We headed for the last known location for the Procters in a place called Moorook on the banks on the mighty Murray River.
We made good time and arrived in time for afternoon tea.
This is a wonderful spot. The town is happy for us to camp in their riverside park which is very well kept and is right on the banks of the river. The caretaker comes round to collect fees but he refused to charge us for power even though we had plugged in. The view is marvellous and there are other travellers to talk to.
I set up the Homeless Network flag and decorated the Motley with fairy lights to evoke the festive season.
This is such a pleasant place that we might well extend our stay here. The Procters are visiting as many of the sites in the book as they can to review the details but they prefer to camp up and drive round in the little Honda to get to all the sites. As there are many sites within an easy drive of here, they are happy to stay put for a while.
We drove in to Barmera do the laundry and to Berri send off the Xmas box and to shop for groceries and other stuff.
On Thursday, we went to Banrock Station Winery and Wetland centre for lunch. This is a wonderful place in a brand new purpose designed building with a verandah which looks out over the Banrock Lake from the top of a hill. The wine is not as good as the best on offer in The Barossa or McLaren Vale but it was pretty good. We enjoyed a bottle of White Shiraz with our very good lunch and brought home a few bottles to add to the Motley's "cellar".
We had the company of a motorhoming couple, Darryl and Gerry, who live in a converted Denning called Lifes a Bitch who are parked up here while working in the area for a few weeks. Darryl kept us well supplied with free fruit and Gerry joined in the daily Scrabble tournament.
We have moved the Motley several times since we arrived. The last move was at the behest of the caretaker who wanted our power leads out of the way when the Christmas campers arrive next week. We are now grouped at one end of the campground in a kind of wagon half circle with one end invitingly open. It seems that we will have lots of campers for company over the holiday. This will put paid to the Boule games but we will probably meet some really nice people and have a very festive time.
On Sunday six of us went out to dinner at the Cobdogla Club. The food was good, the wine was plentiful , and the conversation was entertaining so we all had a good time. On Xmas Eve I cooked a whole lot of curry assuming that we would all want a hot meal sometime over the holiday.
On Xmas Day we had chocolates for morning tea with a distribution of presents (I received a gnome which is said to look a bit like me). We had a marvellous lunch with lots of prawns, ham, salad, wine and many toasts. In the afternoon we swam in the Murray to cool down and played lots of games including Carrom (which I used to play 40 odd years ago at Battersea Poly).
As the sun went down at about half past eight, we had leftover lunch for dinner followed by trifle made with the best port. Everyone collapsed into their motorhomes very late having had a very enjoyable Xmas celebration.
On Boxing Day we had a curry dinner which everyone enjoyed. There was lots of wine at this encampment so we didn't go thirsty.
Helene is really into competitive card playing so there were several tournaments. The current favourite game is called Frustration. Based on Canasta, each player has to meld a specified hand in order to pass on to the next round and there are twenty rounds of increasing difficulty. The game usually takes longer than the time between meals so only rarely do games come to a conclusion.
The Procters eventually had to leave to get back to the business of checking entries in "The Book". We stayed on for a couple of days.
On Monday, we went to Lock 3 which I thought we hadn't visited before. Jean was convinced that we had so I looked up the reference and found that we had previously visited while on the History and Environment tour at the Berri rally. As always, there were Pelicans fishing in the disturbed water downstream of the weir and as usual the grounds were in beautiful condition. I reflected on the extraordinary good fortune of anyone who gets to be a lock keeper. There must be times when it hectic but for the most part its a bit like watching the grass grow.
We were a bit thirsty so we went on to the Overland Corner Hotel which we had also visited on the tour. The beer was beautifully cold and the new publican was interested in our lifestyle and offered the river flats behind the pub for free camping. I assured him that he would get an entry in the next edition of "The Book".
Our couple or extra days turned into a week because it is so nice just being here. We went out to dinner at the local club with Darryl and Gerry to celebrate on New Year's Eve. The food was very cheap and quite acceptable, the beer was cold and plentiful as we didn't have to drive home. The entertainment, a karaoke session, was pretty dull so we went home early.
As we had to go to Berri to do some shopping, we visited Lock 4. It's not as pretty as Lock 3 but we did get to watch the lock working and to talk to the lock keeper. The river here is presently receiving water from Lake Victoria to ensure that the flow into South Australia meets the minimum flow mandated in the recent river management agreement. The lock keeper disagrees with the commonly held view (expressed above) that a lock keeper's life is all sitting around. He made the point that he hadn't had a minutes break from operating the lock for the passing river traffic for the whole of a recent afternoon shift.
I took the opportunity while the black water tank was empty to replace the seals because it was a long time since I had done it and I suspected that we were about to suffer from a leak. This was a big mistake as it introduced a leak instead of curing one.
I stripped it down again and polished the scratches out of the valve blade and cured the primary leak. A new leak appeared from somewhere underneath the toilet. This is the same fault as was fixed by Winnebago during the warranty maintenance.
I stripped the whole thing down yet again and reset the height of the mating flange to bring it up to spec but without effecting any improvement. I'm now fresh out of ideas so I'll leave it for a bit to see what transpires. I guess I'll buy some parts to ensure that I can cure any further problems which occur.
On Sunday night, we went to the Cobdogla Club to have a last night dinner with Darryl and Gerry to celebrate a very happy stay at Moorook and to thank them for their company and friendship.
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