On the way back to the van last night, we went past “city park” which looked like a great place to visit. As it was late, we promised Caleb that we would go there today before we left town. 
It was amazing! We played for an hour (it was supposed to be 15 minutes) and had a go on equipment that we had never seen before. The quality of this playground equipment just hit its peak in our books! All of the equipment was designed so that parents and kids could use them together and at the same time. What a fantastic idea!
We had so much fun, the only trouble being when our arms and shoulders weren’t used to the weight of our own bodies and became sore- well, mine did anyway. 
We reluctantly dragged ourselves away and hit the road. 
We drove through Leeton and saw a sign for fresh fruit. We needed a little bit and refuse to buy stone fruits from supermarkets so picking them up from roadside vendors is the way to go. We stopped and went inside. We met the fruiterer called Angelo. A lovely generous man who got talking to Ray and took us on a tour through his orchard, explaining how the irrigation system works with gravity and picking fruit straight from the trees for us. Ray was so happy to be able to eat an orange straight off the tree as he had been threatening to stop at an orchard and take one from the side of the road. I was glad that he didn’t have to resort to thievery and he did announce that the orange was the best he had ever eaten. We kept telling Angelo that we only needed a few things but we left with:
16 peaches
3 tomatoes
7 pears
2 cucumbers
10 plums
4 huge yellow plums
2 honey dews
6 oranges
1 whole pumpkin 
4 prune plums. 
Angelo was in charge of the bag and it became heavier and heavier. He charged us $10 for the lot. We have so much that we will be eating it for a week or more. I think we will need to give some of it away. 
Back on the road and we were heading for a campground just outside of Mount Koziosko National Park. The plan was to get there tonight and then drive into the park and climb the mountain tomorrow. We were both keen to be able to say we had climbed the highest mountain in Australia, Caleb wasn’t so enthusiastic but we would drag him up it if we had to. 
At lunchtime we stopped and Ray took another look at the map. We realised that the drive into the park to where the walk began was actually over 200km from where we would be camping. This would put us another day behind where we needed to be. The holidays are almost upon us and the roads are busy, campgrounds busier still and caravan parks flat out. We have a booking in Sydney to see us through the holidays and still have Canberra to explore. Canberra is particularly important for Caleb’s schooling and will very nicely cover the “Our Democratic Society” unit in one foul swoop! 
We resigned ourselves to promising that we will do the climb on the way home to Melbourne. Caleb was pleased!
We took the turnoff and joined the Hume Hwy. Gundagai loomed and we had to stop and check out the ‘dog on the tuckerbox’ which is nearby. This statue is an historical monument, erected after being mentioned in a poem in the 1800s. When we arrived and saw the monument, Caleb threw some coins into the fountain and made 3 wishes. Each wish, he later revealed, related to the poor dog who hadn’t moved and couldn’t be patted or fed. Caleb wished for him to come to life and to find someone to look after him. He must have thought the wishes had to be related to the dog, otherwise I’m sure he would have wished for Lego or some Star Wars figures. 
Our campground is 139km from Canberra by the Murrimbidgee River in a little town called Jugiong. It is a free stop with a donation for using the toilets. There are about 17 vans in here for the night but its a huge grassed area and there is plenty of space. We wandered down to the river and amused ourselves by throwing sticks in the water. Caleb loves the sound that the sticks make as he whips them through the air. Another peaceful night coming up!