Thanks to the global pandemic it is 927 days (2 years, 6 months, 1 week and 5 days) since we last posted! And ... it is nearly eight months since Bernie retired. His ‘celebrating retirement holiday has been planned, scaled back, and rescheduled multiple times but, finally, we have left Melbourne and indeed Victoria behind us and we are in South Australia.
This morning we packed the and set out for Horsham where we had arranged to meet up with our Cathy and Steve. It was quite grey in Melbourne and when we reached West Ballan for our first stretch break it started to drizzle. We continued in drizzle and rain and when we stopped in Stawell we had to stick to the shop verandahs to stay dry as we stretched our legs again. At least it wasnt as cold in Stawell as it was in the truck! Its a/c is very efficient, in fact, a bit too efficient in my opinion!
We had planned to eat at Waacks Bakery - renowned for its vanilla slices - but they have not resumed eat in service. After eating elsewhere we popped into the bakery and purchased
our vanilla slices to go. We decided to continue towards the SA border via Mount Arapiles, Mitre Rock and Goroke because we knew that there was some silo art at Goroke that we missed when we were in the Wimmera for a short break in late February 2021. The trio of silos in Goroke feature a kookaburra, a magpie and a galah. There was a very convenient picnic table beside the silos where we were able to consume our vanilla slices which were disappointing. The custard just wasnt as smooth as it should have been!
We headed south to pick up the Wimmera Highway again, travelling via Bringalbert to Apsley. There was much discussion about whether that should be pronounced or A few kilometers west we found ourselves at the border where we took silly photos as if we were 16 instead of Obviously its been way too long since we took a holiday and way too long when our movements were severely restricted.
With gaining half an hour at the border we arrived at the Naracoorte Hotel Motel We checked in and did a partial unload of the truck before strolling
along to the Sheeps Back Museum. It is a National Trust property so we saved ourselves $10.00 each on the entry by showing our membership cards. We were treated to a lot of very interesting information about the wool industry in Australia.
The staff at the museum told us that we should eat tonight at the Naracoorte Hotel, where we are staying and, tomorrow night, we should head across the main drag to the Pearl Continental which, apparently, has a little bit of everything from Indian food to pizza.
