7 Oct 2009 2 Week Break Mallacoota, Wilsons Promatory and The Grampians
Its GFC time, no not “Global Financial Crisis” we like “Great Fun Camping” time.!
Lifes too short not to take a holiday when you can, so we are taking a short break and heading off to the East Gippsland area of Victoria,
and more specifically Mallacoota in the Croajingolong National Park and then onto Wilsons Prom for a night or 3 before coming home via the Grampians.
If we can drag ourselves away from relaxing fishing, bush walking, strolling along a beach or just lazing around, we might do a couple of blogs along the way, and maybe even add a few pics to show you where and how we are suffering!!
13 Oct 2009 Mallacoota, Wilsons Promatory and The Grampians
13 Oct 09
Adelaide to Warragul, Vic
We left home at 7:20am and arrive in Warragul 8 ½ hrs driving (and about 850km) later. We had a very uneventful first days travel. The “highlight” I guess was when we got a bit wayward coming into Melbourne, and had to do a little double back to get back on course.
Going through Melbourne we were on a toll road for about 2 mins, when we got to Warragul I rang the Company, City Link, to pay the toll. For our 2 min use of their road we were charged $12.50!!!!! mmmmmm Now that really is a case of “Highway Robbery”!!
We checked into our hotel in Warragul, The Best Western. It had one of the most comfy beds we have come across in hotels. Highly recommend this one. On the recommendation of the Hotel, we had dinner at the local Country Club. We both had a chicken schnitzel and we shared a bottle of Riesling. It was actually nice, it seemed to be breast slices crumbed, and accompanied by salad and chips.
14 Oct 09
Warragul to Mallacoota, Vic
We woke at around 8am, had breakfast and were back on the road just in time to catch peak hour in Warragul at 8:45am. Once we negotiated the 2 other cars on the road we headed east for Mallacoota. Again it was an easy drive, only 425kms to Mallacoota.
We stopped at Bairnsdale. We parked directly outside St Mary’s Church, it looked interesting so we decided to have a look inside, something we do a lot of when we are overseas but never seem to do at home when we travel. Apparently it is famous for its frescoed ceiling. It was amazing to find a church with such a ceiling in a smallish county town in Vic. It would not have been out of place in Europe. The painting was done by a lone Italian artist from 1930 over a period of about 7 years. He did it in two stages and apparently he did it for very little payment. Anyway, if you are ever down this way it is well worth a look. After the church we did a little shopping. First we went to Aldi, looking for an electric fan heater (the weather forecast isn’t pleasant, rain , more rain and cold nights until about Sat or Sun). We finished up getting some apples, mushrooms, asparagus, onions, tomatoes and bananas. We were amazed at how little it all cost, and to our surprise , and delight, all were good quality except for the apples, which after tasting, we threw away. We found a little fan heater at Harvey Norman.
Back on the road, we stopped twice coming into Lakes Entrance. Once illegally on the way in to check out the view (getting back on the road was a little “hairy”, across the road on a blind bend with our camper trailer in tow!!) and then we went back a bit stopped at the lookout at the top of a hill over looking the Lakes Entrance area. Both spots gave great views. We then drove into Lakes Entrance and got some fish and chips for lunch, which we ate at a park.
We then drove onto Mallacoota, arriving around 3pm. All the way from Warragul to Mallacoota we passed lots and lots of motorbikes heading to Phillip Island for the Moto GP. We also heard that there was a Barry Sheen Memorial ride taking place on Thursday and they were expecting at least 1000 bikes to take part in it and they were warning of HUGE delays on the roads the ride was taking. In Mallacoota we set up our camper trailer on a waterfront powered site and sat back and relaxed for a while, before going for a walk around the caravan park and into the village to see what was about. Mallacoota is a fishing town of about 2000 people, and is pretty quiet at this time of the year. After sausages, onion and mushrooms and a glass of red for tea we had an early night.
15 Oct 2009
Mallacoota.
Weather forecasters got it right. Intermittent showers during the day and showers over night. But that didn’t stop us doing anything. We woke late, around 8am. The bird life around here is crazy. We hadn’t realised how noisy birds are at night, they seemed to be awake all night and filled the night with a steady background noise.
