TWO MONTHS IN VICTORIA

The rest of our stay in Victoria was spent wandering back and forward seeing friends and family.

Unfortunately we couldn't get to visit everyone - hopefully, we will have time to catch up next year.

We stayed a couple of months at our friends Rod and Jo Cavill's property at Cobungra in the High Country which eases the heat of a hot summer.

The intention was to fish, prospect and plan where and what we were going to do next. Dianne started working as a Home Help for the Omeo and District Hospital on a part time basis to bring in a bit of money while I helped Rod build a shed. Below is a picture of the upright poles we put in and this was no easy task - they were approx 5m in length and 3oomm thick we had to use the tractor to lift them up.

Next year we'll start on the house, hahaha.

We were planning to head North in 2010 for a green change after all the red dirt, wind and sand of the West. After researching the internet for positions up North I stumbled on one which Dianne had seen earlier, but thought was finished, on the Grey Nomads Employment web site. The position was for a couple to assist with running a Caravan Park and Camp Ground and to run Mine tours into Rio Tinto's Bauxite Mine at Weipa on the western side of Cape York. Well, to say it fitted us pretty good was an understatement. We made contact, followed by a phone interview and waited a week while they interviewed others :). The call finally came and we had our new job. The sight to some, of us dancing in the aisles may be off putting so I won't post a photo, all going well the job will be ongoing each year.

RETURN TO VICTORIA - IN MEMORY OF OUR BEST MATE

Our Return to Victoria we took 8 days which wasn't too bad on the body. Pete had a drive for a couple of hours and Dianne had a drive for 2 minutes (that's all I would allow). We headed to Alexandra where our friends Ken and Barb allowed us to park the bus at the rear of their house which helped us out beautifully because it's not easy to stash a 40ft bus with safety. We cleaned the bus out, got a few things together threw the dogs in the car and headed for Jaylene's house in Croydon. The day was really hot about 40 deg so we did some quick shopping and laid up in the house while Jaylene was at work.

Something was about to happen which would floor everyone and I think the reason why our Blog ran dry for so long. Jaylene came home about 9pm and got a rousing reception from the 3 dogs which hadn't seen her for about 10 months. She had just finished playing with Matey, all excited he was, as he walked away he staggered and collapsed on the floor. We went straight into action rushing him to the Vet where Jaylene's friend worked.

Their first diagnosis was that he was probably dehydrated from the long hot day and he was a bugger for not drinking enough, so we thought this could be feasible. They pumped him full of fluids but he wasn't too good. They did some blood tests to check if he had eaten any mice or snail bait as we weren't sure what was in Jaylene's new garden. Nothing showed up and they decided to keep him in overnight where the vet on call actually stayed with him.

The next morning the vet rang and unfortunately we were given bad news that he had a Tumour which had ruptured near his Liver which he couldn't survive from so the agonising decision was made there and then to put him to sleep. It was the worst day in our lives - as Pete said "Surely it can't get any harder than this". We took Matey back to our old property in Alexandra, where he was born, and buried him by the creek where he used to love playing.

Matey

13/1/2002 - 17/12/2009

He will always hold a place in our hearts

It just won't be the same without him