The first leg of my Grampians come Murray adventure!

gday there!

Tis I again 😀 I am at this moment typing to you from Ararat and what a blast from the past that is! To start at the beginning though, I did not get far at all yesterday though I would have liked to! It was going to be upwards to 39 degrees, they said. Well I thought about how that would affect the inland part of Victoria and decided that discretion is most definitely the better part of valour LOL. I did all I had to do to get ready for the next part of my trip and then I packed us up and headed into Warrnambool. Yes I know for people in this part of Victoria.. some anyway .. there is nothing to see there but Sally, a friend I have made since joining facebook hails from this area and assured me that Pertobe Lake is well worth a look! Well I thought, why not! I really was already feeling the heat and was not overly keen on spending such a stinker of a day behind the wheel with the sun beating in on me.. a mixture of Scot and Irish blood lends this woman to very fair complexion lol… and I do not relish ending up like a lobster at the end of the day. Besides it is a dangerous pastime for my lovely Alex beso in all fairness, I figured I might as well explore Warrnambool, at least it is on the coast and you never know a cool breeze just might spring up!

It did and I lucked out, spending my day happily parked smack bang in the middle of the lake and the foreshores lol… oh what joy; a beautiful sea breeze made the day bearable for myself and Alex. Once again though I ran across the same old obstacles to walking Alex, this time around the lake! You know far be it from me to mention that, compared to many humans, Alex is both well mannered and eco-friendly! Yes he is a dog and he will chase if encouraged. I have him on a lead always in places like these because I understand it is his nature to do so. Meanwhile I watch in consternation as parents happily encourage their children to chase the ducks, swans and anything else that comes into their vicinity. Oh don’t get me started! This time, though, I had enough so I walked around the lake with Alex, daring anyone to dob me in. If I had to pay a fine so be it! I never ever leave his poos behind either … I do believe in the “Leave no Trace” way of thinking ….

Ahh well other than that its a divine place to visit and I happily wandered over several little man made bridges; one was a lovely swinging bridge lol.. interesting feeling when you walk over one. If you get seasick I highly recommend you give them a miss lol.. I don’t and though Alex was a tad startled when he first stepped on the bridge, he soon got the idea and walked over it like it was an everyday thing for him.

I am so impressed with how quickly this boy learns. When we first set off Alex was not at all used to lots of traffic and used to bolt at all the traffic noise, not to mention the amount of bodies everywhere… living human ones that is lol..

He is a very friendly soul its true but just the same he is not used to coming across people in such numbers all at once. He now takes it for the most part in his stride. He finds each new place we go to an exciting chance to investigate where in the first week or so the poor darling felt very insecure each time we moved on.

For mine he is the ideal travelling companion, sharing my sense of fun and adventure; my love for both the beach and the bush.. what more could I aSk for? OH and he is protective without being aggressive, friendly but watchful.. yep, I have been very blessed to have found my little friend.

Anyway the day passed without much activity. Both Alex and I were hot and tired after we had walked the perimeter of the lake.. well truth be told there are several parts to it and we did most of them without incident. I think the angels were smiling on us, knowing full well I was doing what I was doing not out of self interest but out of love. A soul is a soul regardless of the vehicle it inhabits and I believe I am teaching Alex as much about the right to all life by allowing him to be part of the whole as anything else. Oh off my particular soapbox now 🙂 It has been gradually building though. If I had not had Alex I doubt I would have noticed just how unfriendly a lot of places are towards dogs. I do recognise its the irresponsible owners of some dogs that have put us in this postition. I just feel sad for those of us who have beautiful and well behaved canine friends and are not able to share so much with them. I did have a go just once I admit. When I was in Port Fairy and I tried to go into the main part of the festival, I was stopped because of my dog. Hmm well as I informed him, they obviously did not need my money; I did not need to go in because if it isnt good enough for my dog then its not good enough for me LOL.. you should have seen his face. I said it ever so politely, was not rude at all but just the same … some of the people going in were the kind I would not want in my home … however aS they were people apparently that was ok eh? lol…

Ok so as I said we did not do much else. No dogs allowed on beaches but for once I did not care. It was way too hot to venture there. We did take a couple of lovely long walks in the shade of the big beautiful trees that lined the street on either side. It led to the inlet and a caravan park. Even though there was no ‘camping’ allowed at the lake I had no intention of spending the night in a park either. I investigated thoroughly and noticed that there were absolutely no signs saying I could not camp on the grass opposite though; right in front of the foreshore too!

