It was about 10.30 before we said that it was time we were on our way. We thanked them for everything. We had photos and then thanked them some more. This will be our last bush camp and we couldnt have picked a better place to spend it. They are probably the nicest people that we have met on our journey so far. We would of loved to stay another night but we didnt want to impose on them any further. Catherine Gibbons and Captain Boggles run their joy flights out of a hangar in Meningie so if you want to fly in a Tiger Moth we suggest you try these wonderful people. And say hello to them from us!!!!We headed off down the road rather reluctantly. We were heading for Wellington today. I was finding it very difficult to push Steve and after having a good look I realized that Steve had a flat Tyre. I couldnt believe it. My first puncture. We stopped and took off the wheel. Bernie said that he wouldnt bother with fixing it, he would just change the whole wheel with the spare that we carry. Unfortunately the spare that I have been carrying doesnt fit. The size of the hub is different. Maybe Adam has taken the one for Steve or we were given the wrong one. Bernie took the old tube out and put in a new one. We will fix the hole later! He put the wheel back on and as we were about to start off again we looked up and there was a guy on his bike looking at us. It was really freaky because we didnt even hear him pull up. We said hello and asked him what he was doing? Where he was going and where he was from? He was from America and has come to Aust to ride across from west to east. He only has 4 weeks holiday and he still wanted to ride N.Z. aswell. We said farewell and headed off. We are very late starting today and the wind is very strong but at least it is a tail wind. The cricket is on this afternoon but they have forecasted rain. At least we have the radio and it helps pass the time. We stopped at the 5 km mark and had a rest. I feel very lazy today. We have come to the conclusion that we need a really big break. It will be good to get to Perth and work for a while. Then we will be eager to get walking again! Another 10 kms and we came to the East Wellington turn off. We headed to the ferry as we have to cross the Murray River. We pushed the carts up to the marker and waited for the ferry to come back across to our side. We were getting some really strange looks from the people in their cars but nobody spoke to us. The man who operates the ferry let everyone else on before us and then spent about 5 minutes asking us all about our trip. We finally got to the other side and we were greeted with one huge hill. The ferry driver told us how to get to the caravan park and then we said farewell and headed for the top of the hill. The Murray looks absolutely beautiful. The sun is shining and the view is wonderful. We found the park and booked into a cabin. We collapsed on the bed in a heap. I am so tired. We rested for nearly an hour and then I went and had a shower. We have an ensuite again which is handy. No walking to the blocks. Bernie unpacked Rommie and then brought her up onto this verandah type area just outside the door. He then went for his shower and I did the same with Steve. We chained them together and then had some dinner. I was extremely tired so Bernie said that maybe we should stay an extra day. Good. Maybe I can sleep in. Time for bed.
Day 74. Monday 17th December 2007
Woke up early. Dont know why. We are staying here today. Couldnt sleep in so I got up and made breakfast. I went and did some washing but there wasnt much. Bernie was up and he fixed Steves tube. We went for a walk into town! Ha Ha. It consists of a pub, service station and a mini mart. Bernie recieved a phone call from the ABC in Hobart. They would like to do another interview with him before xmas. They set it up for 5.15 tomorrow morning. This will be the last one for this year. It is very early but it will give us a chance to get going earlier aswell. We got to the mini mart and bought some lunch and then walked back to the river and sat on the grass and ate it. We sat there for a while just watching the ferry go back and forth. We decided to go to the pub and have a quite drink. This is the first time we have done this so far on our trip. Tjhe stting was really pretty. We got our drinks and headed outside in the fresh air. The sun was hot but it was cold in the shade. I took the sun and Bernie sat in the Shade. Decided that one day we must take the cruise trip down the Murray. We stayed at the pub for quite a while and then walked back to the cabin. Istarted reading my book but fell asleep. Woke up about 3 hours later and thought it best to catch up again with the diary. Brought in all the clean washing, folded it and put it away. The temp has dropped and it is supposed to rain tomorrow and Wednesday. We will see! Watched tv until really late which is stupid really as we have to be up real early in the morning. Had areally bad nights sleep. I am still awake at 2.00am.
