Week 3 - Day 15-21

We had a bit of a lie in on the Sunday morning as we knew we did not have to travel too far in the day – others were up early to head straight back to Sydney, an epic 9 hour drive, all being well!

Mark (our trip leader) was having pancakes for breakfast. We were most impressed – even if it was a ready mix – this may be THE most important bit of advice yet!
We packed up and got on the road, first stop Bright – pretty little alpine town and a great spot for breakfast! Oh to be in civilisation again. After our rather expensive breakfast we headed back on the Great Alpine Road through the skiing villages of Mount Beauty, Falls Creek and Bogong! (AKA the moth!! eeek!)



After the steep winding climb we got to the Rocky Valley Reservoir as the clouds set in. it was like a scene out of Sherlock Holmes – all very mysterious and scary! Not to mention cold!




Then we wound our way back down the other side of the mountain range to Omeo for a very wet night – the worst yet. It rained solidly and heavily through the night. Fortified by our Valentine lamb roast dinner from the local pub, we made it through the night, but the morning was grim. We took everything out of the tent, including the mattress, and stuffed it all into the rear seat. Then folded the sodden tent into itself, packed it in its sodden cover, showered, and set off in the rain down to Bairnsdale.

Then it was like supermarket sweep when we hit the high street in Bairnsdale, we bought ourselves a Super (Mini) Tarp, poles and ropes to go with and a toaster! Exciting new toys...

Back on the road again – aiming to be in Wilsons Prom by the evening. We accepted this was pushing it a little so settled in Traralgon for a night in a cabin at a Top Tourist park. At the park we also managed to catch up with our washing! (I was down to my last pair of knickers!!) 3 loads of washing later we were cream crackered and ready for bed! (Sheila – my mountain of small coins has come in handy so far – most of the machines take 20c coins – yey!) A real bed too! Lovely.



We were due to take Priscilla in for her bearings repacking but yet again we postponed it because the garage was going to take longer than initially advised. We'll sort her out in Melbourne for sure. Instead, we went to the other side of the road to do some more shopping! A new folding sink and dry bag was purchased from BCF. Then we were back on the road heading down to Wilsons Promontory – one of the most popular national parks in Australia. We stopped off at IGA for provisions – including pancake mix – it was Shrove Tuesday after all!
We paid at the gate and drove down to the campsite at Tidal River – stopping to take in the beautiful beach scenes on route.

When we got to Tidal River we were a little apprehensive as it seemed really busy – including school parties – that's all we needed – hundreds of screaming children! We found a good camp spot at the edge of the campsite (far enough away from the youths!) and set up – including SUPER TARP!!!! perfecto...(even more perfect as we had pancakes for dinner, yum)



We liked Tidal River, it felt good to be there. I have to mention that I got my third mozzie bite |THROUGH trousers! 3 times the little buggers have got me! Think I may need to buy some Bushmans repellent cos the little barstewards don't seem to care about Aeroguard. I went to the toilet block just as the sun had gone down and saw a wombat foraging around someone's campervan. This was bettered later on when Claire and I were returning from brushing our teeth to see a girl with a big floodlight and a guy with a camera taking pics close up – I told the wombat to attack – the girl found it funny at least! The brochure explains that the wildlife is so used to people they have no fear of them here. Oh, and Claire saw a big possum when she went to the toilet block that night too. Twice! (I didn't see him though..... I think he was a big rat).

We decided that we should spend another night at Tidal River so went to the tourist info to pay for another night, we also picked up a walking guide with good intentions. We obviously didn't bother with any of the great walks Wilsons Prom had to offer, instead we went and relaxed on the beach then came back to cook dinner early – in an attempt to avoid the night-time biters!
A steak and Claire's special spinach salad dinner was much appreciated – early to bed to catch up on this blog thing (we're finding it tough to keep up with already).





Thursday - On our way out of Wilsons Prom we stopped off at Squeaky Beach for lunch. Squeaky Beach is indeed squeaky, supposedly due to the uniform shape of the sand granules. On the ABC radio news we hear that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has vowed to stop wailing – thank god for that! It turned out her vowed to stop the Japanese whaling! Not himself – not nearly as funny in our opinion.

