MELBOURNE TO BROKEN HILL  BY CHOCOLATE VAN IN 1926 We left Wentworth at 2 o’ clock and didn’t get to Ellerslie till 9. 30 that night,      ( about 12 miles ) .  We ran into a series of bogs.  The van, a BEAN 14 HP, was loaded with a ton of chocolates done in seventy – two parcels and was unloaded three times during the afternoon.  There were three of us on the trip.  Ned Offer, a mate of mine who had lost his thumb and two fingers in an accident, and who came with me for the ride, and Bill Thomas,  who flew over in one of the early Ansett planes.  Also for the ride back. There had been a lot of rain and the next day we managed to get as far as Pooncarie though we knew it then as Port Pooncarie (a river boat Port ).  Looking back on the  trip it seems to me that the worst experience was driving the van from the paint shop through Melbourne to Mac’s to load up. The chap in charge of Mac’s  Garage, a bloke name Franz Hopper was very helpful and went to some trouble to get us maps of the road and provided an escort to see us on the road to Keilor.  The Bean ran fairly well on the hard roads, but was top heavy and underpowered on the rough, necessitating many gear changes.  It was a four speed gate gear shift job and was awkward till one got the knack of kicking the gear shift across from second to third.       On the first day we got as far as Castlemaine through heavy rain most of the way.  On arriving there we looked round for somewhere to put  the van and found a big shed used by a carriage maker and made a deal with him to lock it up for the night.  Next morning on backing out, one wheel went through the bridge over the gutter and we finished chopping the bridge to pieces before we got out.  Bill Thomas showed up to advantage here, for he could swing a nifty axe. Leaving Castlemaine at about 11 o’ clock next morning, after buying the bloke a new bridge, we went on through Bendigo and Bridgewater, and arrived that night at a place called Jarklin.  The Hotel  (all that there seemed to be there ) was kept by a man off the sea.  He had a huge fire going in the lounge and we sat and listened to his yarns and drank a variety of concoctions long into the night. The Hotel was, I seem to remember, called the Four Posts Hotel, and it had been a horse change place in the old coaching days, and got its name I suppose from the four hitching posts to which the four horses were tethered. Next morning on to Kerang through more rain, arriving there in time for lunch and then we went on to Swan Hill.  Somewhere between Lake Boga and Swan Hill we were bogged again.  There was a gang working on the road and we were diverted to a side track, which proved too much for the Bean.  I could see the men working with teams about a mile in front and walked to them to see if we could get a pull out.  A bloke grading with a four horse team said he would come after he finished work, and he eventually pulled us out and another ten shillings went over.    We got to Swan Hill in time for tea but we were very dirty and splashed with mud, so the Publican wouldn’t let us in the dining room , but fed us in a room near the kitchen.  We enjoyed the meal none the less for that.                                         CONTINUE