Advertisement
Published: April 25th 2013
Stick insect
We had to relocate this stick insect when we packed up at Wilsons Prom. He camped on our awning for the duration of our trip there.Day 1610
10 April
We had a long and busy day ahead of us, but we still managed a leisurely breakfast before packing up, which really does not take us long at all. We contemplated altering our plans and staying here (at Wilson’s Promontory) for the rest of the week, but we thought better of it, people to see and places to go, so we stuck to our plan.
We slowly made our way out of Wilsons Prom, giving ourselves the promise we would come back. There is only one road out, though it is still fairly quiet, a few vehicles loaded with kayaks, surfing and camping gear were heading in.
We keep an eye out for wildlife, not just because we want to see more wildlife but also because we don’t want to run anything over. We are rewarded with the sight of 2 emus grazing on a fairly open piece of land and nearby some kangaroos were enjoying the same stretch of grass. I perhaps won’t mention the 2 dead wombats on the side of the road. I am sure the rangers will have seen them.
We made our way to Wonthaggi, to pick
up our new tyre. fortunately there was no film crew here this time, which made accessing the forecourt easier, especially as we had Gypsy in tow this time.
Once the tyre was on board, we had some lunch and then took the road toward Melbourne. We really did not want to go into Melbourne and hoped that we did not get caught in city traffic; I locked my GPS in for Bayswater which is on the North West side of Melbourne and a short distance from the M3.
After an uneventful journey with the exception of a slight detour due to roadworks, we found our way to the M3 easily enough, I saw that it was a toll road and usually I would do this at the time we, but I am concentrating on navigating Andy at the moment and noted to myself that I should log on later to pay the fees.
Arriving at Bayswater, the home of the Vista RV, we were picking up an inner spring mattress for the trailer, not that the original one wasn’t comfortable in the first place, we just wanted the extra comfort that inner sprung has to offer.
Vista RV'sHead Quarters
This is where Gypsy was built, in Australia It was bad timing on our part because Louis and Lorraine were very busy preparing for a camping show in Wagga, but Louis was obliging all the same and made every effort to spend time with us and show us the factory set up and some of the new improvements that they had made to the trailers, some of which we might look at for a later date.
Later than anticipated we headed out of Bayswater with only one thing in mind, how far to travel before we need to stop for an overnight, in a suitable place, bearing in mind with the clock change at the weekend its getting darker earlier. Louis gave us an indication of which direction to head in so that we are not reliant on the M3 and also keep us out of the main rush hour traffic.
Back on the road, I quickly found our route and looked at a possible overnight stop. I had pinpointed Kinglake National Park, and directed Andy out toward Yarra Glen, we picked up some rush hour traffic, but in the grand scheme of things it was not all that bad, eventually we found our turn off.
Just to note at this point, we missed this whole area on our original travels, due to Black Saturday, a lot of this region suffered very badly in the fires, so we stayed away, it is a pleasure to be able to visit now and see how much the area has recovered.
On arrival at the camp site we found that they are all pre bookable sites only! Not very helpful, but I can see why, it is a very neat camp area with very few designated sites, campfire pits and picnic tables, there is only one spot suitable for our rig, which meant logging on to the internet to see if I could book it.
I was lucky to get a single bar on the signal for the internet, it was not easy and I am not sure if the booking was actually done because the signal kept dropping out. You wouldn’t mind sites being pre bookable if only you could get on the internet to book it. This site is not ideal for random travellers.
The night turns in to be quite cool, though still warmer than some we had in the Victorian High
Country. Before bedtime we wandered around the campsite, there were only another 4 campers, and by now the camp fires were smouldering and nobody was around, they had all retreated to the comfort of their tents.
We wandered around with a torch, there was no moon and the stars were not very visible because of the surrounding trees, but in the torchlight we saw a bird fly straight past us and land in a tree, it appeared to be an owl, but we could not get a close enough look to verify it.
The following morning after breakfast we took the short walk that was directed through the trees, it was very lovely, the signs of Black Saturday were quite visible on the trees, it is astonishing how nature recovers itself from such devastation.
Setting off fairly early, we head towards the town of Yea and turned right toward Bonnie Doon on the edge of Lake Eildon (made famous by the film “The Castle”) and then toward Mount Samaria, ( small note, we are in the vicinity of “Sweetie and Pie” the car and caravan used by the Wallaby Wanderers and the Pootling Possums on their journey’s
and now await in storage for one of them to return for another adventure – hope you are reading this guys!).
Eventually we come into a small place called “Swanpool” and decide that it is a good time to grab a coffee, we see a café/village shop and pull in. A fabulous mural is painted on the fence just outside the café depicting the old town and the village store as it was.
At Benalla, we turned onto the Hume Highway toward Albury Wodonga, but just south of Wangaratta, we turn off for Glenrowan of Ned Kelly fame. We had been here before on our original journey and felt that it was worthy of another look, it had not changed much, the huge statue of Ned Kelly and the museum were still there, again it was bustling with visitors.
It was a hot day so we found a nice little café to stop for lunch, the air conditioning was just enough to keep the heat off!
