Old Mates and Flying Boats

Trip Start Jun 22, 2007
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Trip End Ongoing


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Saturday, July 28, 2007

Today was another nice sunny day, so we headed off for Kerang - about 60km from here down the Murray Valley Highway.  When we arrived we found the pink shop.  You see, the owner is a softball umpiring mate of mine - a lovely, in fact, quite incredible lady whom I met some few years back through softball.  She and her husband own a dairy farm near Cohuna - she gets up each morning around 5am, helps milk the cows - 200 at present, down from the usual 500 - it's the time in the cycle where calves are being born.  After that, she drives about 20km into Kerang to open up her Bridal and Party Shop at 9am - 6 days a week she does that.  She is also a qualified hair dresser.  Somehow, she finds time to get to Melbourne to umpire enough games each year to qualify her to attend National Titles, and she is in the top elite squad of umpires in this country, and has just returned from umpiring in the Under 19 Women's World Softball Championship in the Netherlands.  She is quite an inspiring person and when you comment on this, she just smiles and shrugs Catalina
Catalina
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After visiting her, I looked through an antique shop, and we visited the local farmers market.  We then headed off to Lake Boga.  We drove around there for a little (it's not a big place), and then settled down to have a picnic lunch.  After that we went to the Flying Boat Museum.  During WWII, the RAAF set up a repair depot at Lake Boga for Flying Boats - all sorts.  There was a 25 minutes DVD which told the story of the base, and the exhibits were very interesting too.  The museum is in a bunker - part of the original base, and outside, is a Catalina flying boat - unfortunately looking a bit the worse for ware.
 
Back to Swan Hill where it was still sunny and for a little while, we were able to sit outside in our chairs and read.  Dinner was chicken shashliks of various flavours.
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