Blog 9 Wagga Wagga

It’s amazing isn’t it you can plan for years for a trip and at the last minute your kids will come along and change everything for you, great isn’t it.

The original idea of this trip was to go all the way around Australia, our house would be safe and secure as the son was going to live there and mow the yard etc. Well we get halfway to Mt Isa and he rings up and says he has been accepted into the RAAF, so it’s into Darwin for a while, then fly back to Townsville to see him sworn in and send him on his way.
The of course we have to be in Wagga in 10 weeks, so it’s down the middle we go so we are in Wagga at the end of August.
We arrived in Wagga on the 24^th, made camp at the big 4 in town and settled back to see Lucas. We met up with Lucas on the Saturday; he looked good and was enjoying the RAAF.
Then the gang started to arrive, on Monday we drove up to Canberra to pick up Michelle and David and the little ones Taylah and Connor. The next day we took them up to the snow to the Selwyn snow fields



The Gela family





Dave



Lucas's March Out

Finally the day came we were all waiting for, and that Lucas had been working for 10 and a half weeks towards.
On the Wednesday Lucas marched out of recruit training, we all went along, Taylah was excited she thought we were going to the playground, had to explain to her it was the parade ground, she enjoyed it though.

The day was great, cold and raining but I am sure the recruits couldn’t feel a thing. When they marched out with such precision and pride, it made you feel good that these young people are preparing to devote their efforts to the nation. 

 

 

The Chief of the Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Brown, AO was in attendance, along with the President of the RSL Rear Admiral ken Doolan AO RAN (Retd).

At the precise moment the Chief stepped out of his car a bloody great jet fighter roared across the parade ground.

After the parade we all went over to their mess for tea and sandwiches, and the recuits were awarded thier certificates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We were then taken for a tour of their quarters. After all this we were escorted out of the grounds ( not evicted)  

On the Thursday Nicole and Tyson flew in from Brisbane, so it was another trip up to Canberra to pick them up, was great to be getting everybody together.

On Friday Dan came down but he hired a car and drove down himself. On Saturday we all went to the park for a picnic, early father’s day for me and the two sons in law. The kids enjoyed it there was swings and stuff

There was also a small zoo which we all enjoyed

Boys and their Dads

Sunday saw everybody leaving to go home, we took the Gela’s back up to Canberra and Nicole and Dan plus Tyson drove up by themselves.

We hung around another day and then headed up to Canberra this time we took the van though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blog 8 Up the Murray.

Monday the 6^th we again broke camp and hit the road, we moved further south down to Victor Harbour and Goolwa at the mouth of the Murray, not knowing where we would camp for the night, just enjoying the scenery. As these places were only an hour’s drive away we ventured up to Tailem bend and found our first riverside park.

Once again there were some great sunsets, this time over the river.

Even after the sun went down……..

 Next morning we again moved on driving up to Renmark through the mallee country and made camp at the Big 4 Park again on the river. Nice spot lots of wild life

 (bloody hell what’s happening to me I am taking photos of birds, the feathered type, must be getting old).

Once again great sunsets over the river

The Murray River is looking healthy at the moment thanks to Qld, don’t know what these southern’s would do without us.

From Renmark we moved across to Mildura, once again we had to throw out our fruit as we moved into this area, I think it’s some sort of scam to get you to buy their fruit and vegies.

Found another great park on the Murray, it’s on the NSW side of the border, just over the bridge at a place called Buronga. For $5.00 the park guys will bring down a fire pit and a bag of wood and you can have your own camp fire, great with a glass of wine and a sexy blonde.

One night we had our neighbours over for drinks by the fire Brice and Penny from the Barossa valley

Not far from Mildura the waters from Queensland come down the Darling River and flow into the Murray, this is at Wentworth, the two rivers meet at a place they call “the junction”

We found out there was a cruise with a bbq lunch leaving soon on the rivers so we jumped on board. We first sailed up the Darling for a while

There are some nice places to live on the banks of these rivers; this is what I call a drinking spot,

After going up the Darling for a while they turned around and during lunch we went back down the Darling to “the junction”

Then it was up the Murray, the bird life was abundant heaps of different birds,

First there was our old favourite the pelican wherever we go he is around

Me old mate the kookaburra was there looking at me looking at him

Then there were the darters and cormorants

The Darter’s beak is straight and he spears his food under the water, different to the Cormorant whose beak has a hook with which he catch’s his fish.

