Tuesday 21 May

Metung to Cann River

Called round to say goodbye to my hosts and make an entry in the visitor’s book.  On the road by 9.30am.  The Princess Highway from Bairnsdale to Orbost passes through some lovely cool temperate rain forest and a national park.  Very pleasant driving.

Arrived at Orbost about 11 and filled up the fuel tank.  Petrol still at $1.47/ltr even this far from the big smoke.  Orbost is a picturesque country town on the shores of the Snowy River.  Turned off the main highway and followed the river down to Marlo on the coast and where the Snowy enters Bass Strait.  Marlo is another coastal holiday town.  Very quiet at this time of year.  Had a pleasant chat with a couple from Canberra who were heading the other way toward Melbourne.

The mouth of the Snowy River

 A really good sealed road follows the coast from Marlo to Cape Conran in the Cape Conran Coastal Park.  The cape is the eastern end of the Ninety Mile Beach.  Interestingly, a fisherman and his family lived here before it became a park.  The day I visited it was cool and windy with threatening rain although the photos may not convince you of this!

Cape Conran & Eastern End of 90 Mile Beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The road then heads back inland and picks up the Princess Highway just west of Cann River.  This town is predominantly a timber town and the main highway junction for the Princess and Monaro Highways.  From here I decided to drive to Pt. Hicks.  That name may ring some bells with you as being the first point on the Australian mainland that Captain Cook saw when he discovered Oz.

Pt Hicks is the headland on the right in the above photo

The road to the coast is sealed for approximately 17ks then is white and red gravel for the last 25 odd ks.  It was badly corrugated in places and I was regretting taking the trailer rather than leaving it at the caravan park at Cann River.  The Deli handled it well especially when I slipped her into high range 4wd which substantially improved road holding.
Pt. Hicks is within the beautiful Croajingolong National Park which starts just east of Cape Conran and extends all the way to VIC/NSW border north of Mallacoota.  There is a nice little camp ground at Thurra River which enters Bass Strait near Pt. Hicks.  I was intending to do the 3k walk to the light house on the point but, remember the threatening rain I mentioned earlier well, it bucketed down!  Pt. Hicks light house is on the revisit list!!

Funny how the drive back over a road you have traversed in one direction is always shorter when you are going back in the other direction.  I was back at Cann River before I knew it.  Lovely little camp ground with hot showers and toilets that needed some tender loving cleaning.  Nice little laundry and at $10 per night “I no complain”  You pay at the lovely old pub across the road.

As I was staying only one night I did not set up the annex and left the trailer connected.  I decided I would face the mess that was sure to await me when I opened the doors given the corrugated road I had just dragged it over.  The Smiff’s (friends who recently toured NZ in a motor home) stories of fish sauce, eggs and flour being addled together due to vehicle movement were upper most in my mind as I gingerly opened the door on the kitchen side.  But hey, no worries!!!  Everything was still in place and still in one piece.  Congratulations to the designer (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).  Similar story on the tool side – all still in one piece.  Both the Deli and the trailer had, however, changed colour!!

As the showers were frequent I found a creative solution to the problem of cooking without the annex which was much admired by the locals.

 

 

Wednesday 22 May

Cann River to Mallacoota

Another lovely drive through rainforest country arriving at Genoa by about 10.00am.  There is a lovely council run free camp spot here but no 240v power and only cold showers.  As I forgot to change the fridge from battery to gas last night and, you guessed it, the battery in the trailer was dead flat this morning and the road journey was not sufficient to recharge it via the dual battery system, I decided to turn off the Princess Highway and head down to Mallacoota.  I was going to stay at this free camp and do day trips into Mallacoota but as fate would have it things conspired to result in a better solution.

I will be breaking my rule of not making posts in quick succession.  So hit me!!! Mallacoota deserves special attention because it is a “special” place.  Will be back soon!!

Sunday May 12 to Tuesday May 14

Yarram Area

I stayed at the Yarram Rosebank Tourist Park.  A lovely caravan park within easy walking distance to the town centre. 

