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...:
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