Echuca 23/4/12 to 27/4/12

Pool sharks

We decided to stay at a more resort type caravan park in Echua to give the boys a holiday away from the holiday.  They enjoyed the games room, playing pool and table tennis. Also spending time on the jumping pillow and all of us swimming in the indoor heated pool. The park was a bit more expensive and we will be reverting back to our usually standard of accommodation from here on.

Our steam boat. Just a little chilly

We did manage to do some touristy type things visiting the Port of Echua and going along on the Murray in a  paddle steamer and doing a tour of the Port.

We have had some of the coldest weather so far. One night it got as low as 4 degrees and that day was only 13 and windy. We all got our bennies out and I had my gloves on.  They had a very good camp kitchen which I put to good use. I made a banana cake and picklets and we also had a lovely dinner in there one night watching TV with the aircon on, while Doug and I enjoyed one of the Reds from Rutherglen.  It was good to be able to spread out.

Port of Echua on the Murray 

Jumping pillow 

                                Practicing front flips which Nate mastered by the time we left.

Heated fully enclosed pool

Corowa 21/4/12 to 23/4/12

We are driving off from Corowa/Rutherglen on a beautiful day heading for Echua where it is supposed to be very cold for the next couple of days getting down to 6 over night and 15 during the day.   

Boys shack on the Murray

We were camped on the Murray River in a caravan park full of permanent on site vans but no people.  It felt like a ghost town as you walked through to the amenities. Obviously busy in school holidays. Some great setups . We had the area down the back on the river to ourselves. We could have had any site we wanted. It turns out we picked the lowest point in the park. After a big thunder storm last night we looked out to find we were in our own little swamp and to exit the van you had to step out into 4 inches of water.

The dish washer's in action

It was a short stop where we visited a couple of wineries, did some tastings and sampled some cheese.  Also visited the local chocolate factory where the boys got to make their very own large white chocolate freckle.

All Saints Winery

Gargoyle Nate

Gargoyle Jacob

Freckle making at the chocolate factory

Corryong 18/4/12 to 21/4/12

Corryong( Colac Colac) has so far has been the best caravan park we have stayed at.  So good that we stayed an extra night.  It was good to stop and not have to do anything after our busy time in Sydney and Canberra. The boys spent many hours building dams in the creek that ran through the park. We also could have fished if we got our act together. I have promised them fishing in Corowa/Rutherglen. The park had heaps of shade from the beautifully coloured trees. There were even some cows lazing on the other side of the creek adding to the country ambiance. The hosts Phil and Raelee were very welcoming (we aren’t just saying that because we gave them our blog address either).  The boys can confirm that as they had a ride in the golf buggy on day one and caramel dumplings on day two and we had the papers delivered each morning.  One of the nights Phil and Raelee organised a BBQ  for all of the quests at the park, which was us, another couple and 5 guys that were there from Melbourne as part of a construction crew.  Good company, great night and delicious food, especially the caramel dumplings as mentioned earlier.

 The park was even more welcomed at the end of what was a fairly stressful drive from Canberra. Where do we start?.  Doug wanted to go via the Snowy Mountains so we could see some spectacular scenery. We started out in the fog and ended up on some very steep and windy roads. Then to make it even more interesting we had to back up the caravan on one of the small mountain roads as the road ahead was closed due to it being recently washed away. We spent some time beside the road ringing police and the caravan park to work out an alternate route. Luckily a ranger drove past and was able to confirm route. The new route was extremely steep, narrow and windy and it had some wild life. A brumby crossed the road ahead of us and a stag came charging out of the scrub and was on a collision cause with us, luckily he turned off and headed back into scrub as Doug braked.  Eventually we arrived at our destination after 7 hours on the road; only travelling 360ks.  Boys were most concerned as they hadn’t had lunch and didn’t get it until 5.50pm which ended up being lunder (lunch/dinner).

Our Corryong camp site

Cows in the mist

Dam builders

We had a fairly relaxed time in Corryong. We did visit The Man from Snowy River museum which we were all very impressed with.  The Man from Snowy River (Jack Riley) lived in the mountains near Corryong in the late 1800’s. We also took a drive out to Khancoben where the Murray 1 station for the Snowy Mountain Hydro Scheme is. Wow! What an amazing feat to build the Snowy Mountain Scheme was. It took 25yrs from 1949 to 1974 to complete and over 100 thousand people were employed to build it, with around 60 thousand of these migrants.

The Snowy Moutains were just beautiful. I loved driving through them. Carpets of green on the rolling mountains and the rivers at the base that meander through them. 

The Snowy Mountain Hydro Scheme

The Man from Snowy River

The class of 1943 is in. (Corryong Museum)

Life on the road is tough. 

The first cakes cooked in the Dream Pot.  Great success and enjoyed by all of us. 

Canberra 15/4/12 to 18/4/12

One of Nate's jobs at set up.

We have just left Canberra where we had 3 days. We did a lot in a short period of time.  We spent 5hrs in the War Memorial yesterday, but could have spent more. Which was quite diverse with the kids enjoying playing in the mock submarine/helicopter and war trenches combined with some well presented and very moving displays and videos. 

Parliament House was surprising very good as well.  We got a excellent tour guide, she really had the boys interested. We all learnt a bit more how the nation runs. Unfortunately we didn't see Julia about as she is preparing for the budget. However Doug suspects that she is actually at the local Centrelink office.

On our first day we did a tour of the Australian Institute of Sport. Which the boys got a real kick out of, especially the area where they could try out some of the sports on the interactive equipment. They had some pretty impressive facilities especially their $10 million pool facility that is only for use by the AIS swimming squad. 

Our finally site to see was the Royal Australian Mint. We met Titan the robot that picks up 44 gallon drums of coin to dump into the sorters.  He was a bit of a show off and when not working would put on a performance for the crowd. The boys got to mint their own $1 coin which cost $3 each. Good value?   

Australian Institute of Sport

Dad smashes them again

House of Representatives

Dignitaries meet on the steps of Parliament House

Night trots in Canberra (right beside camp site)

Coins being sorted at the Royal Australian Mint

War Memorial 

Boys in War Memorial Discovery Zone

Wall of Honour

Now on to Canberra its self.  The area around Parliament House and all around the lake is very beautiful, but for the rest of Canberra it is a little drab with lots of housing commission looking units and houses. There is no character in the buildings they all look the same.  As for seeing any shops or petrol stations good luck.  They tuck them away in the back of the suburbs and surround them with trees.  We did see a huge shopping centre on our way out of town right near the airport though.  The boys thought it being the capital city of Australia that it would be bigger and there would be more high rise buildings in the CBD.  However, it was interesting and we did enjoy our stay.

We have just had our first pack up in the rain and are currently driving in the rain to Corryong.  The Snowy Mountains are in white out ahead of us. Which is a bit of a shame.  The rains not heavy but constant. It's looks like we will have our first set up in the rain and when I say we, I actually mean Doug.