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26 – 28th August 2014

Off to the centre of Melbourne today to check it out.

Decided to drive rather than take a train / bus, just for the fun, so headed to the Information centre in Federation Square. Parking again was the issue although I found one pretty quick at a cost of $6 for half an hour, which gave us enough time to head to the information centre, and the first bit of information we needed was where to park. We were directed to the Crown Casino parking areas a few k away. Found it ok and settled in for a fee of $14 for the day (12 hours). We found out later that parking down the Harbour area was cheaper and I noted the address as 90 Waterfont Way, or around that area, for future GPS reference. We wandered around the streets taking in the atmosphere, lane ways, graffiti lanes, old buildings, and the free city circle tram with lots of people, activity, and traffic.

The city was abound with shops, eateries, alleys, lanes, and walkways, mishmashes into an organised, clean, and practical space. This is a great city and for those who like the city life Melbourne would be a great choice. For a country lad though it wouldn’t be long before I’d have to head for some open, quite space, but for a short time it is fantastic.

Sorrento on the bay, Port Phillip Bay, along the Mornington Peninsula you can see the big ships heading to sea, many boats anchored, as the ferry, the princess, leaves to take people, cars and trucks across the bay to Queenscliff.

On a mist filled day, the waters calm by the bay, we sat and dinned on fish from the Fish Fetish Café at Sorrento.

Visited Heronswood, a garden that has been associated with seed saving since I can recall and through its diggers club has many older vegetable and flower varieties. We bought a bunch of seed packets mainly of different tomato varieties hopefully to grow back home.

23rd & 24th August
We headed off to the Queen Victoria Markets, on the northern side of Melbourne, so it involved heading through the city and along the Yarra, about a 15 to 20 min drive from the camp. Can’t beat a GPS in these places, makes driving through the city a breeze. Markets are very big, lots undercover, and have heaps of vegies, nick nacks, clothes, shoes, and so on. They don’t miss you in the parking though, we were there for about 3 hours and it cost us $13.50 to park.

I bought a hat, bonnie bought a heat pack, a Shin Bio Super Heater, and some double bed fitted sheets. Everything is good value, Ugg boots for about a third of the price, and every man and his dog was trying to sell them. Must be some good sweats shop around here. Bonnie loved the atmosphere and the hustle and bustle and all in all we had a good day. The afternoon was topped off with doing the washing, necessary I suppose, at the Laundromat across the road from the camp. We have a washing machine, a little one that you spin manually. Tried it out the other day as well and it did a good job on the smaller items, the unmentionables and light weight strides.

At the Akoona park where we are staying there is also a market on the Sunday. A market bigger then Bello and probably more diverse than the Queen Vic market, but lacking some atmosphere of the musical kind. There was a young dude, busking, with a classical guitar, who played some sweet sounds but that was about all. This time we didn’t have to drive as it is at our door step, or dame near. It rained overnight so the ground was a bit wet underfoot this morning but the day was clear. There are 5 or so very large sheds that a lot of the market was in, and then there were all the usual stalls around the place.

I guess the thing I would say about these markets, is that they are city markets, very practical, but lack the country / hippy style and feel that we may find on the North coast of NSW, but all good, friendly people.

Have been looking for a camp oven since we left home as I have seen a couple of campers with them. The one I’m looking for was the style made out of an old 9kg gas bottle (see pic).

Found one on Gum tree but it got sold before I could get it. I’ll probably make one when I get home but I nearly came across one at the Akoona markets, but it wasn’t quite up to scratch.

Decided to not take in the caves but instead packed up and headed on in the morning for we had seen similar caves before. Next stop is Willow Park, a free, well not free but a donation box, near Rosedale, another nice spot near the river. We walked up to the town (1200m) and bought some bread and hot chips and had a chinwag with the natives. Interestingly enough when we asked about a caravan park we were told ‘don’t’ and that willow park just down the road is the way to go. So we were, and did, with two other rigs.
One man and his wife was just returning to Lakes Entrance after a 5 month escape to Broome. He has family there, likes to fish, and we talked about vans and towing. His rig was packed to the maximum, 3 ton in the van and 3 ton in the Navara ute, and considering the tow capacity of the ute was 3 ton he was certainly pushing the legal limits. He had fitted 120 litre fuel tank, and air bags on the suspension and said it all handled it well. He had been travelling on and off for the past 5 years with the latest trip being his longest. He had said Broome was a bit expensive and we had heard that from other travellers.

