Ned Kelly Statue Glenrowan

Replica of Ned Kelly's Armour

Mountains between Whitfield & Mansfield

Before Bonnie Doon

Pa cooking tea camp style (like the wine glass)

3/4/2012 - I have decided to go by date now instead of day as it is getting harder to remember how many days it has been!!!  Anyway we left the caravan park at Wangaratta about 9.15 and it is another beautiful day.  Thought we would go down to Glenrowan and check out Ned Kelly country.  We went through the Museum there and it was really interesting.  Even though Ned was really a thief you had to feel sorry for him and the events that made him what he was. We then followed the Major Mitchell Trail (the backblocks) down to Lurg, Whitfield and Cheshunt where there were lots of wineries, black Angus cattle and sheep.  Had lunch at Whitfield and as we were leaving got a call to say the van was ready so we went from Whitfield to Mansfield all the while still climbing up and down mountains.  Only got to 910 metres above sea level today (just think yesterday we were 1000 metres higher) Amazingly a lot of these mountains don't have any crash barriers on them and not a lot of shoulder so there are no room for errors.  Then Mansfield to Bonnie Doon where there is a huge lake.  The countryside all the way has been absolutely spectacular with lots of green rolling hills and valleys, beautiful cattle, sheep and some lovely old buildings and vineyards.  Then to Bonnie Doon down to Yea and on to Seymour where we stayed last weekend.  We fuelled up there and headed on down to Epping to pick up the van.  Drove in to Vanguard and there she was - our home and so much higher.  She had a whole new suspension on as well as a few little things we got to them to do in the interior and they had weighed her again and she was definitely 200kgs overweight for the old suspension.  After the run down from them we headed north  out of the rat race and on to Kilmore.  We stopped in Wallan at Coles and got some snags and baked beans for tea.  Got to the caravan park about 7pm and set up.  Our step doesn't work and keeps shorting out so something is wrong there.  Pa finally got the step to go down by wriggling it. At least it is down for now so it is not like climbing a mountain trying to get into the van without a step. (It really is a lot higher)  He will have a look at that tomorrow - we have run out of light. Then hooked up the hose for the water and had a leak under the van - they hadn't hooked up the water hose properly.  Lucky Pa knows the plumbing very well and he fixed it. (This trip round the Block has definitely not been boring) Anyway we cooked tea on our little butane stove and had our wine in our travel coffee cups.  This is what you call camping in your caravan and we reckon sausages never tasted so good. At least we have our bedding with us and some clothes so all is good.  On to Leongatha tomorrow to reload the van and give the car and van a really good wash.  Will head west after Easter.

Chairlift at Mt Hotham

Top of Mt Hotham

Cruiser at Mt Hotham (Notice mudflap missing)