We made it to Phillip Island by mid afternoon – stopping at the visitors centre to purchase our tickets for the penguin parade that evening! We carried on through the Island to Cowes, the major town on the Island. We got to the campsite and pulled up – only for someone to pull up behind us and run into the office ahead of us – how rude! I think they were German!! It turns out they had 2 vans and wanted to be next to each other – ok, but still rude! The annoying thing about this evening was that we needed to drive to the Penguins at about 7.45 so we couldn't get the tent out. We made a nice Chilli dinner and headed off to see the penguins – they were due to come out of the sea at about 8.45pm, we foolishly got the the Arena at about 7.45pm so had an hour to wait until they did their little show! It was pretty blooming cold – I tell ya!

Finally they came out of the water in a huddle (very much like that of the American footballers) and wobbled their way towards the dunes at about 9pm. If we're honest this was rather unimpressive – more impressive was seeing them up close by the walkway as they went back to their nests to feed the chicks. I have to mention that the Penguin Parade does not allow any kind of photography of filming – I think they do this to stop the Chinese tourists (of which there were many!!!) from blinding the poor little things with super bright flashes! We watched one mum return to 2 plump fluffy chicks only to be rugby tackled for a feed! Cool to watch but you ended up feeling sorry for the mum! We went back to the campsite and set up our tent – a late night for us – in bed for 11!

Friday – we set off with gusto aiming for the big smoke – Melbourne!
We took the coastal road through some lovely towns Portsea and Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula – Wowzers – there are a lot of very nice mansions down there... need to find me a big nugget to buy one of those! Claire had checked the Wotif (the Aussie version of Last Minute) website in the morning so we had a couple of hotels in the city to head towards. Without too many dramas we got straight to the first one, Park View Hotel just on the outskirts of St Kilda and liked it so decided to stay the night ! It was pretty handy to have free street parking just outside the hotel, we felt this was safe – but not quite safe enough for the surfboard. Claire decided she wanted it in the hotel room – oh the embarrassment when she walked through the rather nice foyer area with a 7'6 minimal! At least the muppets enjoyed a break from the travelling and the surfboard....



In the evening we headed out into the city with a desire to watch the AFL game that was playing that night. St Kilda were playing Collingwood in the NAB cup (this is intended to be a pre-season friendly). We managed to get on and off trams without killing ourselves and got to the Etihad Stadium with the thousands of other footy fans. We paid a bit extra for the good seats on level 2 (full price £11 each), we ended up on the front row very close to the goal! Perfect! The game kicked off at 7.40pm and the temp then was 32 degrees Celsius. It was slow to start but then the teams showed us a game – St Kilda (our team due to our residence that evening) started really well, being up by over 40 points at half time. This was obviously too boring so they allowed Collingwood back into the game and the last 10-15 minutes there was probably only 7 points in it at any time. The final whistle blew and St Kilda won by one point! 100-99. We are so glad we got to see a game in Melbourne as this is the number one sport in the city.

The game finished at about 10.30pm and the temp was still 29 deg, phew....
We wandered down a back street looking for a bar when I hear “JENNIE THORPE” yelled from a bar window! I know I'm a minor celebrity but this is ridiculous... it was Claire Lindley nee Kelly, an old school friend of mine who I have not seen since leaving school about 15 years ago!
We went in the bar and had a couple of drinks with Claire and her husband Dean. They are now living in Adelaide so we said we'd catch up for a drink when we get there. What a wonderful yet ridiculous evening!

Saturday – We have a lazy start to the day and decide to book for another night in the hotel. We then head out into the city to do arty things. We went to the Australian Centre for Contemporary Arts – very nice but incredibly small (unless we missed some of it) then we went for a walk around the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria). This museum is huge and very impressive! We really enjoyed it, but were totally exhausted so we found ourselves a bar down by the river (reminded me a lot of York!)



After a couple of drinks we went back to the hotel to freshen up (and chill out a bit). After a power nap and a shower we went back on the trams to Fitzroy – an area recommended to us by Adam (thanks!) We stumbled across a Tapas place and wandered in for a very good feed as it turned out! We then went on to a cool little grungy bar – we were too old to be in there so we only stayed for 2 drinks... Plus we were tired, we're normally in bed by 10pm at the latest!!

