Southern Friends

King Park Seymour Victoria

Goulburn River Seymour Victoria

One of the beauties of our trip has been the many wonderful people we have met on the track and the opportunities the time has given us to catch up with friends we haven’t seen for far too long.

With this in mind we headed towards Melbourne to reacquaint ourselves with two great Families we met “on the track”.

We decided to stay at Dandenong as it is half way between their homes.  After quickly unhitching we headed for Berwick to catch up with Alan Smith and his son-in-law Craig.  We first met Al and Craig at Fitzroy Crossing and then shared caravan parks with them at Derby, Broome and 80 Mile Beach before saying farewell.  We then had a surprise as we saw them again at Exmouth.  It was lovely to see them and meet their families and to find out how the remainder of their trip was.  We all had dinner at Craig and Debbie’s place and we weren’t surprised to learn that they had invested in a pop top Jayco van.

Craig Debbie & Aaron

Next morning we headed to Langwarrin to visit Jason and Sandy.  We first met them at Katherine and last saw them at Yardie Creek near Exmouth, although we did bump into Sandy at Margaret River.  We had morning tea with them and their kids Cade and Dane.  It was nice to know that they had all settled back into the working routine.  Perhaps there is hope for us.

Gonzo

Next stop was Hilldene near our old stamping ground at Puckapunyal.  Our Army friends from the 80s Margot and Dave Long have recently established themselves as graziers on their own property not far from Seymour.  We initially had a shock when in trying to track them down we got a message that Dave had passed away.  Luckily, for him and us, the unfortunate soul was someone who lived close by to Dave and Margot and who shared Dave’s name.  We loved our time with them reminiscing and looking around our old haunts in Seymour.  The town hadn’t changed much although it didn’t have a few more shopping facilities.