Home to Jerilderie

23^rd May 2016

Ashgrove cow and Cat

Compulsory windmill

Highway Patrol have big guns in Jerilderie

War Memorial

Red rumped parrot

Jerilderie Lake

Pelicans and Swans

Lake view

Gum blossum

A man ...

... and a goat

Ned Kelly visited

Yesterday, the time came to say goodbye the new member of our family, Jezza.  Jezza was abandoned last year by our next door neighbour when she moved house and he sort of ended up adopting us.  He is about 15 years old and very affectionate; we were quite sad to leave him in the care of a kind neighbour.  He and Cat have become firm friends over the last few months.

Our trip to Devonport included a stop at Ashgrove Cheese for a few supplies, and a photo opportunity for Cat, before we arrived at the home of Les’ sister and her husband.  Sally had kindly invited us to have a meal before we sailed and had asked more members of the family to join us.  We were lucky in that we didn’t have to wait very long before boarding and were right in the bow of the ship.  The ship may have been refurbished and look very modern, but none of the passengers looked like the ones in the advertisements.  The sailing was quite smooth and uneventful, until Telstra decided to wake us up at 2.20 am with a message about a missed called at 6.30 pm the previous night!

We were disembarked by 6.35 am and made the big mistake of following iPad directions, not experience directions.  We did end up wandering, in the dark, through the back streets of South Melbourne before having to cross a major road without the benefit of traffic lights.  It was a relief to eventually get onto CityLink and the motorways.  We stopped at Wallan to breakfast before changing drivers and continuing along the Hume Highway to Benalla, then turning off towards Tocumwal.  The countryside was very green, with sheep and cattle before we reached the Murray irrigation region.  From then onwards, it was grain crops, possibly canola just through the ground, fruit orchards, dairy cows and even a liquorice farm.  We crossed the Murray River at Tocumwal and continued to our overnight stop at Jerilderie.

We are staying at the Jerilderie Motel and Caravan Park – very nice, very grassy and sunny with nice amenities.  After setting up and having lunch, we decided to do the sights and made it all of about 50 metres before the car “died.”  A call to the RAC resulted in a nice man from the NRMA visiting us, taking one look at the engine and diagnosing air in the fuel line.  Evidently, a line into (or out of?) the fuel filter had come undone.  A quick tighten with some pliers and we were mobile again.  We had a lovely walk around the lake, with its pelicans, swans, ducks and billy goat, before looking at a couple of places that Ned Kelly visited.

A lovely place for an overnight stay.