The Tassie Trip - Part 3

Saturday Feb 4th: It has stopped raining Yeah!! Visited the markets conveniently located at the Showgrounds where we are staying - interesting array of produce. Then packed up and headed south. Free camped at a spot near Tumburumba called Paddy's River Flats - very pleasant next to a stream. Stayed here for the next two nights.




Sunday 5th Feb: Big day sightseeing. Drove up to Thredbo in the Snowy Mts. - nice scenery and very windy steep drive. Caught the chairlift up Mt.Kosciusko and then finished with a short walk to the lookout. Stayed at the same spot.



Monday 6thFeb: Another day at Paddy's River. Went for a 8klm walk retracing the path of explorers Hume and Hovell. The track went most of the way next to a creek - very bushy. Had lunch in Tumburumba then another did the Sugar Pine walk - magnificent.



Tuesday 7th Feb: On the road again. Nice drive along the banks of the Murray River and free camped at Pigs Point Reserve - sound revolting but very nice.

Wednesday 8th Feb: On the road again. Bright was a very touristy town. Visited a very historic town of Beechworth - a good climb - then on to a free camp at Pioneer Bridge.

Thursday 9th Feb: Getting closer to Melbourne. Went via Glenrowan and saw a few Ned Kelly sights. Mansfield was a pleasant town on the way. Ended up in a free camp at Tolangi - nestled in amongst the forrest - this was the area of the tragic bushfires.



Friday 10th Feb: Travelled into a Big 4 Caravan Park at Coburg - thank God for the GPS.

Saturday 11th Feb: The free camping has been great but the van battery was flat when we arrived in Melbourne. Have decided to buy a generator so free camping becomes a little easier. Preparing for an early start tomorrow as we have to be at the Port by 7am.

The Tassie Trip Part 2

Sunday 29th January: Big day on the road. Travelled through Glenn Innes, Armidale, Tamworth and ended up at a free camp at Premer. Well almost free - $10 donation to the Lions Club. Rained most of the day. Had a stop at Guyra to visit the Lamb and Potato festival. Bought a Lamb and Potato pie for tea - delicious. Premer was like a town from Deliverance - every "house" had at least 3 car bodies in the yard.


Monday 30th January: Another big day on the road. Travelled via Gulgong, Wellington, Cowra and ended up at a free camp at Binalong - home of Banjo Patterson and various bushrangers. Met 3 strange Muslims on the way at Boorowa. Saw the first sunshine of the trip - hooray!!!!

Tuesday 31st January: Uneventful drive into Canberra. Set up camp at the Showgrounds -quite a few caravans in. Drove to the top of Mt. Ainslie to get a birds eye view of Canberra then started our tour of all the Big Attractions. Visited the New Parliament House- very impressive and then the War Memorial - stayed for the playing of the Last Post at closing time - very moving. Went for a walk around Lake Burley Griffin.



Wednesday 1st Feb: Not so early start and visited the Australian Institute of Sport. Nice to see where $45 Million of our money is spent. The interactive games area was interesting. Visited the National Portrait Gallery and saw a few familiar faces. Then went into the High Court and sat in on a taxation fraud case. By the end of the day the rain had set in.




Thursday 2nd Feb: The rain is really set in. Went back to finish touring the War Memorial and found Uncle Greg's name on the Honour Wall - so many names so many stories. In the afternoon we visited the Mint - unfortunately they weren't giving out samples


Friday 3rd Feb: Another rainy day!!!! Shopping at Aldi's then went into the city to have a look around. Very pleasant city centre with Malls and plenty of shops. Bought some thermals for Tasmania - Marg can't wait to try hers on. Visited the National Museum in the afternoon.

The Tassie Trip - Part 1

Saturday 21st January: Spent 5 days on the Gold Coast visiting the family and stayed at Main Beach Caravan Park. It rained continuously and we thought we better get going before we got flooded in. Travelled via Canungra, Beaudesert, Boonah and then over Cunningham's Gap to Tenterfield. Spent the night at Bluff Rock rest area 11km south of Tenterfield. It rained heavily all day.

The great Southern expedition - Part 6

Thursday April 21st to Wednesday 27th Berry was our 'bunker down' stopover to avoid the crazy Easter crowds and the Showgrounds proved to be a good 'haven'. Berry provided me with some good retail therapy and Grae patiently tagged along. ( to make sure I didn't spend too much!! ) He even took me out to a tea house - lovely! Berry is a very pretty town and from this base we did plenty of sight seeing;- Kangaroo Valley, Bendeela, Tallowa Dam and Camberwarra Lookout ( All well worth visiting ). Saw my first wombat at Bendeela too - so cute. Jervis Bat, Callala Bay, Currarong, Culburra Beach and Pt Greenwell was another day trip . ( Currarong had lots of appeal and is very scenic ). Kiama, Gerringong, Gerroa and 7 Mile Beach were also worth a look. The blow hole at Kiama was a bit of a 'non-event' due to lack of swell.