Day 75. Tuesday 18th December 2007
Woke up at 5.00am. Bernie got up and did his interview. It went really well. They have been really good. I was really tired so we have an extra hour and a half sleep. Woke just after 7.am. Got up and had something to eat. Packed the carts. Just as we are about to leave Bernie notices that Rommie has a flat tyre. He changed the whole wheel and we are now on our way. It ts really odd. We have walked just on 900 kms and had only one puncture and now we are on our second one!! We will walk to Jervois today as it is only 12 kms away. Should be an easy day. It is only one week to xmas! The walk to Jervois was absolutely disgusting. The whole town is nothing but cows, cows, flies and more cow shit than I have ever seen. We actually felt sick just walking through it. I could hardly breathe but we continued on. People were dumping there tree loppings across the road into a paddock. Kids were throwing fruit at each other. We continued on our way until we came to a Y junction. One way was to the ferry and the other one headed to Murray Bridge. We stopped there for a while not knowing which way to go. There is supposed to be caravan park around here somewhere. We couldnt see any signs and i desperately needed to go to the toilet. Maybe I should just do it in the middle of the road like the cows do? We found a Bowling club and I went round the back to see if there was a toilet. I found a male one and used it anyway. There wasnt anyone around. As I walked back to the carts, Bernie was talking to some guy who was working on one of the houses across the road. He asked if we needed some help? We asked him where the caravan park was and he said the closest one was across the river at Tailem Bend. The only other one towards Murray Bridge was about 18 kms up the hill. We thanked him and headed for the ferry to Tailem Bend. It is only 5 kms away. As we were walking off I noticed that Rommie had another flat tyre. Bernie looked down and both her back tyres were flat. We pulled off the road and patched both the tubes. We had fixed all the tyres but one kept going down. We must have missed a hole. We looked around and we are actually standing in a pile of prickles. I moved Steve back onto the road and when I looked his front tyre was flat again. We couldnt believe it. What the hell was going on! We finally got the carts going again after fixing about 8 punctures. We headed for the ferry but Steves back tyre keeps going down as was Rommies front tyre. We just kept stopping and pumping them up. We finally made it to the Ferry and went across to Tailem Bend. We walked through town with two carts with flat tyres. The caravan park is still another 2 kms on the other side of town. We finally made it to the park. Headed for the reception area thinking all the time that we will have to walk all the way back into town for supplies and again tomorrow to head to Murray Bridge. We asked the owner if they had a taxi service as we really dont feel much like walking back. He said that they didnt. He said that we could borrow his ute though if we just needed to go into town. We thanked him. He gave us a really huge caravan to stay in and it was really cheap. We walked to the caravan and cgained the carts together and then headed off into town in his ute. We needed to get some more repair kits for the tyres. Bernie also needed to go to the bottlo and we needed to get some supplies. We also went to the Police station to see if we are allowed to walk on the highway to Murray Bridge but the station was closed for lunch! We also went to the information centre that is the old train station. We were talking to the man there about the trains and he gave us a couple of pamphlets. We got talking to him and then we waited for the train to come through. We said our thanks and then left. We went to the chicken shop for lunch and then headed back to the park. We have been gone a very long time and I was worried that the owner would be mad at us be he was cool. We thanked him very much and he said if you need it again just ask. We went back to our caravan and put away all our supplies. We ate our lunch and then I headed over to the showers. I came back and then Bernie went for his. I rested for awhile. We are both exhausted today even though we didnt walk very far. Our bodies hurt and I dont know why? Bernie is really tired too. It is a mental tiredness as well as a physical one too. We are both really looking forward to our rest! Hopefully by the time April comes around we will be raring to go again. We will only be resting for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we will be fixing the tyres.
