Day 85 (3 August) – Tocumwal (A very cold morning starting at 1o and only up to 17o)
I dressed in very warm clothes, updated the blog, posted a couple of items on the Iluka Facebook page then headed out to the Tocumwal Aero Club for their monthly Sunday morning breakfast.
It was interesting hearing some of the backgrounds to the pilots at the breakfast – a Bay-Marie of bacon, eggs, beans, toast and sausages. I met people who had got their licence as way back as 1958, current instructors in their 70s and what surprised me was the lack of very young people. There was one person that they were talking about that was flying a 380 but he would have been the youngest in the crowd. An interesting morning talking aviation as Lyn stayed in our warm motorhome.
As I returned, I had a look around the airport and found there were large blocks of land with basic houses and large hangars for aircraft and cars. It was really interesting to see how the airport was becoming a living hub in the area.
I called in at the Tocumwal Club on the way back to the caravan park and booked in for golf at 12:30. The club was extremely busy and it seemed most people were staying on the course or in the nearby accommodation.
Arriving back at the motorhome, I told Lyn I’d booked in for 12:30 and we thought it may be better to play earlier if possible. I called and found that was the earliest time available – it really was busy especially as they have 2 courses.
We decided to have a look at the aquatic centre in Barooga and so drove there, only around 20 minutes from the caravan park. Back to town via the airport to show Lyn the housing and hangars and for Lyn to get the final things she needed for golf.
We went to the course fairly early to have a warm up this time as we’d just walked on to courses previously and not played as well as I thought we could. We had a bit of practice then hit off for the President’s Course just before 12:30. A fairly good course but the fairways looked as though they’d been overwatered and were fairly brown compared to other courses we’d played.
We finished and went in to the club building where it was clear there wasn’t any really good restaurant – just a cafe – so we had a drink then headed back to our motorhome.
I had looked up the better restaurants in the area and tried to book in to The Bend Restaurant again but they were booked out until later in the evening. So, we went to the Terminus Hotel which had a good rating on a couple of social media forums. We found the dining started at 18:00 so had another drink before entering the dining room where there was a fire going. We ordered our meals and then another couple came in, asked about the fire and sat at a large table next to us. We started talking and Charmaine introduced herself and Geoff, we kept talking until our meal arrived. As it arrived, Jerry asked if he could keep talking to me while I was eating. Charmaine gently admonished him and I said I was happy to talk after the meal. We finished then joined their table and we continued talking for some time. They were both golfers from Moe in Gippsland and were due to head back home in the morning. As we were finishing our conversation, the hotel owner came by and had a chat about the food, his plans for the hotel and what he planned to do with his farm. I then found out that he was a pilot and wanted to get a plane but had too many other priorities first. It was clear he had some great ideas and should make a success fo the hotel and other things he is planning.
Back to the motorhome where, surprise, surprise, I watch a replay of the Demons Eagles game.
Day 86 (4 August) – Tocumwal (A cold morning starting at 3o and maybe up to 19o)
I dressed in warm clothes again, watched some videos, updated the blog, and then prepared to play golf. We decided to play the other course at Tocumwal – The Captain’s Course. We arrived and found there was a competition for the second nine on the Captain’s Course so we entered the competition and started playing from the 10th holes which is where the competition was being played. To say that we needed more of a warm up would be an understatement – We both had under 13 points however we did much better on the second nine (actually the first nine) and had 17 points each.
The main members area looked fairly quiet so we went into town and had lunch at The Tocumwal Bakery. We had a brief walk along the river bank, had a look at the water feature highlighting the Liberators from WWII and then drove up and down the river checking out the Town Beach, Bushland Retreat and then crossing to the Victorian side to have a look at the campgrounds we could see from the NSW side.
We had to do a bit of 4WD on the Victorian side as the tracks down to and back from the river were fairly rudimentary and quite wet. Back to the motorhome to start packing up (putting the bikes on the Jimny) on our last day away before driving home the following day.
We thought the Tattersall Hotel or the Tocumwal Hotel would be good for our final dinner. The Tocumwal was closed for renovations and a brief search on the Internet indicated that the Tattersall closed at 17:30. So I checked out other options and booked in to the Farmers Arms Bar & Bistro. As we were passing the Tattersall it looked as if it was open – I think they need to check their website or their Google search.
We arrived at the Farmers Arms, ordered our drinks and meals then started chatting with the people on the table next to us. They were an older couple with a 16-month-old girl. After spending some time chatting with them, we found we were talking with Michele and Michael and they were looking after Elsie for their daughter Laura who had served us at the bar. We had a number of conversations during the evening with Michele explaining that she had a catering business in Marrar (Marrar Kitchen & Catering – Michele insisted that we look it up) and that Michael was a farmer in the area. Another fascinating evening chatting to our fellow patrons especially as their granddaughter was named Elsie, the same as our motorhome. I think it was fitting that we met them on the final night of our trip. Back to the motorhome where I connected the Jimny and started preparing to leave early the next morning.
I think we are both looking forward to getting back although we’ve had some amazing experiences.
Day 87 (5 August) – Tocumwal to Melbourne (HOME) (A cold, partially foggy morning starting at 6o and up to 16o – 290 km)
I dressed in relatively warm clothes again and prepared to head home via Shepparton for our final refuel. No problems departing Tocumwal at 08:00 – an uneventful trip back and so we finished our journey at 12:00.
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