Wednesday April 27th to May 4th Found ourselves a nice little caravan park ( Anglers Rest ) on the Esplanade at Greenwell Pt - only two caravan sites , the rest being cabins and permanent vans. Grae's eyes lit up at the great potential this place had for a spot of flathead fishing. Each expedition was a success with some lovely flathead catches plus he's mastered the art of catching poddy mullet - the best bait to catch these piscatorial delights! . 3rd May was our anniversary so we had lunch and a small pokie win at Shoalhaven Sports Club - a good choice - nice food and great view. NSW keeps delighting us with these picturesque coastal spots.

The great Southern expedition - Part 5

Saturday 3rd April to April 7th Set up Camp at North Head Primitive Campground at Moruya bound by a river, surfing beach and an airport!! Reminded us of the movie "The Castle'. From this base we did a spot of sightseeing and checked out all of the great beaches north to Bateman's Bay. The city slickers from Sydney and Canberra certainly have a great selection of holiday spots in this neck of the woods. Enjoyed the historical township of Mogo. Tuross Head,which is south of Moruya is also a lovely holiday destination. Grae attempted a fishing trip but the weather was against him so no luck this time. The river at Moruya is still commercially fished.

Thursday April 7th to April 9th About an hour north of Moruya we finally decided to stay at Kiaroa .There are four caravan parks in this area from Bawley Pt to Pretty Beach - this one was the cheapest and is on the best beach. Drove up to Lake Conjola to check this spot out as our next destination and we were suitably impressed - it is a beautiful lake and peaceful spot.

Saturday April 9th to Thursday 21st Lake Conjola proved to be one of our 'Top Spots' . Island View Caravan Park became our home for the next 12 days. The lake is simply a great place for families providing canoeing, skiing and fishing experiences ( of course ) for the holiday makers. There's a beautiful surfing beach here also which would appeal to our sons. Grae's highlight was catching 2x80cm flathead!! Mine was exploring Milton an historical township just south of here. We also did some sightseeing - Sussex Inlet and Ulladulla- The'Blessing of the Fleet Festival ' , begun by it's Italian founders, will be held there this weekend.

The Great Southern Expedition - Part 4

Thursday 17th March to Friday 18th March - currently at Mallacoota, a beautiful coastal spot and fisherman's paradise! We could live here. The caravan park is the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere and there are two fishing comps this weekend! So we've decided to move on to Wonboyn tomorrow. We have been spoilt by staying in quiet roomy parks and bush camps and don't like being in 'caravan city' even though it's a lovely park.

Saturday 19th March to Wednesday 23rd March - Graeme was very keen on Wonboyn Lake - great fishing potential and a beautiful place, but his hopes were dashed by the worst weather we've experienced so far! We were floodbound for a day which I'm sure he planned in the hope for sunny skies and better fishing conditions - it was not to be. We made the most of it and did a lot of sight seeing around Eden - great scenery and bush walks , a lot of history at Eden e.g. whaling, its deep water port. On the worst day we bunkered down in the van for a movie marathon - yes 3 consecutive movies!!

Thursday 24th March to Friday 25th March - On the way to our next spot we investigated Tathra and Bermagui , two lovely places. Those of you who enjoy bush camping would love our next stop, Hobart Beach. It's in Bournda National Park. It's a huge park and we were one of only three campers - it was a great setting and the lake at our back door made for a great atmosphere for drinks and nibblies. Also lots of good bush walks one of them leading to Hobart Beach. The only down side is **** NSW National Parks hit you with the fees! Whilst there we checked out Merimbula, Tura Beach and Pambula. Pambula was my fave - historical, nice beaches and there's a great Vintage Shop there called 'Bowerbirds' girls!! Graeme was most patient - what a guy!

Saturday 26th March - overnight stop at Mystery Bay another picturesque spot. Not a fan of the pit toilets though!! We checked out Wallaga Lake on the way but due to recent flooding, the good camping spots in the Caravan parks were closed.

