2011 Roving Rally to Victoria

Last nights Happy Hour was really good. Jan showed off her new hat, Merle complained after her third glass that someone must have drilled a hole in the bottom of her glass as it was empty again. Inspection followed and the only hole found was the large one at the top.

We had lots of nibbles thanks to June, Jan, Joan and Tom and Kath.

Today we drove to Shepparton where we visited the SPC Factory outlet and purchased a few reasonably priced food items. The next stop was at Benalla where we had lunch.
There is a tribute statue to Weiry Dunlop the Doctor who helped many WW2 Prisoners of War in Singapore survive.

After lunch we drove through Mansfield without stopping. This is quite a historic town where another memorial is to be found to Policemen who were killed by bushrangers.

Onwards to Lake Eildon where we have camped for two nights on the bank of the Goulburn River which is flowing well.

What a pleasant change of weather once we reached Yarrawonga. Sunny and Warm. Happy Hour last night was great with everyone joining in. Thanks to Bob and Judy for the nibbles to go with the beer and wine although Merle did manage to spill her wine for the second night running. We think that she is trying to keep the local wineries in business.

2011 Nov 11 Happy Hour at Yarrawonga

We had lunch in Rutherglen before returning back to the van. We found the rest of our party resting up in preparation for tonight's "Happy Hour"

Well, Last night must have been the roughest (weather-wise) that any of us has spent in a caravan. Here we were, perched on the top of the Snowy Mountains, and all of a sudden, lightning like you wouldn't believe and thunder accompanied by loud rain on the roof of the van you couldn't even hear yourself think, then up came the wind which rocked the vans and we thought we would be blown to the bottom of the mount all the way to Adaminaby.

After actually surviving the night and it's still raining as well as fog - George (our fearless Rally Marshall) decided that we would continue on and we all agreed to follow. We drove on the Khancoban-Cabramatta Road past Mount Selwyn to Corryong. What a pity that on this wonderful drive the rain was so bad it made sight-seeing difficult and then to add salt to the wounds, when some spectacular views were seen, there was nowhere to pull up to photograph anything. Did manage to get one photo of Tooma Dam on the way.

We had morning tea at Corryong and then continued on to Tallangatta where we had lunch at 1.30. and took a photo of Hiroe and a statue of "The Man from Snowy River"

Following lunch it was back in the vehicles and on towards Wodonga. George leading but, he and Tom got so far ahead that George was telling us where to turn on the roundabouts, he was 3-4 roundabouts ahead of us and it got quite confusing, so we (the other 6 vans) followed Bob Bridgestock who managed to navigate us through town and onto the Freeway. As we were going along we came across George and Tom heading north towards Sydney and we hear George say "Hey, look there are the others going in the wrong direction".

Well, we arrived in Yarrawonga where we are staying for the next 2 nights, 30-45 minutes ahead of George and Tom.

Apart from the rain, (which had stopped by the time we reached Corryong), it was a lovely drive today.

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We met up with mates from our Caravan Club at HMAS Albatross and drove to Oallen Ford where we had a late morning tea then on to Bungendore where we had lunch and a bit of a walk around. Hiroe was very interested in a leatherwork shop and we took a photo of her in the shop. It really is a marvel, things hanging down everywhere from the ceiling.

We had a brief look in the wonderful woodwork shop and then it was on the road again to Cooma where most of us refuelled before driving up to Kiandra. It is quite cold here.
Took a photo or two of the vans parked at the old Kiandra Court House.