JAMIESON

I arrived at Jamieson late Sunday afternoon and checked into the caravan park where Karen had booked. She'd prepaid for ten nights many months before and invited me to join her, opting for five nights for two sites instead. I hadn't seen Karen since our seven weeks rolling together which ended at Yeppoon early in September, so was looking forward to resuming our traveling companionship. James was equally keen to see his sweetheart, Ellie. Karen had already parked on one of the two adjacent sites we had been allocated, so after lots of hugs and pats we considered the best way for me to back my van onto the site.

The park was old, quite small and full of very run-down on site vans interspersed with shallow sites for casual visitors like us. The roads in the park were really narrow and it was going to be rather difficult to reverse the van into position. Karen gave guidance and I made several attempts, eventually thinking I had nailed it. Just at the last moment, however, l clipped the protruding ball coupling of the onsite van directly opposite. I got out to have a look and shit, shit, shit - it had stoved in the front corner of the car and half ripped off the mudguard section. I was sooo pissed off with myself! I was then caught between a rock and a hard place. Regardless of whether I went forward or back I could only do way more damage. Fortunately a couple of young guys saw it happen and came to help. First off they disconnected the van and with the help of the park owner who had arrived on scene, managed to push two and a half tonne of van backwards into position on the site. Next, one of the boys gave clear instructions on how to reverse the Jeep and I was able to do so without worsening the damage. Then he pulled off part of the mudguard trim, put his fist behind the plastic panel and pushed out the big indentation. He then clicked the panel back onto where it had ripped off, massaged it all a bit and reattached the guard trim. It looked 200% better instantly. Woohoo! As it turned out he was a panel beater. How lucky for me! By the time I had set up I was well and truly ready for a drink, so Karen and Ellie, James and myself walked the hundred odd meters up the road to the pub.

Jamieson is a really popular tourist destination. It's a pretty, historic little town on the beautiful Jamieson river with a great coffe shop/restaurant and a pub. It's near Eildon Weir in north central Victoria, close to the ski fields of Mount Buller and 35 km from the larger township of Mansfield, where my sister lives. Given I'd been on the road for seven months, I was keen to catch up, so drove into Mansfield Monday and had a lovely reunion with sister Jenni, niece Elise and grand nephews Hamish and Owen. While I was away Karen moved camp. A spot had come up right on the river so she snaffled it up. That worked out really well as it had a pergola overlooking the river and a great fire pit, so we had our own private area to kick back in. It was well into the 30's Monday so when I got back from Mansfield we all had a splash in the river. James especially loved it! 

Over the following few days we did a bit of sightseeing. I wanted to check out some of the many free camps upstream, so we took the Woods Point road out of Jamieson stopping at sites along the way before having lunch at the Kevington pub. From there we continued on past the A1Gold Mine to Woods Point. The puppies settled comfortably into sharing the back seat and were very chilled, even though it was a sometimes bumpy and windy five hour drive.

Delatite Winery was half an hour back towards Mansfield. Karen and I paid a visit to do a tasting (18 wines!) one of the days, and when we saw an amazing grazing platter delivered to a table we stayed for lunch, ordering the same for ourselves.

Thursday we played 18 holes of golf at Mansfield. The course was in excellent condition and the weather was perfect. To top that off we both played ok. Later that day we fitted in a visit to the Jamieson Brewery. It's a tough life!

Most evenings we had a fire and every day we did a couple of strolls along the river and around town. There are some beautiful gardens and very old cottages in Jamieson. The birds and wildlife there were amazing too. You could see the fish swimming in the crystal clear river. Lots of cicadas had emerged from the ground in their ugly dark armory and displayed their fine new wings which were so beautiful.  We met up with another woman at the park who was traveling solo. Suzanne had been on the road for ten years and was still loving it. We spent a bit of time socializing with her. 

Karen had to get back to Melbourne but l opted for an extra night paying $23 for my powered site. After coffee and cake at the local cafe on Friday morning Karen left. We did make a plan however to catch up on the Murray river at the end of December, do New Years Eve at Yarrawonga, play some more golf and catch up with my friends.