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Published: February 5th 2009
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The Victorian (and South Australian) heatwave was continuing as we left Wilsons Prom. Annelies had developed a skin infection which looked very similar to (but we knew wasn't) Chicken Pox when we were at Wilsons Prom, so we stopped at Foster on the way out to see a doctor. The anti-histamines and creams did not have much affect for the next few days, so she ended up on antibiotics, which seemed to do the trick. On the way out of Foster we stopped at nearby Ameys Track Blueberry Farm and purchased a kilo, then we visited Agnes Falls at the southern end of the Strzelecki Ranges.
We continued east and stopped at Sale for lunch. The temperature was gradually climbing as we made our way from Sale to Lakes Entrance, reaching 44°C according to the car, which we've found to be pretty accurate. We set up in the heat at the Echo Beach Caravan Park before jumping in the pool. It was hot again the next day (Friday), so we headed to the beach where Annelies & Thomas continued to have fun with their boogie boards. A cool change came through that night, although it was still warm enough on
Saturday to check out another local beach (Eastern Beach). A large fin or flipper remained out in the distance for at least an hour, but as far as we could tell using the binoculars, it was most likely a large fur seal.
It commenced raining on Saturday night, so we ended up packing up a wet camp on Sunday morning. We had planned to head east to Mallacoota, but due to the non-beach-going weather, we decided instead to make for the hills for a couple of days instead. On the way, we stopped at the Grandview Lookout of the Snowy River and then at the historic Slab Hut & Visitor Centre in Orbost (originally a pioneer's home built in 1872). We decided to head for Ada River campsite on the southern fringe of
Errinundra National Park .
Ada River was a beautiful camp spot set in a forest grove with fireplaces, a toilet and crystal clear water from the Ada River nearby. There was no longer a total fire ban in the eastern district, so we made full use of the plentiful firewood supplies, cooking up a lamb roast on the first night and scones on the second.
On
Monday, we drove into Errinundra NP and crossed Ellery Saddle and then did the hike up to Mt Ellery (1291m). Afterwards, we stopped for lunch near the Mt Morris picnic area, which had become very overgrown and looked like it was no longer being maintained or used. Here we had a badly flat tyre, our first on the trip apart from a very slow leak that we had repaired in Melbourne. The puncture was quite a large one and presumably occurred from a stake on one of the forest trails on which we had done a little bit of low-range four wheel driving. It began raining again that evening with lots of rumbling from nearby thunderstorms, so once again we packed up a wet camp on Tuesday morning.
Annelies: “We had a GREAT swim at the campsite in the river and splashed around! The days we were there it was pretty hot! It was a GREAT campground! And we had it all to ourselves!!”
A light rain was occurring as we left Ada River and only 10km south of our campsite we came across a large tree across Errinundra Road, which must have fallen the previous night due
Road Block
200km detour! to the storms. The tree had fallen only a couple of kilometres north of Combienbar Road, so it meant we had no other option but to head back the other way and take a very large detour of nearly 200 kms back through the forest roads to Bonang Road and Orbost. We came across one or two other fallen obstacles along the way, but fortunately they were only small branches easily shifted. We stopped at the Mt Buck Fire Tower lookout, but the misty conditions didn't give us much of a view and the road in seemed more like a foggy winter's morning. At Orbost, we had the tyre repaired, picked up a few supplies and headed east towards Mallacoota on the far southeast tip of mainland Australia.
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