Day 5 Thursday 21/11/2024 Ayson’s to Rochester, 11 – 33

On the way to the loo this morning I’m greeted with a perky “Hullo!” from Jack the cockie.

For the first time this season we had a roof hatch open last night. Helloo summer! It’s peaceful and we have views of the river and farmlands. The canola across the river is laid out ready for harvesting. With a heat wave on the way we’ve decided to check into the caravan park early, but we must cool our heels until noon.

We park our van in the shady back streets of Rochester and have a walk around town, check out the pubs and buy bread. The bakery here opens onto a small park and there’s always a few people sitting on the lawn munching their purchases. Today there are some in suits selling tickets to heaven as well.

I sit under a veranda nursing a coffee while Woody does the supermarket shopping, he does like to mull over the smallgoods much longer than I do. Having a pig’s valve in his heart hasn’t stopped his love of cured pork. Back to the coffee and conversations. It seems that the word on the street is…concern over Trump’s tariffs, these folk are grain farmers. Like a pebble tossed in a lake, a vote in Rochester, New York can have an effect on Rochester, Australia.

We check into the Riverside Caravan Park and are allotted large slab sites overlooking the river. We can park both the van and the car on the concrete slab thus keeping the lawn pristine, and boy do they have good lawns here. Set up takes a while, it’s hot and the van needs a jolly good scrub after 4 days of dusty camp sites.

We have happy hour on the lawn under the trees. Elle makes tortillas for us all and we eat in the air-conditioned comfort of the camp kitchen. We meet two young Frenchmen who are working locally, a chap from Darwin who is down south escaping the heat of the wet season. We sit outside chatting until late.

Accom: $40.15, Towing Kms: 10 (another big one, eh?)

*’Canola is an indeterminate plant, which means it flowers until limited by temperature,
water stress or nutrient availability. As a result, pod development can last over 3–5
weeks, with lower pods maturing before higher ones. Consequently, canola is often
windrowed to ensure that all pods are mature at harvest.‘ (Source: Grains Research and Development Corporation)