On the road to Gundagai....



Crossing the Border from VIC to NSW

After leaving Glenrowan, our goal was to find a nice campground where we could meet up with our friends, Mark and Amanda and their 2 kids, Charlotte and Jake. We met the Woods family in Canberra last year and instantly formed a close friendship. We spent a lot of time travelling with them last year and were all very sad to go our separate ways in August.

Since they left us, Mark and Amanda headed north and dropped anchor in Townsville for a few months so they could work and restock their travelling funds. Unfortunately one weekend, whilst taking a break from work and school, they had a car accident and did a lot of damage to their car. Thankfully they were planning on tenting-it so they didn’t have their caravan with them.

The accident put a huge stop to their travelling plans and they left their caravan in Brisbane with friends and headed home to Tassie to get their car fixed.

We made sure we were somewhere along their route, at the same time that they were getting off the boat from Tasmania and heading north along the Hume.  

As we approached the small town of Gundagai, we all broke into song. I don’t think it’s possible to drive down that stretch of road and not sing the song. You all know the one I’m talking about... here’s the lyrics so you can sing along:

"There's a track winding back
To an old-fashioned shack
Along the road to Gundagai –
Where the blue gums are growing
And the Murrumbidgee's flowing
Beneath that sunny sky –
Where my daddy and mother
Are waiting for me
And the pals of my childhood
Once more I will see.
Then no more will I roam,
When I'm heading right for home
Along the road to Gundagai."

After afternoon tea visiting the dog on the Tuckerbox again, we headed about 30ks north and stopped at the Showgrounds in Jugiong. We had many discussions about how the town’s name was pronounced and after talking to the locals, found out it’s Due-gee-ong.  The showgrounds run alongside the Murrumbidgee River and is a huge grassed area with a playground, toilets and the local swimming pool and tennis courts. It is a free camp area with a donation box to help maintain the facilities.

Not a lot of privacy in the dog's bathrooms! Marvel didn't mind.

Our Cheeky Little Monkey!

The Murrumbidgee River had recently flooded in the heavy rains, and two weeks earlier the whole area was underwater. There was evidence everywhere of how much water had gone through the area. We think the water levels would have come up at least to the windows on our caravan.

Campground at Jugiong

 

Plenty of room for the kids to run around

 

We took a drive out to Cootamundra where Dan managed to tick something off his “must do” list. A photo outside the birth place of Sir Donald Bradman.

We made the mistake of telling the kids in the morning that the Wood’s family would be arriving later that day. They spent the rest of the day asking us “how long till they get here now?”

When Mark and Amanda did “finally” arrive it was wonderful to see the kids instantly re-form their friendships. We all spent the next few hours exchanging stories of our times since we last saw each other. Dan told me the next day that I didn’t let Mark and Amanda get a word in! After a few too many glasses of wine I was very eager to fill them in on EVERYTHING that had happened since we last saw them (oops!)

That night we were watching the weather reports closely to see if there was any rain coming. The forecast was for a few showers and light rain.... however it started to pour and didn’t stop until lunch time the next day. After the rain eased, we decided to get the kids out of the caravan and go and explore Gundagai.

After and afternoon expelling energy at the playground we drove around town and to two lookouts. Dan fell in love with a piece of land overlooking the whole town of Gundagai and spent a long time designing his dream house on the side of the hill.

The view from the block of land

Ellis & Woods - back together again!

This is the top of the swings - notice the debris from recent flooding!

We went to the RSL for dinner and had a lovely meal, then went home and put 5 very exhausted kids to bed.

Mark and Amanda and the kids headed off the next day to continue their journey to Brisbane to pick up their van and look for work. We will meet up with them again in a few weeks in a much warmer and hopefully drier place.

We spent our last night in Jugiong at the local Pub. The Sir George Tavern is a beautiful old building that has the catch phrase – quenching Jugoing’s thirst since 1845!

 

Kelly Country

Leaving Bendigo, we had planned to go north to Deniliquin then continue on to Hay, Cobar then Bourke. We didn’t get to Bourke last year because we were advised to avoid the area as they were having some trouble with the locals at the time. As fate had it we weren’t going to get to Bourke again this time. Central NSW and Northern Central Victoria were suffering from some serious floods. The roads that we were going to take were completely closed off and most of the campgrounds were closed.

