The one night I needed a decent rest was last night but it was not to happen. I had picked up an overtime shift which is good but you never know what a night shift will bring. Unfortunately last night was a busy one with a large fire in the middle of the night. There was little rest overnight.
The 4WD Group were meeting at Tailem Bend at 800am for a 815am start and it was at least a 1½ hour drive for me by the back way from Seaford Fire Station. Even though my relief was getting in early, I wasn’t on the road until 700am. Conditions were good and I was making good time being 20 kilometres out at 815am, so the Group waited an extra 15 minutes which was good of them.
It was a good drive with a stop at Coonalpyn to check out the painted silos then a stop at Bordertown for the Sunshine Bakery. It was after Bordertown that things slowed down. There were a number of roadworks between here and Nhill where they didn’t quite get the traffic control right. Queues of traffic went for kilometres and waits up to 20 minutes to get through was the norm.
Once past Nhill, we were travelling well again. Heading through Horsham, I stopped into Jayco Horsham hoping to get the slide out looked at and maybe fixed but no, most of the staff were off for a long weekend and the only person there was only keeping the lights on as she was having Tuesday off for the Melbourne Cup.
We finally made it to Parkgate Resort at Halls Gap to find a packed caravan park with our group spread out all over the park. We didn’t do our homework there. Apparently, this is a 4 day weekend for Victorians and most book their sites years in advance. At least it will clear out next week.

• 
• 
•