Lots of walking today - all around the Australian War Memorial. The last time Duncan was here, he only got to see the World War 1 gallery (as part of a tour) and when I was here with the music tour two years ago, we only had an hour to see all of it. So, today, we really took our time and made a day of it.
Despite the extra time, there is so much to take in here that it is almost impossible to do so in one day. Andrew reached brain overload by lunch time, while Callum enjoyed it for a lot longer.
The children's discovery centre was a big hit, and Andrew nearly pooped himself when he crawled through a bunker and a gunshot went off next to his ear. The boys particularly enjoyed the submarine and checking out the telescope.
Boys. Getting an education.
We were also in time to see the shows in Anzac hall, with Andrew deciding that he would rather have been in a small fighter plane than a bomber if he were in the war.
I find museums like this quite poignant and almost sad, to think that much of the things you see there were every-day objects for someone at some point. And more likely than not, that someone had a lot of hardships to live through.
Andrew gets up close and personal with Ataturk.
The photographer, photographed at last.
The end is near. Any opportunity to sit is welcome.
A walk down the avenue finished off our day and we finally managed to get some photos here. (The inside of the memorial is too dark for photography.)
Tomorrow is Andrew's birthday. My baby is 9! How time flies...
It is amazing how much the scenery changes once you leave the Murray River. Although there were green bits around the river area, the driving bits inbetween are very dry and flat. It makes you thirsty just looking at it. Once we left Wodonga, the scenery became different quite quickly: green, rolling hills, with picturesque views a lot of the time.
Of course, when you are driving up and down hills, with a head wind and a caravan hitched on the back, it doesn't do much for economic fuel consumption. We had to fill up on the way (gasp! horror!) and fortunately found a BP truck fueling station that would accommodate our great length and height. Duncan pulled into the truck side and discovered that truck diesel comes out fast! It didn't take long to fill our little (by comparison) tank.
The drive from Wodonga to Sutton (where we are staying just outside Canberra) took about 4.5 hours. The roads were good and the journey was uneventful.
From tomorrow we will be out and about seeing the wonders of Canberra. There is so much to do here - including the art exhibition of the french masters - that we will be spoilt for choice.
Ok, so if you are looking for action and excitement today, this is not the page to linger on.
Packing up was easily and quickly done this morning and we were on the road by 9.40am. The trip to Wodonga was really quite straightforward (literally 'straight' - the highway seems to go in straight lines and switching on your headlights helps other cars to see you coming from a distance) and we got in to the caravan park at around 12.30pm.
Because this is just an overnighter, we have not ventured far...just far enough to refuel for tomorrow's big drive to Canberra. We did a bit of school work with the boys this afternoon, they had a swim, and we have had a bit of time to just lounge around. Very noice too. TV reception is good, so we are watching a bit of that for a change.
The Golden Cow was our first stop today. No, it is not a big golden cow of biblical proportions, but rather a dairy farm. They did have giant thickshakes outside though, but not a giant cow to be seen.
This was a great experience: we watched a little movie about dairy cows, then became the audience at the milking. The fellow brought in four cows and took us through the whole process. Afterwards we headed out to the cute little calves and were able to feed them with special calf milk bottles. They were all girls. The boys apparently don't even get a drink from a teat at birth, it's just bye-byes for them... Oh, and if you wondered where all those delicious McDonalds, Hungry Jacks and Burger King beef burgers come from, well, spare a thought for the dairy cows that no longer produce enough milk...
The farm also had some cute bunnies to maul, some ducks to freak out and some chooks (protected)! Also on offer are a range of 39 milkshake flavours. Yum! Yum!
The milking show
Mauled bunny
Champion suckers
Thickshake anyone?
This afternoon we headed down to the Port of Echuca to have a look. It is done in a similar style to the Pioneer Settlement in Swan Hill, but nowhere near as extensively and is not as engaging for kids. We had a bit of a meander and it was kind of exciting to be able to step over the Vic/NSW border at a whim. We did that for a bit - but not in front of witnesses! No audiences to our daggy behaviour!
States apart...
