Ray came back from taking Henry very early this morning for his walk and had happiness written all over his face. I thought it was because the rain had finally stopped but it was because when he was walking with Henry on the beach, he saw three dolphins swim past.

Ray is adamant that we will be returning here when the weather is better. He also saw people fishing on the beach so Stockton Beach ticks a lot of boxes.

We decided that we would put in a big day of travelling today and get away from the coast and head inland. The weather is cold and not really good for caravanning for a fish like me. Some people enjoy camping and caravanning in cold weather but that’s not us. Especially with a dog who refuses to wipe his muddy paws before coming in the van!

By putting in a big day of driving, we figured we could stop somewhere for two nights before arriving home a few days earlier than planned, but warmer than we were feeling at the moment.

Wangaratta was our planned destination and we knew that it was going to be a pretty huge day. I had prepared food so that we could eat and not be held up looking for food or waiting for service. As Tuesday is Anzac Day we thought that some people may be having a long weekend and there may be a lot of traffic on the road. We also needed to negotiate busy Sydney roads and although we were going to go through the tunnels and use the tollways. The roads would definitely be busier than the roads. We had been traveling on so far. It was pretty ambitious, but we were determined. The thought of escaping the rain was also a motivating factor. We put it into Maps when we were planning and knew that if Maps said that it was going to take eight hours. We were looking at about ten hours with stops.

We left at 8 AM and arrived at Wangaratta at 6:30 PM. It was over 8 hundred kilometers. The most we’ve traveled in one day.

For the most part, the driving was uneventful. The rain stayed away, and we had some sun, but also some cloudy gray skies. We kept ourselves amused with the help of Apple Music, which had good reception for pretty much all of the way. A bit of chitchat and, a few wonderings and the time passed relatively quickly. We are still amazed at how well Henry travels. He never seems keen and eager to jump out of the car door whenever we stop for him. It’s like he could just keep driving indefinitely. We do make sure that he has a regular stop and stretches his legs, but he sleeps most of the way until we start talking about him and he hears his name and then wakes up.

We marveled at the beautiful lights in the tunnels in Sydney, in a 17 km tunnel, it’s nice to have something to look at. We saw the big ram at Goulburn and then stops to put our dog on the Tuckerbox at Gundagai. We’ve never noticed this Tuckerbox just waiting, ready for photo opportunities before. Maybe because we’ve never traveled through Gundagai with a dog before but we thought it was so cute and Henry obliged really well by sitting still for a photo on his own.

We chose Wangaratta to stop at for two nights because we spent a family weekend here a couple of years ago. We came with Mum and Das and (Brother) Chris and Jade and her family so we could all get to know each other. We had an amazing weekend and we all got along really well. I suppose the memories here drew a spec to do some more exploring.

By the time we arrived and pulled into the caravan park, the owner had informed us that he had left the keys to the boom gate and instructions on where we were to park in the letter box. Things are always a bit trickier in the dark so we knew we just had to take a deep breath each and go slowly. I retrieve the instructions, and we found our way to our site and this is when the magic happened.

In the pitch black, because there were no external lights anywhere, Ray negotiated other cars and caravans and drove onto two thin concrete pads and positioned the wheels perfectly the first time. I’m sure that there were people peeking out of their caravan windows watching him with their mouths wide open and their dinner literally falling out, marveling at his towing abilities. I’m envisaging people lining up outside our door in the morning to speak to him and to congratulate him on his “first shot in the dark” abilities.

800 kilometers on the road and parking perfection at the end! Truly amazing.

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