Philynda's Travels: Here we go round the Goolagong Tree

Alright so I don't know if there is such a tree but it felt like writing about the Mulberry one but that don't work for Australia so there you have it--- anyway its my blog so there.

So those who know me , and I mean really really know me will also know that I have stood by the following saying -- the 6 P's --- Perfect Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Well , it's usually worked for me.

So let me explain.
The night before yesterday on the 3rd jan 2016, I started to look at the route to get cracking as early as possible and in particular how to get to the main highway, so I went to the reception and got this guy to mark on a local map the best way to get to it-- so all good so far -- oh and I was not gonna pay the add on costs of the Sat Nav --- big mistake.

Lynda and I were down for breakfast at 7am, just so we can get away by half past.

Lynda wanted to go back to the room before I had finished so I gave her the room key which was a little strange I have to admit but I pointed out the fact that she had to fit it in a certain way.

So at 07.20 I went up to the room and banged on the door to be let in -- only one key see.

There was no reply so after about 5 minutes-- thinking she may be in the bathroom -- I went down for a spare key and having looke3d around downstairs , came back to find that she was not in the room. So now I am starting to get worried-- I mean I am thinking slipped up in the toilets in the foyer, so I checked that out, possible kidnapping or even more plausible, an abduction by the Aliens that I had pocked fun of in Roswell and Area 51.

So I brought the first of the bags down to have another look around when she came screaming out of the front of the hotel -- though it could have been out of the bushes for all I really knew-- and it would appear that she--- as I explained to her-- that there was a bit of a knack to the key and room lock-- which she proceeded to open first time when we were together-- (Still checking to see if the skin peals away to reveal an alien.)

So I should have guessed that the day was starting on the wrong footing for it to be good and I should have found a Goolagong tree to dance round three times before I did anything else, but even as old as I am I still don't learn.#

I then had a little disagreement with a very young receptionist that we had in fact not only eaten breakfast -- we agreed on that-- but that it was included in the pre--booking -- the bit that we did not agree.

So you must admit not the best start to be tackling a drive that was to be around 1100 kilometres -- it would have been 950 as I will explain-- it would also have been 10 hours rather than the 12 it took.

Well we knew that we had to get on the B400 -- I thought heading north but some old Drover had fun pointing out that I should have been saying that it was West, in which case I wouldn't have been screwing up getting lost.

Because getting lost is exactly what we did -- where is there a Rodney when you need one-- not that Lynda did a bad job of course.

The two places that we were to find that we could not shake off were Melbourne -- this was coming up even when we had gone 600 kilometres-- and a place called Yarrawanga, which we dismissed several times on the basis that it did not come up on our map, when in reality we should have been heading there all along.

So here we were driving down the M31 towards Melbourne -- due to the fact that we need to get to a turn off to Rutherglen. So we past the one that said Rutherglen ( Historical winery), due to this being on a brown sign rather than a green sign -- not good a decision as it turned out that this now took us a further 30 Kilometers at which point we came off and then chanced our arm a bit by driving on a back road heading to what we hoped would be near to Rutherglen-- for this driver it just felt that we were heading back to Albury.

Well we eventually found the said Capital of the Universe-- the said Rutherglen -- and having given this old Drover a good laugh, we started driving North or West up the B400---Yeeeeeeeaaaah.

So now you need to get the picture that the time is now nearing ten am, will have followed lots of ranting, lots of screwing up maps and generally acting like a right pratt--- no not Lynda -- so there was the spectre that we would be getting to Adelaide at around 10pm at this rate--- but at least we were now moving in the right direction.

We had one scary moment were we ended up driving on the worlds longest road between two small towns and resulted in us pulling in to the gas station on fumes only --- used a few favours there no doubt.

Ok , so after all this rhetoric we saw some of the following---

Ok , now don't forget that this blog covers 2 days , so on the 3rd we did not go to here--well would I , really

We saw plenty of this---

And even more of this---

This is our chariot-- a rav 4 and not bad but screams to go faster in this speed controlled country

Really interesting people fuel supply stop

This is the reception at |Albury

Ok so yesterday on the long trip we saw this very strange looking place with thousands of dead trees in this lake----

We saw a lot of this---

Although we didn't see any crocs in here---

So , the Boss doing her bit to ease the load of this old fella was most welcome--

We saw a lot of these---

And we saw lots of scenery like these---

And we eventually ended up in Adelaide-- another beautiful Aussie City-- and got to the hotel around 8.15pm-- ok guilty as charged of a little over the limit but whats a man to do-----