Wed 21st Feb, 2024 Spirit of Tasmania, Corio Bay, Vic to Bush camp by Murrumbidgee River, near Gundagai, NSW

The announcement came over for us to get out of bed and ready to disembark. Only 10 minutes late. Headed down to the lounge and when called we went down to Level 5 to the truck. Just got in and the 2 vehicles in front of us were waved off and we were next - last on - first off. It’s still dark so my photo was blurry.

Other travellers are in the queue ready to board for the day sail over to Tassie - have fun.

Around to Moorpanyal Beach to watch the sun rise over Port Phillip Bay and have breakfast.

I worked out a route so we don’t have to go into Melbourne. Onto the road to Bacchus Marsh where we stopped for diesel 195.9c/L. New roads to mark off on the map. Still have a lot of Vic to explore one day.

Through open farming country on a very rough road. They put up signs ‘rough road - lower speed’ - can’t do a fast speed as it is too rough.

Onto Gisbourne - up a hill and along the ridge with a range on our left. Climbed to 540m. Gisbourne looks nice (460m). Lots of big boulders in the open grazing land. Up to Ramsey then we climbed to 570m and turned north to Tooborac.

Rolling along the hills then slowly going down in elevation to 307m. Cool and cloudy in Tooborac where we stopped for a cuppa.

Just up the road we turned off and headed towards Seymour. Running along the southern boundary of Puckapunyal Military Area. The sky to the east is dark and menacing.

A big room jumped down the bank on the right and slipped and face-planted into the gully so Steve had time to avoid it. He got up and continued across the road behind us. Hope it didn’t hurt itself too much.

Drove under the motorway into Seymour to find a dump point. Across the Goulburn River - still flowing well.

Unfortunately the dump point wasn’t open so we turned around and headed back out and onto the Hume Freeway and continued northward.

Pulled off into Glenrowan for lunch. We had a great time here before learning all about Ned Kelly. A shower of rain fell. We swapped two books in the ‘fridge’ book exchange we parked beside.

The sun is out as we continued on to Wodonga on the freeway the there is still a cloud band across the sky. At least there is no headwind for a change.

Across the Murray River (missed the photo) and into NSW. Clear sky.

Decided to stick with the Hume - now just called a Highway. Good drive. Crossed the Murrumbidgee River. The source of the river starts in the Monaro Plains near Cooma. I had hoped to walk into it too like we did with the Murray River - we’ll see.

I saw on Wikicamp a camp down by the river so we turned into the town then followed the road back under the highway and along the river edge. Pulled off and Steve went for a walk to check out we could get in and out ok.

All good so we headed down.

Parked up in the shade - a bit warm here but not enough to go for a swim.

The river is flowing fast. Put the chairs out to relax and enjoy our drinks by the water.

We watched a leaf get caught in the back current and go around and round and then eventually it went out into the faster water and headed off down the river to one day reach the Murray River. We went to the spot where the two rivers meet.

Malcolm sent a text - that big cloud that was over Tassie when we left dumped over 3 inches of rain on St Helens and caused flooding and road damage.

Sat outside for dinner too as it was so nice and the sun still doesn’t set till 9pm