The Big Lap – Camp 5 – Swan Hill, Victoria

• Tweet
• Email

• Tweet
• Email

< Previous camp

Our camp at Riverside Caravan Park, Swan Hill

This post is from Steve & Jen’s 16 month Big Lap from 2005 to 2007 – we’re reposting it camp by camp in the lead up to the release of their documentary | Learn more

Changing Plans

We woke to a nice clear morning in Echuca after plenty of storm activity last night. Packed up the car by about 9am and did some duck feeding around the lake at the caravan park. Got some good film footage.

Picked up the camper from Horseshoe Lagoon CP which was sitting in inches of water and mud following the rain. The ARB Air Lockers got a workout making sure we didn’t get bogged when dragging the trailer out of the “lake” and managed to avoid chewing up the CP in the process.

Headed into Echuca for a good look around and to get some more footage. Had a ride on horse carriage around the town which the girls loved.

About 12:30 we headed for Mildura.

Along the way we reassessed our route and with so many delays from Jen’s knee surgery 2 weeks before we left and the engine overheating we decided to alter the route to Brisbane to ensure we arrive on time on the 15th October. My mum is flying in to join the expedition through to Christmas and we can’t afford to be late.

We decided to skip the Birdsville route (regretably) and head through central NSW instead via Bourke. Much shorter trip and also places we haven’t been. This is the reality of long range touring, you need to be flexible.

This meant we didn’t need to go all the way to Mildura so we stopped at Swan Hill and checked in to one of our favourite caravan parks, the appropriately named Riverside Caravan Park.

The weather was shocking all the way from Echuca to Swan Hill, driving straight into a head wind, but it cleared up just as we arrived and we had perfect conditions to setup the Tambo – thanks Murphy!

Jen and I Spent the evening planning our route through outback NSW to Brisbane.

R&R

We had a pretty lazy day today. Wandered into town for a bit of shopping and a haircut for me and had some quality playtime with the girls at the playgound.

Came back for a dip in the pool although it was ice water so I left it to the girls to do the dipping and supervised from the sidelines instead.

Dinner was a sensational BBQ of veggies and hamburgers expertly cooked by Jen washed down with a bottle of Poets Corner Red I “borrowed” from my Dads wine rack a couple of days earlier (I put this in to see if he is reading this blog).

Savanna is making new friends every day and has taken to handing out our business card to everyone she meets. She is becoming our little ambassador.

Tonight I talked to the Coodabeen Champions on their show on ABC Radio called “The Idlers” which was a first for me and not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. It’s a great show and I am going to enjoy being part of it.

Either Jen or myself will be talking to them each Saturday night for the next 6 months about how our trip is going which will be fun.

We also went to the Swan Hill Show today and Savanna and I both held live snakes for the first time in the “Snakebusters” tent. The girls, including Jen, had some rides which I happily refrained from.

Bali bombings

Today we woke to the sad news of yet more Bombings in Bali with a few Australians killed. After the events there in the past few years I’m not sure Bali would be high on my must go destination list.

Jen managed to catch up the washing today and I did some maintenance on the trailer, getting the gear under the boat rack sorted out and adding another support chain which holds it up when it is hanging off the side in camp. I was not really that comfortable with the one cable that it came with.

Savanna insisted on going for a swim in the unheated swimming pool and Sara went too. They both love the water and don’t care how cold it is. I can remember being like that when I was young, but not now!

We had a BBQ dinner where we met Brad from Geelong and Savanna made friends with his daughter Charlie.

Preparing to go Bush

With one day to go before we head north to Mungo National Park, it is time to get ready to leave civilization (at last!)

I’ve been practicing with the roof rack camera mount I made and it works well, although I need to use some occy straps to stop the camera vibrating.

Speaking of occy straps, they are the most useful things you can have on a trip like this. We use them constantly and I would estimate we have as many as 40 on the go at any one time. Jen and I were joking about having a regular segment in the documentary entitled “101 Uses For Occy Straps” and I’m now giving it serious consideration.

Anyway, probably not going to get Internet access for a while given we are heading into the outback so I updated my trip log on the website while the girls went to the library.

We had some lunch in Swan Hill and grabbed some bits and pieces before back to camp to pack as much as possible for an early getaway tomorrow.

More updates coming soon