Travels to Albury/Wodonga

Tuesday we left our hideaway, totally unaware that daylight saving had come in. We travelled through Wangaratta and then headed towards Albury. Veering of the Hume Highway we went to Chilton then onto Beechworth and Yackandanyah. Beechworth we absolutely loved, all the building fronts are still set in the last century and the old worlde feel is everywhere. It was a really great place to visit with lots of really interesting shops including the famous Beechworth bakery, you must eat there ! We only wish that we had the time to spend about a week around here. It is colder as we are now on the outskirts of the ski slopes but it is just really beautiful countryside.
With no close places to stay free camping at Albury or Wodonga we opted for 2 nights in Lake Hume Caravan park. $25 a night and the site we had overlooked the dam which was fine. Bloody long walk to the toilets and showers ! All up hill and down dale on the side of the slopes of the dam.
After looking around Albury/Wodonga which incidentally has a population around 100,000 combined we found a repairer for our toilet and arranged to take it to him wednesday morning. It poured here all night and we packed up wednesday morning inbetween showers. On leaving I went to pay and found the site cost had gone up because we had a water view/front site. I never asked for one and didnt know they were extra but we got charged for one because we had one. I was pretty annoyed as we had quite clearly been had. We walked around the dam walls and spillway after leaving which was really interesting as the dam is only 16% full. Will post pics in the next day or so.
We took the van in to have the toilet fixed and another experience started. What a experience ! This guy as the agent for Thetford toilets, how he makes a living is beyond me. He shares premises with a holden parts wrecker of whom the two do not get along but share the same drive and yard. On going in we found you couldn't turn around and would have to reverse out around bend, inbetween cars and caravans.
After an hour and half I started to get agro because this dickhead had rung thetford to find out how to repair the problem and was hanging around talking waiting for an answer. What would I know, I am only an idiot caravanner according this guy. Eventually I told him to cut the bulshit, replace the fuse cover, clean out where the fuse goes and lets try it. When I got agro he actually did it and I think it was just to shut me up and when it still didnt work to stick it up me. Well it backfired because I was right and the toilet flusher worked, there was no burnt out motor.
So finally we left there, $45 he charged me to do what I told him was wrong with it in the first place and still no return phonecall from Thetford.
We left, van hooked on, set the gps for where we were going and started. The bloody gps tried taking us on a stock route down through the river swamps. Somehow we still haven't got the settings right in the gps as yesterday it tried taking us across the Lake Hume spillway.
We checked into another park, did some shopping, found the model shop I wanted to visit and then died with shock. The model I wanted of a paddlesteamer which you have to build was $400, needless to say we didn't buy it.
Tomorrow we leave and travel again !
Albury/Wodonga is just huge with every imaginable shop and chain store here, how they all survive is beyond me but its a shopaholics paradise here.