Dec 30

Maryborough

When we checked in, Lola told us that she wanted to go to church the next day and that, unless we wanted to go to church too, we might as well sleep in. No need to rush out of the camping by 10 am.

We oblige and get up slowly, take the dogs for a walk and fill up with water before leaving. The water pump in the bus plays up again and fiddling with the wires stops being the solution. Our next overnight stop means another repair. We have ordered a new microswitch (with specific dimensions that fits in the pump) but that is still on its way from the US, so we have to make do with what we have.

We’re struggling a little with where to go next. Every time we have a specific date (this time the arranged camping in Melbourne for the flight to Sydney) we are trying to plan the way till that point. That doesn’t work very well as we tend to stay where we feel right and move on where we don’t. Now we’re caught a bit between the dry dust and heat of inland Victoria and the wet and cold (19 degrees Celsius) on the coast. We decide just to move lateral as it’s in the high 20s here which is nice.

Our first stop is to walk the dogs and stretch our legs. Marjo poses in front of a tree.

And we decide that this is as good a time as any to take a “travel family” portrait.

The camp grounds that we find in this region though are very dry and busy and to us unappealing. Along a very brown river littered with junk, people are camped left right and center and a bit further along the same river where there’s a weir, the water is full with loud growling power boats and the dustbowl camping packed to the rafters with loud folk wearing wife beaters and with barking dogs everywhere. Minimum stay was 4 nights. Or none, which we chose…..

Then we decided to move south, more away from the dust and towards the coast. Our next stop would be Maryborough, a camping along a small lake.

Before we get there we hear the thunder of a big helicopter and think bushfire and indeed the chopper hovers to take on water from the river.

Then he’s off; there’s no smoke anywhere and we wonder if it’s just a practice run.

The camping is ok, quite busy but that was expected between Christmas and New Year so we stay for a night. We soon work out that today is the day of remarkable transport. First the helicopter. Then we see a soundless vehicle zoom past.

At closer look it works out to be a supersonic push bike that races around.

Then to our surprise a train rolls past, and another, and a third. All very loud. Let’s hope train drivers have read the camping notice of no noise after 9 pm…..

The pump signals by its quiet and lack of water flow that it needs a repair. This time I take the micro switch apart as well, clean it and somewhat mend the broken parts. Then fit it back under the bus. It seems to work, hope it stays that way.