Hi everyone
Well we are almost home. We are currently in Mallacoota which is on the coast just south of the Vic/NSW border. When we were travelling here yesterday we saw our first ‘Canberra’ roadsign at Cann River. It said ‘Canberra 293kms’.
I have included some photos of our ‘home away from home’ so you can see how we have been living for the last 11+ months. We are certainly looking forward to the comforts of home but I think we will also miss our camper. While we live in a tent it is certainly more luxurious than many tent set-ups we have seen. We have had lots of interest in the camper. Just about every place we stop people come and ask for a good look and ask questions about it. Lots of people are intrigued by how it sets up. At Caranarvon Gorge a group moved their chairs and sat drinking beer watching us setup. At Croyden one couple took photos as we packed it up as they couldn’t believe how it all folds away into a box.
This is our kitchen, dining and living room:
This is our bedroom
The bed is kingsize and very comfortable. We have coped really well living out of a bag. Actually having less means less stress.
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Here is the next instalment of our trip so far. I will include Mallacoota in our final blog entry as we only got here yesterday. Our next, and final, stop is in Narooma. We will be arriving home on 7 March so that we have a week to get ourselves organised before I go back to work in 15 March.
Hope you are all well.
Karen and Michael
11 to 14 February 2010 (day 329 to 332)
Sea-Vu Caravan Park, Robe, SA
This was our last stop in SA. As we got closer to Robe it rained harder and harder. We ended up setting up in quite heavy rain which wasn’t much fun. The more we tried to do things quickly the more things slowed us down so we were pretty wet by the time we finished.
Robe is a very pretty, historical sea-side village. We would like to come back here another time as it has a lovely relaxing feel.
While the weather wasn’t fabulous we managed to have a good look around. We did a scenic drive that took us to the town’s historical and geographical landmarks, had a walk around the village and visited Little Dip Conservation Park. At Little Dip we did a few short walks and also had a go at fishing at Little Dip Beach. Michael caught a lovely flathead that we had for dinner.
Here is a photo looking back towards Robe. It was overcast so it doesn’t do it justice.
This is an obelisk that is used as a navigational marker.
14 to 17 February 2010 (day 332 to 335)
The Gardens Caravan Park, Port Fairy, Victoria
On the way to Port Fairy we crossed the border into Victoria.
I was keen to stay in Port Fairy as I had visited it briefly on a day trip of the Great Ocean Road about 12 years ago and thought it was really pretty. The town is along the Moyne River, just at its entrance. The river is bordered by a mix of old stone cottages and luxury homes with boats parked at little jetties.
In Victoria, Port Fairy is famous for its folk festival which is held in March and increases the population from 2500 to 40000.
We visited the Tower Hill State Game Reserve which is situated in an extinct volcano. We did a couple of walks including a walk to the peak of the hill. Sadly it was overcast and very misty so we didn’t get a great view. Despite the weather it was a really pretty spot and there were lots of birds around. This is one of the ‘Superb Fairy Wrens’ that we saw.
There is a small island, Griffith Island, just at the entrance to the Moyne River. We walked around it one day and in the evening went to see the Short-Tailed Shearwaters (aka muttonbirds) return from their day at sea. These birds are amazing as they fly 15000km from islands near Alaska every September to nest on Griffith Island. They arrive on almost the same day every year and return to the same nest. They dig a small burrow in the sand to use as a nest. Each day the adults go out to sea to feed and return at dusk to feed their chicks. They leave again in April with the adults leaving a few days before the chicks. The chicks get hungry and leave a few days later, somehow following the same migratory route as their parents. Unfortunately we didn’t get any photos as it was almost dark and each bird flew in very quickly.
This is one of the Swamp Wallabies that lives on Griffith Island.
And the sunset
We did some fishing along the wall at the entrance to the Moyne but didn’t have any luck. The water was so clear that we could see lots of fish swimming around but none of them were hungry.
17 to 20 February 2010 (day 335 to 338)
Apollo Bay Holiday Park, Apollo Bay, Victoria
On the way to Apollo Bay we travelled along the Great Ocean Road calling in at each of the stops along the way. The coastline is really rugged but beautiful at the same time.
This is the Bay of Islands
The Grotto
The next 2 photos are of Loch Ard Gorge which is named after a ship that was wrecked here.
This is London Bridge with the middle section missing. When I saw it last there was a bridge from the mainland on the left to the rock on the right.
Here are the Twelve Apostles (you can only see all 12 at the same time from the air).
These are the Gibson Steps which lead to the beach just past the 12 Apostles. That’s me at near the bottom.