It was still really hot in the evening but I was way too tired now to bother going anywhere else. I gave Alex some tucker, made a cold salad for me and retired to the relative peace of my motorhome. All around me cars were pulling in now as workers and those smart souls who know how to treat the sun, headed for a swim in the surf.
Even Alex was happy to just watch the passing parade this time lol. I had a shower in my motorhome and feeling refreshed again, I decided to watch a bit of telly for a couple of hours. It was by now around eight but I knew in the heat I would not get much sleep. Well I was right about the lack of sleep but not from the heat lol. I gave in and turned everything out around ten thirty, falling into a deep slumber. I woke again around a quarter to three in the morning; the heat gone but a mighty wind had come to take its place. The motorhome was swaying and so were the trees. I did not feel unsafe, it was just difficult to sleep! The roar of the lovely ocean, not to be outdone, had joined the chorus too.

Alex always knows when I am awake so he hightailed it to my side, front paws up on the bed and tongue busy trying to lick a very reluctant woman LOL… I decided I might as well get up. I knew there would be no sleep now and I could always use the time to have a quiet read, early breakfast and exercise Alex before making an early run to the supermarket and Pet Stock. Alex was out of his heartworm tabs and they are way too important to ignore.

We did that, the wind buffeting the motorhome all the way. Of course we were way too early but it was worth it. I was pretty tired though so I knew I would not make it to Bendigo today; not that I was really keen to get there in one hit, its over seven hundred kilometres from Warrnambool, my google map informed me lol.
My friend who had moved to Victoria had sent me via email a game plan for doing the Murray etc. He had given me two ways of going. The one leading to Bendigo where a lovely friend from days gone by lives. I would love to catch up with her again, she is such a beautiful soul, so my route was planned with that in mind.
I’ve no idea if I will get to meet up with Sara, it is going to depend on my timing I guess. However one can only give it a shot. That is the way I have come; on the way I stopped at a tiny place called Mortlake where a very nice, beefy young man at a truck tyre place kindly checked the air in all my tyres. I am really hopeless at that sort of stuff and I know I will have to learn but for now I am being looked after .. whew lol.. the air was perfect .. yayyyy considering all the mileage I have done, it says a lot about this lovely motorhome 🙂 I do however need to put some transmission oil?? Umm will have to check what that is LOL as it needs topping up just a little. I am of the belief that if you do it before it needs it badly, you won’t have a problem..well thats me!

I got back on the road after indulging in a lovely latte and a small slice of homemade carrot and zucchini cake.. surprising yummy I might add; so moist and tasty .. from a little home that declared itself the Celtic Bakery where everything, including bread was freshly baked the old fashioned way. We made reasonable time over a very boring, rough so called highway where the evidence of fires that had gone through was everywhere still. Here and there new life had sprung up but for the most part it was mile after mile of blackened landscape 🙁 Oh the poor fauna and flora here! My heart ached for each and every one as I ambled passed, thanking my lucky stars that I had not encountered the fierce destruction fire caused where Ilive. We were very lucky really. Our part of the world has not had a fire through for fourty nine years! We are due and only the extreme rain saved us; that and thankfully no firebugs where I live!

We stopped for lunch beside Lake Bolac. The wind was still howling and though I wasn’t hungry, I was weary from fighting the winds as we travelled along. There was only just over fifty k’s to go to Ararat from here and so I decided that was where we would stay today. Time for a rest, hopefully a better night’s sleep so that driving would be a more pleasing experience, wind or no wind!

I had a look at the different parks in the area on my Navman and settled on the first one that came up, hoping it would be pet friendly and it was! Again the angels are looking after us 🙂 .. I am here now, I’ve had a bit of a ‘nanna nap’ lol because quite frankly I felt really drained. I wish I had more exciting things to tell you; maybe tomorrow night lol.. in the meantime I am going to have a shower, some dinner and go exploring with Alex before we get a good night’s kip. The heat has been merciful today, it never got above 27 degrees! Have a lovely evening all .. Blessed Be