Mon 2nd Dec - HOT Sand!!!!

Mon 2nd Dec

 

We were woken up by another camper telling us she thought "our" dog had a sore paw...Benny got up to chat with them, they were a couple from Melbourne with their own dog, they'd recently driven to Sydney for a course for their dog, to teach him how to jump off things into water, as there was a little jetty at the campsite they were getting their dog to practice it's new found skills??!!!!

 

During brekkie a land rover rocked up and the owner whistled to "dog" who was actually called Enertia, she did live at the farm up the road and the lady told me she regularly slips her collar and comes down to the campsite for an explore!!

 

We decided to have a walk and fish along the beach, we had to walk over 2 sand dunes to get there though and the sand was HOT!! My feet are still used to shoes and so barefooted it was pretty hard to handle, Id run and Benny would go in front and scrape out some sand and make a cool spot for me to jump onto to have a rest....worked pretty well, like interval training!!

 

Walked along the beach and came to a deeper section, caught a couple of tailor each but they soon disappeared, I went for a lie down in the sun/wind and Benny kept fishing.

 

Another lovely fire that evening, it was my turn with the fire and Bennys turn to cook!!

 

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Tues 3rd Dec - "Pearl Point" Our Christmas Home

Tues 3rd December

 

Packed up pretty early before it got too hot (32 forecast!) stopped in at Orbost and then headed out to check out a free campsite at Pearl Point (they're aren't many free sites along this coast, alot of them are National Park and they've all been per-booked in a ballot system for the Christmas holiday period, this free site was first in best dressed!!). We decided to go "offroad" down to the camp, along Swampy Track and Hekarwe Track...we made it with the trailer but there must have been a bad storm cos ALOT of threes were down. When we got to Pearl Point the viewing platform down to the beach gave us a great view of a rocky outcrop and sandy beach :)

 

There was already one guy "Bill" who had set up camp but there was a spot we thought we could claim and save space for Bennys parents and Paul & Jen, if they wanted to join us :) After talking to our new neighbour "Bill" a gentleman in his 80s that had been coming here for years, he said the sites got filled up pretty quickly...he'd put his tent in the middle of 4 sites as his family were coming down to camp with him over Christmas.

 

As there were only 6 sites in total we took the boat off and dumped that in one of the sites to try and save it and then decided where we wanted our trailer/tent....we ended up having to manually push the trailer around so the tent awning wasn't facing into the bushes!! HARD work, trenches dug to try and flatten the sand a little, wood boards out under the wheels to help push but we eventually got it and the tent just fitted perfectly under the trees :) it was going to be our home for the next month or so :)...a swim later (the water was FREEZING!!) we put the rest of the tent up and relaxed :)

We had a trip to the local pub in the evening, Brimm (population of 70 people) to see what it was like and use the public toilets (none at camp). Locals were friendly and knew Bill!!

Double rainbow but by the time Id got the camera it was a little bit cloudy...

 

The start of our camp :)

The beach at sunset

Trying for some salmon

 

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Sun 1st Dec - Our adopted Dog

Packed up very slowly so took us over 2 hours, which included filling the water tanks up....good job it wasn't busy holiday season cos we went past check out time but the place we stayed seemed very relaxed (no boom gate entry, no locks on the bathroom doors etc). We headed to Orbost which was the next 'biggest' town and checked out the TIC, the ladies were very helpful and gave us some maps, a lot of the camps along this coast don't seem to be free...we were told that even bush some bush sites with no toilets or showers were charging $30 a night!! We found a nice camp across from Marlo inlet, Carringel Camp, it was meant to be an honesty box system for $19.70 a night but there were no envelopes for the money to go in so we decided to stay and pay a ranger if he came by ;)

 