Jen
(of Claire n Jen fame)

Part 2 - Day Five - Fourteen

Had a nice night's sleep in Eden, and feel clean after taking full advantage of proper showers. Got up for a swim in the morning to find a pod of dolphins awaiting us in the bay, it doesn't get much better than that. Even Jen came into the water.

A key event occurred in Eden. Mr de Belin, Ms Taylor (aka Mr and Mrs de Belin), please don't be distressed - the muppets said they were bored of sitting on top of the tv and wanted an adventure.... So they're coming with us, and will have a bird's eye view of the trip.



On Tuesday we drove down from Eden to Cape Conran, over the Victorian border, with a lunch detour to Mallacoota. The camp at Cape Conran was a bush camp behind the beach, with bush showers that we didn't dare try. Very windy beach, so no swimming, and not a great night's sleep as we were attacked by a possum through the night - he started with his weird hawking noise on the floor, but realised we weren't paying attention, so moved to a tree just above our heads. Little Jimmy Possum, irritating little bugger.

Wednesday was an odd day. Drove along the coast from Cape Conran to Marlo, then up to Orbost, before heading over to Lakes Entrance and Metung (the Lakes National park is Australia's largest system of inland waterways, separated from the sea by a strip of sand called 90 mile beach). Lakes Entrance is a bit touristy, so we headed round to Metung which was lovely, but resulted in a small prang for poor Priscilla, who was rudely bumped up the backside by an older Australian gentleman. Not much damage to Priscilla, but a lot of damage to his car.

Saw a lovely sunflower field on route though:



So we shot on through to find a new camp, and wound up at Paradise/Golden Beach, midway up the strip of sand separating the lakes and the Tasman Sea. All very good, unless its 25-30 knots of wind with some squeaky trees and a sand dune to keep the occupants of a little tent perched atop a car awake all night... I was convinced there were murderers surrounding us, but it was just the squeaky trees trying to kill us after all.

Thursday, we headed back through Metung to Lakes Entrance and found a camp there at a commercial camp-site with showers and, most importantly, free wifi! On arrival though, Priscilla's front driver side wheel started making some unnerving noises. We spent the rest of the afternoon at a garage where they took the wheel apart, put it back together, charged us $45, but couldn't tell us what was causing the noise.... We suspect the bearings need checked and adjusted (get me heh, does it sound like I know what I'm on about?), since we were told by the boys who did the service to get them checked after 1-2000k (we're up to about 1400k by the way), but no one could fit us in to look at them before we set off the the High Country. She seems to be holding up OK though, and you can't hear the grinding if you turn the stereo up loud....

Another car issue we've not mentioned is the EGT gauge which we had fitted at some expense to measure the exhaust gas temperature (the 3 litre Patrol has a reputation for blowing up when the turbo goes, so we had this fitted together with a boost gauge to try to keep an eye on any potential issues) has decided to go completely off the rails, so its not much good for anything at the moment.

Hohum.

Anyway, enough about Priscilla's problems with her private parts, I can see her blushing.

We spent two nights in Lakes Entrance out of convenience as a good jump off point for meeting the Patrol Club for our trip to the Victorian High Country. It rained most of the time and was reminiscent of an English beach holiday. We promised not to moan about the heat again if it would only come back.

Saturday, and we set off for Dargo to meet the group from the Nissan Patrol Club for the trip around the High Country. We were a little nervous, being newbies to the whole 4wd thing. To compound our fears, it became clear that this trip, the second of two Mark Crowley (trip leader) was running, had the more experienced club members on it and was going to be more challenging than the trip the week before. There was much talk of extremely steep hills and river crossings, both of which seemed all the more daunting following two days of heavy rain.

Little could we have hoped what lay ahead - the trip was fantastic and Priscilla managed all with ease (even when faced with some dubious techniques on the part of her drivers). We learnt a lot, saw some fantastic views and and Jen caught her first Victorian frog:



On Saturday we drove up through Dargo (very small remote town, two pubs). Our camp for the first night was at Italian Flat Camp Ground. A lovely plain in between the hills about 7km north of Dargo. The drizzle persisted, which wasn't ideal given our already damp tent, but it was a great spot nonetheless. We cooked up a nice chicken curry and stank out the tent, then sat at the small campfire and had a couple of beers with the crew before early bed. We were visited by a beautiful bay coloured gelding who appeared to be roaming free, but was too well kept and friendly to be truly wild (no brumby sightings yet), and some black cows.

