Christmas Day - Echuca

Down at the "port"

Parked near a paddle steamer

Picnic lunch for Christmas

Woke to breakfast being delivered to the door, mmm nice, bacon and eggs, yoghurt, juice and fresh coffee. Then time to open a few presents. We then decided to go for a "cruise" around town and look for a good place to have xmas lunch. We also ventured across the border into NSW and had a quick look around Moama.

Found a nice quiet street and couldnt help myself and gave the black beast a squirt or two throwing us back into our seats and leaving behind just a little rubber...hoooon...

Shortly after 11.30am we returned to the motel room and packed our picnic lunch and headed off to a nice little park area near the port of Echuca that had sufficient shade to keep us cool in the 33 degree heat. We enjoyed a lovely lunch and a little red wine and just chilled.

About 3pm, we packed up and returned to the motel to have a little rest before contemplating dinner.

The paddle-steamer EmmyLou on the Murray River.

Day 3 - Melbourne to Echuca (finally on the road)

OK lets get this show on the road! We packed up the car and were ready to roll only to be delayed by some out of town admirers. After sharing a few car enthusiast stories we checked out of our motel and rolled out of town.

The Calder Freeway was our easy route out of the city and in no time we were clear of the traffic and on our way north to Bendigo. We soon became accustomed to having the car's driver on the left hand side while the passenger was in the traffic.

The car handled the open road without a hitch. The gauges all showed normal readings except for the fuel gauge which showed a disturbing rate of depletion in fuel levels. Perhaps something to do with the 400 cu.in engine? We discovered a few rattles and squeaks but I think we all have a few of those at age 32!

The drive to Bendigo took us an hour and a half of easy driving and we arrived just in time for smoko. A quick stop off at Macca's for a coffee and break before heading through town to have a quick tour of the sights. The car coped well with the heavy traffic through town but we did try to avoid any areas where there was too much "stop-start" as there is no need to test our luck with engine temperatures.

We stopped by the Dragon Museum for a look about. This museum celebrates the Chinese members of the local Bendigo community dating back to 1850 when the gold fields were opened up. Its was a fantastic day for a drive - sunny but not too hot so we took the T-tops off the car to enjoy some fresh air.

Dragon Museum at Bendigo.

Soldiers Institute at Bendigo - photo taken out as we drove by with the roof off the car!

We pushed onto Echua which took another hour of driving. The traffic flowed easily which was good for a high risk travelling day.

In all we travelled 220km today and used half a tank of fuel. The cost of fuel at the bowser in Echuca was 12c/litre more expensive than the price in Melbourne yesterday so we were pleased to have left with a full tank this morning.

We are staying two nights in Echuca so we plan to spend Christmas Day relaxing locally with a picnic lunch.

Finally some more photos

Finally we have a decent internet hotspot to work with and allow us to upload some photos. These were taken on 22nd Dec 2009 - the day of the flat battery!

The battery is being charged in the foreground while Robert does some work on a loose connection in the engine bay.

The spare tyre takes up a huge space in the boot - looks as though there's not going to be much shopping on the way home!!

Fiddling about while the battery charges.

Day 2 - Still in Melbourne (early)

The internet connection at our hotel is pretty hopeless so we can't upload any photos at the moment. Later we will drop by a hotspot nearby and load up some snaps of what we did yesterday!

Day 1 - Melbourne

Robert awoke at 5:15am keen as mustard to get down to the storage facility where the car is being stored. Jacinta was not so keen until she had two coffees under her belt. However coffees were soon consumed and we were on the road to Guardian Storage at Pascoe Vale.

At last Robert is reunited with the beast!

First things first...does the engine turn over? The car has been sitting without being driven for quite a while and yep that's right...a flat battery! No spark...nothing. Ok best get that fixed.

Plan A: Use the hire car and some jumper leads to jump start the Trans Am. Well that sounds good in theory but unfortunately the Getz just didn't have the grunt to turn over the 6.6 Ltr V8 engine of the Trans Am. soooo.

Plan B: "Did you renew your RACQ membership?" Fortunately one of us had so a call was made for road side assistance (or storage facility assistance as the case may be). The RACV guy heard about our attempts to use the Getz for a jump start and just quietly shook his head and smiled. He pulled out a heavy duty battery pack and in no time flat the Trans Am was purring away.

The car needs to have the battery fully charged so Robert took the time to do a few tidy ups about the place.

So what do you do when your car is otherwise occupied having its battery charged up? Go shopping (hooray says Jacinta, lets go to DFO)

Vic Roads Permit

The application has been made and a Vic Roads Unregistered Vehicle Permit has been issued permitting us to drive the vehicle from Essendon to Cairns, (with conditions of course).

Personalised Plates

Yes, they have arrived, my personal plates to be placed on the car once I get it registered in Queensland. They are....USA076 (of course)