Bright Yellow Line Markings

Avenue in Bright

Day 32 - Left Lakes Entrance about 8 am.  It is a beautiful day.  Today we are heading to Wangaratta which is north of us and north east of Melbourne.  We are trying to work our way back closer to Melbourne so when the van is ready we don't have far to go. We were able to by pass Bairnsdale and head to Bruthen and then onto the Great Alpine Road north to Omeo.  TheTambo River runs right beside the road so we decided to turn off at Barksheds Creek as there was a bridge going over the river. It was the sort of river you would expect Trout to be swimming in. We drove down a bit of a gravel road to the bridge and crossed over.  It was just lovely.  Pa turned around on the other side and I got out and took photos.  We headed back to the road and had a bit of trouble when we got over the bridge as the track was washed out.  Anyway we got out but ended up ripping a mudflap off.  So we only have 1 mudflap at the moment.  We kept climbing and passed through Ensay North and had Moko at Swift Creek at the friendly wood fired bakery.  Broke our diet and had coffee with a couple of matchsticks (iced flaky pastry filled with cream and jam).  With our tummies full we kept going and about 10klms from Omeo we were overtaken by a ute with chipboard on the roof bars.  As we had a strong headwind the chipboard was nearly doubled over on the roof.  Next thing it broke and headed our way. Thankfully Pa was watching and hit the brakes and the board missed us.  Thank god for ABS brakes. Kept climbing and about 20kms from Dinner Plains the road markings and guideposts changed from white to bright yellow (so you can see them in the snow)  Stopped at Dinner Plate for a look. It is obviously a resort.  All the houses look the same and all are built from weatherboard and are the same colour..  Still climbing to Mt Hotham Resort.  I'm sure this is the top of the world.  This is where all the chair lifts are and all the shops to get your snow gear.  The views were spectacular.  We are approx. 1900m above sea level.  It is windy and cold, approx. 17oC.  Amazingly there were lots of dead trees and dead tree tops everywhere which gave the area quite an eerie look.  After going down a really windy and I mean windy road we got to Harrietville.  Had lunch there and Pa checked the brakes as they were really smelly.  Front ones were 260 degrees and back were 180 degrees.  That is soooo hot.  Harrietville was a lovely town with an avenue of trees running right through the town.  On to Bright that has a Brewery right in town and also has a beautiful avenue of trees down the main street.  There is lots of accommodation in this area.  Guess it is an overflow area for the ski fields.  Would be cheaper than up on the slopes.  This area is so beautiful.  There are lots of Chestnuts and Berries for sale here and lots of wineries.  Went through Porepunkah.  They grow lots of hops here, maybe to supply the brewery in Bright.  We also noticed a lot of cyclists and bike tracks beside the road.  Think they take the sport very seriously around here.  Went on through Ovens and Myrtleford where there are herds of Black Angus (Alpine Angus) in the paddocks. On to Wangaratta and got accommodation in a cabin in one of the caravan parks.  Walked into town for some wine and milk (not drinking together) and came back to enjoy happy hour on the deck.  Got a call from Johnny from Vanguard to let us know the van will be ready late tomorrow afternoon so we will finally have our home back.  Till tomorrow.........

Day 31 - Very quiet day today.  Quite overcast.  Did a load of washing and put through dryer.  Pa repacked the car so it was a bit more organised and we loaded the kayaks and packed what we didn't need so there isn't as much to do tomorrow.  I have caught up with all my blogs today so that is a very good feeling and we watched footy this afternoon.  Our footy tips were spot on.  Still haven't heard from Johnny so don't know what we will be doing tomorrow.  We have to leave here so hopefully we get a call in the morning to say we can pick up the van.  Fingers crossed.

Pa feeding the swans some bread

How friendly are these swans

Day 30 - Went back to the beach today for another fish.  We moved down the beach a bit further today but didn't have any success.  Found some lovely shells though.  Decided to come back to the cabin have some lunch and fish in the river across the road.  It was pretty quiet over there but we had some fun feeding the black swans who are very friendly especially when you have something for them to eat.  Got a bit cool so we came back for a coffee and watched TV for a while.  

Eastern Beach

Pa's Salmon

Pa in action

Day 29 - Lovely day again today thank goodness.  We went next door to the Servo to get our Fishing Licences.  Cost us $12 each for 2 days.  Came back to the cabin, packed lunch got our gear and headed out to the beach with Salmon in mind.  It was beautiful out there again today.  On the walkway out to the beach a lady started talking to us.  She was from the Latrobe Valley and told us that there is a lot of static electricity down there and the only way to get rid of the static was to either bury yourself in sand or go for a swim in the salt water.  She opted for a swim. I'm sure she was a greenie.  (Told you we meet all types on the road) I think I would rather have been buried because the water is freezing down here.  We fished a gutter we had seen yesterday with no luck.  Pa shifted down the beach a bit further and started getting bites then next thing  wound in a beautiful Salmon.  They are a really strong fish.  Pa was pretty proud of himself.  His first Salmon and first Victorian fish. I wasn't lucky today but had lots of fun trying.  We had lunch there and headed home after that.  One fish was enough for us for a good feed.  We called into the fish shop and got a kilo of green prawns and cooked half of them in Teriyaki sauce and had that with the pan fried lemon pepper salmon and wedges (oven fried of course). Yummy.