In the morning we had a walk around the village, I got a fishing licence and then we went down and got post , read the paper. After a couple of relaxing hours totally uninterrupted by fish (yes , not one bite!) we had a cheese platter for lunch looking out over the lake and into national park and hills disappearing into the distance. It doesn’t get to much better than that.
We then went up to the visitor info shed, and got some maps of the area and loads of really great ideas for things to do.
We then went for a drive along the foreshore drive. The lake was just magic at every turn. We eventually stopped at a couple of small jetties and took a few pictures of the scenery and some birds. We then drove to the coast and had a look at a few beaches we climbed over rocks and collected shells, (it reminded me (deb) of when we went crabbing with Dante and Tessa at Lady Bay, just minus the crabs!! We took lots of photos of the beach, then I wanted to take one of the foam on the waters edge and the sand, just like the one I am going to have in my office – it was too difficult for me – I will be reminded of that every time I look at the photo in my office)
We saw an old WWII Bunker (that is under restoration – it was used for coast surveillance in WWII, interesting) and some amazing looking rock formations along the coast.
Being 4pm, Deb said it was “Beer O’clock”, so we headed back and I had a beer, did a little more “fishing” ( got to find another word for baiting a line and hook, casting it into the water and never being disturbed by the fish).
Lamb chops, asparagus, onion and mushies for tea, and then into our warm, fan heated tent for the night, tough life huh!!
Mallacoota 16 Oct 2009
Hi this is Deb
This was our second full day here. Such a pretty spot and so very relaxing. We are camped right by the waters edge, well almost!
We woke around 7am after another good nights sleep, the weather has been much kinder than was forecast. I was imagining nights like we had at Deep Creek last time we were there (extremely windy) mmm the weather kind of wind!!
We went off early to post the cards to the little ones. Post leaves here at 10am! Hopefully the cards will arrive by Tuesday. Then we bought a paper and a cake for morning tea. Mmmmm it is becoming a very nice habit, makes us walk further!!
At 11am we went for a 2 1/2 boat ride around the bottom lake, with a lovely older couple, they were really interesting, we saw a few sea eagles that the couple fed, got a few good photos. Also saw kites, cormorants, pelicans.
Had a relaxing afternoon, then around 4ish we decided to see if we could finish the geo cache we started yesterday. We really missed you Dante and Tessa, took us much longer to find it than it should have, we wished you were with us. It was fun none the less, we went along way out of the way, but had a great walk on the beach and through a track called Pittosporum track that was very lovely. In the end Dante we found the cache right back near the beginning. We were very careful not to alert muggles!! We were very pleased when we finally found the cache.
We have just finished a lovely dinner outside while watching the pelicans glide into shore, then when it rained they all had their mouths open to catch the rain, we have not seen that before. The birds habits are all very interesting. A sign we are getting old!! I have the fan heater going and it is lovely and warm in our tent.
Thanks for all your messages Von, we have said many times how much you would both love it here, but we are enjoying it for you too!
Hope all the McDonalds have fun at the Intercontinental, we look forward to hearing all about it.
Carly hope the tan looks real 😛 Hope you have fun at the party
Mum and Dad have a safe trip and give Thomas a hug from us.
Karlien have you got my message??? Sent it to you yesterday when we were in Sale, we were thinking of you both. Greg rang you tonight, but you were probably at the club, will try again tomorrow.
