We departed Loxton at about 8am on Wednesday 18th December. The expected local maximum was 40C.
We headed for Bendigo and then on to our first 'freebie' in the Knowsley N/Park, arriving at about 5pm.
My body clock woke us at 5.30 the next morning so that we could get away and arrive in Craigieburn at a nice early hour to give the workers plenty of time to fix a few warranty problems. We expected to be on our way again by around lunchtime.
Whilst waiting for the work to be done, we headed over to the Epping Shopping Centre and looked around there, then went to the K Mart in Campbellfield to buy a few bits and pieces. At around 1pm we decided to head back thinking that the work would be done and we could be on our way.
No such luck!! We didn't get away until about 4.30pm and at one stage it was quite humorous with five guys on their backs under the van....
As said, we were finally mobile again and on our way to Warrnambool.
UNFORTUNATELY... the lady in the GPS decided to take us for a spin around Victorias nether regions over roads I wouldn't drive in a blue moon....
We did however get to Warrnambool at the spritely hour of 8pm.
This was to be another 'freebie' but when we got there, there was a greyhoung racing meeting in full swing. It all seemed strangely empty and deserted where the so-called free campers should have been. We rang the number given in Freecamps7 but the call went to m/bank but stated that there was no camping until further notice and that we should call a given mobile number if we had any issues. We called that number but again a m/bank only at the other end. We decided to stay put regardless as we had done all that we could to make contact. The meeting concluded around 10pm and we finally got enough quiet to settle into bed.
The next morning, Friday 20th, we packed up and headed back to central Warrnambool, again to do a little shopping and then finally made our way to Hamilton in the southern Grampians. Just before Hamilton we came across a Hay bale sculpture gallery on the side of the main road. A few of these were quite cute and made it onto our cameras.
As we drove into Hamilton, roads were blocked and we had to wait at a roundabout for a huge funeral to make it's way. Police blocked off intersections whilst hundreds of mourners in hot rods, antique vehicles, motor bikes and on foot, all made their way in the colourful procession.
We had lunch in the Cow cafe and then rather than spending the night here, we decided to continue on and head for Penola to spend an extra night here instead.
When leaving Hamilton the weather was very hot but deteriorated dramatically as we came across. It started raining early Saturday morning and only stopped late into the night. Today is quite mild however more rain is expected.
We are both looking forward to heading into Mount Gambier in the morning.
