11th Week - Friday - Longford

Set off this morning not sure where we would be staying the night.  We had two places in mind and would decide depending on time and the look of the park.  We drove to Bothwell which has a golf museum Ian wanted to have a look at.  We arrived at 10:30 and walked around the council ran caravan park behind the museum before heading to the museum which was also the Information Centre.  The lady there was very helpful telling us that the road we were going to take tomorrow is gravel and there had been snow on it last night so would be

wet and slushy especially as in the last 2 1/2 weeks they had more rain than the previous 12 months.  She then pointed out an alternate road which she said had tight turns for 10 km making it a slow trip.  We went away and had coffee and decided to push on for Miena tonight thus making tomorrow's trip with the bends the shorter day.   Back for a look through the golf museum.   Luckily it was just a donation entry.   Make sure you have an interest in golf if going.  Back in the car and we head for Miena.  The caravan park is behind the pub.  On the way we came across a sign saying Steppes Sculptures so pulled up and went for a look.  These were stone sculptures on stone pillars, no idea why or what the idea is behind them.  We had been steadily climbing up and as we came around the bend saw what looked like a sprinkling of snow in patches.  We knew it had snowed last night but didn't expect it to still be there.  As we drove further on the snow became thicker and there was slushy snow on the road.  We were too busy ooing and ahhing over the snow that we missed what we thought was the hotel where the caravan sites were.   Of course now the snow was fairly thick and there was nowhere to turn around.  Found a driveway and with me out on the road in case a car came along Ian then backed off the highway up the driveway far enough to be able to drive out in the opposite direction.   Managed to head back where we had come from without causing an accident and turned into the hotel.  Only trouble was it wasn't the right hotel.  We had to go back past where we had turned around and keep going for a couple more kilometres.   Finally got to the hotel and the snow was about 4/5 inches deep and the caravan sites were wet and mushy and turning to mud.  We got out and had a look around but after walking in the slush the feet were getting cold and wet so we decided not to stay here.  Back in the car and down the hill and around the bends.  The next town we reached with a caravan park was Longford (where we had spent Easter), so here we are for the night.  Travelled much further than we expected to.  At Easter there wasn't an empty site (78 powered and 50 unpowered sites), some had 2 vans on each site and tonight there is only 15 vans in total.

Steppes Sculptures

Miena

A kid playing at the Miena playground