Posts Tagged With: wangaratta

Day 93 – Canberra to Wangaratta

Posted on Tuesday, September 6, 2016 by shorty

The weather forecast in Canberra for today was for a low of 1 degree – and we reckon they got that right! It was freezing cold when we woke but turned into a typical cool, clear Canberra spring day. When we left Alivio Tourist Park the GPS took us through some suburban streets on the way to the highway, but it seems that some of the trees have no idea what season it is. Within metres of each other some trees appear to be losing their leaves, yet others are in blossom. Confusing!

Is it Autumn or Spring??

The Barton Highway is in very good condition in most places, and there is plenty of greenery around, although perhaps curiously parts of Canberra are under Level 1 water restrictions. We saw plenty of contented cattle and sheep along the highway.

Scenes along the Barton Highway

As we approached Yass we were surprised to see that many of the hills were shrouded in cloud, yet when we turned onto the Hume Highway the skies reverted to clear blue with few clouds.

Surprised to see so much fog heading towards Yass

View down the Hume Highway

Our morning coffee stop was at the small village of Bookham. We’ve been here before and I was looking forward to a hot sausage roll from Barney’s Café but he wasn’t open when we arrived. Instead we enjoyed thermos coffee in the sunshine beside Bertha.

Morning coffee at Bookham

Back on the Hume Highway heading south there were clear signs that rain storms had been very widespread. The scenery also included bright and cheery canola fields.

Scenes along the Hume Highway

We bypassed Gundagai and further down the highway closer to Holbrook we stopped at the Little Billabong Rest Area for lunch. This is a newish rest area that isn’t in the Camps 8 book. It is a good size and would hold quite a few cars, trucks, motorhomes and caravans. There is a toilet block and a couple of covered seating areas for picnickers.

Little Billabong Rest Area

After lunch we continued down the Hume and through Albury and Wodonga, and there was plenty of water in the Murray River (sorry – missed a photo here).

Soon we turned off the Hume to Wangaratta and the Painters Island Caravan Park. We’ve been here many times before on our trips between Melbourne and Canberra, but we did have some concerns as to how the park would cope in such wet conditions. This park is surrounded on three sides by water, although there are levy banks in place and we have never had any problems in the past.

The new owners showed us to a good dry site where we set up and went for a walk around the park. Sandbags outside the amenities block were a bit of a clue as to what might have been keeping the owners busy for the last few days. There were also quite a few sites totally under water. The Painters Island logo includes a family of ducks and there are plenty of ducks in the park.

Welcome to Painters Island

Painters Island Caravan Park

We then went for a quick walk into town. On the way it was interesting to see playgrounds and car-parks under water, and the height of water under the walking bridge. Never-the-less the town of Wangaratta appears to be safe from destruction by floods and we found a nice place to stop for a cup of coffee.

Plenty of water in parts of Wangaratta

Walking back to the caravan park we were struck by the beautiful art deco Court House building which stands out amongst its more modern neighbouring buildings.

Art Deco Court House building in Wangaratta

We returned to Bertha and hunkered down for what promises to be another cold, but hopefully not wet, night.

Bertha safe and sound at Painters Island with the ducks

Still living the dream!

Categories: 2016 Big Maroochydore Adventure | Tags: wangaratta

The 2014 Big Adventure Starts

Posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2014 by shorty

Day One May 24, 2014

We left home before 10am today after sleeping in the van last night and had a good run on the M1 and the Hume. The road works at the intersection of the M80 and the Hume are complete now and certainly make the first leg of our trip easier. While there are other options to get to the Hume Freeway, going via the M1, Bolte Bridge, Tulla Freeway, Ring Road and then Hume means that we travel at 80 km or 100 km speed limits and that we don’t hit any traffic lights from Brandon Park Glen Waverley to Wangaratta.

Just about to leave home

Driving across the Bolte Bridge

We were intending to stop at the Kalkalo rest area but as we approached we noticed lots of flashing blue and red lights with a further police vehicle approaching at high speed. There was also a police helicopter taking an interest in all traffic in the area. Someone was not having a very good day. We eventually stopped a weigh bridge near Broadford for a short coffee break in the van.

Coffee Stop near Broadford

We then kept driving planning to have a lunch stop at a rest area 7kms north of Euroa. This attempt at a break was also thwarted when we were diverted via the Euroa turn off through the bush for 44 kms until we finally got back onto the Hume at Violet Town. We assume that there was an accident and that someone else was not having a very good day. We then drove to a truck pull-over north of Violet Town where we stopped for a quick lunch in the van.

