And we managed to sneak out without the administrator noticing.

In all seriousness we had a great week, hardly posted while we were there, but then that is not surprising, as we were flat out being nomads, hard job, 24 * 7, with no breaks.

I arrived on Sunday, and the place was almost empty, with about 30 camps present (the place can hold hundreds).  There were many camp sites on offer, and the nomads that were already there were split across three suburbs, the ridge dwellers on the high ground at the back, overlooking everyone and well away from the noise of the boats.  The plains dwellers further along, didnt understand the reason for this until Thursday when Christmas Lunch was held in the middle of the group (close to the food). Then there was a group living on the waters edge.

I always wanted to live by the water, so I set us up on the waters edge.  

First night there and happy hour was under our awning, met some people we have known for a few years, and some new friends. Plus I learned how happy hours work. Generally the happy bit is true, but any reference to a clock is irrelevant.  Very pleasant.

Monday morning was a guided tour of Shepparton, including a visit to the SPC store, and a couple of supermarkets (I think our tour guide has a thing with food).  Thanks for taking us in and showing us around John.

Monday afternoon, and Tuesday just drifted away as we waited for happy hour. Hard work being an apprentice nomad.

Wednesday Doug joined me for a trip back to Melbourne to pick up Carol, and while we were here we dropped in to Costco for more ice cream (ice cream, is energy rich nomad food).

Thursday was Christmas lunch, and it was a great gathering with 26 in attendance, we even had a visit from Santa, whose countenance improved significantly when the German Backpackers arrived, not sure why, not sure why, but it may have been a relief after his strength was tested by a mob of slightly overweight nomads sitting on his lap.

Now in typical Nomad style, Lunch ran over time, and many retired for a siesta, so we could all gather and continue with the next course during happy hour.

Friday, was basically a repeat of Thursday, with the added entertainment of more boats and camps arriving. Strange really given that the venue is being closed for three days on Monday.

It is an amazing credit to the Grey Nomad group who pulled the Christmas Lunch together, and in the main they did the work that allowed all the rest of us to have a great Christmas. Thank you folks, you certainly made our Christmas special.

On Saturday we headed off to visit Shepparton (SPC again), then on to Echuca for lunch, the restaurant I wanted to take Carol too (Oscars) has been closed, so we landed up eating at the American Hotel (Chef from Oscars), lovely steak for lunch.

Then we went home to meet some visitors. After the visitors left we again had another gathering, eating ice cream with fresh strawberry fruit and drinking red wine (strange).

Again we learned a lot about our van as we extended what we asked our power system to do, and it just seems to get better and better. On Christmas day we used the air con to pull the temp in the van down for 3 hours during the day, we used our induction cooker, and we used the air again at night, and we still had loads of power left in the morning.

I also learned just how inefficient our washing machine is, using about 80 litres of tank water to do a load of washing. I will not make that mistake again.

Window blinds also emerged as an issue, with two now playing up. This seams to be a common problem with this particular type of Dometic window.

This morning we were sad to leave, but unfortunately work is waiting tomorrow.

But as a couple of famous people have said in the past, we will be back.