Lake Hart to Milawa

We called into Woomera on the way south from Lake Hart. This complemented our tour of Len Beadell's road building in Australia's outback. He was building these roads so the Woomera rocket launch site could be functional. It was amazing to see the rockets etc. that were launched from Woomera. Australia bought all these rockets and equipment from America when they left the site for $1, but it didn't state whether that was an Australian dollar or American dollar. 

Giant Red Gum Tree at Orroroo, I'm peeking out behind it

Camped along the Mighty Murray River

Bailey having a dip in the Murray

Buronga Caravan Park on the NSW side of the Murray River across from Mildura Victoria

Mildura - a cool drink before dinner, and it was cold there too!

Mildura by night from out camp site

The great Vanilla Slice hunt. These yummy guys were number 1 in 2017.

Amazingly, there is only one place in Mildura where you can enjoy lunch overlooking the Murray.

We're at Trentham Estate Winery and the food was as good as the view

Bendigo:

We've only ever driven through Bendigo, so we decided to stay a couple of nights.  We both found it a bit depressing and they seem to have quite an obvious drug problem and the town seems to be imploding. However there was a Buddhist Stupa there which was amazing.  When completed it will be the largest stupa in the western world.  Inside will house a 4 tonne jade Buddha to be delivered in March next year.

"The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion" in Bendigo. Who would have thought?

It'll be finished in 2019

We felt like we were back in Myanmar

We stopped at Kilmore, just before going into Melbourne and arrived at lunch time on Melbourne Cup day. So it was off to the Irish Pub for lunch and to watch the race.

I picked a Mystery Box Trifecta and also did my research to come up with my own winners. And winners they were! So for two investments of $3 each, total $6, my winnings were $1,512.55. Not a bad return. First time I've ever won anything on the Melbourne Cup. First time I've ever betted on the Melbourne Cup, so two firsts!

We had yet another Kilkenny to celebrate. Last of the big spenders!

Going to Melbourne was necessary to pick up some white goods that we had damaged this trip.

First call was to Swift Ovens, so they could repair the stove. They phoned to say the stove couldn't be repaired, so they offered us a replacement for $600. A new one is $1,100 on eBay so we took the $600 deal.

We headed north to Kinglake Pub for some free camping. It was just a magic place and only 30-60 minutes from Melbourne, depending where in Melbourne you need to be. The food in the Pub was perfect, and the best pub meal in some time.  Kinglake is only a small town and much of the town was destroyed during the "Black Saturday" bushfires in 2009 when 120 people died just in that small area.  We felt pretty special being part of the local community and the atmosphere at the pub was really friendly.

 Kinglake Pub Camping

The next day was spent driving to Dandenong, to get our replacement washing machine. While we were there I showed them the TV which had lines in the picture and suffered from a bad power supply. The guy asked me "Didn't we replace this TV already? We sent one to Northern Territory last year for you?" Of course he was right. He then gave us the latest model for free. So we're on to our 3rd TV.

We're going to have to put it on the bed along with the microwave when we do dirt as I don't think we'll get a fourth one!

The washing machine is priced at $1,400, and the TV is $500.  So with nearly $2,000 worth of free goodies, we left feeling quite satisfied. We plan on having some modifications done to the washing machine to strengthen it, and putting the TV and microwave on the bed for dirt roads will hopefully mean these new ones will last.

Below are photos from a video I took from inside the car which demonstrates the affect of corrugations on the UHF radio antenna making it dance.  And this was filmed going over a relatively smooth part of road. 

It's easy to see why all the white goods in the van have a hard time!

Leaving Melbourne we drove through Seymour and visited the Vietnam Vets Memorial. This was very unexpected surprise as we only went into Seymour to use their Dump Point for the toilet. 

A Fritchley who served in Vietnam

Amongst the thousands of names on the wall we found a Fritchley.  During Rod's research for the family tree he had spoken to the wife of this man back in the 1990's, and believes he may have been related to us.

The Vanilla Slice chase continues. Not as good as Hudaks, but not too shabby

Our next destination was Brown Brothers Winery, as they have a free RV park in their grounds which is good for 72 hours. We thought it would be packed, but when we arrived we were the only ones. One other caravan joined us for the night. This is such a great spot, thanks Brown Brothers -  we'll be over soon to enjoy your free tasting of your superior wines and a bit of lunch.

Camping at Brown Brothers Winery

We were woken at 5.45am this morning to a roaring noise which I thought was thunder, but it was lasting too long.

We're camped next to the Brown Brothers airstrip and a hot air balloon was being launched.

An acceptable thing to be woken by!

I saw this cartoon and thought it was very topical. Sad but true although nothing to do with our holiday!