Road Trip home.

After taking 5 nights / 6 days to get to Gippsland, and 5 nights to visit with family and help out, we headed home. We would have like to have stayed a little longer, but we had booked another cruise way back in April, and had to get home to pack.
I must apologise for not posting this earlier - I thought I had. 

Day 1 - After visiting with Peter's Mum, and filling up with fuel, we headed north to the NSW border. We didn't think we would make the border, but headed in that direction. As we had a few extra days to get back we went the inland road, and not the quicker Hume & Pacific Hwys. We must have taken a wrong turn as we ended up going to the west of Melbourne city before heading north. We needed to find a dump point, so off to Seymour, near Puckapunyal Victoria. We were most surprised to find this wonderful Commemoration dedicated to those who served in the Vietnam War. It was a short but moving walk up the street, with artefacts and information boards. Well done Seymour, not only an RV friendly town, but educational as well.

I loved the old house in the background, that we parked in front of.

As it took so long to go around Melbourne, we decided we would stay somewhere close. There was a free bush camp over the river from Seymour, so we thought we would have a look before moving on - just in case!!! Well, that was a great idea. There were a few vans already here, but we were able to camp right beside the Goulburn River. There were a few bugs around, and lots of firewood, but we don't have a fire pit - yet - and there were no rocks around to make one. We traveled 274km today.

Day 2 - After packing up we headed back into Seymour, and Maccas for breakfast, we headed to Table Top and the Ettamogah Pub. It started to rain not long after we left Seymour, and at times the rain was quite heavy.

We had read about this free camp on WikiCamps, and it was certainly interesting.

There was so much to look at, both inside and outside. The Ettamogah Pub was the creation of cartoonist Ken Maynard who started drawing the pub in 1959. There are a few around the country, but this has been the best so far.

 There is an upstairs area, I suspect for functions, and this is the view of our van in the carpark, in the rain.

The word ettamogah is Aboriginal for 'place of good drink' and the food was pretty great too.

 Day 3 - The next day, the rain had stopped, but there were a lot of flood waters still evident on the sides of the road. We must have been lucky to have missed most of the rain. We headed to Forbes, not expecting to find a good spot on Lake Forbes, but there were surprisingly a few spots left.

 

 The sunset over Lake Forbes.

Day 4 - We were not sure how far we would get this day, we just kept driving and ended up at Hickey Falls. We've been here before, but only for lunch.

It is only a short walk to the falls. It was surprising how quiet it was during the night, considering this is right on the highway.

Day 5 - We headed over the border and back into Queensland. We were not sure whee we would stay, we thought maybe Goondiwindi, but the free camp, which was lovely, really would not have suited our van slide-out. So we kept going. There were some lovely campsites beside the river, but there were no other campers, so we ended up in Inglewood. There is a lovely free camp just south of the town and it is an easy walk to the town. 

Days 6 & 7 - It was a short drive to Clifton, where we had decided to stay the night, but we do like it at Clifton, so we stayed two nights. It is the showgrounds, and at $10 a night for power, it is well worth it.

Breakfast on out last morning this trip. Ready for the next.