Hope you all enjoy your weekend, love from us both to you all xo
17 Oct 2009 Mallacoota
Another slow morning, did a bit of shopping and finished up back in the bakery. Well, we did have to get some bread and the cakes just happen to fall into our bag!!. Apple pie with fresh cream and a piece of Carrot cake, at least they had fruit in them!! After all that we set out to go for a couple of bush walks, but managed to squeeze in a couple of “Geo Caches” first. The first we did was in the bush a bit and hidden under a burnt out log, a big container filled with all sorts of goodies guarded by a herd of mosquitoes!!! You would have loved all the goodies Dante. The second was a micro cache hidden under a very open area, so we had to be careful of “Muggles”. We then set off for our walks. Firstly we went to a short walk down to the upper lake in an area called “Sou West”. A beautiful point out in the lake with a small jetty. We then went to another spot, the name escapes me, but it was a rainforest walk. We saw a lone Koala up a tree near the carpark, and then made our way through the rain forest on the 1 km walk. The first ½ was on a raised platform track, and it was very slippery, the track then headed up hill and the footing was much better. A beautiful place with so many huge gum trees and many songful birds. We then drove to the coast and did a walk called the 3 Beaches walk at Betka Beach. We counted 4 beaches, all very different and only accessable from one to the next at low tide. We had lunch on a rock at the 4th beach and then headed back. A very relaxing walk. We then headed further along the coast to The Secret Beach walk, but we had a look and it was down a steep hill and we weren’t sure what we would find at the end so we gave it a miss. We continued onto Shipwreck Creek camping ground, deep in the Croajingolong NP. It was at the end of about 12km of dirt road, while not really a 4WD track, the Prado did help a lot in getting there and back safely. (And it was heaps fun driving on the narrow windy potholed track). Deb said the wild flowers were pretty as well . The camping ground was VERY basic. Drop toilets were the only luxury out there! Once we got back I went fishing at the first place we went to this morning, no fish, not even a bit, and Deb stayed back at the tent and had a relaxing afternoon reading. We are looking forward to another relaxing day tomorrow. I think I will give the idea of fishing away, doesn’t seem to be any out there. The others in the camping ground aren’t having much luck either, and you can tell a few of them are real old fisho’s, particularly by the way they smell, LOL!!!
18 oct 2009 Mallacoota
We have been sleeping well at night and last night was no exception. We had a really lazy day today. I finished my book, Greg did some fishing and we did some washing and are packing up so we get an early start tomorrow. Was a really beautiful morning, but as the day went on it got colder. It is very calm at the moment and lovely.
Off to Wilson’s Promontory tomorrow we have to be there by 4pm otherwise the gate is locked!!! Mmm
Hope you are having fun in Lincoln mum and dad and that Karlien and Bid have a safe trip to Canberrra.
Hope you all enjoy the week ahead.
Xo
Monday 19th of October Mallacoota – Wilson’s Premonitory
We were awake at 6.30am and on the road by 8am. Made a couple of stops along the way, called in at Gypsy Point on the way out, it was very lovely but we both thought Mallacoota was better. We drove to Cape Conran, great spot overlooking the beach, saw some surfers. Then on to Marlo where we stopped for morning tea, we made up for yesterday! Was really lovely overlooking the beach.
We drove to Sale and got some groceries, had lunch and filled up with diesel. We arrived at the Prom at 3.30pm, set up camp, the view is nowhere near as good as Mallacoota. After dinner we went for a walk to the lookout over squeaky beach to watch the sunset, got some great photos and saw a few wombats on the way.
Greg read his book and I did a hard suduko, I have finally worked out how to do them – very pleased with myself, didn’t take very long.
Tuesday 20th of October – The Prom
We woke up early around 5ish, was very windy and the tent was flapping. Got up around 6.30am, shared breakfast with some beautiful red parrots – we didn’t actually share, but they were good company. Going to go to the information centre when it opens at 8.30am, then off to do a few walks.
Well we did the information centre, very “informative”. And then went to The Prom Store, had a bit of a look around and got a paper and a couple of post cards for the little ones.
Once back to our site we did the postcards. Stamped and posted before 10am.
We set out for our walks at around 10am, first stop was Five Mile Rd carpark. From there we set off for Vereker Outlook, a 3km (6km return) walk up into the bush and a steep climb through boulders (I didn’t do the steep climb bit!) and Stringybark forest to a rocky granite summit with views to the coast at Cotters Lake and Beach, and the mid SW of The Prom. A wonderful view, which highlighted how extensive the fires had been down here back in Feb 2009.
From there we tracked downhill (thankfully whenever you go uphill you get to go back down)to join up with the track to Millers landing. The walk was through a Banksia forest with a ground cover of Braken Fern. The bushfires had gone through this area extensively. At the beach was a mix of nice white sand alongside mangroves.
From there we walked back to the car. On the way we passed an area that had been fenced off to all animal egress. The idea was to study the regrowth of the vegetation after the fires, eliminating the effects of mammals on the flora. It was easy to see that the plants were doing much better within the enclosure, than those outside it that were a meal for the local kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and rabbits.
We then drove to the car park at the end of Cotters Lake Road. We sat in the car and had lunch before setting out across Cotters Lake, more of a marsh really, and onto Cotters Beach. Along the way we came to the attention of a couple of magpies, they must have had a nest near the access road, and proceed to swoop at us to drive us away. A bit annoying, but fun all the same.