It has numerous powered sites that are well grassed, flat and divided from each other with attractive hedges.  There are about half a dozen drive through sites which saves all that backing!!  The amenities are clean and well maintained and the new owners have added some nice “homely” touches.  Coin operated laundry, bbq area and fire pot area with wood supplied!!  $32.00 per night for a double and for me, $29.00.

Yarram is a farming town of around 2500 people.  It services a very flat area along the coast that incorporates dairy, beef, sheep farming and cropping.  There is also an active timber industry cutting from plantations.

Port Albert

This pretty little sea side town was the first port in Gippsland and was the main entry point to the area for people and goods.  Now, like most of the towns along the coast it is a summer holiday destination for Melburnians and the people from the Latrobe Valley.  There is a very interesting maritime museum located on the water front.

Further along the coast is Woodside Beach the beginning of the 90 Mile Beach that runs along the coast to the east and finishes at Marlo and the mouth of the Snowy River. I am heading in that direction.

 

 

 

 Tara Valley and Tara Bulga National Park

A beautiful remnant of how the Strzelecki Ranges must have looked before European settlement.  The national park is a very dense cool temperate rainforest and home to the Lyre Bird.  No photos of them unfortunately as they are very elusive although I did sight several but they were too quick for the camera.  There is also an interesting suspension bridge in the park and some very, very, very, very tall eucalyptus regnans.

 

Wednesday May 15 to Monday May 20

On the road by 10 am heading further along the coast toward Metung which is at the eastern end of the Gippsland Lakes.  Why Metung I hear you ask?  You may remember I mentioned in a previous post that I had found a web site that matches “hosts” with “helpers” the idea being you do a minimum of 4 hours work per day in exchange for accommodation and meals.  I stayed with a lovely young family who have 10 acres of sea side pasture and a very comfortable home located in Metung.

The drive into Metung follows the very pleasant Tambo River which is navigable by reasonably sized motor cruisers a fair way inland.

 

Metung is a very up market holiday seaside town with lots of retirees as permanent residents and younger families.  It was once the centre for boat building (the above units are on the site of the former boat building yards) on the lakes and was predominantly a fishing and farming village.  It is also provided a training ground for flying boat crews during WWII.

Cosy anchorages at Metung

   

Bairnsdale is the main commercial centre in the lakes area.  There are lovely spots at Paynesville, just south of Bairnsdale, and Lake Tyers, east of Lakes Entrance, which are also very up market holiday spots/retiree towns.  The hinterland around Bairnsdale is dominated by very large vegetable growing areas that occupy the flood plains of the Mitchell River.

Ninety Mile Beach at Lake Tyers

 

Lakes Entrance, as its name suggests, is the point where the lakes enter Bass Strait.  There was a natural opening here which was modified early last century.  “Lakes”, as it commonly known, is the base for fishing and pleasure craft and is a prime holiday spot with numerous hotels, motels, caravan parks and all manner of holiday cabins and apartments. 

There is a pleasant 5k return walk to be had along the arm of land that separates the Ninety Mile Beach from the lake in front of the main town area.  The walk will take you to the actual entrance and a shorter history walk which explains how the current structures at the entrance were constructed.

I was really impressed with the extent of the waterways that constitute the Gippsland Lakes.  Very nice sheltered waterways and some really nice anchorages exemplified by those around Metung.  If you lived here you would definitely need to own a boat!  A house boat would be very suitable.  Well worth spending some time here if you are heading this way.

 

Saturday April 27 to Wednesday May 8

I spent a very enjoyable and relaxing week and half with my sister in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne.  Tidied up the garden for her and generally sussed out which way I might go once I hit the round again.  Caught up with one of my brothers and another sister.  She is heavily into documenting the family history so the bit of graveyard research I did in Burnie was of great use to her.  It also added to the intrigue surrounding our maternal grandparents.

I also discovered a very interesting web site that matches travellers as volunteers with accommodation hosts who are seeking helpers to undertake work in exchange for accommodation, meals etc.  I think this may well be of use as I “steer” my way around the country.

