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Published: February 4th 2013
The Dredge Bucket....
.... I am not talking about Caroline!We awake to the cool morning air, I can hear the sounds of some other campers as they gradually get up, time for another shower as we are not sure when the next one will be.
Packing up is easily done as we remained hooked up the previous night. I may have forgotten to mention that when we checked in they advised us that once the trailer was dropped then all vehicles had to be parked away from the campsites in a small designated car park. I am not sure if that is the way all the time or just for the busy Christmas holiday period. However I mentioned that our set up is a little different and we rely on both parts of the rig to work together. She was ok with that and said as long as we remained hooked up that would be ok. I agreed although I really would not have argued their rules, it would have been inconvenient but we would have managed. I wondered if it was more to do with safety because of the high numbers of children around.
On the way out we stopped to refill the tanks with water, assured
that the water was fresh spring water from the mountain, we thanked the campground hosts and hit the road. Not for long though as we had planned to stop for breakfast at a small place called the ice creamery café in Harrietville and right opposite Avalon House, this place was recommended by Sue who we met the night before.
We breakfasted on bacon and egg baguettes and coffee, a cyclist started chatting to us, she asked for the time and happened to mention that her day would start with cycling up to Mount Hotham, which would take roughly 2 hours, but today they had a 70 year old man cycling with them and it would take a little longer as they would have more stops to wait for him. Phew, that is one hell of a cycle ride, I would love to think that I could do it, but would need a lot of practice! My walking up and running down Mount Ainslie, 5K return is puppy food in comparison with this gig.
We wander up to the historic bridge and took note of the history of this lovely village, originally occupied by Chinese gold miners, actually the
Chinese population was something like 85% of the total population. A beautiful little town, we could really be in Austria, but time was pressing and we were moving on.
Heading out of town we drove through some lovely places, like Porepunkah, the scenery was magnificent. We stopped at Woolworths in Bright to get some additional provisions that we could not get in Omeo as the supermarket was too small.
At Myrtleford we take a left turn up toward Mount Buffalo and head to a campsite called Nug Nug, which did come recommended. However when we got there it was the same old story, crowded with families on their Christmas break. We did not particularly want to be wedged into a site, but chose to stay the night and give it a go.
It was hot when we set up and could not wait to get into the shade again, at some point in the afternoon, we took our chairs and went to sit in the creek, it felt a little eccentric but it was hot and the cool creek water was so lovely! I was intrigued by the very shiny minerals in the creek, but not really
Steam Engine
This is in the gardens of the little museum. sure what it actually is. I am sure gold is present here, but this did not look like gold and it was not heavy enough. Also if you wanted to get rich on it, it would have taken a very long time!
Thankfully the day cooled down when the sun started to disappear, we were enjoying the coolness of the evening when we saw a police car do a drive round. We were not sure if that was a good sign or not, but the camp seemed unusually quiet for a while. I put my hand up when they drove past and they reciprocated.
Silence did not really descend at bedtime, the site remained noisy for a while until I eventually fell asleep.
Nug Nug to Yackandandah via Myrtleford We awoke, it was New Years Eve and we wanted to move on, to where we did not know at that stage, but figured it would be way too busy here and probably noisy well into the night (that’s making me sound old!). Mostly on New Years Eve, unless we are at a party we don’t sit up until midnight to wish the New Year
Dee and Lee
relaxing by the river enjoying the shade of the afternoon. in.
I needed to pay our fee of $15 for the night which was $5 for each adult plus $5 for power, although we can really survive without power as the sun is putting plenty of energy into our batteries via the solar panel.
Over a bacon sandwich for breakfast we watched the other campers hook up their boats and get ready for a days fishing on the lake further on down the road.
We get into Myrtleford and stop for a look around, it seems to be quite a busy little town, we find somewhere nice for a coffee and sat on the terrace whilst we watched the world go by.
Heading back down the way we came, we eventually turn off toward Mount Beauty while we were still thinking about where to go and most certainly where to have our overnight stop.
We check out a couple of places on our way and eventually at a rest stop in denerang which was right on the edge of the road we needed to really give our next move some thought. While we were here, we read the tourist sign board and realised that this
area had suffered badly on Black Saturday, some of you will know that Black Saturday represents the day back in February 2009 where Victoria suffered some of the most devastating bush fires and a significant number of people lost their lives and many lost their homes and businesses.
This was the day that Andy took the rams to Crookwell and Helen and I met Robert and Andy In Gunning for lunch after they dropped the rams off and when we got back to Woodstock it was 47.1 Degrees on the verandah.
After studying the map and discussing possibilities we decided to head for Yackendandah. Now I had seen the sign post for this place on our way down to Mitta Mitta on Boxing Day, and did not give it too much of a thought at that time.