Day 76. Wednesday 19th December 2007
We decided to stay an extra day in Tailem Bend so we had a bit of a sleep in. We had lots to organize today. Phone calls to make.about the trains so that we can head west. We had showers and something to eat and then headed to the Service station. It is only about 500 metres away. We are hoping that they have Internet access and a phone. We need to phone the railways about the carts so that we can start organising travel to Adelaide. Unfortunately there wasnt any internet access and the phone was out of order. The airconditioning unit was leaking water and they had installed it right above the phone. Real smart!! We walked back to the park and decided that we would wait until we got to Murray Bridge as it is a bigger town. We will be able to find out all the info we need when we get there. We will now fix all our tyres on the carts ready for our last walk tomorrow. I did some reading. It was pretty hot. Why is it that when you have access to a swimming pool it is too cold to use it , but when it is boiling hot there isnt a pool in sight. At least the van has airconditioning. The park is filling up now and lots of people have started asking us questions about the carts. It is amazing how many people still think that they are bikes and that we ride them. If only! And the amount of people who say why dont you just put a motor on them and then you wouldnt have to walk?? Our answer: It defeats the purpose of walking! We talked to the owner of the park and he says that we are allowed to walk along the highway to Murray Bridge as the Freeway doesnt start until after the turnoff to the town. This is really good news as we thought we would have to walk all the way back to that awful other town. This is good as we dont do back very well. We thanked him and then went back to our van. We started to clear things away to make it quicker in the morning. We had our dinner and then cleaned up and sat in front of the tv for the rest of the night. We are supposed to pick up our shoes tomorrow. I went to bed as tomorrow is a big day for us. It will be the last walk for this section. Really looking forward to that!!
Day 77. Thursday 20th December 2007
Woke early and had breakie. Packed up the carts. All tyres still up! Thats a good start for the day. We headed for the reception when we were accosted by two ladies. They asked if they could take our pictures. They gave us a donation which was nice as it is xmas so we havent been expecting anything. We havent heard from Aussie Helpers for ages. In fact I had forgotten all about the Charity side of things. Hopefully we will get in touch with them real soon. We finally heded off down the highway. It is a dual highway all the way so it should be interesting to see how the shoulder pans out for us. We have a double oncoming lane and the opposite side of the road is sometimes hard to see. There are alot of trucks again as this is the main thouroghfare through to Adelaide. There is also lots of cars. The most traffic we have seen for a long time. We start to get people honking their horns and people waving again. We dont have much of a shoulder but it is still better than what we have been putting up with. We have our normal 5 km breaks. There are lots of shady places to stop and rest which is nice as it is petty hot going today. We passed the 10 km mark and found a truck weighing station so we went in and sat under a big shady tree. A few cars pulled in but noone stopped to talk. Everybody is in such a big hurry now as xmas is fast approaching. We moved on a little further when a black ford ute did a big u turn and parked in front of us. It was my brother Kim. It was really great to see him. He is heading to Adelaide to catch a plane so that he can go and see his daughter graduate. She is in Canberra. He jumped out of the car and shook Bernies hand and then hugged me. He was in a big hurry but told us that he thinks we can take the second turn off and that will take us to the other end of the town and closer to the Caravan park. He said that he wolud drive on ahead and see if it was safe to go over the bridge. He headed off and we sat there until he phoned us back. He said that it was very dangerous on the bridge as there is no shoulder at all and that there is 4 lanes of traffic all doing about 110kms per hour. We thanked him and said that we would take the first turnoff instead! He said he would ring us when he was back this way. We thanked him for his help once again. We packed up our chairs and headed off. 3 kms later we reached the turn off into town. There is a huge sign here that says bikes are not permitted any further along the highway. Just aswell then. We still have to walk 7 more kms before we get to the town. It is really annoying as we can see the town from where we are standing and yet the more we walk the further away we seem to be getting. This makes me really angry!! We finally make the outskirts of town after having two more rests along the way. It is really hot. We have to cross a huge bridge and I am not looking