On the Move

Portsea Bath Houses


You can trust us!


Duck Point Tinny


Wilson Prom Dawn


Mallacoota Fishin'

Happy Vendredi Gras!

I figured that since Mardi Gras was for "Fat Tuesday" then the day after Thanksgiving should be Fat Friday after everyone has stuffed themselves full of good food and great company.

We have traveled from Mallacoota over on the Victoria-New South Wales border to Wilson's Promontory to the town of Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula via a circuit of Phillip Island all within a week. Wilson's Prom, as it is known is a great national park and one of the most visited in Victoria as it is only an hour and a half from Melbourne. We stayed outside the park in a caravan park in Yanakie. The scenery was great, even if the accommodations and the park staff were less than stellar. We hiked our feet off on the Prom and climbed Mt. Oberon, which brought new definition to the phrase, "Are we there yet?" The view from the top was well worth the climb.

Our stay in Red Hill has been another happy accident, something that is one of the continuing joys of this trip. We didn't want to spend the last few days before we take the ferry across to Tasmania in Melbourne so we decided to hit the Mornington Peninsula on the way. I was looking at places and went from one link to another to a third and found the Ellisfield Farm. It is a cherry farm with a small cottage on the grounds and has what are termed "farm pets" of alpacas, ducks, chickens and goats! So, we simply had to come here. The animals are delightful and the goats (a mother and two small kids) are full of play. One, named Cuddles, loves to escape the fenced area and play in the cherry orchard, but we fixed that for the owners so she can't escape again.

We have been down to the coastal towns of Rosebud, Rye, Portsea and Sorrento today and enjoyed them, especially Sorrento which reminded us of Nantucket. Very wealthy and trendy, but nice.

Tomorrow we sail for Tasmania from Melbourne. The ferry is a night crossing to Devonport and the guide books say that the best thing about Devonport is seeing it in your rear-view mirror as you go see the rest of Tasmania. We hope it is better than this, but even if not, we aren't staying there anyway. Allie found a place to stay through the gardening community network. Apparently gardeners are rabid sharers and that includes homes. She found a fellow gardener in South Hobart who needed a house sitter for 6 weeks, from the beginning of December to mid-Janauary and got in touch with her and voila, we have a place to base ourselves from during an extended stay on the Apple Island. Tasmania is called the "Apple Isle" for its history of producing immense crops of apples shipped all over the world, although that has diminished with the spread of globalization and refrigeration.

Here's a sample of what we've seen in the past week. Enjoy!

Steve

R&R Time

Lake Sambell Sunset


Ume Lake Revisited


Mt Hotham Vista


Bright Alee


Hotham Light Study


 We had a lovely stretch of beautiful weather, sunny and warm, but being spring, it hasn’t lasted long and now we are back in jeans and jumpers again, oh well.  We spent a lovely two days in Beechworth Vic, at a lovely caravan park on Lake Sambell.  It was great, right on the lake with views to the hills, and within walking distance to town.  We would have loved to stay longer but the upcoming forecast was for nasty weather so we moved on.  Before we did though, we headed over the border into New South Wales to check out Lake Hume.  This is the lake where Steve took the dramatic photos when we were here last February, that showed all the trees in a dried or mostly dried lake bed.  With all the rain that has occurred since we were here then, the lake has filled to capacity, which is why we wanted to see it.  We hardly recognized the place, water was softly lapping at the shores, only a few dead tree tops were showing above the surface, and fisherman were out on the lake with their boats.  A far cry from what we had seen.  It was beautiful instead of a surreal scene.  Then we drove back to Beechworth via Yakandandra where we had spent a night back in April.
            The next day we drove over to Bright, a town we had quickly visited in April but it was so full of visitors because of its fall foliage festival we gave it a quick miss.  This time we stopped for coffee, it’s a nice town, it reminded us a lot of what North Conway was like about 30 years ago, quaint village geared towards the ski industry and the great outdoors.  There we picked up The Great Alpine Way, and drove through Harrietville,  then 26K straight up on switchback roads until we got to Mt Hotham.  The scenery was stunning.  Because fire had ripped through here last year, all the foliage had been burned off the trees, leaving new green undergrowth with these magnificent silver tops just going on forever.  Much like at home in the winter, and because there is no foliage, you can see the bare bones of the ground and the structure of the hills.  It was just amazing, even more so because Mt Hotham and Mt Feathertop still had snow on their peaks. 
            We now started a slow descent towards Omeo, which is high plains country on thru Swifts Creek, to Bruthen, then onto Bairnsdale where we stayed in for two nights.  By this time we were both suffereing from head colds although Steve was mostly over his, I was going full tilt, so it was good to hole up for a few days while the weather  outside was raging.
            Now we are staying for a week at Karbeethong  Lodge, out at Mallacoota, for a week.  It is a beautiful old lodge reminding me a lot of Point Breeze and Steve of Lake Winnipesaukee.  We look right out over the lake with the Norfolk Island pines in front.  It is very quiet except for the vast birdlife.  One of the birds started calling out at 5:00 in the morning, it sounded like the old bicycle horns going off, then another bird sounding like someones car alarm going off joined in.  But we love it’s peacefulness.  It is good for us to take this break to rest, catch up on our photos, reading and to get germ free.  Once the weather fines up, we will do some walks around the lake and maybe some other walks as well.  The best way to explore the lake is probably to see it from the lake.  A kayak would be best, but we haven’t found anyone hiring them so maybe we will hire a boat and explore the lake.  We will see.
            At last, the sun is shining!  We are sitting on the verandah, soaking up the sun, planning the day, a walk along the edge of the lake maybe?  It is just so peaceful here I could stay napping in the sun all day, listening to the birds and the boats on the water, but walking is calling…