Happy Hour beside river

The Evidence

The Entrance

Day 28 - Beautiful day today.   We went for a drive and did a bit more exploring around the area.  Went north to Lake Tyres just a small little fishing village.  It was really nice down there.  Came back and we called into Eastern Beach here in Lakes Entrance and were wowed by the beautiful beach.  Lovely white sand with lots and lots of shells.  We decided we would buy a fishing licence in the morning and come back and try our luck. We came back into town and drove over the bridge to the lookouts on the hill on the way out of town. Got some great photos there.  We called in and got some bait and tackle before we went back to the cabin.  The guy at the bait shop told us they had been catching Salmon off the beach so hopefully we will be lucky. We were good and went for a walk again this afternoon.  Took a bit of a different route today and walked over the pedestrian bridge to the Lifesavers Club and the beach.  We came back and grabbed a bottle of red, some glasses and nibblies (low fat of course) and drank and ate it across the road beside the river.  It was just beautiful.  Came back over to the cabin when it cooled down and had tea and wound down for the night.

Kayaks in river opposite C'Van Park Lakes Entrance

Day 27 - Woke to a cool and overcast day.  Wanted to do some washing today so will have to put it through the dryer.  Bit of a pain having to pay for washing machines when normally I have my own.  Took a couple of hours to get it all done but we're all good now.  Everything's clean.  The weather picked up so we took the kayaks off the Cruiser and went for a peddle further down the river.  It was so good to get them back in the water and be able to use them.  We went for about 1 1/2 hours and it was really easy peddling.  Came back and had lunch and a relax for a while.  Went for a walk along the river and around into the main street and checked out the boats at the jetties there.  Some of the trawlers sell prawns straight off the boat but we were good and didn't buy any.  Came back to the cabin for happy hour. (Had to reward ourselves for being good and going for a walk).  Had tea and settled in for the night.

River and Jetty opp. C'Van Park

North Arm Caravan Park

Day 26 - Left Sale heading for Lakes Entrance.  We had plenty of time to have a look around on our way so we checked out a few van parks on the way through.  We didn't see anything we thought we would enjoy spending a few days at so kept going.  Made it to Lakes Entrance and as we drove over the bridge we spotted a caravan park off to the left beside the river.  It was one of the parks we had been checking out on the net.  Looked nice and neat and not very big but had a few cabins.  We called in and were able to inspect one of the cabins.  Looked good to us so decided to stay here until Monday so we booked in and unpacked.  We found the local shops and stocked up on some food and wine. (Got to get your priorities right)  Came back and unpacked the food and checked out the river and boats across the road from the park.  The river is lovely but very dirty.  Lots of Seagulls, Swans, Pelicans, Shags and a bird that looks like a big Seagull.  Don't know what it is so will have to find out.  There is all shapes and sizes of boats. Some worth lots of money. What a lovely little part of the world.  So glad we drove through to here.

Day 25 - Packed up and took the van back to Melbourne.  Hated having to leave it there in the street but couldn't do anything else.  We headed out and took a different route out of Melbourne through some of the hills but at least there wasn't as much traffic.  We headed back to Leongatha to get some more of our things from Dave and Chris's and then kept going heading for Lakes Entrance.  Pa had been driving for hours today so we got as far as Sale and decided to stay there for the night.  We booked a cabin at a park on the way into town so spent a quiet night there.