Sunday and we were off proper into the hills. Still some drizzle early on. Managed the first climb from the road OK, and noted its steepness to Mark, to be curtly told that that was not steep.

Oh dear.

We headed from Dargo up to the Pinnacles where the view was obscured by the clouds, but we had our first magnificent view of the High Country on one of the spur tracks that followed:



We then headed down a VERY steep section called Billy Goat Bluff to our camp-site at Eaglevale - insanely beautiful.



Each night one of the cars in the convoy is responsible for Happy Hour - nibbles for everyone to have a drink around at 5pm. Our second Happy Hour (or High Tea to us English) was at Eaglevale, and with the beautiful weather and river, we decided to have it in the river itself...



Monday and we headed up the Wonnangatta River, visiting the remote and beautifully set Wonnangatta cattle station, and camped near it that evening. Very lovely views on route:



Jennie did the driving and did a top job.

Nice camp ground again, next to the Wonnangatta River, but flies on the increase.


Tuesday, more ups and downs in Priscilla and more beautiful views. The muppets were particularly impressed:



Camped on red sand, which was odd in such lush surrounds. Notable points - bad toilet, occupied by a Huntsman spider (large, ugly, not poisonous, but looks it) and a LOT of flies. A cheeky Jimmy Possum was hanging around in a tree in the evening, but didn't bother us during the night.

Wednesday, very steep climb up to the appropriately named Big Hill. Jen drove, but found it less enjoyable this time. She was faced with one of the most difficult climbs we'd done so far involving a sheer drop to the passenger side of the car and a small shelf on which to do a three point turn at one of the bends 3/4 of the way up (which, of course, she managed with great calm and skill). We camped at Horsefield Flats. Again, nice camp ground with a river to cool off in/source for shower water and a bush toilet. We had some neighbours for the first time. Shame about the toilet - we thought the one the night before was bad.... Bush toilets are a bit like Glastonbury long drops, only permanent and one for all the campers at the site. This one didn't have a lid. The buzzing heard on approach from the resident flies convinced me it was not in fact a toilet, but a small rickety wooden space ship about to lift off. Safe to say we walked passed it and had a wee in the bush behind.

We should mention, that all of this camping is costing us $0 - bush camping with a river and a toilet (varying quality) can't go wrong. The trip itself is costing us a hefty $8 to cover the fees for the satellite phone the Club takes on trips.

Thursday, more steep up and downs, more huts, lunch at the Dargo Hotel



(very nice indeed!) and another nice camp ground - this one's called Talbotville and we had two nights here. Here we finally cemented our position as the amateurs in the group. Beautiful evening, very warm. Got the damp things out of the tent to air (another thing we should mention is there haven't been any major arguments yet, but a few frayed tempers, generally centred on the the setting up/packing up camp side of things - safe to say, I had a dummy spit about putting the tent away so wet this particular morning). In the evening sun we got everything lovely and dry, had a dip in the river with Happy Hour drinks by Chris and a shower (river water shower, but soap and everything, so almost totally clean!)

But then the storm came.....

Two of the guys in the group (Brett and Charles, our heroes!) took pity on us and lent us a large tarp (well, didn't just lend, but erected said tarp in the downpour) to give us an area where we could cook, sit and generally not get wet. Something else we need to invest in... With our newly erected Super Tarp we were comfortable for the next couple of days, rain or shine.



Friday morning we had a slightly damp trip to Grant, one of the old gold mining towns. Both Grant and Talbotville where we're camping were gold mining towns in the mid-19th century - the odd thing is that there is nothing really left of the towns themselves now, other than story boards erected to explain the disproportionate number of public houses these towns supported....

Back to Talbotville for lunch under Super Tarp, then we set off to tackle 20 odd river crossings as we meandered down the Crooked River (none of which were deep, despite the rain).