Sunday 27th March to April 3rd We have enjoyed our time at this fantastic spot called Dalmeny - lovely grassy camping area overlooking a surfing beach - our boys would love it! We have investigated Kianga and Narooma, a few minutes south of here and a special highlight yesterday was a surprise visitor at the fish cleaning table at the boat ramp - a huge seal which was enjoying the yellow-tailed king fish scraps being fed to him by the lucky fishermen who enjoyed a successful fishing 'outside' expedition.. Graeme has enjoyed success catching flathead in picturesque Lake Mummaga .The days have been beautiful and I've enjoyed the boating too. The lake has been like a mill pond and the fish, an added bonus. 'Huey' blessed us with good weather this week so we are hoping for more sunny days in the future. Central Tilba and Tilba Tilba were two little hisorical towns we visited- reminded us of a smaller version of Montville on the Sunshine Coast. Can recommend the Tilba cheeses - yum! There is a lovely 'eco' type caravan park at Potato Point right on a surfing beach at which we are considering as our next stopover. Did some 4WD'ing and even stumbled across a couple of rednecks, straight out of 'Deliverance', free camping in the bush - spooky. On our return to the park we were met with two great surprises - no not more seals - but Debbie and Graeme from Woodgate, who are returning home from their Tassy trip. Enjoyed a great morning with them, today, sightseeing in Narooma and we yet again spotted more seals on the rocks at the sea wall( near Australia Rock )- so lucky and we didn't have to pay for the experience! Debbie's home made scones for morning tea topped off a great time. Reluctantly leaving here tomorrow .

The Great Southern Expedition - Part 3

Sunday 20th Feb - left Lorne and drove up the Great Ocean Road to Queenscliffe - a very historic town at the "Rip" as the entrance to Port Phillip bay is known. Stayed at the local caravan park which had an Aussie Rules field in the middle of it. Marg met up with her friend Beth.

Monday 21st Feb - left at 6:30 to catch the "early bird special" ferry from Queenscliffe to Sorrento. Drove along the Mornington Peninsula and ended up at Phillip Island. We visited Seal Rocks - no seals (I think they were all blown away) and that night we went to see the penguins walk up the beach. Rugged up with blankets just like going to the footy - and a big crowd just like the footy.

Tuesday 22nd to Friday 25th Feb - drove to a small coastal village called Sandy Point - ocean on one side and a shallow inlet on the other side. Nice and easy beach launch into Shallow Inlet and then motored about 500m dropped anchor and caught our first King Gearge whiting - 28 to 40 cm. Fished the same inlet for 3 days and caught plenty of fish - used yabbies for bait.

Saturday 26th Feb - headed for Wilson's Promontory - most southerly point on mainland Australia. Stayed at a bush camp just near Yanakie and then drove down to have a look at the Prom. Stunning coastline and perfect weather made for a good day. went exploring on a 3hr walk - Marg is still recovering.

Sunday 27th Feb - made tracks for Port Albert - Victoria's first port - and also very historical. Free camped overlooking the harbour and saw lots of flathead being cleaned.

Monday 28th Feb - decided to stay at Port Albert and do some fishing.Stayed at the Seabank Caravan Park. Set up the boat and then down came the rain. Plan B - drive up to Tarra Bulga national park and check out the scenery - a bit foggy but interesting.

Tuesday 1st March to Thursday 3rd - the weather has cleared but now gale force winds have arrived - no fishing. Another drive to check out some small beachside towns to the north. got our first look at Ninety Mile beach at Woodville. Trip into Yarram for supplies. Had one fishing trip at Port Albert but no luck.

Friday 4th March - left Port Albert and headed to Briagolong. Free camped next to a creek at Providence Ponds. Visited Maffra and Marg went op shopping again. Had a huge campfire that night.

Saturday 5th March - drove into Lakes Entrance and had a look around - very picturesque but touristy. Bought Marg her birthday presents - a yabby pump and a frying pan - I must stop spoiling her. Spent the night at Logging Creek -free camp - a great spot and another huge camp fire.

Sunday 6th March to Monday 7th March - went through Snowy River country at Orbost and stayed at Cape Conran - a great bush camp right on the beach. Another huge camp fire. Tried some beach fishing without luck. Celebrated Marg's birthday with lunch at the Marlo pub - great spot overlooking the estuary.

Tuesday 8th March to Wednesday 16th March - stayed at Bemm River - fantastic small fishing spot on Sydenham Inlet which is only on average 1.5m deep and at the moment the entrance to the ocean is closed. Some great bream fishing - avg 35 to 40 cm - and the ramp was only 1min from the camp and the fish were about 3mins from the ramp. Stayed a bit longer in order to get the lock fixed on caravan door and Waeco fridge needed a new control panel.

Thursday 17th March to Friday 18th March - currently at Mallacoota, a beautiful coastal spot and fisherman's paradise! We could live here. The caravan park is the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere and there are two fishing comps this weekend! So we've decided to move on to Wonboyn tomorrow. We have been spoilt by staying in quiet roomy parks and bush camps and don't like being in 'caravan city' even though it's a lovely park.