The only real reason why we gave it a second thought is because I had seen a fridge magnet on Keith and Jan’s fridge emblazoning the word “Yackendandah”. Perhaps there was more to this place than meets the eye, if it has a fridge magnet then maybe it’s worth a visit.
I looked it up on the internet as
we drove toward town to get some information and find that it is quite an historical place. We found a caravan park in town, ok I know we are meant to be big bush campers etc, but it’s Christmas, we are on holiday and if we find somewhere we like then we stop, not to mention the thought of a hot shower and opportunity to do the laundry.
It is lovely looking site, lush green grass, flowers and more importantly, plenty of room. I had wondered if it was fully booked as it is New Years Eve, but no, we have a choice of sites, so we give it the once drive around and decide to head to the first spot that we saw, it was quite large and had a concrete slab base which meant that we could get level without any bother.
I see out of the corner of my eye a couple sat in the shade of the tree next to their tent, they looked comfortable and cool and very well settled in, I wondered how long they had been there, the day was already very hot and they each had a cold beer which
looked very tempting.
We acknowledged our new neighbours and set about getting parked and set up, I watched Andy back giving instruction using the two way radio, then set about unhitching etc. A voice drifted over “We’re timing ya!” “Oh no”, I thought, the pressure is on, a favourite past time of camping is to watch how other people set up, what the set up is like, how easy it is and more importantly how long it takes to get the kettle on! Or maybe just sat down with a cold beer is perhaps more appropriate for Australia.
Our set up means, unhitching, popping the roof, fit leg stabilisers to the back of Gypsy and putting the awning up.
Fortunately in no time at all, we are all set, but instead of getting the kettle on, we wander over to introduce ourselves to our new neighbours and find out how well we did on the timing round!
Dee and Lee soon have us sat down in the shade of their tree with a cold beer/wine in hand and we started to talk, and really I don’t think we stopped talking until it was late in the
Block 19
The only block remaining at Bonegilla out of 21 afternoon, the sun had come round and it was hot, so hot.
With the onset of the heat, Andy felt a nana nap coming on, I headed to the showers, it was lovely and refreshing in this heat, but that refreshing feeling did not last long, cooking the dinner was tough, the awning over the concrete base seemed to keep the heat in, the coolest place was on the grass in the shade.
Later that evening Dee and Lee joined us for a drink to welcome the New Year in, sleep was beckoning so as usual we were crashed well before midnight, some other camper stayed up to welcome the New Year in.
The following morning, the heat had us out of bed early, we breakfasted and headed out for some exploration of the area. Andy had been looking at the map and found an interesting place for us to go and visit.
On the edge of Lake Hume rests a place called The Bonegilla Migrant experience, Block 19 is one of 24 original accommodation sites used from 1947 until 1971 as a migrant centre and was in fact Australia’s longest operating and largest. Bonegilla was
Names
These people contributed to the whispering wall. the first Australian home for over 300,000 post war migrants from over 50 countries.
Reading the comments from the visitors book from people who lived their when they originally migrated, the feelings were very mixed, some had a great experience and others found it a nightmare, all for various different reasons, but I think the general feeling is that many were grateful to be there following displacement after the war.
We enjoyed looking around, it was an eye opener to see what the early migrants had to deal with when they arrived in Australia. Bonegilla is well worth a visit if you are in the area.
On the way back we stopped in the town of Yackendandah for a walk around and a coffee, it is a very historical looking town and very pleasant to take a wander.
Back at camp we find Dee and Lee enjoying the shade of the trees, sat by the stream, it looks very idyll and their peace was once again shattered when we returned.
That night we did a Kangaroo Jack curry and shared it with Dee and Lee, however it turns out that Lee is quite a cook
so as well as sharing a recipe with me (Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Pasta) he also offered to do breakfast for us the following morning, how could we refuse?
It was an early start with a shower first thing in the morning, we were heading out today and really starting our journey back toward Wagga Wagga. Andy told me that Lee already had breakfast on the go so I looked lively and made sure I was ready in time.
We breakfasted on egg, bacon, garlic mushrooms, of course washed down with a fine cup of tea.
Packing up in no time at all, even on this hot morning, we said our goodbyes to Dee and Lee, who I know that we will be in touch with and hope to see again soon.
Gypsy and Trevor did their thing and we trundled off out of the caravan park waving as Dee and Lee disappeared out of sight.
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John and Sylvia
John Wallace & Sylvia Bowman Wallace
Glad to see you are enjoying the new camper
We have just returned from a month in Qld. Fortunately avoided the worst of the heat and the rains although it was 43C the day we arrived back in Budgewoi. We need to do a few maintenance tasks around the house over the next months so I doubt we will get away again till June/July. Have you thought about fitting your rig with a water filter and a proper pump? We added one and it made a huge difference to the quality of what we were drinking? The only thing you have to watch out for is that you have a manual way of accessing the water tank if the pump fails. John.