It was a bad night for the arthritis, as once in bed I could hardly move my left knee without a severe pain. Well I believe that’s what it is as last month I had a similar problem with the right knee, all be it not as bad a pain. For that one I had been to the quack, x-rayed, and checked and Dr Charlie reckoned all he could fine was arthritis. The knee had had a twinge now and then but nothing like this so at about two in the morning after a couple of yelps in pain Bonnie feed me some Panadol Osteo followed in the morning by massage and ‘pain away’ arthritis cream.

Still here at Genoa – beside the river, playing guitar, walking, writing, reading, and working on course material for the community college. Have to keep coming up with new ideas to try and keep the work flowing at the college.

You can stay here legally for 72 hours, and we have seen rigs come and go, 4 or 5 here at any one time. Big day for the maintenance of the site as the garbage men and cleaner woman have done their bit. The amenities provide flushing toilets, and showers, cold showers that is. Adjacent is a tennis court, kids swings and things, and small covered BBQ and seats.

Rain has persisted till now, with today being mostly fine but cloudy. The sun has been around long enough to keep the solar batteries topped up, but I have run the fridge on gas today to help.

Many birds inhabit the camp ground. This morning on our 1 hour stroll we saw, magpies, yellow tallied black cockatoos, fairy wrens, blue wrens, Galahs, Rosellas, Plufers, Ducks, Cranes, Bellbirds … all within a 100m. It’s a low lying area which would flood easily with a good wet season and the grass areas seem rather green for this time of the year. This area of Victoria is known as the wilderness coast around the town of Mallacotta. We popped into Mallacotta to see the town and use their dump point, just a one horse town, little work prospects, but we did stroll around the street and fil up with fuel.

Most other campers (grey nomads) are friendly, well, all have been, and we got on well with Rod & Annette, although Annette stayed at her van. Rod walked the dogs each day, mainly his English Stafford Terrier, (about 18 months old) called Patch, a beautiful white patchy animal with pinkish tones in tip top shape, with a wiggle that just invited a pat. We chatted with Rod and discovered he was an x jockey now retired and like the rest of us starting to suffer from the perils of old age. Arthritis making him move from the Winnebago to a physically lower car and van, the jayco 15ft expanda.

Ahh there goes that knee again …..

I’ve seen the biggest Wombat holes in the river bank, must be 600mm plus diameter. Massive, I could easily crawl down one. Haven’t seen the residences though, been too bloody cold and wet to venture down the bank at night. Maybe tonight …

Off to the local school fair, 20th anniversary it seems. Pretty small concern with a dozen stalls or so with farm animals, cow milking, homemade cakes, old machinery, tractors, and vintage cars. Highlight was the blacksmiths at work fashioning a 10mm steel rod in a method from time past. Small forge, bellowed by a helper, hammer, anvil, and expert battering, to produce a steel eye wrapped firm by two tails. One worker split the steel rod at the end into a snake tongue while the next created an eye and wrapped the tongues around to form a very strong ring.Hey maybe I could use the method to make some eye bolts for the rock climbing routes …. Maybe not… One craftsman though was a bit more modern using a battery powered bellows to keep his coal driven fire heated, a prime example of technology doing someone out of a job. Damper, flour, lemonade, and salt, cooked in the cast iron pot with coals top and bottom was a treat especially topped with some Bega valley butter. Slightly burned, crisp, fresh, warm, a delight. We used to make something similar as children, back then not knowing what damper was. In the days when food was scarce, I think the older brother name the dish ‘whatsit’. Flour, water, salt maybe, possible an egg, fried in a pan, and most likely some dripping to top it off as we may have not had any butter, something ‘special’ in a time of need. So the damper brings back childhood memories of some hardship but my memories are of good feelings and happiness, even though we had very little in material things.

Cool looking Buick