A restless sleep, and when I look up my clock reads 5:30, Argh! A short while later Justine’s reads 6:37. What the! Then I look at mine again, 5:37, damn you daylight savings!!!!
I’m not going to get back to sleep, so by 6 (correct time) I’m up. We got most of the van finished yesterday and we even hitched up, so a few last-minute things I say goodbye and by 7:30 I’m off.
It feels odd to be driving off by myself. The original plan was to leave Wednesday morning, but work is a bit busy at the moment so I’ve decided to leave today so the bulk of the driving can be done on the weekend. I’ll camp up somewhere and can work from the van.
I had a spanner thrown in the works, or is that a broken bone in the foot, 2 weeks ago. We were getting something ready in the van, it had been raining so the steps were slippery. Anyway, not paying enough attention, I somehow slipped down the steps twisted by ankle and smashed the side of my foot into the concrete gutter. First, I thought I just twisted by ankle, but as the day wore on it was clear that something worse had happened. Most of these things happen in slow motion, but not this, one second, I’m on the step slipping, the next think I know is I’m on my butt on the ground. A doctor’s appointment and an X-Ray the following Monday showed a small facture in the 5th metatarsal. The foot was all black and bruised, but has mended pretty well over the last 2 weeks. So at least I should be able to drive OK. But any bushwalks in Tassie are still touch and go.
Anyway at 7:30 the traffic is pretty quiet. I end up taking the new M8 at St Peters, God knows how much it costs, but as it seems I have the whole tunnel to myself, maybe it’s worth it.
A pretty uneventful drive. I fill up at Yass, that’s 300km and 1 tank of fuel gone. Around Gundagai it starts to rain, and it pretty much rains on and off the rest of the trip. There where quite a few cops on the side of the road with radar, but unless they get me at the bottom of a big hill there’s no chance I’m going to the bother them with my speed!
Pass Albury Wodonga, and I’m heading for the towns of Wagunyah and Corowa, about 20-30km off the highway, on the banks of the Murray. We stayed at a campground here on the Victorian loop. There are quite a few good camp spots on the Murray. On the way into town there is a bush campground, I go in and take a look first. There are about 8 groups and two seem to be semi-permanent, but there is plenty of space, so this might do. I head into Wahgunyah and take a look the camping reserve in town. When we stayed here the smallish area had three campers and was quite nice, as I arrive, I’m gob smacked. There must be 10-15 vans and they are so tightly packed it looks like a caravan park. I’m mean this place is walking distance to town, and there is a public toilet here, but hell. I find it difficult enough to locate an area big enough to turn around. Back through Corowa, I fill up (another 300km!) and head back to the bush camp called Grantham’s Bend.
I find a nice spot, comfortably enough (about 100mts) from any other groups and reverse the van into the area. Just a I pull in it starts to rain, not heavy, but just a pain. I race to get the awning out so the ground in front of the van won’t get too wet.
Table and chair out, and just after 3, I can start to relax. It’s at this time I realise the Murray appears in full flow. I don’t recall ever seeing it moving so fast. The water would be all controlled, so they must be releasing a fair bit from the Hume dam.
A couple of phone calls to let everyone know I’ve arrived safe. It was a pretty easy drive, but I have to say, now that I’ve arrived, after a such an early start, I’m a bit stuffed.
While I’m a bit knackered, I can’t resist getting out the firepit. Fortunately, the rain seems to have stopped, so a very basic dinner and a beer in front of a nice small fire, and an early night.
