The Snowy Mountains – day 1

After leaving Sally on Monday we knew we wanted to travel East to the Snowy Mountains. We followed the GPS compass eastward and took as many back roads as we could. We drove to places like Savernake, Coreen, Walbundrie, almost to Calcairn and to Mountain Creek.
We found the town of Holbrook to eat our lunch. Holbrook’s first building were erected in 1836 after explorers Hume and Hovell travelled through in 1824. It was known as ‘Germanton’, as the local innkeeper was a German. The community feeling during WWI prompted them to lobby for the town’s name to be changed. In 1915 the town was renamed ‘Holbrook’ after a decorated submarine captain Lt.Norman Douglas Holbrook who visited the town several times. After Holbrook’s death in 1976 his widow made a large donation to set up a memorial park in the town where the kids got to find out about submarines. ^{(Info from Wikipedia)}

The decommissioned HMAS Otway, also on display at Holbrook

After Holbrook, we drove North to Gundagai. Since my childhood I have heard bits of ‘The Road to Gundagai’ and as the town was so close by I wanted to take a look.

“There's a track winding back

to an old-fashioned shack,

Along the road to Gundagai.

Where the gum trees are growin'

and the Murrumbidgee's flowin'

beneath the starry sky.

Oh my mother and daddy are waitin' for me

And the pals of my childhood once more I will see

And no more will I roam 'cos I'm headin' right for home

Along the road to Gundagai.” written by J O’Hagan 1924, source: Wikipedia

Another first to me was seeing the huge fuel station we filled up at. We were bowser 21 and there were large step ladders for truckies to climb up and clean their windscreens.
We then drove south to Tumut, the start of the Snowy Mountains, and found ‘The Pines’ campsite, a free camp next to a massive lake at the base of some mountains. It was absolutely freezing at night (unpowered free site with long drop toilets) but the views across the lake, especially in the morning, made it all worthwhile.


As always, the photo doesn’t do the landscape justice – you’ll just have to believe me, it was simply beautiful!!

Koonoomoo – home of “The Big Strawberry’

Koonoomoo - what a fabulous sounding town name!


Aunty Sally has lived here for the past few years. It is an orchard area with lots of citrus growing in particular. 
There has been a lot of rain so everything is a deep green.
 As it is also the end of Autumn there are still many trees 
with gorgeous  orangey yellow coloured foliage. Down
 the road there is a massive strawberry farm and the farm 
has ‘The Big Strawberry’ cafe and outlet with every
 imaginable strawberry product on offer.

















We ate a delicious lunch there today finished off with pancakes and homemade strawberry icecream. Thanks Aunty Sally!!



Sally lives on an orchard and Harry just loved having trees to climb.





This afternoon we took a trip out to Sally’s work where she basically does anything and everything associated with the nearby 'C-H Cutting Horses'. She even gave Max and Harry whip cracking lessons…



Very exciting stuff!!

Shepparton

Today we managed to get going before lunchtime! It must be a record!!
We started to drive to Echuca but detoured to Shepparton. We found the factory for the SPC – Shepparton Preserving Company, that has been around since the early 1900s and produces the SPC, Goulburn Valley, Ardmona and IXL brands of canned foods. It is a huge factory that takes up acres of land. Unfortunately they no longer do tours of the factory itself – we were quite seen to see the process. We found the SPC factory outlet and along with lots of other people, spent time finding bargains. For example, the clear plastic 1kg of Goulburn Valley fruit for $1.67 each instead of the $5++ we usually pay at Coles. As an extra bonus we were able to get 5% discount with our RAC card. We now have a very well stocked caravan!
We found a park full of painted cows. These were completed to celebrate the dairy industry in the area. We found 25 different cows there, including -

• the Shrek cow
• the mermaid cow
• the skeleton cow (sponsored by the local imaging centre!)
• the strawberries and cream cow
• the Spode cow
• the Mona Lisa cow

Trevor and I had a proud moment as Max came over and said
“Guess what I did? That man came over to talk to me and said ‘Do you know what that is a painting of?’ and I replied ‘Yes, it’s the Mona Lisa’. He said ‘Oh, well do you know why there is that painting of a man on the other side?’ ‘Yes, that’s Leonardo Da Vinci who did the painting’ ‘You’re a pretty smart kid!’ and I thought I’d be a smart alec and said ‘Well did you know that ‘Mona Lisa’ means ‘My Lady Lisa’?’ and walked away.”  He is a clever kid isn’t he?
There are also more cows dotted around the town. It looks great!

