So, we worked, we rested, now time to explore. We had to be back in Melbourne for Oskar’s wake, so we charted a course for the Grampians and then to the Golden Triangle to give Tamika’s metal detector the chance to make us rich……we were certain we’d never have to darken the doors of Centrelink again.
We set off down the Calder Highway. The further south, the colder it got. Tamika had her first serious stint as rig driver and handled it beautifully. We had read glowing reports about a Lake Lascelles close to Hopetoun, so we split the trip and checked in. Clearly, word had got around because there were caravans EVERYWHERE! Now sure, we had water views, the showers were hot, it was a 10 minute walk to cafes, restaurants, and supermarket (don’t forget the supermarket Reg), and, it was free.
“Yeah, alright….but what have the Romans ever done for us? ”
But I couldn’t shake the feeling we had ended up in a giant caravan park with a lake in the middle. Maybe we had already found that free camping was where our heads and hearts were at. Still, it was a mere pit stop on our journey and sometimes caravan parks are the only option. We were going to find that out sooner than we thought.
We have one eye always on the weather forecast, so we stayed an extra night and left the next morning for the Grampians. We made good use of the time by researching free camping sites. We found what appeared to be a great site on Wikicamps, with an address and a link to Google maps. Where we ended up the next day is our first real cautionary tale.