We packed up early on Sunday morning in the rain, and made
our way through Terang to Noorat where we went to the Presbyterian church. The
building was beautiful inside and out, and the communion set was a stunning
silver set made a long time ago by a jeweller from Melbourne in memory of a
relative, the original settler of the area. A shared mission lunch was the
order of the day and we were invited to stay. What a joyous time of country
fellowship we had before going on to Lake Bolac to camp for the night. After
setting up during a break in the rain, Steve went for a run and I had a walk
with the camera in hand until the rain came again. As we were the only campers
we had a very quiet and restful evening.
On Monday morning I thoroughly enjoyed a hot shower in the
facilities that the community have provided. When we went to the Information
Centre to pay for the night, I told the lady that that shower was worth every
cent of my half of the nightly fee! It was the last shower I had until Friday
evening! Passing through Dunkeld we cut across country to the Henty Highway and
on to Horsham before going to Dimboola where we refuelled both the car and our
supplies. We have previously camped in two different spots of the Little Desert
National Park and this time we chose a third spot, the campsite at Horseshoe Bend.
What a wonderful, peaceful, if extremely cold place. We enjoyed our walks, our meal
cooked in the camp oven over an open fire and our first clear day since leaving
Tasmania. The second night Milky Way under moonless skies cried out to be
photographed and I was very lucky to get a lovely shot of the Milky Way
reaching down to Steve sitting around the campfire.
Passing through country where farmers had grabbed the
opportunity to plant a crop after the rain, and seeing the rows of new green
growth, we pondered the resilience of our Aussie farmers. We didn't stop at
Jeparit, birthplace of Robert Menzies, our childhood Prime Minister but
continued along quiet country roads to Rainbow where we had a wonderful walk, a
coffee in a huge old-style milk bar and bought some sausages at a real country
butcher. It is obviously a town in which its inhabitants take pride.
On to Hopetoun where we camped at Lake Lascelles, along with
many other nomads. What a beautiful lake, and definitely a thank you to the
local community who provide this facility
for camping. The lake is just over 2km in circumference which made for good
running, walking and night time walking. Again we froze, and we realised that
there must be something wrong with our batteries as the power was draining
rapidly, but we had long silent sleeps. There is a cafe near the police station
that does Seniors meals for $10 and I encouraged Steve to have a fisherman's
basket when we stopped on our exploratory walk for a coffee. Steve had far more
food than he could eat, and I loved the fact that they made the effort to cook
a bowl of chips for me [not $10] in clean oil. How wonderful to find such
generous people.
On Friday morning we reluctantly left that beautiful place
and made our way through Lascelles to see the amazing monochromatic silo art,
on through Ouyen to Mildura where we headed to Battery World. The young fellow
tested our batteries and we replaced them, so hopefully our battery problem has
been solved. We'd decided on 3 nights at the Palms Caravan Park so that we could
do the Mildura Weir parkrun on Saturday and go to the Presbyterian Inland
Mission church on Sunday [although our PIM friends are away at the moment].
Saturday dawned very, very cold. After de-icing the windscreen of the car we
made our way to Lock 11 where the Mildura Weir parkrun is held. This was an
amazing group of parkrunners who encouraged everyone whether fast like Steve or
slow like me. Walking along the Mighty Murray with the mist rising from the
water and the sunrise glowing on the majestic river red gums and other trees
was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning. We partook of coffee at
Shippies a little further along the river. The proprietors of this wonderful
cafe in a shipping container give incredible discounts to parkrunners who show
their barcodes. After finishing the washing and having lunch, we took off to
explore some of the district. We enjoyed walking the area around Psyche Bend
where the old pump station stands. On Sunday, imagine our surprise when we went
to church. Old ministry friends from Tassie were filling in while the current
ministry couple were on holidays. After spending some time catching up, we had
lunch and went for a drive into NSW to see where the Darling River meets the
Murray, although presently it is only backwash from the Murray rather than
water flowing through.
It may have been rainy and cold for most of the time since
Timboon, but we've enjoyed our new experiences, and were thankful for the
warmth of Monday as we left to drive to South Australia. What a difference
there was in the land after Mildura, so brown and drought stricken. We stopped
for a cuppa and to eat our last fruit for lunch before the inspection at the
South Australian border.
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