Day 1 Sunday 17/11/2024 Home to Glenlyon Fryerstown, warm, wet

We’ve barely gone 2Kms when Woody asks “Does this mean we’ll be going through Kyneton?”. Kyneton, home of Grist bakery and their flaking fantastic curry pies. But, no, we leave the Calder Highway just shy of Kyneton, at Woodend and stop and buy a chook instead. It’s 24.5 degrees and there had been a smoky pall over Melbourne from the bushfires in the Otways Ranges to the west of the city it certainly feels like bushfire weather.

With the chook on board, we take a back road towards Glenlyon where we’ve agreed to meet Toothless and Mrs. Doubtfire. Admiring the scenery and passing through a tiny dot of a town we miss our turnoff and take an even narrower road through the Wombat State Forest. No, the wombats have not been given a state of their own nor a forest, but we are startled by 3 nervous deer who belt through the bush beside us. What is this, are we becoming wildlife magnets?

It’s now raining, and we realise that we aren’t going to escape the nasty band of weather that’s showing on the phone app. Having travelled much further than we should have we scoot past the inviting and jumping Glenlyon General Store (Sunday lunch must be a real winner) and pull into the Glenlyon showgrounds. It’s now 9.5 degrees and the rain is now hammering. Our campmates are sitting in their car amid long soggy grass needs a mow, and without a word spoken we know that we won’t be staying here tonight..

We hastily check WikiCamps and realise that we aren’t far from Fryerstown and that offers us shelter if it is needed. A half hour later and we’re in dry hungry gold country, the vegetation has changed dramatically, and it’s sunny and warm. We pull up behind the old school building and plug the espresso machine into the power on the veranda. We have water here if we need it and there’s a neat little bathroom with toilet and shower. When we phone the caretaker for instructions and where to leave our money, she complains that’s she’s down in Melbourne and it’s wet.

Our chook miraculously becomes chicken sandwiches, and we sit in the sunshine solving the problems of the world. Dinner on the veranda is a chicken salad, while we watch the antics of the birds and chat to passing locals. This building is used as a community centre of sorts and people are always popping in to pick up their milk, drop off bottles, attend meetings and take exercise classes.

Crikey, the van’s on a bit of an angle. Even with the ramps under the right-hand wheels I reckon we’ll be face planting the fridge on our way to the loo tonight.

Accom: $20.00, (Toilets, showers, water from tap, power point for devices and pizza oven), Fuel: $29.99, 166 Towing Kms