More fun in Victoria

EmmyLou


Castlemaine Wall


On the Road to Ballarat


Sovereign Hill Candles


Sovereign Hill Soldiers

I had to look back to see when I wrote last and where we had been so I could bring you up to date. But first, drum roll please, we have officially been on the road now for 61 days. I find that amazing. In some ways it feels like forever, and other ways we have only just begun. Traveling is hard work. We are now trying to stay in one place for at least two nights, it is much easier than setting up and taking down each day, and give us more time to explore the local area.

After a lovely rest day in Port Fairy we traveled down the Great Ocean Road to Port Campbell, a great base to see the Twelve Apostles, the sandstone monuments just off the coast. We saw them last year and we wanted to see them again, with better cameras. (This is where Steve’s cameras died last year). We were driving along, and saw a sign for the entrance for the park of the Twelve Apostles. Now I don’t know how we missed this last year, but we did. The Visitors center is boring, but you take the boardwalk along the cliff and there you have a great view of the rock formations. Maybe what we thought what we saw last year were the Apostles, but really weren’t. Who knows, but we have now traveled the Great Ocean Road in both directions, east and west.

After leaving Port Campbell, we drove east through the Otway National Park, stopping at the Otway Fly, a 25m tree top walk, with a 45m spiral lookout tower. It was really cool, as well as cool and drizzling. This is the second tree top walk we have done, it was much larger than the one we went to on Tamborine Mtn. As we walked through the ancient fern gully, they had a dinosaur display that was very interesting. Reminded us of Jurrasic park. The walk was very interesting, and at each level a description was given at what you should see it that level of the forest. After leaving the Fly, we drove down the steepest, curviest, windiest, narrowest public road we have been on yet. They called it a two-lane road to be carefully shared with logging trucks. We called it a 1 1/2-lane road, hoping like hell we don’t see a logging truck. But after 14K we hit a bigger road, just as curvy and windy but wider. After driving these two roads, then the Great Ocean Road from Apollo Bay to Lorne, we decided we had had enough, were just too dizzy, so that was where we spent the night. Got an interesting room, which was good because the heavens opened up that night.

Off the next morning to finish the Great Ocean Road, to Geelong to do some shopping, then up to Ballarat in the goldfield region for a few days. As day trips we went to Sovereign Hill, a recreation of the original mining settlement in Ballarat, much like Williamsburg although much smaller but more interactive, it is really well done. The next day to Daylesford, a renowned spa town because of its spring waters. Even if you aren’t interested in the spas, the town is very hip, loaded with cafes, shops and art galleries. Then we packed up and drove a very non-direct route weaving thru Mt Macedon, Hanging Rock, Heathcote and onward to Bendigo.

Bendigo is another gold town, and one that is still mining. The original pit was closed because of the water level, but now they have gone under and around the original pit and are still mining the gold. It is an interesting city, not what we expected, it has a very European flair, with its dark stone building, large fountain in the roundabout, a tram running down the center and we felt as though we could be in Paris. As a day trip we drove down to Castlemaine. It seems as though we are so far away from everything in theses towns but we are only an hour to two hours out of Melbourne, so that might be why some of these towns are so trendy, they get the weekenders. We went to a really good farmers market here. Not as big as what we were used to in Byron, but not bad considering its size. There were two microbreweries with their been, a couple of vineyards with their wine, two cheesemakers, a few olive growers, a couple of people selling plants and two vegetable growers, grass fed beef, pork and chicken were also offered. We stocked up for the week.

Now we are in Echuca, on the Murray River. Again, not what we expected, but much better. The river is full for the first time in ten years, the historic paddleboats are going up and down the river. Today is just going to be a lazy day, relaxing and enjoying the moment. Tomorrow we are going up to the Barmah State Park, on the Kingfisher cruise. It has been highly recommended by the locals, even the woman who cut Steve’s hair! After that, maybe up to Hume Lake to see it full. The weather is finally starting to get warm, yeah, back into shorts!