The Melbourne cup came and went uneventfully, we had the nibblies and sat around with the sweep and listened to the call but there was not the excitement of last year. There were many more last year and the ladies dressed up and made fashion hats from odds and ends creating interesting photo opportunities and plenty of discussion.

Dennise left Greens on Wednesday to have some work done on the bus and to go to Bendigo to meet up with an old friend  but hopefully will be back on Friday. When we were in Shepparton last Thursday Richard took us to a weighbridge to have Dennise's bus weighed to find that the GVM was 4495kgs but the actual GVM was 5000kgs. Mine weighed up in Cairns was GVM 4495kgs and actual 3800kg.

A camper passing told me of some wood left behind so I went and brought it back to camp, Jeurgen drove round the lake looking for other abandoned wood and loaded up his trailer. He had brought wood and by the time he got back we had plenty so Wednesday we both got out our chainsaws and got stuck into creating a decent wood pile. His longer chain cut up the bigger stuff whilst I concentrated on the smaller limbs.

All the wood is now stacked up and covered with a tarp and ready for someone to step up and start us up with fires but it has been windy. Last year I was the fire warden and spent ages getting kindling and starting up and maintaining the fire and after 2 months have had enough. If we have no fires I will use the timber cut up previously in the choofer so it won't be wasted.

 We may be 60kms from Shepparton and 15kms from the nearest town but there have been offers from those with seperated vehicles to bring back items needed almost on a daily basis so when my bread or UHT runs out that should present no problems.

Several months ago I decided that I wanted to have a new motor put into the bus with a view to buying and towing a small car. As time has gone on I have abandoned the car towing idea but have been still been wanting to upgrade the power of the bus and to that end have been given various ideas on how to do that. Exchange the motor for a V6 Commodore, add a turbocharger or supercharger, go into a more powerful carby eg, Holley, rebuild the existing motor.

The more I think about it the more undecided I have become and more appealing is the idea to do nothing because the motor is getting me from Qld. to Vic. every year with very little hassle. Having saved up the funds to do the job and will be at Greens with little expense for a couple of months the best plan seems to be keep sufficient funds separate and thus be able to exchange the motor or take the other options easily when the job has to be done. In short "if it ain't broke don't fix it"

Just had a very interesting Happy Hour with more visitors arriving, we now have Fran (frangipanni) but have lost Dougwe and John (rockylizard).     John