We awoke to a sunny day but extremely strong winds. We were in no hurry to leave and actually packed up quicker than times when we hurried. Just goes to show that “slow and steady” does win the race.
We stopped at the local Beechworth Bakery for morning tea and as we walked out the door, noticed a sign across the road for a shop that sold Akubra hats. “He” has been looking for a particular hat in the right size and colour for sometime but without luck. Call to most Akubra retailers in Sydney have failed to locate the hat. This shop had the hat in the right colour but not the right size (“He” wanted a 58, they had a 57 and 59).
We programmed our GPS for the main street in Bendigo and decided to place our faith in the GPS getting us there. Our route took us near Kinglake, one of the areas devastated in 2009 by bushfires, and we were surprised again to see how nature has regenerated itself. There is evidence of the fires but of concern is the amount of fuel that is available again. After travelling on several back road through magnificent Victorian countryside, the GPS eventually took us back to the Hume Highway where we headed north for about 5 kilometres before heading west again. We stopped at a small town called Heathcote for lunch.
We arrived at Bendigo at 2:00pm and found another Akubra retailer who did have the hat that “He” was after. We checked into the Central City Caravan Park (sight unseen and we were very impressed) and then headed back to Bendigo and the wool mill (our daughter in-law had given us an order) before returning to the caravan park and hot showers.
We purchased a chicken for tea and “He” watched the Sate of Origin and NSW being ripped off due to a very poor decision by the video umpire.