forward to this. We are thinking of just walking on the road with the cars but then we see a walking path so decide to use this instead. I am afraid of heights so I cant look down otherwise I know that I will just freeze on the spot. The walkway is very narrow in places and Bernie has too pick Rommie up on her side just to to get her past some of the pylons. I am luckier as Steve is just that little bit smaller. I am so scared that I can feel the tears dripping down my face. There isnt much that I can do except keep going forward. It is really high now over the water. We have probably come about half way so I only need to do the same again. I had started to get a fair way back from Bernie who was almost at the other end. He stopped to wait for me to catch up. I dont know if he knows that I am crying so I try to be brave. We reach the end but as we try to get off the bridge they have built like a big concrete square at the end and we cant get the carts past it. By this time I am a complete wreck. We have two options. Bernie will take Steve back and then walk him over the road part of the bridge and then do the same with Rommie beacause I just cant do anything at the moment except hang on to the bridge for dear life. Or we can try and pick the carts up over the gutter and then get them onto the road and walk the short space to the side after the bridge. We decide on the latter. Bernie has to take Rommies water out as he can not lift her with it in and also remove her mirror as it wont fit through the gap in the bridge while it is still connected. I cant do anything because I am too scared to move. Bernie manages to get Rommie through the gap but the traffic of cars wont stop for him so he must wait for a gap. He finally gets one and then pushes Rommie up the hill a bit and out of harms way. He comes back to get me and then I am finally off the bridge and I run to where Rommie is and wait for Bernie to go and fetch Steve. Bernie is able to lift Steve and he fits through the gap nicely. A lady in a car stops all the traffic and lets him through. He waves to thank her and then joins up with me. Rommie has been damaged and will need some work done on her skirt. It isnt too bad though. Bernie has hurt his shoulder again and he has hurt his back aswell. I feel really awful beacause I couldnt do anything to help! We set the carts right again and climbed the steep hill into town. We passed a pub where there was a few people sitting utside and they started with the same old crap again about getting a motor and so forth. I just wasnt in the mood. Steves tyre was flat again. Bernie stopped to talk to them while I pumped the tyre up again. They offered him a drink but he declined as we still had a fair way to walk. If he had stopped I dont think we would have got any further. We continued on through the town walking on the footpath. We came to a KFC and decided it was a good time for a rest. We sat at one of the outside tables so that we could keep an eye on the carts. The manager came over to talk to us and she said that they couldnt give us a donation but she could give us a free meal. We thanked her very much. Bernie ordered and before long we had eaten and set off again. We asked a few people where the caravan park was and they all kept saying oh its just down the road probably about a kilometre away. Well that one kilometre turned out to be just over 5. We were way out of town with no supplies. We hadnt realized that it was this far out or we would have got what we needed before we had left the actual town centre. We finally made it to the park and I said that we will have a cabin for tonight and then we will sort everything out tomorrow. So we took a cabin with an ensuite and then decided that we ould have it for two nights instead. The owner of the park was okay. He showed us to our cabin and turned on the airconditioner and said if there was anything we needed just ask. We thanked him and then proceeded to drop onto the bed too stuffed to move any more. We had showers and felt a lot better. It is amazing how much energy you can get just by having a shower. We sat outside for a while and then went for a walk to check out the camp kitchen. We will probably be here for xmas and we will be in the tent by then so it is good to know what is available in the park. On the way back we met a guy who has just ridden his horse from Melbourne to here. He has just finished the ride today. His young son rode with him while his older son rode a bike. We were talking for ages and then they all came over to have a look at our carts. We must have been talking for hours beacause the sun was just starting to set. He said that they had to be up at 5.00am to catch the bus back home. We said goodbye and wished him luck for the future. We went inside and settled in for the night. It is weird to think that we will not have to get up anymore and push the carts for along time. I went to bed fairly late as there is no reason to get up early in the morning. I finally couldnt keep my eyes open any longer so headed for bed.
