On the road again, the first time we bypassed Yass, this time we drove through the town. It is an amazing old town, with many of the old buildings preserved. We stopped so I could walk through the town taking photos of the beautiful buildings. By far the best building for me was the Court House – apparently there used to be a flogging tree, which they removed I haven’t been able to find any information on the tree. Yass to Gundagai was only about a 2-hour drive for us.

Next stop was Gundagai to see the Dog on the tucker box – both of us remember seeing this statue many years ago but could not recall exactly when. We nearly missed it; you have to turn off the main road which makes sense as there is so much traffic it would be disruptive. The place was so busy, it was like Grand Central Station, people everywhere. Funny the statue itself is rather small and I thought it had more significance than it really does. However, we did our obligatory selfie, bought some cherries and continued on our merry way. The Tucker Box shop has some sandwiches, not a great deal to eat, however lots of trinkets and souvenirs to buy. I did buy a bag of cherries from the cherry man for us to eat along the road trip – better than chocolate.

Further down the road there is a giant Koala, and a food shop. I didn’t go into the shop so don’t know what it sold. There was a Shell station which we stopped at for fuel. The whole area was congested and busy, very touristy. If you’ve not seen the dog on the Tucker box, its small but a good story and worth a visit – but not twice.

Mr C was driving the first half of the way – we were both excited to be on the road again however our rhythm was broken. We were both a little grumpy and snappy at each other, not sure why. I drove from Gundagai to Glenrowan, it was about 3-hours. I usually put google maps on, we discuss which way we are going and then of we go. We sometimes argue about google maps – I follow blindly and Mr C uses his nose to sniff the air, not really that means he uses his navigation senses, which I have none – that’s why I just follow google maps. Anyway, google maps takes me down a road that Mr C thinks is incorrect and away we go…… “I discussed this with you, look end place is Glenrowan, let me just follow the map“. Mr C, “no its wrong, it’s taking us down all the back roads“, me – “so what’s wrong with that, neither of us have been here before”. We came to a crossroad and google maps said go straight, however straight was on a gravel road. I now pull over because I am frustrated, and we need to decide if I am following the map or Mr C is navigating. We decided that I would follow google maps. but turned left towards Glenrowan. We had a beautiful silent drive the countryside was amazing. I’m still unsure how Google maps chooses the routes because often we are going on narrow roads away from the highway but were parallel with the highway – weird.

By the time we arrived at Glenrowan, we were both hungry and looking forward to a pub or cafe lunch – it was nearly 3pm. There were many people milling around the town. The huge statue of Ned Kelly was a surprise however upon seeing it I do recall reading about a giant statue of Ned Kelly – but didn’t associate with Glenrowan. We walked around the town looking for somewhere to eat, happy with each other again, but that didn’t last long, as there was nowhere to eat in town, and I got grumpy. Really how unbelievable is that! Driving south from Glenowan, we passed a solar farm, this is not the first we have seen on our travels, I’m not sure the benefit of these solar farms – there is kilometres of these panels, thousands of them surely it is not as good as it sounds – is it environmentally friendly?

Mr C took over the driving now – I wanted to stop and find an overnight place and he wanted to continue as it was still light, and we could make up some ground. I agreed and we continued. upon looking at the map, we had bypassed Albury and Woondga, also Shepperton and I wanted to go to Bendigo however somehow, we missed that to, I was not happy. “What’s the point of driving through Victoria if we don’t stop and look at some of the towns” my usual lament to Mr C, so we aimed for Ballarat.

We stopped at a rest place for the night called Benalla Parking Bay Southbound – a very noisy road as it was off the Hume Highway Benella. I took my cleaning disinfectant and cleaned the toilet before going it was not the best place to stay – however we did sleep well and set off early in the morning for Ballarat.

I enjoyed Ballarat we drove through the city and noted some old buildings. The Town Hall was a beautiful old building that housed the Information Centre. We stopped at the Eureka Cafe for lunch, I looked at the Eureka Museum and finally understand what the Eureka flag stands for. Mr C said, “Eureka I’ve got it”.

We left Ballarat, still looking for accommodation to essentially leave the caravan so we could explore the Great Ocean Road each day. Bearing in mind, it’s the busiest time of the year, peak holiday season. Finally, after the third phone call, we were heading to Forrest (3326) about 2hrs south.

Another town we stopped at was Beeac, just before Colac – we walked around the town and then headed for the town of Forrest. The countryside was rolling hills, with lots of cattle and sheep, very beautiful reminiscent of NZ or UK countryside.

Next blog – Forrest & Great Ocean Road