Bairnsdale to Snowy Mountains

What a busy week again.  We will need a holiday to have a rest soon if we keep this pace up.

We enjoyed a few days in Bairnsdale mostly in the company of Peter and Colleen Robinson who escorted us to a lovely water front café at Paynesville for lunch the first day and the next day we lunched at/on the ‘Floating Dragon’.  The Floating Dragon as the name suggests is a Chinese Restaurant on a boat moored off the pier in the middle of Lakes Entrance. Both places provided excellent food.  We never went hungry at dinner time with Colleen insisting on cooking despite being a bit uncomfortable as a result of a bit of a tumble on the day we arrived.  We are happy to report that they are both in fine spirits and provided us with the most welcoming hospitality and pleasant company.  We enjoyed catching up on the latest with their family and they were interested in the whereabouts and well-being of our children and grandchildren.  They are both still avid readers and I off loaded another copy of “Poor Fellow My Country” to them; Peter hasn’t read it yet though Colleen has.  Of course it was an exchange and I now have an equally large book called “The Pillars of the Earth” to go on with.  The Cathedral in Bairnsdale is another large Catholic church with large stained glass windows and many very good oil paintings on the wall and decorated ceilings.  We found it really sad that the Church is now only open 9-3 due to vandalism.  Surely we have to give the idle wasters something more productive to do than wreck someone’s good work that has lasted for more than a century already.

Bairnsdale's St Marys

Colleen’s brother Rob and his wife Joan dined with us one night and they highly recommended we visit Mallacoota on the SE coast.  We left the highway and drove north through Brethen and the forests to the east and crossed the highway down to Mallacoota.  This is a small coastal holiday town which explodes during the summer holidays.  It looks a town of less than 1,000 residents but has four van parks.  The council run one we stayed at is on the shores of the lake where you can hear the surf pounding onto 90 Mile Beach a few hundred metres away.  The water front sites are within metres of the water and they have 98 tinny mooring berths along the wall in front.  The lake system goes for miles inland from here and the fishing is good – apparently.  It was cold and showery but the park was quite busy and several on the vanners were out in their tinnys.  Quite a few had campfires in old washing machine bowls on their sites also.  It is a very nice spot and would be even more appealing in summer.

Mallacoota Foreshore Van Park - note tinny mooring poles

Cute private jetty, across the lake to the van park, 90 Mile Beach in background

from the headland looking back along the lake

Next stop was at Eden on the coast and back into NSW.  We had fond memories of Eden when we last visited in 1981 as we saw whales in the bay at that time.  No whales this time but we enjoyed the area again.  We stayed in a park in town opposite the beach and on the shores of a lake which was nice and handy but there are two great looking parks a few kilometres south of town in the forest and on their own beach where a river enters the ocean.  They looked great for summer holidays.  We took a drive out through Ben Boyd National Park.  Ben Boyd was one of the first settlers and a real entrepreneur who established a whaling station with his own private 19.5m high sandstone lookout tower built on a headland opposite town.  Davidsons Whaling Station is another station built further inland on the bay and has been well preserved with several old timber buildings still in use since the 1850’s.  There is also an export eucalypt wood chip mill located on Twofold Bay.  The coastline is very pretty with nice golden beaches and spectacular rocky cliffs in between.  Garry enjoyed a game of golf on the very nice course while Carol checked out the retail opportunities and progressed the crocheting of a large mat she has found on the net.  We noticed that real estate is very reasonable with 4 bedrooms on a couple of acres available for less than $400K.  Apparently employment has decreased since the Greensea’s Fish Cannery closed and the Forestry quotas for logging have been reduced by successive Governments.  They still have a good pleasure fishing industry with several seafood cafes on the wharf.  We sampled and enjoyed some very fresh and tasty seafood for lunch.

Eden town beach opposite Van Park

The Seahorse Inn on the beachfront in the village of Boyd Town

Eden coastline lookout

enjoying the sunshine on a coastal walk

Boyd Tower built in 1840 as a private lighthouse but used as a whale watching tower

waiting for the photos to be taken....

Davidson's Whaling Station settlement

cute little coloured fellow with his eye on dinner

outdoor concentration office 1840's style

Quarantine Bay

who's expecting fish to be cleaned here??

We planned to head further up the coast and inland through Canberra but due to major roadworks we only went north as far as Bega and then went inland through Cooma and on to Jindabyne for the last couple of days.  We were looking forward to seeing the Bega Cheese Factory and while we enjoyed the displays, the craft/souvenir shops and the cheese samples, we were disappointed that there are no factory tours available.  Still we bought some good Australian made cheeses and kept going.  The rainforest up the range over Brown Mountain is as beautiful as the road is steep but the country side changes as soon as you are over the top.  The Monaro Plains are almost devoid of trees and has endless grassy rolling hills supporting plenty of sheep and cattle.

