{"id":1955,"date":"2022-11-09T11:11:49","date_gmt":"2022-11-09T10:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/?p=1955"},"modified":"2022-11-09T11:19:01","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T10:19:01","slug":"australia-2022-episode-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/en\/australien-2022-afsnit-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia 2022, Part 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

Water, water and more water<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good summer weather up north has really left us. It's half-cold and it keeps raining. There is a flood warning in the state of Victoria, which we are heading towards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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It will be interesting. Now we have just seen the case, driving through half a meter of water on the road where the river Lachlan was about to play with its muscles in New South Wales.
In many places the ditches are full, but the water stops 5 cm from the roadway, so everything is ok. But we can see that there is a bit of pressure. The ground just can't absorb any more water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the town of Mulwala we stop when we spot a rather spectacular sight out in their river. It simply looks as if there is a withered forest out in the river. However, it turns out that the river is a water reservoir and that the area was deliberately flooded many years ago. But you can't take away from the fact that it looks great.
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While we are standing and taking pictures, a lady comes down to us. She has something in her hand... Um, is it a turtle, asks Sus curiously? Yes, she replies, it swam around in my swimming pool, so now it can just come back here to the water. The turtle is released into the murky water and immediately becomes invisible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our last mission on this trip is a 4WD hit in Mansfield. For many years, Johnny has been active on an online forum which has cars of the same type as ours in Denmark. Mercedes Gel\u00e4ndewagen has its 40th anniversary in Australia and it is marked with this event. We have been invited to attend and finally meet Graham and Irene from Tasmania, with whom Johnny has been in contact for 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We get to Mansfield in good time. The outback roads are closed due to water, so the tarmac roads take us quickly down there. Without more flooding, it goes the direct way.
It's a nice town, but there's not much to do when it rains. We want to treat ourselves to some coffee and cake and go down the shopping street. However, the cafes close surprisingly early, so we have to settle for cake from the supermarket.
Among the city's attractions is a small cinema, in the next few days we will see the films we would otherwise have missed in our local cinema. We are slowly transitioning from trip mode - to homecoming.
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'Back at our campsite, a small trickling stream has turned into a raging river and we look with concern at the amount of water and the location of our car. Wonder if we sail away tonight?
The toilet building is also close to flooding. Sus has to take off her shoes and socks and walk barefoot through the water to get in there. Camper looks worried and says they know they have a drain out in the lawn, but can't remember where. Now it would probably be a good idea to clean it up so that the water can run away.
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It's bedtime and we crawl into bed - excited to see what it will look like when we wake up. To our great delight, we fortunately did not drift away during the night. The water level has dropped and more normal conditions are on the way.
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The day is spent on a trip up Mount Buller, which offers skiing. Yes, they have snow in Australia too. That way you can be surprised all the time.
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We drive as far up as we can until we meet a "Road closed" sign. Well - but then we have to drive down again. Guardrails are not something they do much about, Sus becomes a little quiet while Johnny concentrates and gets us back down safely.
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The day begins where there is a match. We welcome Graham and Irene. Nice straightforward people who are easy to talk to. Cars are shown and Johnny gets Christmas lights in his eyes, details are studied and the conversation goes merrily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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There is a large spread in the models that are present. Everything from original W460 with original modest diesel and petrol power, modified W460 with big V8 LS American engine and really nicely completed W460 as pickup working model - with OM606 diesel engine. A rich selection of the last W461 Proffesionel that Mercedes sold in Australia until 2018 \u2013 5 years later than when Europe closed sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Even the comfortable W463 series is well represented with the G350 and even the W463a G400 as well as the G63.
The following day there is an off-road trip to Mount Terrible. Johnny gets to test some different cars on the way up and down the mountain. It was a rare opportunity to experience the different stages of development that the G class has gone through.
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The conclusion is that the G Proffesionel is the ultimate development stage built at the factory in Graz. The tuning of the whole car is refined, engine power and gear control are just as the type of car should be - and the car is set up for work and travel without worrying about mud stains on the interior.
The W463 is plush and comfortable, but you can get paranoid about having dirty shoes.
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In the evening there is a joint dinner at the hotel. The menu is fish & chips, chicken fillet with bacon & cheese and of course French fries. The portions are large enough to feed a bricklayer. Over the last 3 months we have gotten used to eating small portions of food. The next morning there is a common breakfast. We're looking forward to it. Sus thinks freshly baked buns with butter and cheese, but it turns out we can choose between two kinds of burgers. Grilling takes place and the small pop-up grill is busy.
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Phew \u2013 that's a lot of food in a short time.
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After a few hours we go our separate ways and we continue towards Melbourne, where we will have our car stored and fly home from. We choose to live on the outskirts of Melbourne.
It is Halloween in the evening and we meet many costumed children and adults as we are on our way to the supermarket. It is quite festive and they make much more of it - than we know from Denmark.
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As the day dawns, we say goodbye to our car with mixed feelings. Now it is here and we are going back to Denmark. But we will come back again and resume the journey in a few months. To get the most out of a big trip - you have to remember to take a break and get back to everyday life. At some point you get full and have to decompress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Australia 2022 \u2013 we have experienced a lot and are deeply excited. The next tour is called Australia 2023.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vand, vand og mere vand Det gode sommervejr oppe i nord, har for alvor forladt os. Det er halvkoldt og det bliver ved med at regne. Der advares om oversv\u00f8mmelser…<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oct_exclude_from_cache":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-aus","category-oceanien"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1955"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2003,"href":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955\/revisions\/2003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}