The first day of winter had us disembarking the Spirit of Tasmania into the rain soaked streets of Melbourne. We were keen to exit the city asap but roadworks near the port had our Garmin in a spin & it took some time to find our way onto the freeway. It was a cautious drive & it wasn't till we were in a brightening sky well outside the city limits that I began to relax. Still too early for check in at Anglesea, we stopped at a service centre to refuel (ourselves included) & kill some time. Mid morning we checked into the semi-deserted van park.
The following day I drove into nearby Geelong to get the ute serviced & safety inspected for rego, do a few chores & have a bit of a gander at the place. I took our foldable bike along & pedalled into the city while the mechanics did their thing. Many of the shops here were empty & I couldn't help but feel Geelong was going through tough times. I soon found my way to a movie theatre to see Mad Max (3.5 stars from me) & exited the theatre to find a message on my phone giving the ute the all clear to be picked up. The last job for the day was to pick up a wifi antenna I had ordered from the nearby Startrack depot. We are soon going outback & I reckon we will need some help getting a decent signal out there. Tomoko was dubious on the effectiveness of the 5 metre antenna but I gave it a test run, achieving an increase from 3 bars to 5. Looks like it will come in handy & at a cost of near $500 I certainly hope so.
My goal of surfing Bells was not realized on our last visit here but this time I managed to do the next best thing - surfing Winkipop. It was only 2ft but super glassy & despite being a bit rusty I managed a couple of decent rides. The new wetsuit was doing a fine job but I was still envious of those lucky enough to be wearing booties. After 1.5 hours in the water my feet were completely numb & it was a painful & weird sensation hobbling up rocks and flights of stairs back to the carpark. It certainly was a relief to get the blood circulating in them again.
Not unlike our final days in Tasmania, showery conditions persisted in Anglesea and we were excited to depart for Casterton for the annual Kelpie Muster. The town’s claim to fame is for being the birthplace of the dog called Kelpie (who was to become the first ever mum to the breed known as the kelpie). The caravan park in town was bursting at the seams & kelpies of all shapes & sizes chased balls & played in our section of the van park. Our neighbour had a beautiful dog, a nine month old chocolate kelpie named Rosie who we could not get enough of. Being the grumpy old bugger that he has become, Shaka was less than pleased with the recent developments, prefering to snooze in the safety of the van.
The main street of town was closed to traffic on Saturday for the events day of the festival. First up was the Kelpie Dash - where the winning kelpie is the one who runs the fastest 50 metres into the arms of their waiting owners. We missed most of the novelty events such as the fattest dog & Kelpie Idol although if there was an event for oldest kelpie I believe Shaka would have won hands down. I did enjoy Mutton Mayhem, a sheep race with jockey dolls velcroed to the sheep. Next up was the entertaining Kelpie High Jump - where the dog has to scale a barricade of wooden boards, starting from 1.5m & progressively raised until the last dog standing wins.
The Sunday is dedicated to the kelpie auction. Non-auction dogs were prohibited from attending so Shaka was given a few hours to sleep in the comfort of the ute. 62 dogs were up for sale. They are mostly housed in a large shed for viewing by potential buyers. They also give a demonstration of their abilities by herding six sheep from a paddock into a pen where they continue to harass the poor sheep by climbing on their backs or ducking beneath them & scooting between their legs. Later on we watched some of the auction. The top priced dog fetched $11000 with the total amount of dogs sold exceeding $220,000.
The next day was the Queens B'day public holiday & a mass exodus from the town, leaving the caravan park empty. We chose to stay an extra night to avoid the holiday traffic before our first foray into SA.