14 May

Monday morning and we almost met our expected departure time. Over to friends place on the way out of Canberra and what was supposed to be a 10 minute stopover ended up one hour later and coffee and cake. Eventually we got rolling down the Hume Highway and stopped for lunch at the famous Dog on the Tuckerbox. What a disappointment! There is a service station and food outlet but not attached to the location of the dog on the tuckerbox. All the buildings surrounding the dog appear to be vacant and the dog sits furlornly there begging for a few coins. However, this disappointment was soon replaced by Frank Rosconi's masterpiece at the Gundagai tourist centre. Hand crafted marble 20988 pieces, marvelous workmanship. We arrived at Junee mid afternoon and the caravan park was excellent. Lush green grass everywhere. Cold nights though, we have to turn the air con on to warm up the van. In the morning the air con wont work because it is too cold, so out comes the little fan heater to warm us up before we get out of bed.

During the next few days we visited the historic house Monte Cristo, Broadway historical museum, out to Bethungra rail loop (where the railway line does a 360 loop to go up the hill). We also visited the railway Roundhouse where they used to provide maintenance on the trains and after we wandered around the magnificent railway precinct, where there are a number of grand old hotels plus the railway station, we then went to the liquorice and chocolate factory. Yum, ginger chocolate, nuts, liquorice and a ploughmans lunch which was the best we have ever had. Did you know that liquorice is made from flour and molasses?

Thursday morning we left Junee and headed south, stopping briefly at The Rock, where Ian relived childhood memories of the huge pub which no longer exists as a pub but is now a down at heel B & B. Lunch at Henty and then onto Shepparton. We dont have any water pressure into the van and Ian is going to check it out tomorrow morning.