Day 27 - 30/07/12 Rutherglen 62 km
As we had a long drive yesterday we decided to have a fairly easy day today and woke to the rising sun. The sun rises at about 7:15 but as there is a row of trees to the east of the cottage the sun does not hit the bedroom windows until about 7:45 so we were not out of bed until about 8:00 although Les did get up earlier to take a few photos but quickly came back to bed. Last time we were here in Sept 2008 this lagoon was a very shallow small pond.
Leisurely breakfast in the sun on the front verandah. Even though it was down to -1° last night it is nice and warm in the sun. Did some washing (Les is so domesticated)
View of cottage (note: Les hanging out the washing – right hand side)
and at about 10:20 we headed the 12 km or so into Rutherglen and did the “Rutherglen Historical Walking Tour” and also walked around Lake King. Not sure how far the walks were but probably a few kilometres.
Back at the info centre and used their free Wi-Fi (very good connection) to upload the blog and check emails, then to Parkers Pies for lunch.
After lunch headed out to Mt Ochtertyre but the road is classified “Dry Weather Road” and after the recent rain it is badly rutted and we decide against it. Stopped at Morris Winery and bought some Tokay. Back home via “Police Paddocks” and “Shaw’s Flat” which are river access points and also camping areas. The river is certainly running well this time. There are some very large and unusual shaped trees along the river.
Back at the cottage at 3:45 for a cuppa and quiet night in front of the fire and watching Olympics.
Blue Cheeked Rosella
Day 28 - 31/07/12 Wodonga – approx. 100 km
Another cold morning as the birdbath has frozen solid again and there is plenty of ice on the car. Heading off to Corryong today to see the snow on the distant peaks and check out how much water is in the Hume Reservoir following a year of good rain.
Ice on the car at 8:30…
… the car at 9:00 !!!!!!!
Headed towards Wodonga to refuel and travel to Corryong when at a Give Way sign we were clobbered from behind by another car. Les had stopped at the give way sign and was checking for traffic as the corner is one of those that is at a sharp angle and not 90 degrees so you need to stop and twist around to see if something is coming as it is a main road and has many semi-trailers as well. Just as we stopped and looked … whack!!!!. The fellow behind thought we were moving on from the corner and looked to his right saw no cars and kept going… straight into the back corner of Joy’s car. So to cut a long story short we had a tow truck come and pick up the car and drop it at Wodonga for repairs, hired a car from the airport, came back to the cottage and got insurance details, had lunch, drove to Rutherglen and advised police (who do not record anything unless someone is injured) , rang our insurance company (will not cover hire car costs), rang the other driver’s insurance company (will cover hire car costs but may not cover cost to return to Wodonga to return hire car and collect Joy’s car when fixed, which could be 3 weeks or so. More info to follow when we know.), rang hire car company to book a Corolla from Thursday until ??? (original booking is 14 days). If we drop it off in Sydney it costs $385 to have it relocated to Wodonga!!
Had afternoon tea in Rutherglen and back at the cottage at 4:00 and sat and watched the many birds.
Another (very) quiet night watching Olympics. Early to bed as we both have various aching parts and hope a good night’s sleep will help.
Day 29 - 1/08/12 Cottage on the Murray - 54 km
Another cold morning as the birdbath has frozen solid again but it does not seem as cold. We both woke with various aches, Joy – back and neck, Les back, neck and shoulder. Decided on a quiet day today and therefore as we had the time we had our hot breakfast for the week with Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, Hash Browns and Toast with Coffee (Joy) and Hot Milo (Les). Again we did some washing as it is a great day for drying and we should not need to do any more washing now until we get home.
Late morning, we decided we needed to get our aching bodies moving, so went for a walk up to the front gate to the property. That might not sound like much, but when we measured it in the car, it is 1km. So when you add the extra bit we walked along the front fence as well, we walked more than 2km.