Callum and Andrew had to do a quiz about what they learnt at the dairy farm and, as they both got it right, were rewarded with a shopping spree at the lolly shop we saw yesterday. Andrew systematically picked out his stash, while Callum seemed overwhelmed by choice and mainly lingered by the imported cans of drink. After much dithering and deciding, we eventually got out of there with sanity intact and two very happy campers.
Tomorrow is moving day again. This time on to Albury-Wodonga, where we will overnight on our way to Canberra.
This move was a little hop (in the scheme of things) from Swan Hill to Echuca. The drive itself was uneventful, the rain now having cleared up and giving us a nice, sunny day.
After setting up, we walked into town, which is just down the road from our caravan park. The town centre is a lot bigger than I thought it was, as I found out when I set off to find a particular shop. I must have walked for miles. Anyway, it is all good exercise.
Somewhere near the Port of Echuca
We found a fabulous lolly shop - one of the best we have seen on our travels so far - and it has a number of items imported from South Africa. We got the boys some good ol' South African Jelly Tots and found ourselves in the 'naughty corner', faced with jelly willies, jelly boobs and willie-pops (to name a few). There were also a number of edible underwear items...but I think I will stick with my Xena bikini - far more robust.
Bookshops were again on the horizon and we have had to sort out some more books for the boys to read. It is absolutely amazing how many books they can read when the TV watching is sparse and there are no computers to play games on. They do have their iPods to play games on, but seem to have achieved a balance between reading and playing.
Tomorrow will see us being tourists again, with the Port of Echuca to explore...
Putting on our tourist hats today, we headed off to the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement to have a look at another of those 'living museum' type villages. I think we are going to see a lot of these in the weeks ahead, which is OK because we quite enjoy them. It certainly is more interesting for the boys than your conventional museums.
On the way, Duncan just had to stop at the Giant Murray Cod to have a look and take some pictures. The Settlement is very much worth the visit. It is a lovely little late 19th, early 20th century village, with a vast collection of tractors, wagons, motor vehicles and fire engines from this period. The shops/businesses are also full of interesting things to see. We all had some fun in the haberdasher's trying on all the hats. Andrew desperately wanted to buy a top hat, while Callum fell in love with a rather suave gentleman's hat and wanted to get that one. Bonnets aren't really my style, but worth a laugh.
The volunteer in the music shop was very enthusiastic about showing us the instruments. She gave the fair organ a good cranking until breaking out in a little sweat and coming to a dignified halt. She moved on to the pianola next and demonstrated how the thing works, giving that one a good pedaling too. We also had a listen to a really old gramophone; the quality of the sound was amazingly clear.
A little later on we had a ride in a horse-drawn wagon and in a very old, but newly renovated, Dodge motor vehicle. An hour long cruise on the Murray River in the PS Pyap (paddle steamer) was well-timed, as the rain came down just after we boarded, poured throughout the cruise, then abated as we disembarked.
A visit like this always inspires to emotions in me: whistfulness - at the slow pace of life that people of that time would have lived at, relative to ours; and thankfulness that I am a woman of the 20th/21st century. I do like my comforts.
The slideshow has a lot of our photos from today.
We now find ourselves in serious planning mode for the next few legs of our journey. We nearly got caught out with Canberra - the parks are filling up - and must now consider our route to Cairns and where we will be at Easter and throughout the school holidays (the different states overlap through most of April).
Well, the journey was all happy sailing until about 60kms outside Swan Hill, and then the rain came down with a vengeance. Duncan had a fun time trying to avoid all the rivulets and lakes of water on the road - quite a stressful experience altogether. We were most thrilled to see the Swan Hill Big 4 sign.
We are also oh-so-happy to be in this van, as setting up was really quick and there is no risk of the bed getting wet through canvas. Because of the rain, we haven't really done much today other than visit the local Coles and start booking ahead up to Canberra. We should be there for Andrew's birthday which is next Sunday.
Hopefully tomorrow the rain will stay away and we can get out and about.
Happy smiles, with 5 hours of walking to go...
Boys. Getting an education.
Andrew gets up close and personal with Ataturk.
The photographer, photographed at last.
The end is near. Any opportunity to sit is welcome.
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