Within 5 mins of setting up camp a gorgeous collie had seemed to have taken a liking to us. She just wanted pats at first, then throwing sticks (which she didn't bring back!), at one point she started sniffing under a tree, close to our camp so Benny went to see what she was looking at and it was a red-bellied snake (poisonous), he scared it into the bushes at the end of camp, away from us!! We went on a beach walk and the dog followed us...turned into a but if a hike, up and over 2 sets of steep sand dunes and then along a beach with no-one on it, was a really nice walk and entertaining with our borrowed dog!! Benny pretended he wasn't fussed but I could see him smiling when he whistled and the dog came and I saw him throw the stick a few times ;) This particular dog seemed like the massive sticks that overbalanced her face when she tried to carry them, very amusing!! We thought we could do a loop around the beach and back along the inlet to camp but ended up at a dead end and didn't fancy walking through the swap-land, snake territory! We doubled back, climbed another sand dune and made it back to camp along a little board walk :) Got a fire going, had some snacks and cooked dinner and the dog just curled up by our tent and went to sleep....I think there's a farm down the road so maybe she just comes to the campsite for a little holiday ;) Id love to be travelling with a dog but its not practical with space at the moment and they do limit where you can camp, one day ;)

"Dog" waiting for us....

 

Blurry - no auto focus

We're camping just left of this photo by the inlet

Ps. At the moment sat round the campfire doing this blog and we can hear "Dog" (what we've been calling her all day!) tearing around in the dark chasing possums, no squeals from the possums so don't think she's caught any but sounds like she's having a great time!

 

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Fri 29th - Sat 30th Nov - "Glamping" - Showers and Flushing Toilets!!

We ended up having a couple of nights at the campsite, enjoying the showers and flushing toilets!! We drove into Lakes Entrance one day and had a look around, there was an Alpine Car Rally going on in the evening so we went in to have a look at that....I thought it was a bit like going to an amusement park and not being allowed on any of the rides cos it looked much more fun IN the cars than watching them!! We did a 'meat' shop and vacuumed sealed half a fridges worth, had walks along the beach, chilled out and went to the movies to see "The Hunger Games", the movies were linked with a squash court, kind of odd but the screen was fine :)

Thurs 28th Nov - Car Park Camping

After packing up we went for a walk down to the water along a jetty looking at some boats, just chatting casually when a guy pops his head out his boat with a "Raaarrrrr!!" He scared the crap out of me!! I think that was the point!! He was an old traveller "Tinker" with his old dog "Poof - as in the thing you put your feet on not the gay version!" he had one big knotted dreadlock at the back and a funny way about him, think he'd been travelling by boat/car for a while, he ended up walking back over to the car park with us to have a look at our set up, and chatted to the German couple, during this time another 2 travellers rocked up, this car park was clearly the happening spot of Metung, who knew!! After saying bye to everyone several times we eventually managed to hit the road again (escape! after been told by Tinker if I wanted to Rush I should live in Russia...it was 12:30 by this point no rushing anywhere!) we drove down the road to Lakes Entrance, after looking at the weather (more rain) and not seeing any free camps close by we thought we'd stay at a campsite for a couple of nights. We ended up at a lovely campsite near Lake zithers, just out of Lakes Entrance and as it wasn't tourist season we also bartered down the price ;)

Tinker, Linda. Andreas and us two :)

 

 

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Wed 27th Nov - Heading for the Coast

Pack up day, drove past the pub on the way out and saw the group that we'd been driving with yesterday so pulled over to say hi again :) The ute managed it out if Dargo, up some fairly steep hills towing the trailer but Benny wanted to check his brakes, as we were headed into Bairnsdale, a fairly big town we got them done there and killed time with laundry, op shops (7 books for $5!! We're enjoying not having a tv!) surf shop, camping shop (bought a 'new' army second poo shovel, Benny wondered how many poo holes it had dug in the past!) and a food shop! 

Turns out there was nothing wrong with the brakes, Benny had done them before we left, the guy said the start of new pads might be a bit soft...think Bennys still going to keep his eye on them... 

Wiki camps let us down, the free camp we were looking for had houses built on it so we pulled into a RV stop in Metung (a car park with toilets...) with a German couple already there in a ford station wagon, we were going to just sleep in the swags but they told us the mossies were pretty bad so we put the tent up....lucky we did cos after making friends with Andreas and Linda they came and chilled out in our tent away from the mossies for the evening.

Blonde moment!!...When we first turned up I said to Benny "there must've been a swimming pool here before" I got a puzzled look so I pointed out the 2 metal loop handholds that would have led down the steps to the water....he made me look stupid by pointing out they were somewhere to lock your bike up! Doh!!

