17^th February Melbourne to Nagambie  -  212 km   (no phone signal so will be transferring this when I can)

I stayed in my van at Brad’s overnight and finally left about 11.am this morning.   I reached here – Major Creek Reserve camp ground about 3pm and have set myself up at a pretty spot by the Goulburn River.  The actual location is 14km SW of Nagambie.  It is very hot, but there is a gentle breeze wafting across the water which helps.   This is a big camping area.  There are a few people here, but I can’t see them, I can only hear their voices in the distance.

Travelling along the Hume Highway today and looking at the brown countryside, was a stark reminder of how much we need rain – brown fields as far as the eye can see.

Although Oscar loves travelling in the car he gets very anxious and can’t relax. He hates going over any bumps, or cow grids, so today I gave him some Phenergan to calm him down.  I was a bit worried about giving him an overdose, so I only gave him 1 ½ ml.  He was definitely more relaxed, so next time I will up the dose to 2ml and hopefully he will actually fall asleep while we are driving along.

I will probably stay here for a couple of nights.     

18^th February

Woke up to another beautiful day beside the Goulburn River.  There is a nice breeze at the moment, so hopefully it will help keep the heat at bay as the day goes by.

I slept well last night despite the heat.  I have a little 12volt evaporative cooler which works a treat and I had it going for most of the night.  It was the first night sleeping on my new mattress and it was certainly a lot more comfortable than the foam mattress I had.

I went for a walk and crossed to the other side of the river this morning.  I had to walk over a very rickety old bridge that has seen much better days.  It looked very dangerous and I definitely wouldn’t have been game to drive across it. 

I discovered that most of the land on the other side of the river is owned by the Defence Department.  It was surrounded by two fences about a metre apart – the outside fence was normal farm fencing and the inner fence was electrified.   As I was taking photos I half expected someone to jump out of the bushes and confiscate my camera.  I have been hearing a lot of bangs through the day so it must be some sort of artillery range 

Today is going to be a lazy day – keeping cool with a cold drink and sitting under the awning with my feet up, my kindle on my lap, and watching the antics of the bird life on the water.