My Time Away

Well the washing is done, dried and put away. The food was unpacked straight away and the bags put away and now even the suitcases are away. Photos uploaded, mail collected, Christmas ham ordered, now to blog!

We left last Tuesday (17th) and made Echuca our overnight stop. It made for a long drive but we had several rest stops along the way. Went to The Mill, a tapas bar for dinner, wonderful! We had never tried tapas before and really enjoyed it. Wednesday morning we took a paddle steamer ride on the Murray River.

While this was our second paddle steamer ride, it was our first going upstream.

The Murray River.

Enjoying morning tea.

From Echuca we drove through to Bendigo, with lunch at the Boardwalk Restaurant, beside Lake Weeroona. Then onto the Bendigo - Maryborough road and a pleasant drive through the Victorian countryside.

After a stroll through Maryborough and an argument with Navman, we made it to our accommodation, Donkey Tales, at Daisy Hill. As the name implies there were donkeys.

                                             The view from the cottage was lovely.

Thursday was set-up, presentations, scrutineering  and qualifying day, it was also very hot. After dropping the Granddaughter at the tents, with her teachers, Paul, Amanda and I walked the 1.2km track. It was very interesting to see how they had set it out, with part of the track encompassing local streets, as well as roads, through the local park. All the team drivers had to be 'licenced' to drive the vehicle and both them and the pit crew had to know all the technical side of it as well. The RACV provided judges and marshals. Imagine a car race, with all the trappings, but not the noise!  

Qualifying was fun to watched, with each team (92 in total) trying for pole position and not cause any damage to the vehicle.

For more about the RACV Energy Breakthrough, go to www.racvenergybreakthrough.net

I'm not going to add any race photos, but the website will have some.

Friday dawned with sun and ended  with wind and rain. The race started at 12 noon and continued until 8.00pm. We watched her race, only taking a break when she did. Nine drivers, with approximately half an hour per driver. This was just her team, there two others from the school as well. During her last stint, it started to rain and combined with the sun glare, she had to come in a lap early as she couldn't see. She went for a shower and we went for dinner and then back to the cottage.

Saturday's restart of the race, with each team starting in the position they had finished on Friday night, was at 6.00am. Again the weather gave us sun, wind and rain, sometimes all three at once!

With the race finishing at 12pm, the traditional photos of the damaged vehicles and the dousing of the team manager, with water, we got back to the cottage around 2.30pm.

A shower and resting took priority, followed by a great game of Balderdash. Note do not eat and play this game at the same time as much laughter ensues. Following this, we had several very competitive games of UNO, again with much laughter. Dinner was at the local Chinese restaurant and then we watched Christmas with the Kranks.

Sunday saw us start our homeward journey. Lunch in Benalla, beside the Broken River, made for a very pleasant stop.  We made our final stop, for the trip at Yass, staying in a cottage at the Thunderbird Motel. Dinner and a bottle of wine on the deck was a fitting end to a wonderful time away.

Home for lunch, yesterday, after stopping to see our Sydney Family. Tomorrow the carpet goes down and then the 'fun' of putting everything back begins.

Bye for now,
Lilian.