Pa in Gun Turret

Australian Tank

Centurion Bridgelayer

Day 24 - Woke to the usual noises you get in most caravan parks first thing in the morning.  You get the early birds heading on to their next destination or the neighbours who get up and start talking to anybody at the top of their lungs as if everybody should already be awake.  Anyway we enjoyed the warmth and comfort of our cosy bed for a few minutes longer before we decided to make a start for the day.  Lovely warm shower first up and then coffee and porridge. ( Good start for cholesterol watchers).   We decided rather than head back to Leongatha when we drop the van off to Vanguard tomorrow we should go further and do some more adventuring before we have to come back to Melbourne for the van.  We think we would like to check Lakes Entrance out again and hopefully the weather will be fine this time.  Pa checked out the accommodation at the Entrance on line but we finally decided to just wing it and see what we can get when we get there. We wanted to check out one of the other wineries this morning so we headed out to  Fowles Winery about 20 klms out of town.  Sounded good in the brochure we got from the Information Bureau and that was where the wine we had with our Chinese on Friday night came from.  Got there but there wasn't much to see or do so we had a lovely capuccino instead (strange going to a winery and having a coffee).  We took a scenic drive home through Avenel where there are lovely old buildings and some very impressive properties.  Obviously it is a big equine area if the Equine Studs and the horses are anything to go by. We  headed back to Puckapunyal Army Base Tank Museum on the other side of town where we spent about 3 hours looking at lots of army artifacts and lots of old tanks and personnel carriers etc.  It cost us $6 each for admission (that was for seniors - I ask you, do we look like seniors) but the admission was well worth it.  We left there and headed back to the van for a bite to eat.  Not too much because it was about 3pm and we were going over to the Pub across the road for tea. We stopped to talk to the Park Manager on our way in and he confirmed our original thoughts about what was in his coke can - Scotch!!!  He told us that's what he had.  We sure do meet lots of colourful characters. Anyway we killed a couple of hours on the Internet looking at our house plans and then headed over for tea.  Thought I would be good and ordered a scotch fillet steak with veges and Pa ordered grilled Chicken Breast with prawns and scallops and seafood sauce and chips - Naughty, Naughty.  Found out after I ordered that the steak was a 600g fillet.  Way more than I could eat.  Anyway did the best I could and ended up doing a Grandma and taking a doggy bag.  Pa enjoyed his chicken and of course the chips which he is not getting too many of those these days.  Headed back home and watched a bit of telly had showers and hit the sack.  Another cool night.

In the Cellar at Tahbilk Winery

Pa having a little sip - or two!!!

Day 23 - Still at Hillcrest Caravan Park, Seymour.  Woke to a light shower but that quickly moved off and the day turned into a fine one.  A little cool at first but soon warmed up a bit.  A lot better than yesterday thank goodness.  We hopped up and had a coffee and Pa cooked our toast on the little butane stove we carry in the car.  This is just like camping but in our caravan.  Our resident Park Manager, who I might add is friendly but a little strange, likes walking around with a never ending coke in his hand.  (We did wonder what little extras he might have in the coke). Pa pulled the tail-light off the back of the van to try and dry it out so it didn't keep shorting the electric brakes out.  He did that and we headed out to do some shopping and call in to the information centre to see what we could do in the area.  We decided that the wine we had with tea last night was so nice we should have a look at some of the local wineries.  We took the shopping back to the van and had some lunch and drove out to the Tahbilk Winery (tabilk tabilk-aboriginal meaning place of many waterholes) probably about 30 klms out of town.  Countryside is lovely here too but a lot flatter than what we have been experiencing since about Day 3. There are lots of really nice homes on land around here with lots of nice little racks of lamb walking around.   The winery was lovely with old cottages and gardens and heaps of old machinery and equipment they would have used when the winery first opened in 1860.  We had a look around the cottages and machinery and then went to the cellar door.  The place just smelt of fermented grapes but I guess you get that  when the place is so old and is sitting on top of a cellar.  They had a great display of the history of the winery.  The Purbrick family who currently owns it has owned it since 1925 and now have 5 generations working there and have won many awards for their wines.  We had a look down in the cellar where all the vats are.  It is amazing how they would have built these places with no machinery like we have today.  There was just row after row of huge vats.  Got a couple of great photos of Pa and I looking like we are swigging straight from the vat.(Had to wait a few times for the traffic down there to thin out so we could take the photo without people thinking we were mad.)  When we finished down there we went for a walk on their Eco track which was really just around a lagoon and over an old bridge but it was lovely just walking along the quiet track and getting a bit of exercise.  Drove back to the van and had happy hour.

