Best Western Avondel Motor Inn Benalla

... and another peak bagged! And in keeping with my experiences to date I saw the usual selection of fashion clothing being warn up the hill and that most disgusting and ubiquitous of Australian footwear – the flip flop. Yes I know its called a thong here but that name just turns my stomach even more. What, you may wonder, do I have against the humble flip flop? Nothing actually – my problem is with what is fails to ...

... on Saturday we just went to the pub and then to Chris’ place after that, I crashed there, we hung out on Sunday, met up with everyone, caught up on what had happened, chilled till like late afternoon – then I finally went back to Igor’s. And since then I’ve just been working as usual, Monday the vans all got exchanged for cars, cute little fast Mitsubishi Lancers, I love it!

Sales haven’t been too ...

Today was a travelling day, from Kiama to Benella, about 650km altogether. Weather was cool but no rain and the ride was quite scenic but not too challenging.

Took off into the back roads on entering Victoria and went thru Beechworth and some of the foothill highways still heading towards Melbourne. Finally rejoined the main highway at Benella where I stopped for the night, only about 200km north of Melbourne now.

... perhaps one of the things we will get to do in Heaven is sit around and read some of these old books, full of history not just from the events which took place, but from the unique and passing perspectives of each era, in which it might have been considered perfectly normal to believe that slaves were not human, or that Rome really did have the right to rule the world, or that people who wore the wrong sort of hat deserved to starve in the streets ...

... head for X town, turn off for the limestone quarry, then follow the signs to Holey Plains camping area.' In some cases, this would have sufficed, but for the few details it left out... namely 'turn off the highway and head for Y town before heading for X town', always an important one, the fact that the limestone quarry was called Calcimo or something equally helpful, and the fact that once one reached the State Park, there was a 7km drive along a very long and winding road. Hence, by ...

It was the summer of '07 when 3 young men embarked on a canoeing expedition from Buxton to Taggerty down the Acheron river. What was envisaged as a relatively easy overnight paddle on grade 2 water turned into a 3 day odyssey of man vs nature. Portaging heavy gear laden canoes over massive fallen trees, dense spider infested overhanging vegetation and even through cow paddocks, the 3 young men triumphantly conquered the adversity of the Acheron.

... luxury! Next morning we left bright and early and crossed the border into Victoria and headed towards Melbourne, stopping off firstly at Glenrowen - where the infamous Ned Kelly had his final stand. The town is less than 1km long, on one road and there are about 20 or so buidings, each one of them dedicated to Ned Kelly in some way, with statues of the much-loved criminal dotted about the ...

... to see Mum. Also Pa and Auntie Hilde were there which is always awesome. That weekend was massive with Mal, Jan, Andrew, Simon, Paul, Auntie Marg, Uncle Ray, Auntie Marg, Uncle Pete and Gretchen as well as heaps of other people around. On the Sunday night we went yabbying down at the dam with the superb equipment of old stockings and dog meat. We would have been able to use the real yabby trap but a while ago Dad blew up a stump and it landed on the trap so thus the ladies ...

... of the Great Dividing Range, passing the skiing resort of Mount Hotham offered fantastic views of the mountains. Snow chains are compulsory here in wintertime and the roads twist and turn round 360-degree hairpin bends, Chris was glad it was autumn. Huge great Alpine Ash, yet another kind of eucalyptus towered overhead. Forest fires here can be devastating and we saw many places where charred trunks stood in eerie silence. Huge tracts of forest were ...

... for bush fires. Yikes! Sounded scary to me. After our scenic detour, we drove on to Beechworth. It's a very attractive town with wide streets and well looked after cottages. The main commercial streets have wooden sidewalks and make the town look like it should be called Dodge. Lynne's century-old cottage, Charnworth, needs a lot of work (she just bought it last year and only comes up from Melbourne occasionally), but will be very nice when it's done. She has the ...