We finally arrived at Painters Island Caravan Park in Wangaratta at about 2pm. This is one of our favourite parks especially at this time of year when the leaves on the trees are changing colour. It was sunny but cold and we went for a walk into town. There is a very nice new Café Precinct by the River just a short walk from the caravan park and we enjoyed a glass of local wine and the fantastic view across the river.

View from Cafe Vue

Footpath Art outside Cafe Vue

Cafe Vue

Bridge across the river to Painters Island

View across the bridge to the caravan park

Autumn View of the caravan park

Back to the van where we cranked up the heater and enjoyed dinner and watched TV.

Day 2 May 25, 2014

While it rained heavily last night, today was actually quite a nice sunny day. I left Ann to her own devices in Wang and travelled to Winton for the Winton Historics to take photos of the historic car racing. I had a great day and there will be plenty of photos to add to my Classic Car Photography website.

Day 3 May 26, 2014

Again, very cold overnight followed by a nice sunny day. I spent today sorting the photos that I took at Winton yesterday. Technology wasn’t being my friend today and I couldn’t get internet access on my new laptop, but I could at least keep working on sorting and editing photos.

Ann realized yesterday that our IPad would not turn on or take a charge. Today she rang Apple and spoke to someone who was very helpful and the issue is now sorted. They even apologized for the 3 minute wait! If only other companies provided such great customer service.

We went into town to a great Italian Café / Deli for coffee this afternoon – Ann couldn’t resist buying some of the lovely cheese and cold cuts from the display cabinet.

Calm before the Storm in the caravan park

Autumn views before the rain

The weather closed over early this evening and rain is expected tomorrow but we hope that we might avoid it by heading north. We put the awning up in anticipation – nothing worse than packing up a wet awning! Fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow!

Day 4 May 27, 2014

Very heavy relentless rain woke us at 5.30am this morning. In fact it almost seemed like hail. We have a hatch over our bed which is great to have open on a hot night but it is very noisy in the rain. By 8.30am it was still hammering down so we decided to stay here another day. It would not be fun on the road and I still had not finished sorting and uploading my photos. The rain kept going and was accompanied by a thunderstorm for good measure. We were warm and dry in the van. The rain was so heavy that dozens of ducks joined us in the caravan park – they love this weather.

The rain kept going all day. We hope that it eases up tomorrow as we would really like to start heading north to warmer, dryer places.

I rang Telstra to sort out my internet problem and they were extremely helpful and had things sorted very quickly. As a result I have been able to upload a whole heap of photos to my Classic Car Photography website – click here if you would like to have a look.

Categories: 2014 Townsville Adventure | Tags: wangaratta

Canberra to Home

Posted on Friday, September 27, 2013 by shorty

Canberra:

We enjoyed several days in Canberra catching up with Katie and Mick, and generally winding down before our final run home to Melbourne. We visit Canberra on a semi-regular basis and there are always new and interesting things to see and do. This time Floriade was on, as was the Thai Food and Cultural Festival. Plus we went to the Saturday morning Farmers Market at EPIC and had a good look around Gold Creek Historic Village.

Farmers Market at EPIC

Equestrian Event at EPIC

Our focus was, however, on family time, and we shared several meals with Mick and Katie, including a delicious dinner at the Taj Agra Indian restaurant. The highlight of this particular trip was a scenic drive around Canberra with Mick as our Tour Guide. We saw some great scenery including Cotter Dam, Uriarra Crossing, a pumping station, and enjoyed coffee and cake with a view at the Scope Cafe at Mount Stromlo Observatory. It is ten years since the devastating ACT bushfires in 2003 which destroyed five telescopes, workshops, seven homes and the heritage listed administration building at Mount Stromlo. The only telescope to escape the fires was the 1868 15-centimetre Farnham telescope. The Café houses an art exhibition and articles and artifacts from the fires as a reminder of that terrible time ten years ago.

Scenic Drive Around Canberra

Bike Riders up the Mount

Uriarra Crossing

Cotter Dam Wall

Water Pumping Station

Ann & Shorty Walking on the Moon [sculpture] at Mount Stromlo

Abandoned Telescope at Mount Stromlo

Burnt out Building at Mount Stromlo

Back on the Road:

After saying our farewells to Katie and Mick, from Canberra we headed back to the Hume Highway towards home – the BT-50 was pretty well on auto-pilot. We had a quick coffee stop at Bookham some 90 kms from Canberra and another stop at Tarcutta to refuel and to visit the Truck Drivers Memorial which commemorates truckies who have died on the roads across Australia. It is a very moving and sobering memorial.