Cotters Beach is renowned for its copious quantities of flotsam and jetsam. The beach was strewn with all sorts of things. Mainly drift wood, seaweed, HUGE Cuttlefish “shells” and other bits and pieces. It was fun walking along and taking it all in. The beach itself had a large number of fist size rocks all over it. Deb commented that it was a bit unusual. We have see beaches with pebbles and beaches covered in large rocks, but never any this size.
After there we drove back towards Tidal River and called in at Picnic Point, overlooking Picnic Beach. It was a beautiful little beach sheltered from the northerly winds. From the viewing area you could starkly see how “selective” the bushfires had been in what was burnt and what was left untouched. Large areas of untouched green bush laid in and around significant areas of totally burnt out bush.
We then went back to the camp site, and had a tea and coffee before going for a walk along Tidal River to the ocean. It was a very relaxing walk and the “River” and beach were both worth the walk.
For the remainder of the afternoon we sat at our site and read, and watched the local parrots as they scratched around in the grass and strutted around on our table and even had a look in our kitchen.
Wednesday 21st of October – The Prom
Another slow start, this is starting to be a really good habit we are developing. After breakfast we walked up and got the morning papers, and then sat back and enjoyed the peace and sunshine for an hour or so.
We eventually started our day with a walk inland along the Tidal River. It was so peaceful and the diversity of the vegetation around the area really came out. The area was a mix of low woodlands and marshlands. During the walk we went past four fishing points on the raised boardwalk along the river. The signs at each fishing spot seemed to promise all sorts of fish from Native Perch, to mullet and black bream. ( I made a mental note of them for later.) After the walk we went back to our campsite and had morning tea.
After a coffee and biscuit, I got my fishing gear together, bought some bait(a packet of White Bait) from “The General Store” and headed down to the river. Once there I realised I had forgotten my fishing reel, so I headed back and got it. Once I got back to the river I got all set up, and settled back to catch myself a bag full. As it turned out the bait I was using was bigger than anything else in the river. But at least on a positive note, I did actually lose my bait a couple of times, that is at least twice more than in Mallacoota. It’s getting a little repetitive, this fishing that is uninterrupted by fish, I am going to have to make an appointment with Tom when I get back! Having achieved a new height in my state of enlightenment through the mystic rituals of meditative fishing I headed back to Deb and our campsite for lunch.
We spent the early part of the afternoon weighing up the pro’s and cons of our new neighbours. A group of about 12 early 20’s, four tents, two VERY large Eskies full of beer and other drinks (Ice Boxes for you north Americans). Our peaceful camp area was becoming interesting! (A late afternoon visit by the local Ranger had a short calming effect, but it was short lived.) We are hoping the contents of the Eskies will have a calming effect causing them all to have an early night! (We can but wish, LOL).
We both settled back to read. I turned off to the world (my hearing aides have a very convenient off switch that comes in handy at times like these) and settled into my book, the new Dan Brown Novel “The Lost Symbol”. It’s very Dan Brown = very readable with plenty of twists! Deb eventually didn’t read but sort of snoozed for a few hours.
Around 4 we went for a walk across the river and to the right to a viewing point we saw up on the hillside during our morning walk. It was a gentle incline and very easy walk. The views were great. The river valley opened up beneath us, the camping grounds were very hard to make out amongst all the trees and the views of the river as it wound its way inland through the marshlands flanked by large granite hills was calming. I walked further around the track to a point where you could see the next valley north from us. The entire south face of the next hill had been burnt out in the Feb bushfires, while everything else seemed relatively untouched. An interpretative sign at this point told of how the bush needed the fires to ensure the diversity of the flora.
Back at camp we decided to begin our packing so we could get away as quickly and smoothly as possible in the morning, on our way to The Grampians.
Thursday 22 Oct 2009 Halls Gap, The Grampians.
We left The prom at about 8am and headed off for Halls Gap. On the road out of the Prom NP we saw kangaroos and emus grazing on the roadside. The emu even had a very small chick with it. Was good to see a bit of the wildlife on our way out, and even better that they were off the road.
We negotiated Melbourne uneventfully this time, apart from very slow traffic on the toll roads (apparently they are doing major road works and upgrades,) but at $12.40 for a day pass for a very short use of the road I thought the traffic flow would have been so much better.