So we changed our route and headed east to Shepparton, planning on staying at the Benalla Showgrounds. However once we arrived there, there was a big sign on the gate telling us camping at the showgrounds was no longer permitted.

We continued up the Hume Hwy to Glenrowan and found a beautiful little caravan park out the back of Glenrowan. The owners were really nice and did everything possible to make our stay comfortable. They only charged $25 per night and an extra $3 per child on top of that. A very nice price compared to most other caravan parks.

The view from our caravan

A beautiful little caravan park

 Sam and Will are completing their schoolwork through the Distance Education Centre of Victoria. It is a great system which accommodates for families travelling around Australia. In fact they encourage us to substitute their schoolwork for work based on the areas of Australia that we are visiting. So I encouraged the boys to learn as much as they could about Glenrowan whilst we were there.

As Glenrowan is the town where Ned Kelly was captured, Will and Sam completed a project on the famous Bush ranger and his gang. He is a copy of Will’s project:

Ned Kelly was born in 1855 and he died in 1880. Ned’s Dad died when Ned was 10. His mum had 5 kids. Ned was the oldest.

When Ned was 10 he saved a boy from drowning and got a green and gold sash for bravery. Ned’s dad was proud of him.

The police didn’t like Ned and Ned had lots of fights with the police. The police went after Ned and his gang, and Ned killed the policemen. In the gang there was Ned, his brother Dan Kelly, Joe Byrnes and Steve hart.

Any person who found the Kelly gang and took them to the police got an 8000 pound reward. But no one handed them in because they thought they were heroes. The police were treating everyone badly and Ned Kelly stood up to the police.

Ned made a plan to derail the train tracks and capture the policeman on the train. But his plan didn’t work because a school teacher stopped the train before it got derailed. Ned and his gang made really strong armour that bullets wouldn’t go through. Ned only had armour on his face and stomach because it was too heavy to put on his arms and legs.

The police surrounded the Inn where the Kelly Gang were hiding. The police started firing first and the Kelly gang started shooting back. There were about 100 policemen against 4 people. Lots of people in the Inn were getting shot by the policemen.

Joe Byrne got shot, and the police set fire to the Inn. Dan Kelly and Steve Hart’s bodies were found in the burnt Inn.

Ned Kelly was shot in the arm and captured behind the Inn. He was taken on a train to Melbourne Gaol.  The judge decided to hang Ned Kelly.

Just before Ned Kelly died he said “Such is life”.

Along with photos and pictures, the projects turned out great and the boys gained a lot of knowledge on the small town of Glenrowan.

 

When we arrived home one afternoon, we were greeted by one of the kids that we had met at the Bendigo Showgrounds. Maddie came running up to Sam and handed him his book that he had left at the showgrounds. Maddie’s mum, Laura had tried to hand it in to lost and found at the Bendigo showgrounds, but they were closed. So they decided to keep the book in the hopes that they would catch up with us on the road somewhere. They didn’t expect it to be the next day!

 

A Monster birthday

After a fantastic weekend and a beautiful wedding, we said good bye to all our friends and left Nyora. We made a quick stop back home to help Tonia and Cam load up a moving truck. Paid a surprise visit to mum and dad, had a quick cuppa and headed north (finally!) to Bendigo.

As we arrived into town there was a huge monster truck on the back of an even bigger truck advertising the Monster Truck Show. The kids got very excited and we couldn’t believe our luck when we pulled up at the Bendigo showgrounds, and discovered that the Monster Truck show was being held at the Showgrounds the next weekend.

We spent the week exploring Bendigo. We decided that Bendigo is a really nice town. It has all you need from a small city but a few kilometres out of town and you can really enjoy the country life.

We got to catch up with friends who moved from Melbourne to Bendigo a few years ago. Leonie and Scott are living about 30ks out of town on a nice big block of land. They have three boys and all the kids got along really well together.

Since our time spent in the Outback last year, Will has had a dream of owning a horse one day.  However, he has never even sat on a horse before! It was great to see the excitement on his face when he got to have a ride on Leonie’s horse. He enjoyed it almost as much as he enjoyed racing around the block on their ATV Gator!