When we arrived at Apollo Bay we discovered that it was the start of a mountain bike marathon on the weekend. By the time we left on Saturday morning the place was packed. Apollo Bay is nestled in a forest area called the Otways and is about 20kms away from the Great Otway National Park.
This is a view of Apollo Bay from the breakwater at one end of the bay.
We walked up Mariners Lookout for a great view of the bay.
We also did a 3.5km walk along the Barham River to Mariners Falls which is a really pretty small waterfall.
We drove out the National Park and loved seeing the koalas that sleep in the trees alongside and across the road as you drive in. In the park we visited the old Cape Otway telegraph station and lighthouse.
We had heard that the jetty was the place to catch squid in the late afternoon so we tried this on both evenings. We each caught one which was enough for a lovely meal of salt and pepper squid.
20 to 23 February 2010 (day 338 to 341)
Dromana Holiday Park, Dromana, Victoria
Our next stop was the Mornington Peninsula. Rather than take the long drive around Port Phillip Bay and Melbourne we caught the ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento.
This is a photo we took a couple of days later, from the other side of the bay, of the ferry passing the Spirit of Tasmania.
We were struck by how many people and how much traffic there was on the peninsula. Clearly it’s the weekend playground for people living in Melbourne. The north-west side of the peninsula is dotted with holiday towns including Portsea, Sorrento, Rosebud and Mount Martha. We discovered that we should have planned our visit ahead of time as the caravan park we wanted to stay in was fully booked and we ended up in a pretty ordinary park that was a few kilometres from the coast.
As well as driving along the coastline we drove up Arthurs Seat. This is a mountain in the middle of the peninsula. Its was named by Captain Flinders after a similar mountain in Scotland. We did a circuit walk around the top of the mountain which provided great views over the peninsula.
We also visited Cape Schanck and Coolart Homestead and Wetlands. Coolart Homestead is a Victorian mansion surrounded by lovely gardens and wetlands. The last owners turned it into a sanctuary for birds in the 1960’s by constructing the wetlands and several walks.
Point Nepean National Park is located at the end of the peninsula, and the opening into Bass Strait, and is the home of Fort Nepean which operated from the 1880’s to 1945.
This is the ‘heads’ from Port Phillip Bay leading to the Bass Strait.
This is a view of the fort.
The first shots of both WWI and WWII were fired from the fort. You can walk through the underground tunnels to the gun emplacements. You can’t drive to the fort and have the option of walking or riding or catching a shuttle for the 3.6kms trip to the fort. We decided to walk there and back as there are a number of other walks and points of interest to stop at along the way.
One of the points of interest is Cheviot Beach where Prime Minister, Harold Holt went missing in 1967 and eventually was presumed dead.
For anyone not in Australia, there has been lots of speculation about his disappearance because his body was never found. Michael and I were surprised to see how treacherous the beach was and couldn’t believe that people would swim here as it is very rocky and the sea was pretty rough.
While on the peninsula we visited Michael’s longtime friends, Oby and Leisl. They made a lovely meal and we really enjoyed visiting them. Michael hadn’t seen them for 5 years so he really enjoyed the chance to catch up.
The time on the peninsula was a bit of trip down memory lane for Michael as he went to recruit school at HMAS Cerberus when he was 17 and had a posting there for 3 years from 1992.
We tossed up weather to make Wilsons Promontory National Park our next stop. We were keen to go to the southern most point of the Australian mainland, which is in the park, as we have done the northern, eastern and western most points on this trip. We discovered that there are only 2 ways to get there. The first is a 19km, each way, bushwalk. While you can stay in the lighthouse cottages once there you have to carry all of your supplies and bedding in. As well as not having the right gear we couldn’t be sure that we are fit enough to make it so we decided to leave this for now. The second option is a boat trip but this only runs several times a year with the next one being in March. We’ll plan to do the boat trip sometime in the future.
23 to 26 February 2010 (day 341 to 344)
Eastern Beach Tourist Park, Lakes Entrance, Victoria
Lakes Entrance is another very touristy town on the Victorian Coast. We explored the area by walking along the foreshore into town, crossing the footbridge to the beach and driving up the coast to Lake Tyers and down the coast to Metung which is a really sweet little village.
This sand sculpture was created to raise funds for charity.
While at Metung we saw a couple catch 5 large flathead so we decided we would come back and fish here.
We spent the next afternoon fishing on the boardwalk along Bancroft Bay at Metung. We didn’t have any luck (other than an undersized King George Whiting that I caught) so we moved a little jetty around the back of Metung. Michael caught a terrific flathead on his second cast and then managed to catch another one about an houre later. We shared our catch at a BBQ with our next door neighbours and another couple.
Karen and Michael's Blog 