Lunch was at the cottage. Then around 2pm we thought it would be good to get out and do something, so we drove to Corowa. Just before the bridge across the Murray River there is a turn off to an area called Grantham’s Bend. Despite being in a hire vehicle, we took the dirt road down there, so we could have a look at how much water there was in the river. There is a HUGE difference between when we were here 4 years ago during the drought. This is the river now…
We then called in to the Corowa Whiskey and Chocolate Factory. The Corowa Council sold the old flour mill to a boutique chocolate company for $1, because the building was in a serious state of disrepair, and the chocolate company agreed to rebuild it and use it. They have done a reasonable amount of work so far, but there is a long way to go. Joy bought some chocolate there, of course!
We drove back to Rutherglen via Lake Moodemere. We went there last time we were here, and it hasn’t changed at all – no photos taken this time.
Back in Rutherglen we had afternoon tea at Valentine’s Bakery again. As we were heading back to our car, we got a bit confused and almost went to the wrong one (got to remember what the hire car looks like). Funny thing was, as we were waiting to cross the road to our car, a woman walked up to it and tried to open it, only to discover that it wasn’t hers – hers was the one we had thought was ours!
After a quick stop at the Rutherglen Visitors Centre to use the Wi-Fi, we were back at the cottage by 4:50pm. Weather was lovely and sunny again, cooling down quickly once the sun goes down. Les is becoming an expert at doing the fire – no firestarters!
Day 30 - 2/08/12 Albury – Lake Hume - 238 km
Sunrise this morning was very colourful – the photos don’t really show the true colours.
The day started out with scattered cloud, and that’s how it was all day. Never the threat of rain, though, and almost no wind to speak of.
First stop was the Smash Repair place to check that all is OK and they do not need any extra info, etc. Should take about 3 weeks to fix and the cost will be about $5,000. Next stop was Hertz at Albury airport to pick up our new hire car (we need a bigger one than the Suzuki Swift so we can fit all our holiday luggage etc. in it to get home), we were off on our day trip to Lake Hume. First stop was one of the picnic spots along the shores of the lake so we could take photos to compare with the ones we took 4 years ago.
So much water! Last time, it was an eerie scene, with so many dead trees poking out what little water there was. This time, only the top of a few dead trees are visible, but there are even the live trees in the water!
We drove around the lake and cut across up towards Granya. We drove to the top of Mt Granya to check out the view – not bad, but not spectacular. We could, however, see snow on the mountain tops in the distance.
On the way to our “real” destination for the day (Granya Waterfall), we saw a lamb that was worthy of a photo, it was so cute.
It must be very young – as well as being very small, it was very wobbly on its feet.
When we got to the picnic area where the walk to the falls starts, we had lunch, then headed off.
We were a bit disconcerted when we saw the next sign…
…but we pushed on – it was to a waterfall, so had to be worth it.
After our adventure, we drove the rest of the way back to the bridge over the river. It is amazing how close to the bottom of the bridge the water is.
We had to stop at the Hume Weir to see how much water was going over. It doesn’t really look all that impressive, as the water isn’t going over the spillway much, but being used to generate electricity. More interesting were the parrots…
…and gum trees
Drove back to the cottage via Hertz at Albury airport (again). The car we are now in has registration that expires in 7 days, so we wanted to know what has to happen. Turns out they can’t give us another car (don’t have one that suits), and they can’t give us the new registration sticker because it hasn’t been paid yet (they only pay it on the day it is due), and they can’t send it in the mail to us (it might get lost in the mail, and anyway, as the registered owners of the car, they themselves must attach the sticker to the car). So, when the registration has been paid, they will scan in the details and email it to us so we can print it out to carry with us, so we can then prove that we are driving a registered vehicle. We are glad we checked.
Back to the cottage via Howlong, getting back by 4:40pm.