We stopped off in Ballarat, (birth place of a great cultural pilgrim, J ) for fuel and lunch and then headed onto Halls Gap.
We got to Halls gap around 2 or 3pm, and found ourselves a nice spot in the camping ground over looking Stony Creek and away from other campers. After settling in we went for a drive up to the NP Info and Cultural Centre and into the Halls Gap Information Centre. We got all the guides and maps we needed for the next few days and then drove out to have a look at Lake Bellfield. Deb was astounded at how low the water level was. I guess years of drought takes its toll, and the recent rains hadn’t done that much to lift the level.
After tea, we built a small campfire and sat around and chatted by the fire for a while. It was fun to be able to have a fire, we both love looking into them and just relaxing.
Friday 23 Oct 2009 Halls Gap, The Grampians.
We had a pretty busy morning exploring a lot of the places Deb had told me about. Deb used to come to Halls Gap often when she was growing up and into her 20’s, its been some years since Deb was here last. And things have changed as they do. It seems bushwalkers have got softer, there are now steps on the trails, hand rails in steeper spots and even guard rails at the main vantage points to stop worn out walkers toppling of the edge of the cliffs. We walked up to “The Pinnacle”, through “Silent Street” and up through “The Grand Canyon”. All these places she (and the rest of the family) have spoken about for so long, I had finally experienced with her. The Grampians are truly magnificent. The bush is recovering from bushfires (looks like the fires went through here about 2 years ago), there is new growth sprouting all up and down the trees and the wild flowers are all bursting into full bloom. There were hundreds of birds of all description everywhere and all singing to their hearts content. A very enjoyable morning.
After lunch, we had a walk through town and looked at all the new shops, before settling in back at our camp site and spent a lazy afternoon reading. Another campfire at night, with a sip of Port (mmm did I forget to mention that last night as well, LOL), what a life.
Saturday 24 Oct 2009 Halls Gap The Grampians
After sleeping in, we got underway eventually. We took a couple of short walks from the camping ground. First, we walked up along Stony Creek to the “Venus Baths”, tranquil rock pools at the base of a massive sloping rock face. We then had a look through the local Botanic Gardens(definitely a work in progress) and then onto “Clematis Falls”. There was a bit of a falls, but you could easily see that after rain they would have been much more spectacular. I am sure if they were running well you could go in under the falls and look back out.
After lunch we got in the car and went up to Reed Lookout, with wonderful expansive views over the valleys and the bushland. Then it was onto “MacKenzie Falls”. First we walked to the “Broken Falls” lookout, these falls are on a tributary to the MacKenzie Falls and were small but very good all the same. Then I walked down to the MacKenzie Falls themselves. After a bit of a hike down a very well made path and steps I reached the bottom, only to find that the battery in the camera had run out! The falls weren’t running at full strength, but the water that was coming over was plenty enough to see the falls in all their grandeur. The cliff face that forms the falls is “dark” black, and the contrast it has with the water falling from its top is pretty spectacular. There were lots of people down the bottom admiring the falls and relaxing on the river banks and rocks at the bottom. The climb up was a bit of an effort but very worth the view of the falls. We got back in the car and drove to “Wartook Lake”. The views across the lake were great looking up towards the nearside of the Boroka Lookout area. We then drove back and took a short cut on the “Old Mill Road”, a dirt track that traversed across the countryside eliminating all the bends in the main road. The wild flowers were abundant throughout the drive and their splashes of colour lit up the green and black of the bush. Boroka lookout gave us an amazing view down over Halls Gap to Lake Bellfield and beyond and a general 180 degree view of all the country side north of Halls Gap, to Stawell and on.
We got back to our campsite mid afternoon and relaxed reading the papers. We later went to the Halls Gap Pub for tea. An experience we would both prefer to forget, the food was very underwhelming. The Pub itself was quite good, a veranda around 2 sides gave you the opportunity to sit and relax over a drink and take in the views of The Grampians rising in the near distance.
We head home tomorrow. We are both looking forward to see everyone, especially Aiko.
Sunday 25 Oct 2009 The Grampians to Home
Left Halls Gap at 8:20am(EST) and arrived home at 1:10pm (CST), an uneventful 5hr 20min trip. It’s always great to be home. 🙂
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