Day 2

We had some breakfast and then hit the road again. We went and visited my cousin – Melissa and her husband Todd and their youngest son Lucas in Hopetoun. We had a lovely time and a yummy lunch with them. I hadn’t seen Melissa for quite some time and hadn’t visited Hopetoun since I was a kid myself.

We then went to visit my other cousin Julie who was involved in the running of a school 90 year reunion. She was thrilled to see us – as we were her. Neither Julie nor Melissa had ever met Ebony – so it was a great catch up.

Then it was on the road again – I found that whole part of the journey through the middle of Victoria really depressing. I haven’t travelled that way for many, many years and with the drought, the whole area has a feeling of hopelessness. Many of the country towns look like they are dying. There is no green, no gardens - people don’t seem to care about their homes or properties anymore. Even out on the open road so many trees are dying and limbs are falling off and the dead limbs seem to add to the feeling of desolation. It was awful and not at all a place where you might want to even stop and have a cuppa along the way. Ebony travelled reasonably – she falls asleep and then wakes after about 30-50 minutes and when she wakes it’s like she has a terrible headache or something – she is inconsolable and it’s awful.

We made it to Bordertown at about 6.15pm after setting out at about 10am. Gra’s sister lives in Bordertown but she had forgotten we were coming so we ended up having her lovely home to ourselves for the evening. Eb went off to sleep beautifully and we watched a funny movie (She’s having a baby) and then had a great night’s sleep ourselves. Timing was a bit bizarre as it was the night you turn back the clocks for daylight savings AND we were just into South Australia so time is ½ hour behind Vic time. As a result we had an extra 1.5 hrs sleep (well Eb didn’t understand it all so we didn’t really). Then when we came back over the border next day we lost the ½ hour again!

Breakfast at our Motel in Charlton










and a bath at Aunty Eileen's in Bortertown, South Australia