Day 31 - 3/08/12 Yackandandah, Mt Beauty, Beechworth - 304 km
Another beautiful day dawned with just a little bit of cloud. After breakfast on the front verandah again we got ready for a full day’s touring. At 8:55 we headed south through Chiltern and on to Yackandandah and a walk to the Yackandandah Gorge. This gorge was cut by the miners when mining for gold so they could use the water for gold mining. Very impressive…
On to Mount Beauty, spotting some snow on the higher peaks along the way. Morning tea was in a café at Mount Beauty. The car we have has an outside temperature and it is about 7 degrees at the moment. Started the climb towards Bright and stopped at Sullivans Lookout…
and by now it was down to 5 degrees but as there is no wind it does not feel that cold even though there is no sunshine. On to Myrtleford for lunch at the café at the information centre. We have picked up some info as this looks like a place to come back and visit again. Next stop was Beechworth and the lolly shop to see if they have “Popping Candy” and they do. Joy has been eating some new chocolate with Popping Candy and wanted to get some of the real thing and relive some childhood memories!!. Then to Mt Stanley which was an interesting drive and only a moderate view but we saw some brightly coloured birds. The kids are having trouble staying upright on the dashboard of the hire car…
Stopped at Woolshed Falls for afternoon tea. The falls appear to have more water than last time (Sep 2008) but we will have to check when we get home.
Back at the cottage at 5:35 for another night in front of the fire watching the Olympics.
Day 32 - 4/08/12 Cottage on the Murray - 21 km
Another beautiful day dawned with just a little bit of cloud (does this sound familiar?). Not much planned for today and as we have a long day tomorrow and then Joy starts back at work for 3 days per week for 4 weeks we decided that we would have a sleep in this morning and did not get up unto 9:00. Scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast out on the verandah. We tried to walk down to the river but there is a creek that runs from the billabong down to the river somewhere upstream and as it is full we cannot make it to the river.
Quick trip into Rutherglen to use the Wi-Fi but it is running very slow so after checking emails we headed back to the cottage. Joy made scones while Les was paying and talking to the owners of the property. Les chatted for so long the scones were cold by the time he got back to the cottage. They were still yummy though.
Started packing and note that the boot of the hire car is bigger than Joy’s car.
Sitting on the verandah watching the Blue Cheeked Rosella….
…Corellas…(love-birds these two)
and Kangaroos….
We noticed something in the billabong, other than the fish, ducks, etc and we thought it looked like a platypus so we headed down to the billabong to see if we could work out what it was. We got to see it a bit better and believe it may be a Water Rat but will check when we get home as Joy has recorded a description.
Les managed to start the fire without firelighters or matches as there were still some embers from last night. More Olympics tonight.
Day 33 - 5/08/12 Cottage on the Murray to Enfield - 572 km
The last day of our holidays – it had to happen.
It rained during the night, and we woke to cloudy skies this morning, but at least it wasn’t still raining for us to be packing the car. And we don’t mind driving in cloudy weather, as long as it doesn’t rain.
Since we’ve been here at the Cottage on the Murray, we’ve noticed that there have been heaps (as in thousands) of cockatoos around. And this morning, a small group of them were eating outside our cottage.
We left the cottage just after 8am and drove via Howlong to Albury so we could get fuel. Then it was on to the Hume Highway – no need to navigate from there onwards, as the only reason we have to go on any other roads is for rest breaks. It’s the Hume Highway all the way home, basically, until we take the exit from the M5 in Sydney.
The Hume Highway is now basically town-free – there are not many towns it goes through any more, as they are all being by-passed.
Since there was no navigating to do, the Kids were mucking up on the dashboard, and for once, it wasn’t CD who was in trouble, but Flat Top
His excuse was that the dashboard of the hire car isn’t very safe for stuffed toys.
We stopped at Gundagai for our first break just before 11am – morning tea in a café, because it had turned cold (7 degrees, according to the car), windy, and slightly wet. Our next break was lunch at Goulburn just after 1pm. And we were home just after 4pm. We locked Maggie in the bedroom while we unpacked the car. Then it was time to go through all the mail that had accumulated whilst we’d been away. Back to the real world.