We bought some lunch from Coles and Bakers Delight and drove 2km out of Shepparton to ‘Kids Town’. This adventure playground has been funded primarily by SPC Ardmona but has also had a lot of community and business support. We spent a few hours there and really enjoyed it. Harry has blisters on his hands again from all the monkey bars he went on.

we were together at the top of the slide !

the kids spent heaps of time on this. At one stage there were 8 or 10 kids on it being pushed and spun around by the biggest kid of all. It was a lot of fun!

This is one of my most favourite photos of Trevor and Max.

Part of the playground

Our beautiful boys

When we got home, Trevor and I reorganised the caravan AGAIN. Each time we do it we are amazed by how much space there is. This time we put some non perishable food in the back of one of the long cupboards and still had loads of room in the front. I think we’re living in a Tardis!!

visiting ‘Hume and Hovell’ cricket ground

Leaving Melbourne this morning was bittersweet, as while we were well and truly ready to move on after the car delay, it was sad to leave Sharon, Mike, Kerry, Emily, Trevor, Lyle, Christine and the kids. We’d also got to meet David, Sharon’s boyfriend of some time, and really liked him. I briefly imagined living in Melbourne with these wonderful people.  I think Emily, Kerry and I would be hanging out a lot as our kids just played so well and really liked each other.

We are making our way to Trevor’s Aunty Sally who lives an hour north of Shepparton in a town called Koonoomoo. How about that for a name!

On the way we wanted to stop in Strath Creek. About four years ago Trevor was chatting to the lady next to him on a plane who had noticed his cricket club shirt. She said that her cousin ran a private cricket ground in Victoria and she strongly suggested we visit it. It has taken a while for us to get there, but we had kept ‘cousin Mary’s’ card for all that time. We even knew where the card was, which is quite a feat for our family. We visited ‘Hume and Hovell’ cricket ground today and what a fantastic find it was!

The ground was circled by a picket fence, and you are able to watch play from the clubhouse which has a fully decked out bar. Seating is inside and out on the wide verandas. The ground is in a valley surrounded by foggy mountain vistas. The gardens were lovely, though obviously needs constant work.

We were shown around by one of the owners, Don Cook, who worked in Melbourne as a financial advisor for over 30 years, before opening the ground in 1994. They host lots of group visits, including lunches, as well as weddings and other celebrations.

I’m glad we found it! What a great place to visit!!

Happy Birthday Harry!!!

Harry has turned 7 today! Our baby is 7 – I can’t believe it!!


He woke up to a bed full of balloons and a caravan of streamers. We gave him a DS that came with 200+ games (we bought it from a girl in Melbourne – it’s old but otherwise is all good). Grandma and Grandad had sent over some ‘Smiggles’ things and then the Breeze’s gave him a gorgeously snuggly dressing gown and pyjamas and $7 for turning 7.


I think this combination of gifts is Harry’s ultimate dream – he has been yearning for a DS for years, particularly after Max got a DSi when he turned 8. ‘Smiggles’ is a brand of stationery that is bright, colourful and very popular – again, Harry has wanted some for ages, having a mum who has only bought him one Smiggles pen, so this choice of gift was really loved. The dressing gown is a lush, soft fabric. Those who know Harry really well know that he loves fabric with different texture – if someone is wearing a lacy fabric, or a furry fabric he loves to run his hands over and finds it very soothing. Being wrapped up in a warm, soft dressing gown like this one will make him feel wonderful. And $7 – well what seven year old doesn’t like a gift like that!!


We stayed in Melbourne a bit longer than we intended because our car got broken into on Tuesday morning. We think they were trying to steal the Waeco fridge that is in the back – they are worth around $1000. The would-be thieves smashed the back window – glass went in and out of the car, but luckily this woke Trevor up, and by the time he reached the car (which was parked about 10m from our caravan) they had driven off. So after phone calls to the police, insurance, repairers and then getting the window fixed then having to go back today as the right part wasn’t ordered…. hmmm…



We had already arranged for Harry to have a birthday tea on Tuesday night thinking that we were going on Wednesday. We went anyway and had a fantastic time!

Harry enjoying his nachos

Charlie 4, Erin 6, my cousin Mike 63... (only kidding!)

My nachos - a regular sized entree (!!) BEFORE

My nachos - AFTER (even after Trevor's help)

Harry and Charlie

my beautiful cousin Sharon and Harry

Erin and Grady (Sharon's son)

The food was delicious and there was lots of it! Harry also got to keep his hat!


I bought the chocolate cake from Coles – goodness knows what was in it but all of the kids went bananas after eating it. There was dancing, including a Conga line and loads of craziness!
My cousin’s wife Kerry works on Tuesday night and we were sorry she wasn’t there.


This morning Harry had phonecallsfrom both sets of grandparents and emails as well – so all in all I think he’s had a really great birthday. 


Happy Birthday my gorgeous boy!!