Since we picked up the Winnie it has been parked either on the driveway when our neighbours were away, or on the street outside. There are normally lots of cars parked in our street, so we feel reasonably confident that it won’t be vandalized. However in a recent discussion with our neighbour, he said he thought it could be parked in our spare bay, and paced it out in steps. We have agreed to give it a go when we get back. We may need to get rid of the rosemary bushes on the fenceline, he said he and Linda were already thinking of doing that, and planting some flowering plants instead. Stephen has sent an email to the group (Kim, Norm and me) suggesting this happens soon, but leaving it up for discussion.

I’ve spent a huge amount of time setting things up here in the Winnie, but it has still been frustrating to some extent as we learn the ropes. I had to put the fridge on gas, and George was using the gas to test the hot water system before we picked it up. I’ve realised this morning that we appear to be out of gas. There is the spare bottle, but it is not connected. The hot water only got slightly warm last night and we have no hope this morning. Despite that, I had a wash in the shower last night and plan to shower/wash in a basin of water boiled in the kettle. The reason being that the Mt Bakewell Caravan Park showers looked pretty grotty last night, though  the toilets are fine.

Yesterday we drove to York, stopping off to see Mum on the way. She was on her own, so we had lunch with her. Jamie and Tracey arrived back before we left. Jamie has bought a new Toyota ‘truck’, the one that looks like a Hummer. Very stylish, and for his prospecting, very useful indeed, especially as the previous owners speced it up with all sorts of useful stuff, then decided it was too high for them, and traded it in after 10,000 kms. He is delighted, of course. We then showed them through the Winnie.

We arrived in York and checked out the free (with electricity) sites in town, but they were all taken, there are only four of them. Then we found a bakery and had afternoon tea. A visit to the Tourist Information Centre was lovely as the person there was very friendly and helpful. There are places to see wildflowers here, or we could explore some of the other attractions in town.

Then we came to the caravan park and have quite a good spot here. After set up, minimal, we had a rest, then went for a walk. There were good views of Mt Bakewell and we spoke with a group of caravanners who were enjoying some social time sitting outside. One couple is from Streaky Bay in South Australia. Eversley fell in love and wanted to move there ( briefly anyway).

This morning we took our time over breakfast and getting ready to go out, eventually driving out at around 12:00. The water hose connecter was a little difficult to detach, but Stephen managed it on his own. I did the electrical cord. We even put our plastic outside mat in the van, not wanting to leave anything that might get stolen. Though who would bother with our old mat we don’t know.

We have spent some time in the Residency Museum, with display boards giving information on the history of York since settlement, and some information about the local Aboriginal population. There were Chinese and Albanian immigrants as well as the usual ones from the British Isles. Stephen takes a bit longer than me to go through, very handy as it has given me time to finish off this blog entry.