ANZAC Long Weekend

As mentioned on the last post, we had decided that we wanted to start camping out more. Those of you who know me well can imagine that tents are not so much my scene - the ever-deflating airbed, the scrambling on knees on tentfloor at midnight to get PJ's on and contact lenses out; the 8am walk of shame through the caravan park with bedhead and puffy eyes to get to the loos - nuh-uh! So having seen a great little caravan at 90 Mile Beach we started investigating this option. We ended up settling on a Jayco Hawk - a camper whose bottom half resembles a caravan with all the mod-cons one might expect of a caravan, such as kitchen, including sink, oven & fridge, dining table and couches; with the top half made of canvas and beds popping out on either end. Result! The outdoorsy feeling of a tent with the conveniences & comfort of a caravan. And so compact and light that even the Rav4 can tow it.

This time Echuca, 3 hours from Melbourne was selected as our destination for the ANZAC long weekend. We went for the free camping option to really test the Hawk out. We all met up and camped directly on the banks of the Murray. Interesting fact - NSW was a mere 10 meters away on the other side of the river. Despite a serious amount of rain on Day 2, which turned our lovely site into somewhat of a mud-pit, Days 1, 3 and 4 were sunny and our stay was great! Echuca itself was a fantastic place, full of stuff to see and the local bakery was A+

Hawk performed most admirably, and it was awesome to be able to open up the windows to our bed each morning and get the fresh morning air and river views while still being under the doona. What a way to wake up - loved it!!

Again Greg B gets 10/10 for fire management, Giles gets 8/10 for keeping us all 'entertained' with screaming renditions of Old McDonald Had a Farm around the fire at night (thanks to our fellow campers for pretending it was still cute after the 20th blasting out of said tune), and both Simon & Greg deserve full marks for braving a Victorian autumnal day and swimming in the Murray!! Hurrah for the Murray - we'll be back!

Introducing... Mr Jayco Hawk!!

At Echuca - starting with the fantastic Beechworth Bakery:

The main drag...

We sampled some local ports... including a very nice muscato (a white version)

This shot was just begging to be set to Sepia, right?