New model genetically modified cow - 3 times the milk of the old version

Painting made out of different grain seeds glued to a board 3m x 1m

Colourful cow

Jindabyne is a pretty town on the shores of Lake Jindabyne which has formed behind one of the Snowy Mountains Scheme dams.  We took a drive up into the snowfields with Perisher and Charlottes Pass busily preparing for the start of the snow season.  There have been good snow falls in recent weeks but the current rain has washed most of it away again.  We still managed to see a few die hard skiers and snow boarders on the slopes in the drizzling rain.  They must have been keen or on the last day of their holidays and determined to ski!!!  Thredbo is also getting ready and is much more like the scenery in Europe with the town built on the steep slopes on one side on the valley facing the skiing slopes on the mountainside opposite.  We were surprised how steep the hillside is and how many units are clinging to the steep slope.  Thredbo River in the valley is full of white water at the moment.  All of the ski fields are only 30kms from Jindabyne so it is a short drive from town but by the number of car parking spots at the ski lifts it must get busy on the road.  

At the top of Charlotte's Pass 1835m ASL

Perisher Valley

Snowy River

looking down the side of the (steep) hill into
Thredbo from the road

Thredbo River

more snow in the rain!!!

Lake Jindabyne from our van site

We saw a few Corroborie Frogs on display in the Nat Parks Office in town.  These are very brightly coloured yellow and black frogs that only live in the high country.  The Southern Corroborie only live between 1200 and 1700 metres high which is only in a small part of Kosiuszko Nat Park.  The Northern C Frog lives from 700 up to 1200 metres high which give it a slightly smaller area to choose from but is still less that 100,00ha in total.  The species are endangered as there has been a disease introduced by the Eastern Frog which carries the virus but is not affected by it.  There is no cure so the only response is to breed more Corroborie Frogs and release them in the hope a cure can be found.  It is a wonder the greenies haven’t tried to ban humans from the Snowy Mountains while we find the source of the disease and a cure for it.  They are too cute to lose forever.

Its not always easy taking all these photos!!!!

Melbourne to Bairnsdale

We enjoyed our time in Melbourne even if it was a tad cold and showery.  The rain only came at night and never affected us so we can’t complain.  We had a big day on Saturday catching up with brother John and watching Collingwood vs Geelong at the MCG.  

1st time at an AFL match at the MCG 

ready to check out Monet's masterpieces...

John has a lot of change in his life. He is on his way to Collac which is a couple of hours west of Melbourne and still close to the Great Ocean Road coast.  We hope he enjoys it there and settles into a good job.  The AFL match at the ‘G’ was an experience with a good crowd and a good game with the ‘Pies ahead at the end of the 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th quarters.  We had a chat with a very pleasant gent in front of us who is a long times Pies supporter and gave them up at ¾ time.  We quickly formed the view that the Refs were clearly the real enemy of all players and supporters; poor buggers.  I hope they are paid heaps.  Prior to the game we spent a good while wandering through the Sports Museum.  The displays were great and we enjoyed the Olympics and the Cricket sections the best.  Seeing Warney in very lifelike 3D hologram form was impressive.  There are heaps of interactive sports displays to try and we would recommend it for Kids.  We used buses, trams and trains to get around in Melbourne and found them cheap, easy and reliable.  $3.50 gets a Senior on all Metro buses, trains and trams for the whole day.  We found a Trash and Treasure Market at an old Drive In site and were amazed at the junk some people sell.  There were hundreds of stalls but had nothing that we just had to have.  We found our way to a huge shopping centre and took in a movie on Monday while waiting for our hot water system to be fixed.  The Movies were quiet and we had our own private viewing; only the 2 of us in a big theatre.  We were very pleased with the repairs to our van.  Tony did a great job, was prompt, reasonable and also repaired a board under our bed that had cracked and we only noticed as we prepared the van to go in.  Northern Caravan Spares (and Repairs) in Thomastown.  It is good to have hot water again and without a leak this time.

Instead of taking the ring road around and out of the city we decided to stay north east and head straight in to the ranges.  With the cold dewy mornings our start times have drifted back significantly so it seems we no sooner hit the road and it’s time to stop for morning tea.  We made it about 60kms and pulled up for a wander through Healesville.  This is one town that suffered through the bush fires of a few years ago but is now as pretty as a picture.  The autumn colours add to the beauty of green hills and leafy valleys.  The 1928 concrete dam wall and lake in the hills on the edge of town is a very pretty area with nice parks and a great smoko spot.  The main street is full of old shops and pubs with several good book shops and Op shops.  