We stopped on route to make the steep climb on foot up to New Good Hope Mine No.5 and Battery. The plaque at the bottom explained that a steel steam engine and crusher awaited us at the top of the "short" walk.... Someone had scored out "short" and replaced it with "long and steep", and so it proved. 30 minutes later we were 140 metres higher, Jen having made it on her own after I restrained her from her attempts to put a snatch strap on Lydia, the oldest Club member on the trip at a grand age of 83, to pull Jen up the hill.

We saw this:



Then walked back down.

More impressive bits of steel were found on the track by the river - some kind of dredge rather than the steel clogs we thought they were:



Saturday was our last driving day, and it was a good one. We headed out from Talbotville and up the Basalt Knob Track to Blue Rag. Again, incredible views along the spur tracks (lots of the driving here involves steep climbs and descents with long spur tracks in between which follow the backbone of the mountains, mostly spectacular). On the drive up to Blue Rag we were surrounded by ghost trees - snow gums burned during bush fires that have died, but remain standing - whole forests of white ash skeletons.



The final ascent to Blue Rag was a bit tricky, and there was a small debate about which line to take over some rock steps up to the summit - safe to say, I did as Jen told me and went left then had to back up and go right! All good fun. Priscilla proved once again what a capable little Queen of the Desert that she is. And lunch at the top was pretty spectacular:





We spent the final night on the Buckland River at another lovely camp - the first one with no bush toilet! Given our experiences with some of the others this was not necessarily a bad thing. Particularly as it forced one of the group to jump back into his truck to carry out his ablutions - apparently the cows were putting him off by looking at him in the field.....

A wonderful week, the Victorian High Country is incredibly beautiful, and we had a lot of fun with the Club. Safe to say they all taught us a lot, and we've got some great tips on where to go, not to mention a new list of things to buy - first up, Super Tarp!

And now we're back on our own............

Some more photos:

Jennie clever water droplet:



Jennie clever water droplet close up (can you see Priscilla?):



Nissan Patrol Club VHC Trip Group Shot:



Saw Fly Larvae (yuk!):


I didn't fall off, honest...:

Day One - Four, 29 January - 1 February 2010

In the last two weeks we have fitted Priscilla (with a little help from some professionals, including one Alex Towns) with boost and EGT gauges, a set of drawers in the back, steel side steps (we didn't think she was heavy enough already) and various accessories (cargo nets and organisers).


We have also removed a rear seat, leaving just the one for visitors. Erhem. Having packed, it seems that visitors will need to reside on the roof rack, so we could perhaps have dumped the other rear seat as well.

Jen finished work at 1pm on Thursday and by 4pm we were granted tourist visas to permit us to stay in Australia for 12 months.


Target set off time from Sydney on Friday, 3pm. Actual set off time, 3.30pm. Pretty damn good for for us by all accounts. So it was that we three set off across the bridge and waved goodbye to the Opera House on Friday afternoon. All being well, we won't see it again until Christmas.

We spent the weekend with our Sydney friends at Jervis Bay, and had a lovely time. Jen spotted a ray swimming in the surf while four of us swam in the pouring rain. As you can imagine, Jen almost weed herself with excitement. I made a poor attempt at chasing it, but frankly, my swimming ability belies my nationality.





After a tearful farewell, we headed on our way down the coast for our first night alone. We found a nice camp spot at Congo, a little north of Narooma. The only drama was discovering we didn't have the right fitting for the gas cannister for the stove - schoolgirl error no. 2. Rice for tea on the single gas burner then....

Beach at Congo:



[Schoolgirl error no. 1 by the way, was me tightening one of the bolts on the steel steps under Priscilla, only to discover I'd wedged the spanner in there in the process....]

Monday morning, and Jen awoke with a cracking headache - more water clearly needs to be consumed while camping. We only had two glasses of our newly discovered cask Malborough Sauvignon Blanc! Today we've driven down through Narooma (quite cute, but not a place to stay for us), Tilba Central and the imaginationly stunted Tilba Tilba (both very pretty, slightly hippy-ish type towns, perfect for the Hebden in us all) finishing up in Eden at a proper campsite with showers and power and everything (I can see Alex shuddering as I write).

Anyway, more soon, love to all,

Claire, of Claire and Jen fame
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