Truckies Memorial at Tarcutta

Plenty of Parking at Tarcutta

For lunch we stopped at Jags Café in Holbrook – a town perhaps best known for its submarine. We have regularly stayed at Holbrook on our way to or from Canberra but this is the first time we had visited since the highway bypass has been finished. Time will tell what effect the bypass will have on the town. From there it was on to Painters Island Caravan Park in Wangaratta for an overnight stop. It seemed only fitting that we should spend the last night of our trip at Painters Island as this was where we spent our first night away from home on our 2013 Big Adventure.

From Wang it was a pretty straight forward trip down the Hume then across to the Tullamarine Freeway and eventually across Bolte Bridge and onto the Monash and home.

Arriving in Melbourne

We had a little difficulty getting the fiver in through the back gates as the olive tree has grown considerably since we left. Fortunately our neighbours Barbara and Len helped out – we tied a rope around the olive tree and they pulled it back over the fence to make a bit more room for us to squeeze the van past. The secateurs will be out there shortly.

Trailblazer back Home

So, finally we were home after almost exactly four months away and covering 15,999 kilometres. Barbara and Len were kind enough to invite us in for a cup of tea and lunch, which was a great way to settle back home. Now begins the job of emptying and cleaning the fiver, and preparing it for our next Big Adventure.

We can’t wait!

Categories: 2013 Big Adventure | Tags: canberra, home, tarcutta, wangaratta

Wangaratta to Echuca

Posted on Tuesday, May 28, 2013 by shorty

This morning was again very cold. We weren’t in any real hurry to get going and I didn’t want to pack up while everything was wet and damp so I let the Navigator have a bit of a sleep in. We finally left the caravan park in Wangaratta at 10.30am and headed off towards Echuca.

Early Morning In Wangaratta

As we were driving through Bundelong we were stunned by the destruction along the Highway. A tornado tore through the area on March 22, 2013 and has left huge gum trees ripped to shreds and even 2 months later the devastation is quite confronting.

We stopped for a morning coffee in the sun beside Lake Mulwala in Yarrawonga. One of the locals (a seasoned vanner) came out to talk to us and check out the hitch on the van. There was an all-weather, luxury cruise boat, The Paradise Queen, moored near where we stopped and we watched as a bus from the local retirement village dropped off a large group of people for a lunch cruise on the Lake.

The Paradise Queen

We drove on a bit further and stopped at Bourke’s Bridge Rest area for lunch in the sun (Camps 7 #249). Having downloaded the stops in Camps 7 into the Garmin GPS saved a heap of time (check out GPSOZ for the software download). Just as we were enjoying the relative tranquility of our lunch stop, a bus came along and dropped off a bunch of school kids, followed shortly after by a couple of utes loaded with canoes. Obviously an outdoor ed adventure in the making.

Plaque at Bourkes Bridge Rest Area

Students on Outdoor Ed Excursion at Bourkes Bridge

After lunch we drove on to Nathalia and stopped and walked around the town and had a coffee at the bakery.

We arrived at Echuca Holiday Park at 3.30pm. This is a great park with big drive through sites and walking distance to the Historic Port precinct.

So far I’ve made reasonable progress on the photos from Historic Winton 2013, but there is more work yet to be done. If you are interested in seeing my Classic Car Photography, please Click Here.

Categories: 2013 Big Adventure | Tags: echuca, wangaratta

Wangaratta – Day 3

Posted on Monday, May 27, 2013 by shorty

After a cold morning, it was a lovely day here in Wangaratta today.

Painters Island is a lovely van park especially at this time of year with the trees changing colour.

We went for a long walk into town this morning. From Painters Island you walk across the new swing bridge to Café Pre Vue. Sit by the fire and experience great coffee and good food. The trouble is that more people have found it and the whole precinct is being redeveloped. We will have to learn to share “our place”. It was a good place to start exploring the town. There seems to be a lot of development happening here at the moment. It is a lovely town with fantastic family friendly facilities.

I spent the afternoon sorting my photos from Winton while Ann cooked up a storm using up our fresh produce rather than throw it out at quarantine check-points further up the highway.

All going well, we plan to leave here tomorrow and decide where we are going once we hear the weather reports.

Categories: 2013 Big Adventure | Tags: wangaratta

Day 2 – Chillin’ in Wang

Posted on Sunday, May 26, 2013 by shorty

Chilling is an understatement when describing the current weather in Wangaratta. The overnight weather forecast was for -2 degrees (yes – minus two). We’re not sure if it got that low but it was 5 degrees inside the caravan at 7.00 am when I turned the heater on. The fog eventually went and it turned out to be a nice crisp day with clear blue skies.

Some readers of this blog will be aware that I am pretty serious about his Classic Car Photography and I spent the day at the 2013 Historic Winton motor racing at Winton some 30 kms down the highway. I had a very good day and caught up with several people I knew. I now have well over 1,000 photos to sort through but I’ll post some samples soon (plus provide a link where anyone interested can see more of my Classic Car Photography).