Day 78. Friday 21st December 2007
Woke leisurely late. No rushing breakfast. No carts to pack. We have decided to order a taxi to take us into town as we will be here for xmas so we will have to go and do some shopping. The owner of the Park, Kym Shearing, has phoned the southern railways for us and found out some info and prices for us. We ordered a taxi. It came about 10 minutes later. We got him to take us to the info centre. We thought this might be a good place to start. We found the info that we were looking for They have a public phone so Bernie started making some calls. It turns out that we cannot take the carts on the train as they weigh more than 20 kilos. That is all trains. No go on the Indian Pacific and the Ghan. I couldnt believe what I was hearing. We tried to get a truck to take us to Adelaide but they were all booked out. You see it is xmas and the whole world stops!!! We went to the Post Office to get our shoes but they werent there. What a day. Bernie phoned Calvin and asked what was going on. It seems that he had changed his mind and had them sent to his address instead. Great. No shoes. What is going on? We went back to the info centre and the lady said that the bus would be able to take the carts but we would have to let them know the night before so that they coyld bring the bigger bus so that the carts could fit in. We thankedher. We also tried to see if there was any freight trains that would take the carts but that too was unsuccessfull. We will probably have to put them on a semi trailer. It will cost a fortune. We went and had lunch and then did the shopping. We waited for a taxi to take us back. When we got back to the cabin Bernie phoned the hire car place but they didnt have anything that needed to go back to Perth. We tried everything we could think of and just kept getting no no no. Maybe somebody was trying to tell us something. There is no use going all the way into Adelaide if we cant get out. This was getting very frustrating. We have bought a paper to see if maybe we can buy ourselves a cheap ute at least then we can put the carts in the back and just drive the car to the train and then put them all on. Who knows! We had some dinner and then watched some tv. Tomorrow we will set up the tent as this cabin is costing us too much money. We packed up eveything that we could and then I went to bed. My mind was racing so I hate to think what Bernies was doing.
Day 79. Saturday 22nd 2007
We woke fairly early as we had to be out of the cabin by 10.30. Bernie went and saw Kym to pay for the night in the tent. He was gone for a while. When he came back he said that some guy up the back of the caravan park was selling his station wagon if we were interested. Bernie went and had a look at it . It was an au falcon and was in good nick. We sorted out our things just as it started to rain. We havent put the tent up yet so we will wait until it stops raining. We ferried the rest of our belonging in the carts over to the camp kitchen. At least it is dry here. The rain stopped and we quickly put the tent up. Only just got the fly on when it really started to come down. I dont think it will last long as we could still see blue sky. I went for a walk and was lucky enough to meet up with the owner of the car. They were going home to N.Z. and were selling up. They had already sold the van. Unfortunately they werent going fot 3 weeks so we cuoldnt have the car until then. Oh well never mind. I went back and made up the beds after telling Bernie about the car. He went over and spoke to the bloke. I put away all our food in the fridge. Luckily we were the only campers so we had the place to ourselves. Kym did tell Bernie though that he had a load of campers coming on thursday so we will have to decide what to do by then. I hd finished doing everything and Bernie has been gone a long time. I was just reading when he came back . He said he had been talking to the owner and then to Kym. It seems that Kyms wife wont drive their ute beacause it is a manual and that he was just about to go into town because there is an auto ute for sale in one of the caryards. Bernie is going to go with Kym into town and have a look at these cars. So off he went. I just read my book and rested. Bernie came back and was pretty excited. Kym likes this other ute and has offered us his for just $1000. Bernie says it is good nd hopefully both carts will fit in it. We grabbed a piece of rope and checked the length and width of the two carts and then went and measured it up against the ute. We think they are going to fit. The only thing is that we cant get the ute until Monday and it needs a new spare. Thats fine. We made dinner and then sat around and talked about things. I said wouldnt it be great if we could go and see the family for xmas. We could give the ute a run before we take it to Perth? I went to bed hopeful that I mightn see the Children and Grandchildren for xmas.
