Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold... Brrrr.... The cold weather moved in as the sun went down last night in Deniliquin, and stayed cold all night. This morning, even though the sun was out and the sky was blue, the wind was straight from Antarctica, and we had to break out the beanies and gloves. Lucky I insisted we pack them, cause in my wisdom, I knew it'd get cold... We packed up early again this morning, but Frank (owner of Deniliquin BIG4), gave us a guided tour of the park, and we got to talking, and that led to that, and before we knew it, it was 10.30 by the time we left. Not to worry, it's only 300k's to Ballarat, just a short drive...

Straight down the Cobb highway, into Moama, where I stop to fuel up. A guy pulls up at the bowser next to me, and we accidentally make eye contact, so I have no choice but to say something. ME: "How ya goin?", HIM: "Yeah, good. You?", ME: "Not bad. Bloody cold though!", HIM: "Yeah, bit chilly this morning. You travelling?" (He must've spotted the 16 foot caravan) ME: "Yep. On holidays for 3 months with the family." HIM: "Good on ya! Where you headed?" ME: "Today? Ballarat." HIM (with a snorted laugh): "You aint begun to feel cold yet! Wait till you get there, then you'll know what cold feels like!" And proceeds to walk away chuckling to himself like he's told the funniest damn joke in the world... But, by god, he's not far wrong!! It's absolutely freezing. And wet... don't forget wet. It started raining as we left Moama, and entered Victoria, which we figured out, is probably the reason all the other caravans have been headed the OTHER WAY!! There's a reason everyone leaves Victoria this time of the year, and we've figured it out!!

Anyway, I've jumped too far ahead in my story... After we fueled up in Moama, we decided it was time for a cuppa, and the lady in the servo told Jo about a really nice bakery just down the road... and that's the best part of the story today, right there... a nice bakery, just down the road. So we stop and have morning tea, and it was good, and life is right again, cause it's been a whole day since we found a nice bakery...

And then, we drove to Ballarat, and it's cold and raining. The end!!

No, not quite... It took us 4 hours to arrive in Ballarat, which surprised us, as it was only 290km. But the roads changed as we entered Victoria. The speed limit dropped to 100, but was 80km for most of the way. The country is much more heavily populated than NSW, and the roads are much busier. They were wet and curvy too. The country towns are bigger, Bendigo surprised us by seeming more a city than a town, and the landscape is much hillier. Our fuel usage has jumped to ove 19l per 100km, but I'm not watching it anymore!! We got to Ballarat and found our park, BIG4 Welcome Stranger, really easily. We're slightly disappointed though, we expected it to be... nicer? It's ok, but we just thought, based on reputation, that it would be something special, and it's really not. You know when you see something on the internet, and you say "this'll be nice", then you get there, and you go "aww!!". The ensuite itself, I don't think, is even up to BIG4 standard. We're going to check out the other parks tomorrow, and if we see something we like more, we'll change... Only problem is, we're here for 5 days, and it's the first time we've ever put up our new annexe, and we're not sure if it will pack up the same way it came out... I'll let you know how we go...

Oh, by the way, Ballarat Steakhouse is awesome for dinner. Jezz and I had ribs again, and they were great! Highly recommend it if you're ever down this way. If you are ever down this way, bring a heater!

Ciao for now...