Mid-winter camping near Lorne

We took our new-to-us (old-to-the-rest-of-the-world) car on a little trip for the bank holiday weekend. The Queen's birthday bank holiday reminded us suitably of bank holidays at home with grey skies and chilly afternoons but still we can't really complain seeing as it is nearly mid-winter and camping was really pretty pleasant. We headed off from Richmond early on Saturday morning towards the Great Ocean Road via Ray's Outdoors - Australia's answer to Millets (where we currently seem to be spending about half our wages!). We were back on the road again by 10.30am with a new camping stove, pans and a picnic basket. The drive was really stunning with beach after beach arriving in quick succession. The vegetation is really lush at the moment and the cliffs looked stunning. We drove through Lorne to stop at Touroid Information for some leaflets about local campsites, I found one about a campsite recommended by a colleague so we went for that. It turned out to be a very good choice with the site right by the Cumberland river. We pitched the tent and unpacked what seemed like a whole car's worth of stuff into what is not a very large tent!

Once settled we went off for a walk on the beach just across the road from the campsite. Then for another little walk up the Sheoak falls along a river between the Cumberland river and Lorne. All very nice and quite easy walking to get our weekend started. We shopped in Lorne for pasta to cook on the new stove, had coffee and cake in a little bakery and then went home for dinner before it got too dark to cook (so about 5pm!).

Next day we got up and had our breakfast by the tent. The campsite was right at the mouth of the Cumberland river. The high walls of the valley, thickly covered in vegetation, were truly beautiful (even though it was blooming chilly at 8 o'clock in the morning). After breakfast we set off up the Cumberland river itself to see the falls. The path was clear to start with, through woodland with enormous tree ferns, it then took a sharp left turn and climbed steeply through the wood up a very muddy and slippy path. We ploughed on for more time than we probably should have but when the going got really tough we decided that we were now coated in enough mud and had probably taken a wrong turn. Lo-and-behold at the bottom we found we should have crossed the river (this was made clear by the fact there was a couple just arriving with us from the other side. The crossing was OK, with lots of boulders in the river itself for us to hop between. We continued on the right path crossing the river at least three more times on similar boulders. Some were more slippy than others and both John and I chose badly at least once getting a rather soggy boot. The falls were lovely but the walk itself was certainly the best bit, we hopped our way back to the campsite for tea before another little outing.

Just before lunch we went to the last set of waterfalls for the weekend, the Erskin falls were definitely the most impressive but also the most managed of the falls we visited. We drove up the steep road above Lorne, parked up and walked down the 300 steps to admire the falls (with the hoards of other people). Then back up the steps to the car. We had a little walk down the pier at Lorne to check out all the people fishing (though no-one seemed to be catching much) and then back home for more pasta and wine. John claims that, whilst I cleaned my teeth, a roo hopped its way across the campsite - no evidence exists to this end...but I'm still highly envious!

On Monday we struck the tent and headed back along the Great Ocean Road to Adis Point, Jan Juc and Bells beach to have a squiz at the surfers on the beaches before heading home. Our room is now filled with stuff that is a bit damp form the soggy camping and the tent is airing on the balcony (though there was a lot of rain this morning as I cycled to work so I'm not sure it will actually be drying out there).

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