Tues 26th Nov - Blue Rag Track

I managed a good sleep, think it was being inside the pub for a few hours away from the pollen, and we woke up to a bluebird day!!! Stripped the sheets/bedding and hung them out to dry and set off to do " Blue Rag Track" this is always talked about in the 4WD magazines, apparently it's a track people come from all across Australia to see and drive... So we were both pretty excited and glad it was such a gorgeous day for it :) The views were AMAZING, some of the parts of the track were pretty steep but loved every second. At the top we had views of the surrounding valleys and Mount Hotham (a ski resort) which still had a few traces of snow let on it.

We met a group at the top (one guy with a Zook and a dog, made me miss my little Zook!) made friends with them and followed them down the next track, at the bottom we parted ways, they wanted to explore a tin shed nearby and we wanted to cook Bennys fish from the day before for lunch (3:00 so we were both starving!!). Once we got back to camp the sheets were dry (with only a little bit of bird poo on them!) so I made the bed and swept the floor, housework, lots of sand and mud in the tent from when it had been wet... Benny fished (he'd been deprived all day with all the tracks we'd done!), by the time he got back Id got the start of a fire going so he carried on with that and I cooked dinner :)

Going up....yes that's all my "crap" on the dashboard, knitting, headbands, Christmas Stuff!!!

At the top of Blue Rag

Passenger-eye view!!

Convoy...

This would've taken ages...we don't have a chainsaw so glad someone came through before us!

Pan-sized ;)

 

 

 

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Mon 25th Nov - The Unwaterproof tent, Crooked River, Trout Fishing and Dargo Pub

We woke up to find our tent is not all that waterproof...we did wonder but were hoping that we were going to be proved wrong!! There was a puddle on the floor, which Benny discovered when he stepped off the ladder, the middle of the bed was wet where the rain had dripped down the poles and a few wet patches where the zips were sewn a bit funny and the water had leaked in onto the bed (lucky it's kind size so we could move away from the wet patches and still have plenty of room!). We tried to dry the bedding out as well as possible but it was hard when it was still raining...so we propped things up to air instead.

 

On a brighter note Benny caught a trout on his first cast after brekkie, too small to keep though. We headed into Dargo to get some 'local knowledge' of the tracks in the area, there's only a pub and a general store in Dargo so we headed into the general store and the lady was really helpful and showed us some good tracks on the map.

 

We set off in the direction of Crooked River track, on the way I got pretty sleepy (sitting up straight and so being abkent breath a bit better, the moment of the car and combination of not sleeping at night makes it very easy for me to get sleepy in the passenger seat, even in steep 4WD tracks!!) Benny had spotted a good trout part of the river so I snoozed and he caught 4 little trout, he hooked 6 but 2 got away...Im taking his word for this, I was asleep in the car!

 

Crooked River was a great track, not very intense 4WD'ing but we did 30 river crossings in total and at one point we did 24 crossings within 8km! After lunch by the river so Benny could clean his fish we headed back to camp, grabbed some towels and shower stuff and headed to the pub....

 

Dargo pub, GREAT pub!! After a couple of beers Benny asked the owner,Tom, if he had any showers out the back (the pub had accommodation attached) he lead us down to an ensuite part of one of the rooms and charged us $5 for cleaning purposes, I don't think that was the done thing so that was really nice of him to help us out like that. It was so good to be under hot water (my last shower was at Jades but Benny reckons that it wasn't cos Id washed my hair/self in the lake since that...). After feeling very refreshed we had a few more drinks and dinner (amazing food!!), it was a great evening, very quiet and just friendly locals, Tom ended up buying us a round, offering us a bed at his house cos we were telling him about our non-waterproof tent and wanted us t come back and work for him over the Christmas period! Lovely evening :) And the bedding wasn't too bad by the time we got back to it.

Lunch spot

 

Keeping tally of the river crossings along Crooked River

The start of the river crossings....luckily this was the deepest...

This ones for Dave and Steph - We didn't see any monkeys!!!

 

Sat amongst wet/dry bedding and map planning!!

 

 

 

 

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Sun 24th Nov - On the Road to Dargo, Vic High Country

After packing up we headed back to Omeo to re-fuel and buy a map for the area...Bennys GPS wasn't working so at first I think he was a little worried about getting me to map read, I proved my skills to him and took us along Berrigun Road along to a camp near Dargo. We were heading up into the Victorian High Country, I loved it, the views were spectacular and it felt like we were on top if the mountains with lots of different ranges around us, no lakes like back home though! It was even great with rain clouds looming, unfortunately the brakes didn't feel the same way, but that just meant time for photo stops while they cooled down. We found a camp near a river (Italian Flats on Upper Dargo Rd) so Benny could fish.

