5 February 2012 - Prince of Wales Showgrounds, Bendigo, Victoria

The skies were overcast when we rose this morning and it was raining seed pods from the surrounding gums. Over breakfast, we watched the campers who had come in late yesterday afternoon, or at least the one who had emerged to collect up the empty bottles and windblown water canisters. Two women of indeterminate age and of indeterminate sexual preferences, had sluggishly set up their tent close by and then gathered up stones with which to fashion a camp fire. I had wandered nonchalantly over and spoken to them about the fire bans in place, the need to have written permits for fires, the extreme bush fire danger, and generally alerted them to all my concerns, and using my kiwi-ish accent added that I however, did not really know how these things worked and I was sure that they, having checked out the CFS (Country Fire Service) website, would know far better than I. When I reported this conversation back to Chris, he was sure I would have put the kibosh on any camp fire, and he hoped that they had alternative cooking means. Then we watched incredulously as they lit their fire, cooked on it, stoked it up and settled down on their chairs for the evening to enjoy the ambience and their refreshments. We ended our vigilance fairly early on, having had to close everything up to save ourselves from being totally suffocated by smoke, but decided that they were being careful. Had we known how much alcohol was to be consumed, we might have thought otherwise. However, the important thing is, we have all survived another day with no loss of life or possessions, in fact with no fire danger at all!

Camping near fragile gums

The danger of fire and that relating to the falling of branches are the least concerns about this camp. There is a hex on the toilets, all the more scary given that on first use, they seem to be amongst the best public toilets about. Apart from relative cleanliness, they offer open views to the trees and sky while still affording crucial privacy. These toilets have claimed from us alone, a digital camera and a pair of prescription specs. My camera had been playing up, occasionally pulsing in its case when turned off but after falling from the top of the cistern, has truly died, and Chris returned this morning with one scratched lens and the frame hanging loose. Hopefully this can be rectified and blamed on shoddy workmanship rather than any Loo Voodoo.

We were away from our camp by nine thirty and heading up a back road toward Bendigo, bumping across the lumpy road through beautiful rural countryside, well-populated by dirty sheep, horses and well-heeled life style farmers. We arrived at Kangaroo Flat to be met by a great wall of smoke, and followed the rest of the traffic through the lights and through the smoke. The narrow garden bordering the car park at the Aldi supermarket was on fire, and employees were running to and fro with buckets of water, while others watched unperturbed.

Soon we arrived in the southern outer suburbs of Bendigo, and wound our way through the residential areas to reach the Showgrounds on the western side of the city. As we approached, we could see the great number of vehicles parked in and near the grounds and decided that this was not the day to have chosen this camp. We caught sight of a few caravans in amongst the parked cars and so thought we would investigate the possibilities before abandoning the idea of fair cost tariffs.

Today there is a Guns and Hunting Show being held down in the exhibition halls which coincides with the weekly fleamarket. It would seem that half of Bendigo frequents the flea markets, which are quite marvellous with their great array of books, plants, fruit and vegetables, bread, clothing, tools and other hardware, furniture, baby accessories, and all the other stuff one finds at markets. We filled our “green” shopping bag with more books, capsicums and focaccia bread before returning to the caravan, lunching and then finally making our way in to the grounds when the bulk of the market goer’s cars had left. By this time, the wind had come up, gusting to 54 kph (according to the on-line weather report) and stirring up great dust storms. As a result we are sealed up inside the van, waiting for the wind to change direction. Tomorrow we will drive into Bendigo and discover what it has to offer. In the meantime there is another day cricket match between the Indians and the Australians, and the television reception is excellent. Chris is happy and I have another pile of books to read.