Melbourne

Saturday, 16 September 2017

Lunchtime reflections at Jerilderie

Roadside wattle

With Brian and Pat

Rosebank

Viewing the gardens at Rosebank

Lunch with Sandra and Treor

At the football

Here they come ...

From palm trees to blossom trees

The weather continued to be fine when we departed West Wyalong, with a roadside stop at 9.00am to boot up the laptop and purchase tickets to the Friday night semi-final between Sydney and Geelong.  We continued south through the canola and wheat fields, with a lunch stop beside the lake at Jerilderie before arriving at the RACV caravan park at Cobram.  This is a beautiful park, with extremely large sites, double concrete slabs, heated amenities and very well maintained.

Tuesday morning was time to hit the “Big Smoke” – and the rain, just as we approached the outskirts to Melbourne.  We had no problems negotiating the motorways and were at the Big4 South Dandenong in time for lunch.  This is a small park, good amenities, all sites have concrete slabs (but some are better than others) and can be a bit muddy when wet.  We undertook a touch of retail therapy during the afternoon at the nearby merino/possum factory.

Wednesday morning was time to visit my only remaining aunty and we were pleasantly surprised when her son and daughter-in-law also called in at the same time.  We then spent a couple of hours wandering around a much expanded Chadstone and its VERY upmarket shops.  Thursday was another catch-up day with Sandra and Trevor for lunch at Rosebank, a lovely old house converted to a restaurant.

Friday morning was pack-up day for the journey across Melbourne to the Big4 Discovery at Braybrook, which would be much quieter than South Dandenong with all the Sandown 500 patrons.  The nice park is convenient to the city, the boat, shopping centres and Geelong.  Friday afternoon the weather completely cracked up, with thunderstorms and torrential rain – wonderful weather for watching football at the MCG!!!  We needed to be early to secure parking, so ended up driving into the city during the worst of the weather, with a nearby road flooded after the rain and a burst water main; the Pajero coped without any trouble.  After parking, we sat in the car watching the rain until just after the gates opened at 5.30 and the rain cleared.  We had excellent seats with a really posh bar/lounge area immediately behind.  Unfortunately, the game didn’t go the way we would have liked.

Saturday will be a day for some birthday and Christmas shopping and Sunday we hope to enjoy a lunch at Geelong with some cousins before catching the Spirit of Tasmania for a late sailing.

Our travels for this year have come to a conclusion.