The Manna House: The Grampians to Echuca

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die -
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Another stanza from Dorothy Mackellar‘s Wide Brown Land….this poem is so appropriate to Victoria and what we are experiencing at present. Out of the last 30 days, most have been blue skies and over 34C and as high as 44C and not a drop of rain. But in the last 3 days the temp has dropped to 22C and it has bucketed down, and I am sure the Victorians are rejoicing at the sight of all this rain.
After a second night of kangaroos parading around the camping ground, we left Hall’s Gap in the morning and enjoyed a visit to several local art galleries including one of the resident artists studio’s near by. Hall’s Gap has an excellent wild life park and there, we were treated to an extraordinary display of male peacocks endeavouring to rouse their female counterparts. With amazing colourful feathers spread out fan like, one of them shook the lot, sounding rather like a rattle snake. We were very impressed but alas, his female friend would have none of it and strutted off into the distance. The males even chased the ladies up a tree, but they remained adamant and would have nought to do with them.
Stawell was our next stop, though not far from the Grampians, Marnie though it might provide a good back drop of the range from which to paint. The van park was by a lovely lake, but alas the Gramps were not visible from there. It was another stinker, so we parked side long to the lake , just a few meters from it and although there was a sign saying “no swimming” it felt cooler just looking at it. We stayed 2 nights and did some sight seeing to the local points of interest, namely the “Big Hill”, great panoramic vista and the gold mine which is still productive.
On our way to Wedderburn, the wind suddenly picked up and we could see dust lifting off the ground in the brown, dry fields either side of the road. In no time, we were in the midst of a dust storm, being buffeted around by the wind. Large chunks of tree branches littered the road, so that Marnie had to take care not to hit one and we prayed none would drop onto the van. By the time we arrived in St Arnaud for lunch, the storm was over and we had gritty, sandy dust over everything inside. Then it rained, just a few drops, but enough to make lovely mud pies. Ah, the joys of travel!
Our water filter had begun to deliver at a painfully slow trickle ,seemingly blocked a little, so we decided to take a look at it. A bit like a lady looking under the bonnet of a car, not sure what you expect to see. Only problem was, we neglected to turn off the water first. Oops, an awful lot of water can escape before one has time to hop outside and disconnect the hose. Water gushed out in copious amounts, need I say more.
My computer battery had suddenly died, so we went looking for a new one in Bendigo, but without success as there are apparently too many different ones, so they must be ordered in. When we got back to the van, there was a note on the windscreen from the New Zealand couple we had met in the Grampians, asking us to join them for a cuppa at their camp site at Bendigo showground. As we were ready for lunch, we drove up there and it was great to see them again.
After Bendigo, we found an excellent free camp just 18 ks from Echuca by the Campaspse river. No sooner had we settled in, than it began to rain and continued quite heavily, all night. I’m sure the farmers were rejoicing. Its pretty much the only real rain we have had in 5 weeks.
It was exciting to arrive in Echuca the next day, knowing Shelly and the grandkids would be there by the afternoon. Arrive, they did, around 2.30pm, having driven all the way, from the Central Coast, about 900ks in all. They have a cabin opposite our motor home site and will be here for 6 nights. I think we will be having a great time together.

Vicki