Day 80. Sunday 23rd December 2007
Woke up early as the sun is already hot. It must have rained last night as the tent is still wet. Bernie went to pay for another night. We had breakie. Kym said that we could take the car for a run today and see if it was okay. He said that if we wanted it we could take it today if not just leave it in his driveway. He was going to the airport to pick up some from friends from Japan. He said that he would catch up later. As we needed a spare tyre we went into town to see if anything was open but to no avail. The car ran really well. We stopped at Subway for something to eat. While we are there my brother Kim rings and says he is at the Park waiting for us. We tell him we will be about 10 minutes. We head off with our lunch and pull into the park. Kim is just standing there. He asks us what we are up to and so we tell him the whole story. He doesnt stay long as he has to be back at work later that day. We said our goodbyes and then he was gone. We decided to take the car, so we decided to see if the carts would fit. This must be our lucky day. Room to spare. We took down our tent and packed everything away. When kYm came back we paid him for the car and he gave us all the paperwork and then we were gone. We are heading for Phillip Island but we havent told anyone yet. I am so excited. We will head for Mt Gambier tonight. We will hopefully get a new tyre then. Lets hope we dont get a flat. How crazy are we? Another adventure. We are going to drive all the way back. At least we will have 2 days to get there. We dont even know where they live. It was so weird driving back over all our hard walking. Seeing all the bush camps. I hadnt realised just how far we have walked. 1000 kms doesnt seem a lot but I think I have changed my opinion on that. It didnt take too long to get into Mt Gambier. We left at 2.30 and arrived at about 7.30. We booked into the same Caravan Park as before and actually got the same van as before. We went to Hungry Jacks for tea and then went back to the park. Went to bed real early as we have to be up early as we need to get that tyre fixed.
Day 81. Monday 24th December 2007. Christmas Eve.
We woke early and had breakfast. Packed up all our things into the ute which by the way has been named Harper. Headed into town to get the tyres sorted. Couldnt get in for 2 hours so we drove to the outskirts of town to another tyre place and they put us in straight away. It will take about 45 minutes. We are getting 2 new tyres on the front, leaving the best two on the back and the spare will be the best of what is left. We then headed off down the road much faster than on previous occasions. We still had about 600 kms to go. We are going to Queenscliff and then onto the Ferry across to Sorrento. We have never been on this ferry before so it will be another new experience for us. We still havent told anyone that we are coming as yet. We will do that when we get off the ferry! I phoned Adam but there was no answer. I will try again a little later. I finally got hold of him and when he asked where we were and we told him that we were on the way he couldnt believe it. We told him that it was a suprise so he wasnt allowed to tell anyone. Unfortunately the kids were already in bed. I asked if what we are doing would be alright and he said that Jody would be stoked! We stopped at a place called Hastings to do some last minute shopping and chocolates for the kids. We couldnt go in empty handed. Continued on. We arrived onto the Island very late. Bernie phoned Adam to get directions to the house. He said that he would meet us on the corner and sure enough there he is. We havent seen him for ages. We got to the house and pulled up. Jody and Chris came outside to see who it was. I dont think they could believe their eyes. We recieved wonderful hugs from them both. I was so tired. Jody said that it would be alright to use the room tht there boarder uses as she has gone home for xmas. Tomorrow we will put up our tent in the back garden. It was very late by the time we had all exchanged our news. Bernie and Chris stayed up a while longer but the rest of us went to bed. We will be up real early in the morning. I cant wait to see the kids.
Day 82. Tuesday 25th December 2007. Christmas Day.
5.30am. Two beautiful faces looking down at me. It was a sight for sore eyes. Big hugs and kisses. I got dressed and went down. Bernie had gone to bed really late. He gave the kids hugs and kisses but then went back to sleep. Adam was awake. We had put the video camera on charge last night so he was in charge of getting that set up and taking all the footage. The kids were so excited and started unwrapping all their presents. This is what xmas is all about. It was lovely to be here to see this. All of Chris's family are coming here for xmas dinner so it is going to be a great family day. At least now I know where I was on xmas day. We will stay here for about a week and then decide what is next in store for us. We have many ideas going through our heads at the moment. Now we must take our leave of this diary as we have children and grandchildren waiting for us to join in on the family day
