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Scary Skin-Heads and Their Half-Pint Beers
Mansfield -> Corryong, 17th January 2002
We made an early start today to make a good start on our journey to
Canberra, the capital city of Australia.
With everything packed, I made a few last minute checks. I
remembered that the window sprayers on the car had run out, so I
decided to top of the tank. I poured, and poured, and poured
and...poured. Hmm, it felt like I was getting a lot in the little
tank, then I heard a dripping sound. I looked under the car and saw
the problem. The water tank for the window sprayers was hanging off
the bottom of the van. The little connecting tube had broken and it
was just bouncing around. Great. Well, there wasn't much I could do
now, it looked strong enough so I decided to leave it.
Not too long later and we were on our way to Corryong, our stop off
point for the night. We passed through a number of small towns
without too many problems. I wanted to put some waterproof putty to
fix the water carrier on the car, but in the end, I settled for the
much cheaper superglue. We took a few moments to look in the more
interesting towns.
We soon passed through the large city of Albury and found the signs
to be pretty rubbish. The road we wanted wasn't marked anywhere and
we went through the obligatory 'argue' session where everyone thinks
they know which way to go but they're all different. After much
'debating' and driving around the suburbs, we eventually found a
tiny sign, partially obscured by trees pointing out the road we
needed.
An hour or so later, we reached a large metal bridge running over a
large lake. The sun was getting stronger and the inside of the car
was getting hotter & hotter. Even opening the windows only generated
a warm breeze! We stopped to have a quick look then headed across.
The view was fantastic. The lake was full of partially submerged,
spooky, dead and dying, leafless trees. It looked a little like a
bible scene.
As we drove along the tarmac paths, the road became really soft, the
heat of the sun was obviously starting to melt the surface of the
roads. Suddenly, there was a loud rapid shooting sound as the gravel
bounced up like shrapnel. I ducked in my seat and covered my head
(dramatically) in case any bits fired through the window. No bits
did and the girls found my little bit of over-acting hilarious and
couldn't stop laughing. I've only put this in the diary because they
insisted!
 After a few more hours driving, we arrived in Corryong. We crawled
slowly through the town looking for places to spend the night. Every
motel, hotel, B&B and camp site sign we passed, Stinge eagerly
swerved the van into the appropriate road to have a look. More often
than not, the sign was useless and we couldn't find the mentioned
accommodation anywhere.
We eventually settled for the nearby, very cheap and easy to find
campsite. We drove the van in and went about sorting the tent and
van out. Em insisted that there was plenty of room for all 4 of us
to sleep in the van. Yeah, just like fitting 4 elephants in a
biscuit tin. Em will be sleeping in the van and the rest of us in
the tent. When it was all sorted, we headed into town to look for
somewhere to eat or get a drink.
After a bit of exploring we found zero restaurants, zero take-aways
and zero open cafes. In the end we found a pub that served a simple,
but tasty looking menu. We all went in, and to the amusement of the
locals, ordered a pint each. We were informed that the people here
don't order beer in 'pints', they order them in 'pots'. It turned
out that 1 pot = 1/2 pint. We looked around the room and to OUR
amusement, realised that everyone in the room even the huge, bald,
tough-looking guys, were clutching these 'pots' or 1/2 pints. Now
that looked funny in comparison to English pubs!
After a few 'pots', equal to half as many pints, and a quick bite to
eat, we headed back to the camp site. On the way, we passed a Pizza
place we hadn't seen before. We all agreed that we could fit in a
shared pizza before bed. So after a quick pizza and garlic bread, we
continued back to the campsite. It's much more comfortable in the
tent with only 3 people, and I'm sure the van is very comfortable as
well.
Tomorrow we're off to Canberra, Australia's capital city!
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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back
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