Today we started our journey towards South Australia and Goolwa where we will attend the 2023 National Muster of the Australian Caravan Club.
With less than 200 kilometres to travel, we were in no hurry to leave so our pack-up was slow and just after 9:30am, we departed the caravan park.
For once, the caravan park was located on the “right” side of Melbourne as our travel direction was to the west. We only had to make one turn to the left before joining the road that takes you through the Adelaide.
We stopped for morning tea near Ballan with intensions of enjoying McDonalds. A tourist coach full of children stopped the McDonalds visit and we were forced to enjoy real coffee and treats from a café located in the same complex. Whilst enjoying morning tea, we contacted our next overnight stop and confirmed we could arrive early.
The road we travelled on, the Western Highway, was dual lane for most of the journey but there is still evidence of damage to the road caused by the heavy rain in 2022. The road was very rough.
We arrived in Ararat in the early afternoon and were following the directions of the GPS when “She” quickly pickup on the fact that we were being directed to a low bridge. We are 2.68m tall, the clearance was only 2.6m. Had we turned, there were barriers before the bridge we would have contacted with, but more to the point was that we would have needed to reverse. We eventually found another route to the caravan park where we were greeted by a friendly owner and given the opportunity to select our own site.
We setup on a drive through site, levelled the caravan and unhitched.
Returning to Ararat we refuelled at a Coles Express Shell Service Station ($2.29cpl less 4c discount), purchased groceries from Woolworths and returned to our caravan for lunch. After lunch we drove back into Ararat and an attraction called “One Tree Hill”. From this high point you get a great view of Ararat and The Grampians which were located to the southwest.
Returning to Ararat, we stopped at the Kmart Hub looking for some specific clothing and then at an outdoors shop where “He” was able to purchase a jacket to wear whilst working rather than using a good jacket we brought from home. We never get the weather right in Victoria and the overnight low at our location is expected to be 1 degree.
We enjoyed a salad for our evening meal using up items in the refrigerator that cannot be taken into South Australia.
We watched television until 10:30pm when we retired for the night.