Strange morning as we woke to be covered in fog being right next to the Murray River, it did not lift till about 9AM. We lost another hour last night and changed all our clocks again for 8th time this trip. The ensuite bathroom was nice this morning just outside our camper door (It was more than nice, it even had a Tastic heater and a huge square shower head that threw water at you from the ceiling. I smiled the whole shower! ). Once we had packed up we headed for Bendigo as we had not been this way into or out of Melbourne before. Still no plan at this stage. Sharon could not help herself on the way out to have a go on the ‘big’ kids jumping pillow.

She let the kids back on after this…..

Pool with water jets and slides

A bit extravagant for our little setup

We missed Bendigo Pottery on the way in and ended up at the Gardens in town just before the visitors centre and town hall. There were beds of tulips everywhere here and a nice garden walk with waterfalls, bridges and all manner of ‘garden stuff’. We walked around for a while in the cool breeze and ended up at the visitors centre after a while. They showed us where we had gone wrong and we back tracked about 7Km to Epsom. The pottery prices seemed a bit on the high side and we ended up with just a nice olive oil pourer. There was a strange antiques shop inside that had all manner of ‘stuff’ in little stalls. All the ‘stuff’ must be on commission and you can setup your own area and they manage it? There was a person throwing pottery on a potters wheel and some of the old brick kilns in the shop.

More of Sharon’s favourites (bats)

Bendigo Pottery old brick kilns

We headed off to find a park for lunch but ended up down the Caulder Highway at Harcort. Interesting place once you read all the information boards we found. They mined Granite here that is in most of the major buildings of Victoria plus local bridges and fountains. They also had a huge apple export business here but by the 1960’s it had folded. The air was a bit chilly here as well and we both put on another layer. We decided over lunch to push on to Melbourne today.

We chose the Ashley Gardens Caravan Park for it’s position and easy access to the boat, DFO and zoo. We stayed here about 15 years ago with the boys on a trip back from Canberra for Christmas all those years ago. A few more units these days and remodeled a bit from what we remember. We will see what we can fit in two days. It’s overcast and a few showers have just hit while I am writing this. It’s really hit home now that our fabulous trip is nearly over and in a couple of days we will be driving off the boat and home……