Day 7 Saturday 23/11/2024 Rochester, 37

Regardless of the heat, we slept like tops last night. It’s already 29 degrees at breakfast time and as I write this a tiny spider is crawling up my neck. I can hear the cooing of pigeons under the road bridge. Woody takes an early morning walk and as always, he is seduced by the local butcher, yes he’s waving a big bag of crumbed lamb cutlets.

The heat builds and a cool salad is warm before it is devoured. To escape the heat, Toothless, Mrs. Doubtfire and Elle take a drive into Echuca. With VeeWee on board we go in the other direction to Tongala. Once more we are driving through dairy farms. Tongala used to be known for its milk factory and thankfully that is still in operation. The town is dead quiet and we suppose that everyone is indoors or as we soon discover, in the air-conditioned comfort of the public bar at the Tonnie Pub. We walk in to be greeted with a blast of cold air, frosty glasses and a host of Tongalans giving a ‘Tourette’s’ style of commentary to the cricket on the big screen. Obviously it must be an effing good match.

Happy hour is back at camp in Elle’s motorhome ‘Betty’s Bar’ her A/C is excellent, and the language is less colourful. Dinner is crumbed cutlets, who would have guessed, in the cool camp kitchen while we all study the rain radar apps. I wonder why we even bother as a sniff of the air and ants scurrying about tell us that rain is imminent.

Accom: $40.15