Waltzing Matilda with just the two of us!

After the young people left we were on our own! We planned to make our way slowly back up to Sydney camping in national parks and state forests. We were blown away by the tall gum forests of Victoria! Beautiful places!

We tended to alternate between the forests at higher elevations and the coastal areas.

Victoria has some quaint little towns with historic buildings and bridges. 

We enjoyed Bucchan Caves.

Everyone we met asked why we were in the cold southern states and not in warm Qld. After awhile I began to wonder myself!  Especially since the heater wasn't working in the Earthcruiser. You can tolerate the cold by cuddling up at night -but only until the novelty wears off! A camp fire certainly helps but even that is better if you have a warm bed to retreat to later. We especially felt this at Walhalla. We left our camp chairs outside overnight and woke to find a heavy frost.

So after criss-crossing the state of Victoria we crossed into NSW. We then decided to do a quick trip to Sydney to get the heater fixed, along with a few knobs and buttons which had fallen off the vehicle. Mark was onto it straight away and we were off towards Canberra less than 24 hours later! 

The war memorial was a great surprise. The exhibits were very interesting and the scope of the place amazing. We took a free tour with a guide -very well done and I would recommend it. We commented that this is a place all Aussie kids should see - both to know what sacrifices our service men and women made (and still make) and to demistify war. 

We also took a look at the Turner (no relation) exhibition at the National Gallery. I was hoping to see my ancestor (James Douglas) recognised -he "discovered" Turner and gave him his first canvas for his first oil painting (Rochester Castle). This painting stayed in our family for a number of generations. But there was no mention of James Douglas. Joe however enjoys paintings and Turner in particular so the visit was not wasted on him. 

Then it was off to the snow again. There had been significant snow falls since our first visit. I was anxious to test out the heater and hot water systems. We need to know how these perform before we end up in the northern hemisphere! 

We camped at Three Mile Dam (west) again. This is a lovelly site, right on the water. Check out the view through the bedroom window! 

There was a little snow around. There was even a short flurry of snow fall at about dusk. But we awoke in the morning to a blanket of snow on the surrounding landscape and on the car! Just what we wanted, and the heater had worked beautifully. 

And here is the place we camped on our first visit here with the young people - where Zef sat outside in the frost....

Next night we went to a different campsite which happened to be in a frosty pocket. When we arrived there was a little snow about, but over night the temp dropped to -5.4C. The mud around the campsite froze. And local wallabies looked decidedly chilled. 

But there was no water in any of our taps.... The pipes had frozen. The pump still worked though so that had not frozen. Now we need to know from Earthcruiser how to care for the system when freezing temperatures are expected. Apparently the "pipes" are actually hoses so freezing will not split them. But the pump could be a different matter.