Bendigo is famous for their talking-tram tours. It was a great way to see the city and all of its beautiful old buildings.

Another thing Bendigo is known for is all the gold that has been mined there. We spent and afternoon going on a tour of the Central Deborah Mine. Going down the 60 metre deep mine, we heard all about how the mine got its name, and how Bendigo discovered it’s hidden secret.

The Legend of Lady Deborah.

Late in the 18^th century, an English lord became penniless when his roguish elder brother gambled away the family fortune and estates, and then took to the high seas as a pirate.

With nothing more than his title, the lord migrated to Australia to try and strike it rich on the goldfields, so that he might return to England and reclaim his family estates.

The lord arrived at the Sandhurst (Bendigo) goldfields, set up camp and immediately began his search for the elusive material. As time went by and the lord made several quite possible strikes, he began to suspect that a rich reef of gold ran under the township. Although other miners scoffed at his suspicions, claiming that all the reefs in the area had been discovered, the lord became obsessed with finding the reef.

The only person who believed the lord was a young dancer with Lola Montez’ chorus line. Deborah was strikingly beautiful, possessed of a sparkling smile, laughing eyes and a charm which entranced all who met her. It was love at first sight for the lord when he saw her at a Lola Montez show. He courted her and won her heart.

The lord’s burning desire to find the reef of gold was the only thing that exceeded his passion for Deborah. He refused to marry her until he could keep her in the manner he would wish. He wanted to reclaim his title and make her his Lady Deborah. Hence, he referred to the elusive reef as Deborah’s reef.

Working feverishly night and day the lord became very ill. He drove himself onward, consumed by his burning ambition to find the reef. Deborah begged him to cease his quest and save his health but he continued. Deborah has taken to keeping a vigil at the top of the mine shaft while the lord worked below.

One bleak day, the lord failed to return to the surface, and an extremely worried Deborah persuaded some miners to descend the mine and search for him. They found the lord dead with a large gold nugget in his hand. In the wall of the tunnel where he had begun digging they could see clearly a gold reef.

Deborah was overcome with grief and refused to leave the site of the mine. For two days she huddled piteously by the mine shaft. Sometime during the second night she vanished. Police and miners searched the mine and surrounding area but to no avail.

Legend has it that Deborah disappeared into the mine and to this day has protected the mine and all those who enter it.

Over the years miners often reported sighting a mysterious woman.

 

We had planned on staying at the Showgrounds for a week but discovered that camping was not allowed when the Monster Truck show was on. The company running the show had booked out the whole venue for the weekend. However, I managed to sweet-talk the guy calling the shots. We had already brought tickets for the show and as long as we moved our caravan to the back of the showgrounds, we were allowed to stay there for the weekend.

My mum and dad came and joined us for the weekend to help celebrate my birthday. We spent the day of my birthday at the botanical gardens. We had a picnic lunch on the grass, and then the kids had fun playing in the playground.

That night was the Monster Truck Show. We had all become very familiar with the trucks after watching them practise outside of caravan all week. It was great fun seeing them in action and Dan, Sam and Will even got to have a ride on the back of one of the trucks.
 

The show was followed by a fantastic fireworks display!

When travelling with kids, we are always on the lookout for other families on the road. During the next couple of days 4 families arrived at the showgrounds.

The kids are all instantly drawn to each other and form very close bonds almost immediately. It is also really nice for us to get to talk to other parents. We get to ‘vent’ a bit about the struggles that come with travelling with kids. As wonderful as it is, it can be quite challenging to be living in each other back pockets 24 hours / 7 days a week. It is refreshing to find that all travelling parents feel the same and it’s great to compare notes and share advice.

We became close to one particular family who have been on the road for about 3 months. The kids all loved playing together and Nikki and I spent a lot of time talking about the challenges of schooling the kids, over a couple of glasses of wine.

We got a bit of work done on the car while we were in Bendigo. One of the main things was getting a weight distribution kit installed on the car and van. People we have met on the road were really surprised that we didn’t already have one installed. Up until recently we have been carrying a lot of weight in the caravan. The caravan always sat really well on the road, but since we have got our weight sorted out, the van has been really difficult to tow.

We now have a Weight Distribution Kit on the van and hopefully that will fix the problem!