Of course the wood duck was hanging around as well, and some swans

All in all the trip was pretty good we enjoyed ourselves, must really be getting old starting to enjoy watching feathered birds.

It’s strange in this area with all of this water flowing down the Darling and Murray rivers and just a couple of k’s out of Wentworth is a place called the sand dunes, it looks like the desert.

From Mildura we drove across to Swan Hill, got a great park on Pental Island an island between the Murray and the little Murray. The town was not that interesting but the park was on a working property on the banks of the Murray with a old rural setting amongst the gum trees,

Only stayed there two nights and moved on to Echuca, once again got a caravan park on the river, its cold and raining here. But Echuca is a nice spot, it would be a great place to visit when its warmer. Heaps of paddle steamers on the river including the wood fired “Canberra”

 

Echuca is where the Campaspe River joins the Murray so we had to find that spot, which we did after a bit of 4 wheel driving in the mud.

There also was a small local run military museum, it concentrated on mainly WW2 stuff but had some interesting artefacts

After Echuca we moved across to Albury Wodonga, camping in a park on Lake Hume. Nice spot, but once again it was wet and cold, the lake however was a flat and smooth as glass

Went for a drive out to the dam wall which was on the other side of the lake to us.

Albury Wodonga has a large military presence with 3 or 4 barracks in the area, it also hosts AHU museum at Bandiana,

 

This museum is one of the largest I have seen, with a large collection of vehicles, the museum is a Corps Museum catering for a lot of the smaller corps in the Army, it has exhibits showcasing each of these corps, e.g. the Army Apprentice School,

 

Having spent enough time following the Murray it’s time to leave the Murray and move up to the Murrumbidge  to Wagga to see Lucas in his passing out parade for the Royal Australian Air Force

 

 

 

 

Blog 7 City of Church’s.

Arrived in Adelaide on the 27th and booked into the Brighton Beach Caravan Park, nice spot, we got a good spot behind a sand dune which protected us from the cold wind, but on a good day just had to walk to the top of it and got a great view.

Good Day

 Not so good Day

As the caravan park was on the beach of the gulf of St Vincent, the sunset over the water, got some great sunset photos from here.

We visited the Army History unit at Keswick barracks, and ran into Steve the WO I met at the Museum course in Melbourne. He showed us around; of course I had to buy one of their “digger dogs”.

They have a great museum, lots of great gear, got taken over to see their archives room, could hardly move, there was stuff piled high, they have a fantastic collection of documents, newspaper, photo etc.

Their displays are well done and informative.

They only open on Sundays, and have a volunteer staff of approximately 60 people, wish we had that many.

Of course we had to do the Wineries, went down first to the Mclean Valley and found the Rosemount cellar doors, and tried their wines like I was some sort of expert, the country side down there was beautiful

Another day we went up to the Barossa and found this creek I was quite familiar with

The grape vines at this stage are in the process of being pruned, talking to the locals (whilst sampling their wines) it’s quite an art to prune them, they have to get it right to maximize their grapes quality and quantity.

Went for lunch with Percy and Michelle, Barry and Glenda had left Adelaide and were heading back north, then went over to their place for coffee, they live in the Adelaide hills, got a nice spot with great views, beside a nature reserve, Percy tried to make out it was his land, I wasn’t fooled J.

Did lots of other exploring, went into town on the train and visited the markets in the middle of the city, got on the train home and unbeknown to us caught an express, so we had to get off past our station and go back, oh well all the more fun. We went for drives through the hills, when the signs say beware koala’s they are true, this fellow was casually strolling along the road like he owned it, had the traffic holed up, but finally decided to have a rest in the fork of a tree,

We drove down to Cape Javis to have a look at Kangaroo Island, didn’t go over though. Stopped on the way back at a nice pub with a fire going for lunch, could have sat there all afternoon. The drive through the country was fantastic.

Packed up on Sunday the 5^th ready to go the next day and Percy and Michelle came over for drinks and to say goodbye.

Next is to follow the Murray.