A while later we were back on the Hume Highway and feeling the effects of the heat of the day and lunch we pulled in at a rest area for
Kinglake Tree
This tree has survived a fire. Look at the red sap bleeding through the bark a break, now this is where we realise the benefits of having the Vista RV, we unlocked the door and crashed straight out on the bed for a refreshing nana nap (we could not do this with our old camper trailer). This was also useful as we would have arrived at our destination too early, so all we were really doing was taking our sweet time.
I plugged our destination into the GPS and ping a dot appeared at our next overnight stop. The only problem was that there were no roads, just a dot in the middle of a blank area on the map. No matter as I checked another electronic map (Hema Maps for Ipad) and found some tracks, so I knew we would be ok.
We are heading toward Walla Walla. I did say Walla Walla, not to be confused with Wagga Wagga. So why go to Walla Walla? It is a fairly tiny rural town, almost in the middle of nowhere, but not quite.
Early on during this trip, I got in contact with Dee and Lee and asked if they were around for a catch up and they very kindly offered us
Mural
The Mural at Swanpool a bed for the night with dinner. We met Dee and Lee on our Christmas trip in the Victorian High Country when we stopped at Yackandandah for a few nights over the New Year, we got on with them exceptionally well, the funny thing is that when Dee emailed me back to confirm that they would be in for a catch up, they also told us they were heading to Canberra soon to see The Seekers, funny because we are also going to see The Seekers, but on a different night! (I can almost hear some of you saying “Who are they?”
Gradually I home in on this little dot and as usual Andy just listens and turns the steering wheel when required, I am lucky he just does what I tell him to do (sensible guy) and although we probably went slightly too far before turning down a lane, I knew we were close and eventually we see a ute at the end of a track and we both realised it was Lee, he was just arriving home from work. Good timing!
So once again with the aid of my maps, GPS and good sense of direction
we arrived where we were supposed to be.
Lee showed us around the homestead and then sat us down on the veranda with a drink and chatted whilst waiting for Dee to return, it really was not long before we were all sat there catching up on events since Christmas.
The homestead is part of a farm, owned by a chap called Trevor, who we met briefly when we arrived, it sits in a lovely position where the sun comes up from the left and sets to the right so you could sit here and watch the sunrise and the sunset (you could sit there all day actually and just watch the phase of the sun travel slowly from East to West).
We enjoyed a lovely meal, washed down with a delightful red, which for the life of me I cannot remember what it was, sat on the veranda and fortunately for me while Lee is around, the mosquitos seem to prefer him and leave me well alone!
Not moving far from the table but resuming our earlier positions, the sun had vanished completely, the cool night air had descended, so wrapped in blankets (well Dee
and I were anyway, Andy was still in his shorts) we watched the stars gradually appear and we were blessed with 3 shooting stars.
Eventually bedtime beckoned, Lee starts work early and it was only fair to retire at the same time, well any excuse for Andy really as you all know he is no good in the evenings, mornings are Andy’s time of day.
The morning arrived, Lee was long gone, Andy joined Dee in the dining room and I followed soon after to find a cup of tea waiting for me.
Getting ready for the day ahead Dee was in the kitchen and I heard my name being mentioned, Trevor had come in the back door and asked Dee if he could see me. I went into the kitchen and said “good morning” to Trevor, he had a small present for me that he unwrapped from the daily paper. It was a small cookery book that had been written by his mother, he was very proud of this cookery book and told me that they had done a few print runs, it was sold locally to raise funds for local community. There are some great
Camper
This is just a randon picture we took of what we think is a home made camper,we thought it was really good recipes in there and I assured Trevor that I would keep it with me on our travels and use some of them with the camp oven.
Ivy Barber’s Cookbook came about to commemorate the family’s 100 years in Walla Walla, Mrs Barber was a noted cook in the district and people seemed keen to snap up her secrets in print.
Her son Trevor reported that the first book was auctioned for $85, with 300 books sold on the day.
The cookbook, which Mrs Barber compiled with her grandson Andrew Barber, 19, was launched at the Walla hall.
Dee also had things to do and places to go, so we got back on the road again, this time destination Wagga Wagga (not to be confused with Walla Walla).
On advice from Dee, we had to stop at Morgan’slookout just north of Walla Walla, this was worthy of a stop, but just a word of advice, don’t go into the bush toilet here as it is knee deep in cobwebs and has clearly not been used for a long time, the cobwebs are right across the open toilet seat, you really would not want to sit on
it!’
This lookout was named after a Bush Ranger (Outlaw) John Fuller- A.K.A Daniel Morgan/Mad Dog Morgan!
Arriving at Culcairn, I spy a nice bakery and coffee shop on the corner, so suggested it was coffee break time, alright we had not been on the road for long, but it looked so lovely so we stopped and grabbed a couple of skinny flat whites and watched the world go by from the seats on the pavement.
Back in the truck, we turn toward Wagga Wagga and the final part of our adventure on our Easter Break. Andy will pick this up and we may tell you about our antics with the lambs on the farm.
p.s Well, it is 2 weeks later and guess what? I forgot to log on and pay the toll fees for the M3, to date we have not received an invoice, but I am not holding my breath. I tried calling to sort it out, but I got caught in the voice activation system and it won’t let me talk to an operator, so I guess we just wait for an invoice to drop in the mail, although I am sure
it will have an abundance of fees added to it.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.089s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 12; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0567s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
