Saturday, September 7, 2013
In the morning we said goodbye to our good friends Fiona and Phil and their kids Sasha and Jonty, and set out towards Melbourne. We decided to do the drive in 2 days and stopped in Eden, NSW for the night. Eden is where Fiona grew up. We spent most of the day driving and got to the camping ground just after dark, but not before some local fish (flathead) and chips. And we left again early in the morning, so no time really to actually see the place.
It had been a while since we’d set up our tent and it was good to see that all was still in good order.
We realized that the first days/week of driving we’d be adjusting and re-adjusting some of the storage arrangements in the car to make everything as easily accessible as possible at the right time of day.
Sunday, September 8th
Another long day with the second half of the drive to Melbourne. The roads were good and the traffic was light so we made good time arriving before sunset.
Apart from getting to Melbourne, one of the other main objectives of the day was to replace the “white spirit” fuel purchased the previous day with “Shellite” another fuel. A camping shop sold us white spirit claiming we could use it in our Coleman stove. However, it turns out that white spirit is in-fact a Dry-Cleaning Agent and not a stove fuel. Shellite is the Australian version of Coleman fuel or what the americans call white gas. And Shellite is very hard to buy in Australia for some reason.
** When the guy in the camping store said ‘white spirit’ I was wondering why that name sounded vaguely familiar…. it later dawned on me that that was the stuff used to use to clean things like paint brushes… I should’ve know better.
You have got a lovely and spacious carrier on your car. Will accommodate a lot I suppose.
How beautiful is Eden and its surrounds. so glad you stopped there. Enjoy Melbourne and the trip to Adelaide. You'll love Great Ocean Road and Mount Gambier.