 

Doesn't really give a good indication of the steepness....

 

Brake rest stop

 

Tracks in the distance

 

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Sat 23rd Nov - Blue Duck Inn

Packed up and long drive out, through Omeo, ended up camping by the river near a pub "The Blue Duck Inn", had a drink there and Benny tried out his new fly rod.  All afternoon it had been threatening to rain with dark clouds and thunder in the distance, it eventually hit in the evening and as the pub was walking distance we went there for dinner....everyone else camping along that stretch had the same idea so it was pretty full for a little pub :) Nice to be inside in the warm.

Fri 22nd Nov

We were planning on leaving but instead spend another day relaxing and recovering,

.....you get that with hangovers from Wild Turkey ;) 

P.s. Thanks Johny Wood from Benny

Thurs 21st Nov - A week on the Road!!

We'd both planned to be up early, go out on the tinnie fishing but I could actually breathe in the morning so stayed in bed and snoozed a little longer and Benny went out. He didn't catch anything :( came back about 9ish, we had brekkie and went out together :) Id only had my rod in the water for a couple of minutes and got a bite!!! Didn't manage to reel it in though and that was the only bite we had for the next couple of hours... We headed back to camp, Benny went to the loo and disappeared for ages, the next thing I know the guys camping next to us where yelling at me to come and join them....when I got there I saw Benny with a beer in his hand looking very happy ;)

 

We ended up spending the rest of e day with them, they were 4 guys from Tralagon... I can't remember any of their names apart from one guys nickname who was "Froggy". They were all really friendly though, kept feeding Benny with beers and started to cook up a roast, when it was ready we were invited to join them...YUM!! Roast pork, crackling, roast veggies in the camp oven, peas and gravy :) It was a strange day, weather-wise, rain, sun, cold, hot...I think I had about 5 different outfit changes on throughout the day, you could tell we're still in Victoria, 5 seasons in one day!!

 

After an amazing feed we all headed out on our separate boats for some dusk fishing, the guys had fridges in their boats and Benny reckons they were going to keep up with the beers, not wanting to fall behind and lacking a fridge bathe tinnie he took the bottle of Wild Turkey John (his boss) had given him as a leaving present....turns out that was pretty strong stuff ;)

 

We took a swag on the boat with us and I jammed it up the front and made myself comfy with my book :) While we were trawling I managed to hook a fish, wool!! It was a big trout!! I reeled it in to beside the boat but we didn't have a net so drunk Benny managed to scoop it into the boat once it was tired out from swimming....after a few photos we kept going for some more, no luck though, just ended up with a massive tangle of 2 of the lines, Benny was determined to get it untangled but it was getting dark so we cut it and then just had one line out before we headed home.

 

The other guys had caught 6 fish between them but they've got 30years+ experience ;) they've been coming t this campsite for ages, their wives call it the "Golden Pond" cos it costs so much for them to get there!! They were telling us that Lake Dartmouth has more water in it that Sydney harbour and that at the moment it's pretty full but they've known it when you have to walk 1km down from the campsite to the water, they reckon there's always heaps of lures stuck in the trees when it's like that from everyone getting them tangled when the lakes full!!

 

So back to drunk Benny, we went up to enjoy their campfire for a bit and then I attempted the challenge of getting him back to our camper trailer and up the ladder into bed....I did succeed after about 30mins but I was debating putting him on the swag on the uneven ground a couple of times!!! As I was faffing around getting ready for bed I shone my torch on a bit of fly screen and nearly screamed, there was a spider (a big huntsman) on the fly screen but what I saw was the shadow my torch had created which made the spider look MASSIVE!! ....That bloody huntsman ended up crawling into the canvas and we saw it at 2 different camps after that, I'm hoping Benny has now got rid of it for good, I can't stand the way they move, ugh!

Mum can you see the book Im reading??!!! xx

 

Mmmm Wild Turkey....Thanks John Wood!!

I know he's holding it but I caught it ;)

 

 

 

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