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Published: August 22nd 2008
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Yellow Breasted Robin
Like a robin red breast but ummm......yellow! Wow! Seven Weeks since our last Blog!! Ooops! Sorry, time flies eh?!
So anyway, what have we been up to, apart from dodging the rain and trying to keep warm?!
We did, as planned in the last Blog, make it up to the Murray River to a lovely spot called Bourkes Bend (?!) but being right on the river it was freezing, we managed a couple of nights and gave up on the third morning when we found that the condensation on the inside of the windows had frozen! Don't let anyone tell you that the weather in Oz is always nice!
Well with a week or so to spare until we were to meet up with Tony and Val, we decided to head for Philip Island. We had been here a few years ago and visited the penguin parade and so decided to give it a miss this time and see what else there was on offer. We stayed in the caravan park at a place called Amaze'n'Things, really it is a kids place with activities and a huge wooden maze, but us being us we managed to enjoy joining in! On our last morning we saw
the pelicans being fed outside of one of the fisheries. It was cool seeing so many of these huge birds in one place!
So, back with Tony and Val we decided to head east to Lakes Entrance and to try to introduce Val to free bush camping. We have spent probably 2/3 of our time in Australia in free camps and are continually amazed at the places we have stayed. Luckily the first camp we stopped at didn't let us down! Although the first evening there, just as we got the campfire going we had the biggest hail storm we have ever seen! The grass got completely bogged and in the morning there were still mounds of ice left over! We moved along the field the next day and found a area that was a bit drier, the rain held out and we managed to get a good fire going!
Next we stayed just outside of a little village called Briagolong beside a river in a lovely bit of bushland and although it was cold it didn't rain so we were able to sit outside, I even dipped my toes in the water (just) while Beau went for
Roast Tel?
Amaze'n'things a swim!
Over the weekend we decided to treat ourselves to a caravan park in Lakes Entrance, we defiantly needed the showers after 5 days without one and I don't think there has ever been four more excited people at the thought of electricity for heating! We headed straight for the water front after showers for some lovely fish and chips!
Raymond Island is about 50 meters and $8 by boat (seriously they should invest in a bridge!) from Lakes so we took a trip over to see their colony of koalas, now we have heard a few places that have had a "colony of Koalas" and have either seen none at all or one in the far distance which to be fair could have just been a branch! So we were amazed to find that one end of the island was crawling with them. Every direction you looked you saw another one. We also spotted a Tawny Frog Mouth Bird sitting in a tree about 5 foot off the ground. Sods law neither us nor Tony and Val had brought our cameras!
So after the weekend, all clean and warm again, we headed a little further
east to Snowy river were we spent a night happily in a picnic spot beside the river. We were just settling in for our second day there when someone told us that camping there had been stopped and there was now a $150 fine for staying over night! We hastily beat a retreat to the other side of the river inlet were we found a bush camp complete with loos and a jetty to fish off for $5 a night. The birds there were amazing with tiny blue wrens jumping around under our chairs and a kookaburra watching us cook. We spent an afternoon fishing of the jetty for tea (didn't catch a thing!) and then we got up at dawn to try again, apparently the best time to fish........didn't catch a thing! After a few days there we headed back to Briagolong for 3 nights to meet up with Val’s niece Jess.
We got back to Tony and Val’s on Monday afternoon, all tired, cold and a bit stinky again! Terry and I planned to head off after a day or to make our way up to Sydney. In the end we didn't leave until this morning (Friday)
as we took Tilly for a service and to get a new wing mirror as someone knocked it off 10 mins after we arrived back! Also we have been having some problems with Tilly’s water pump and tanks and so decided to investigate. So yesterday was spent with Tony Terry and me under the back of the bus ripping out and replacing the plumbing and cleaning the pump and tanks out! So we headed off this morning and are now in Seymour. Only about 3 hours up the road but we decided to have an easy day!
So the plan from here?......Well we have 5 and a half weeks before we fly out of Melbourne, we are heading towards Sydney and hope to spend a few days in the city, not really sure where from there, maybe further north to find some sunshine or maybe into the blue mountains and a visit to Canberra, we'll let you know!
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