The House(s) of Fran_mart

 We packed up and were outathere by 0800 hours.  Unfortunately, as I drove off a warning light with a depiction of a tyre appeared.  On consulting the manual, which - unlike that for our previous Jetta - is useful, it was suggesting low tyre and a visit to a dealer.  Fortunately there was a Mazda Dealer in South Melbourne so we visited there.  The reception folk realised - after a very little guidance - that we had an urgent issue and investigated the issue returning the car, but not the nail that had stuck in the front tyre, before 10 am.  So we set off again. This began by visiting a typically confusing intersection to get on to the M1.  I am sure Vic Roads recruit their traffic designers from psychotic rodents that have failed maze running. Going through the Domain Tunnel was the usual slot-car racing experience (with bonus b-double).  The green lights running down the side of the tunnel were new! Heading out, Frances took over the right hand s...

Eden is the closest medium sized town to Mallacoota and one of the few places not to feature in the Hope and Crosby "Road" series.  I had to go there to get some work done on Frances' car and allowed 75 minutes for the voyage (it usually takes about 50 minutes). Setting off along Genoa Rd it seemed that I might have underestimated as I had to follow someone with a caravam.  Judging by the way they were taking more than their share of the road, and still going very slowly, I assumed they were doing their first trip with a van.  I got past them at Gypsy Point Cemetery, but met two more vans before getting to Genoa. They both turned North, but a climbing lane soon disposed of them.  Then a 3km road works limit - for 50m of work!  Grrr.  This only delayed me by a bit until I caught up with two more caravans (there were lots coming towards me also).  I took several kms to get past them but I did. Then I saw the worst hoarding in Australia - and I plac...

We didn't steal a pig  but got away nicely at 8:50 and headed off towards the cloudy hills of Bungendore.  We speculated on where the weather would clear, with Frances saying Wagga and me reckoning Gundagai (as that is where I feel the terrain climbs up to the Monaro - see part 3 of the trip for confirmation of this). As we got to the Hume we got a reminder that we were heading into National Party territory (or possibly a Mad Monk supporter had been allowed to head West). I normally obfuscate number plates to preserve privacy, but in this case I don't really want to protect the twerp. In fact Frances was about on the money and the threat of rain had dissipated by the Western side of Wagga.  Not too much further down the road – possibly just past Lockhart – the sky was nicely blue and the horizon horizon-tal.  Yes, we’d entered the land of mind boggling flat! In such an area the main thing you expect is to find the sons of Clancy droving. And so it was. ...

I decided that we needed some essential supplies from Rutherglen (and Frances was running low on supplies from Yarrawonga).  This is not an area to visit in Summer so we fired up the camper and headed off on 29 November. The countryside was pretty dry looking as we headed down the Hume Highway towards Gundagai.  Getting very close to the border we noticed that someone had built a large wall.  I suspect this is not to keep out undocumented migrants from Victoria but to block noise.  We decided that the best tactic was to go to Yarrawonga first to get the olive oil and then head back.  There was quite a bit of water standing beside the road but nothing approaching a flood.  Haymaking was going on everywhere.  Some people were making rectngular bales and stacking the high, giving a stele effect to their paddocks ....  .. while others stayed with the (now) traditional round roll model.  To illustrate the amount of water I offer this...