Thursday May 9

Left my sister’s place around 9.30am heading for Wilson’s Promontory (one on the bucket list).  Beautiful, mild, late autumn day.  Un-seasonally so!  Arrived at the Prom around lunch time and booked in for 3 nights as the weather is forecast to deteriorate on Sunday so I will move inland.

The camping area is very large with some 480 spots.  There are very good amenity blocks with coin operated washing machines and driers but no clothes lines.  There are also various types of cabin accommodation.  Entry to national parks in Victoria is free (Tas Govt take note!!).  The fee for a non-powered camping site was $26.20 and for a powered site, of which there are only 20 was $48.60(May 2013).  Allocation of sites over summer and at Easter is done by ballot and the place is very busy during school holidays.

There are very good internet and mobile signals in the main camping area however, if you go off on one of the many walks the mobile signal varies.  Very strong on top of Mt Oberon but you won’t have any breath left to make the call!!  There is a general store and takeaway shop but the grocery prices are way over the top.  Nearest petrol and alcoholic refreshments are 45mins back up the road outside the park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday May 10

Mt Oberon 585metres(the mountain in the above pic)

I decided to tackle the mountain in the morning before the temperature reached its forecast maximum in the mid-twenties.  I know I have been regularly resorting to using superlatives like stunning, magnificent, awe inspiring so I figure why break the habit but I’ll let this panorama shot do the talking.

 

If you want to see more let me know and I can email them to you. (Yeah, like you really do want to see more!)

The walk to the top is continually uphill for 3.4ks (funny about that!!) however you will be walking on a road that is very well made and allows vehicles to service the communications installation on the top of the mountain.  The last 300 metres or so is on a narrow path and steps carved into the granite boulders on the top but boy is it worth the climb particularly if the weather is good.  (Mountain top views and good weather are a bit like flowing waterfalls and rain).

Tidal River Squeaky Beach Circuit

Yeah, yeah I know we have squeaky beaches in Tassie but I’m addicted to walking and scenery.  This is a nice circuit walk of about 7ks taking in some lovely views of Norman Beach,  Part of the walk, about 1.5ks is along the main road.  There are very pleasant views of Tidal River as you wind your way back to the camp ground.
Mt Oberon, the camping area at Tidal River and the western coastline of the park.

Norman Beach the main beach at the camp ground

Unfortunately the camera had a technical malfunction so there is only one picture (thank the gods I hear you say!!!) of Squeaky Beach which, I have to say, wasn’t all that squeaky!  Both the camera and I have now recovered.

 

Squeaky Beach

Saturday May 11

Lilly Pilly Gully and Mt Bishop 393 metres

Well, this late autumn weather is certainly something out of the box!!  Another glorious day.  The Prom is certainly turning on the weather.  A lovely leisurely morning walk into the Lilly Pilly gully warm temperate rain forest and surrounds followed by a challenging walk to the top of Mt Bishop 393 metres.  For the return to camp I chose the Tidal Overlook track.  Again, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

View from top of Mt Bishop

 

You may have noticed I have discovered the panorama function on the camera which is the only way to do justice to the scenery here.

All the walking that I did, some 25ks, in the Prom NP was on very well made tracks although the Mt Bishop track is a little less well made with protruding rocks and tree roots but the view is well worth the effort.  There is a heap of other walking to do but it requires overnight stops and permits.  Oh well, one day…….

Whilst sipping a relaxing Glen Fiddich I had a night visitor!

PS:  As Gene has expressed interest in my assessment of showers the ones here are very good for temperature and pressure but the design could do with some improvement.  Overall Shower Rating (OSR) – 3stars out of 5.

Sunday May 12

On the road by 9.30am for some “steering” along the Gippsland coast.  Called into to Foster, pretty little town, where the lady in the tourist information centre was very helpful and loaded me up with lots of reading material about stuff to see and do.  Ended up in Yarram where I have booked in for 3 nights and will do some touring from here.  Talk to you again soon.