After refusing to get up until the temperature was in double digits, and without transportation, Ann lazed around the caravan, took a walk and read her book by the heater.

Tomorrow will probably be a bit of a slow day while I spend some time sorting and uploading photos to the Classic Car Photography website.

Categories: 2013 Big Adventure | Tags: wangaratta, winton

Day 1 – Melbourne to Painters Island Caravan Park Wangaratta

Posted on Saturday, May 25, 2013 by shorty

After cleaning and tidying the house ready for our house sitter, we slept in the Trailblazer in the back garden last night. Our neighbours were sure that we would freeze but on the contrary, we were so warm and comfortable that we actually slept in this morning! After packing a few more things and having a good laugh, we said good bye to our lovely neighbours and headed north towards Wangaratta.

The road works around the Western Highway before you get on to the Hume are nearly finished and it is a good run but when it is finished and has more signage, it will be fantastic.

We actually left home at 11am and drove 157 km to a very nice rest area (Grass Tree) about 20 km south of Euroa for a lovely picnic lunch in the sun.

We stopped again at Maccas just before the Wangaratta turnoff for a coffee and apple pie break.

We had a great run today with great driving weather and light traffic.

Total distance travelled was 295 kms which is a good effort for Tony who has rarely driven since his recent illness. A great start to our 2013 Big Adventure.

11 am – Ready to leave home

4 pm at Painters Island Caravan Park

Categories: 2013 Big Adventure | Tags: wangaratta

Day 7 – Wangaratta to Finley

Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 by shorty

A freezing morning turned into a cold but sunny day.

Set to Go at Wangaratta

We left Painters Island earlyish and thoroughly enjoyed being back on the road and on the move after too many days in cold and wet Wangaratta.

A navigation error meant that we effectively by-passed Yarrawonga but we’ve agreed that we must go back at some stage to have a proper look.

We parked in a back street at Cobram near the sports oval for a decent lunch break and a bit of a walk around before heading off through Tocumwal to our destination at the Finley Caravan Park.

This is a reasonably basic Caravan Park but it does have drive through sites beside the lake. There is interesting artwork all over the Amenities Block and while it is a bit dated, it is very clean and inviting – there is even an undercover fire pit for cold weather happy hours.

Finley2012_3002_Stomped Finley2012_3007_Stomped

After a short walk into town where Ann discovered two quilting shops we enjoyed a fabulous Sunset over the lake and happy hour with the ducks and swans.

Finley2012_3024_Stomped

Sunset at Finley Caravan Park

Categories: 2012 Winton Adventure | Tags: finley, wangaratta

Day 6 – Wangaratta

Posted on Tuesday, May 29, 2012 by shorty

It was freezing again early this morning but it turned into a nice and sunny but cold day later. We decided to stay an extra day at Wangaratta so that I could finalise my photos for the website and also so that we could get some further reassurance that the issues over Mum’s retirement unit have been resolved.

So I was up early to finalise the photos then it was off to Beechworth late morning for lunch at the well known Beechworth Bakery. We then had a bit of a walk around town before heading back to the van. The online tracking of the second set of documents indicates that they have been received by Lend Lease but when I rang my contact there she hadn’t yet got them and assumed that they were somewhere in the internal mail system. So far so good – hopefully.

My focus then changed from photos and legal documents to packing up the van in preparation for our departure tomorrow.

Categories: 2012 Winton Adventure | Tags: wangaratta

Day 5 – Wangaratta

Posted on Monday, May 28, 2012 by shorty

The weather changed again and it was freezing this morning – somewhere around minus 2 degrees. It warmed up and became a nice sunny day after 10 am. Ann was able to hang towels outside on clothes horse to dry for a change and it was great to see everything drying out a bit.

I spent most of the morning working on my photos from the Winton Historics as I had to sort through the 1,500 or so photos I had taken and prepare them to upload a selection to my Classic Car Photography website and Facebook page.

Sample Photos from Historic Winton 2012

We had poached eggs for lunch and then went in to town for a walk and a little bit of shopping. The nicer weather means that it is very pretty in the caravan park today.

After lunch I printed off replacement copies of the legal documents for Mum’s unit; had them certified by a local JP and sent them to Lend Lease using Premium Express Post – a high quality service which offers on-line tracking that we didn’t know existed. We have high hopes that this situation will be resolved very shortly.

Then it was back to working on the photos for the rest of the afternoon and much of the evening as I really need to get the photos finished and uploaded before we leave Wangaratta. As much as anything else we can’t be sure of good internet coverage once we leave here.

This is all very boring for Ann – just as well she has a good book to read.

Categories: 2012 Winton Adventure | Tags: wangaratta