Healesville pub

Reservoir outlet

not sure who placed the "Sun" dial in the shadow of the dam wall??

even the outlet tower is grand old 1920's style

lovely day for reflections

The showers had disappeared overnight and we had beautiful clear blue skies and for our drive on to Phillip Island.  This was our second visit and the last time we were here it was overcast, cold, windy, wet and unpleasant.  This trip was like it was a different place.  It is a very nice place with green grass, gardens, dairy cows, and autumn coloured trees surrounded by blue seas and skies.  It was still very cold!!  Garry spent an afternoon at the Vietnam Veterans Museum and a quick visit to the Grand Prix Track.  The VVM was interesting with several helicopters, jeeps, tanks, and a Canberra Bomber in the display.  Most memorable was listening to real life Vietnam Vets talking about their experiences and another hologram featuring another 3D Vet walking amongst the display pointing to items and telling a very powerful story about the War and what the conscripts faced in the jungles and at home.  The things that struck me the most were that the Vietnam War was not a War about territory but an ideological war in a country trying to stop a rising political force;  i.e. there was no battlefront just a presence to quell Communist uprisings.  The other thing the Vets could not understand was how come the people who were protesting their involvement and spitting on them when they returned home (mostly students) were the same ones who voted for the Government that conscripted them and forced them to go to the War in the first place.  The stories about the “Tunnel Rats” and what they had to do was chilling and was a job that I doubt that I would have been able to do myself.  The sort of stuff that generates nightmares.

The icon of the Vietnam War

not sure how many of these were used in Vietnam but still an impressive machine

The Grand Prix Track was a picture as usual.  Audi was there doing driver training in a V8 GT sports car which looked a heap of fun.  The Museum seemed smaller than 9 years ago but was still worth the few bucks to wander amongst the cars and bikes and stories from champions past.  We finished the evening with drive out to Nobbies Point for some great coastal views among the penguin nesting areas and then back to watch the penguin parade.  

Audi driver training

M Skaife/T Kelly Holden

Nobbies green hills & rocky coastline

rugged coastline & rugged up tourists

another cold front sweeps over Nobbies....

Tourists have been watching the Fairy Penguins come ashore since the 1920’s and they now get about a thousand tourists per night every night of the year.  It is expensive (more than $70 for 2 Seniors) but is a wonderful experience.  The little penguins waddled up right passed us in large groups and we saw hundreds of the cute little fellows pass within a few metres of us.  They are noisy when they are calling to each other when first ashore and even louder when they get to their nests and call out for their partners.  It was a good night and cold but we were warned to take and wear all of our warm clothing.

We had planned to head for Sale next but the guy at the van park suggested we should look at Wilson's Promontory and that’s where we headed.  It is a beautiful drive and the National Park at the bottom of the Prom is spectacular.  The large granite hills, thick rain forest, white and gold sand beaches and plentiful wildlife were well worth the visit.  There are 29 walks around the park ranging from 300m to 30km.  We chose a few short walks including a walk from the campsite at Tidal River across a foot bridge, around the hillside above the river to overlook the river mouth, then up over the ridge and back along the western side of the ridge overlooking Squeaky Beach.  It was probably the most spectacular coastal bush walk I have been on.  Norman Beach at the camp area is a gold sand beach and Squeaky Beach next bay around is white.  The rocky islands off shore made for some great photos and the birds and wombat made the bush interesting also.  The wombats are thick and wander through the camp.  When we first pulled up in the camp ground we spotted some beautiful red parrots in a nearby tree.  After stalking them for several minutes trying to get a photo we had a cup of tea and next minute the parrots were sitting on our step and table and trying to pinch our cake and bickies out of hands.  After our walk we were sitting at a picnic table and the parrots came straight up to us and walked over our bags, sat on our heads, and generally walked around as if they owned the joint.  It was lovely to see them so relaxed around people.  

green hills and fat dairy cows 

very brightly coloured parrots..

the Tidal River footbridge beside the campground

river mouth onto Norman Beach

Granite coast and off-shore islands

these waves even look cold - and they were...

another creek emptying on to Squeaky Beach

party crashers checking out whats for afternoon tea

even comfy on our head

Fatso..

Being almost winter, the campground is quiet but it must get busy as it has 480 camp sites (only 20 powered) and dozens of cabins and dormitories for groups.  We would definitely have this as one of those ‘must come back to’ places.

We finished the week trekking across through Sale; the home of the RAAF Roulettes, and on to Bairnsdale to catch up with the Robbos.