To the Mainland!

The ferry crossing was uneventful, which is good!  Not long before there were 13m swells in Bass Strait.  On arrival in Melbourne I got stymied by new roads and ended up going thru the northern suburbs to get out - a long, slow, gear grinding route - fortunately I had a CD of soothing instrumental music.  Once on the Newell Highway things improved and I made good time to Shepparton, where I stopped in at the SPC Ardmona outlet, stocking up on fruit& nuts to last me a while!  As it was still only mid day I kept going to the NSW border, camping on the Murray River banks, a very pleasant and peaceful spot indeed.  The laptop works well off it's DC adapter, the LED bunk light is truly a marvel and I discovered the pure sine wave inverter was going to be used sooner than expected as my phone badly needed charging.  But important things first - a good brew of coffee!  Plus an early night, as I didn't sleep well on the ferry and was tired.

The 30 year old superdown sleeping bag again worked it's wonders - I slept very warm and discovered it was 3 degrees C when I woke up!  That sleeping bag has sailed the East Coast of Australia, a couple Van Dieman Circumnavigations, countless weeks camping in remote areas doing assessment and bushwalking excursions undertaken by the children.  Magpies and cockatoos were greeting the new day in their usual noisy fashion, the mist rising over the river with the dawn, what better way to wake up?  Other than a quick coffee, things sort of moved at tier own pace.  This included installing the inverter, fixing a cigarette lighter socket serving the house part and also the 12V fluoro light, which started working again when I started to take it apart-I see an LED replacement in it's future.  By 9am I was ready to go, so set off first east along the Murray about 40 km, then back up to the Newell Highway thru Berrigan.  The country is flat as, with cropping where they have irrigation and grazing where they don't.  The weather was sunny and the cumulous clouds were whiter than white against the blue sky.  The horizon seems endless, no doubt because of the flat terrain and the country seems to impose a feeling of limitless on you; I can see how poets like Banjo Patterson were entranced by it. 

On reaching the Murrumbidgee River I started looking for a campsite along its banks, and that is where I sit now.  Met some GN (grey nomads) from Adelaide who have been all around Australia in a caravan & 4WD, which they were happy to discuss.  Then there was the usual talks about generators vs solar etc. giving me the benefit of their experiences on power generally. And so tomorrow it is off to Griffith, maybe for a day or two before continuing on, but now it's off to sleep.