Four years ago Gundagai was a parched dustbowl surrounded by smoke and fire. The ground was cracked and only grey prickly weeds remained.
This morning it is bright and green, the air clear, the sky blue.
I take a walk, inspect the railway cutting of the old line to Tumut. The tracks have been removed from this section.
I’m feeling unwell and B drives us down to Albury. We leave the highway at Jindera, taking the old route into Albury in order to buy petrol. Then we park at Myer Centrepoint.
Lunch of pies at Miss Amelie’s. Then we admire the old cameras outside a Camera Warehouse, the owner coming out to show Alex some film.
I naughtily eat a Musk Stick ice cream from Monumental, then we are off again, crossing into Victoria.
B refuses to drive into Melbourne, so I take over at a rest station. It goes well until the same spot I came undone last time, the GPS tricking me into the wrong lane.
Fortunately the Saturday afternoon traffic in the Melbourne CBD is in a calm state and I manage to loop back to the Convention Centre and the Pan Pacific Hotel.
It’s already late, so we walk straight to the DFO next door to shop, even find a couple of items for Alex and B.
I don’t feel like going far, but fortunately we find Nyonya restaurant, Bababoi, just across the river. I order a Kerabu salad and acar, B nasi lemak and curry chicken, Alex laksa.
The food is okay, but not authentic Malaysian.
Returning via Crown Casino, where B and Alex order bubble tea and B manages to crack the base so it spills out.
Bacl in our room, we watch the sun set over Port Phillip Bay, the silhouettes of aircraft curving towards Tullamarine, the sun reflecting of the skyscrapers’ glass.
It is nice to have some luxury and to rest.