Day 22 - Off to Melbourne today to take the van into Vanguard.  We have taken everything out of it so we had it weighed in Leongatha before we left.  It was still overweight.  Took us a few hours to get through to Epping to where it had to go.  It was just the worst weather.  It was raining on and off and freezing cold with strong winds.  Not the sort of day to be towing a big van through Melbourne with all that traffic and straight into a head wind..  Pa did a great job but with me navigating and him driving we were both pretty stressed by the time we got there.  We ended up spending a couple of hours there talking to Johnny deciding what had to be done.  In the end we don't think he will even weigh the van, he knows just by looking at it that it is overweight for the suspension.  He organised for a new suspension to be delivered next Wednesday so didn't need the van till at least Monday.  We thought rather than go all the way back through that traffic and back to Leongatha we would head north to Seymour and have a look around up there.  We are so glad we did.  Seymour is a nice little town and the caravan park isn't too bad.  At least we got a drive-through site.  The park needed a little bit of TLC but was right in town.  After we settled in, we walked over to the Chinese Restaurant that we had noticed driving into town, and had tea there.  It was really nice.  It's been ages since we've had Chinese and we had a bottle of the local wine and enjoyed.  

Inverloch Beach

Rocks at Inverloch

Two of the Caves

Pa in Cave

Graham's Outlook

Enjoying Dinner 

Day 12 - Day 21 -  Have just summarised these days as we didn't get up to too much on some of the days.  I went to water aerobics in Leongatha with Chris for a few sessions which I really enjoyed.  Great workouts which I badly needed.  We also went to Inverloch  and Cape Paterson on Day 13.  That was really good.  Inverloch is lovely with a nice white sandy beach and is on a bit of an inlet.  We stopped off at The Caves which are caves in a sandstone cliff.  We had to walk over rocks to get to them but the rocks were really smooth.  The caves were great.  The water was icy.  Had to walk through some water to get into the caves.  Called into Wonthaggi for lunch and then home to Leongatha.  We went out to Graham's place (Pam's partner) for tea that night.  It was a lovely night so we ate tea out on his deck which overlooks lots of valleys and hills.  We had a beautiful meal of roast lamb, potato balls and steamed veges (yummy) and lots of wine -champagne,  red, white, port and cognac.  Graham just kept filling our glasses.  Pa couldn't even remember getting out of the car when we got home or going to bed, that's how many times Graham refilled his glass.  They were very nice hosts so the whole evening was lovely.  It was like sitting at a Winery somewhere enjoying a meal.

We had to get two new tyres on the cruiser another day.  Something Pa wanted to do before we left home but ran out of time.

Also went to the Heavy Horse and Machinery Show just outside of Nyora.  That was really interesting with lots of old machinery, tractors and Clydesdale horses.  Had a great day there.

Went out to Aunty Freda's for tea with Dave and Chris, Val and Ray and Pam and Graham.  Had a lovely night with a very nice meal.  Aunty Freda is almost blind now but still has a very sharp mind.  She enjoys talking to Pa about some of the things that happened in the old days.

Day 11 - Went to Caravan and Camping Show in Melbourne with Dave and Chris.  Took a couple of hours to get to Melbourne.  Show is really big compared to Brisbane.  Spent the day walking around there checking out vans and accessories.  Pa bought an Inverter for the van so we can charge the laptop batteries when we are free camping or just travelling along.  I bought a small rotary clothes line so I have a bit more room to hang the washing out.  We ended up staying until closing time so we must have had a good day.  Got heaps of brochures on places in SA, NT and WA that we could visit.  Back to Leongatha, tea and bed.

Day 10 - Back down to hall for breakfast and face a bit of ribbing for going to bed so early last night.  Pa spoke to a cousin who had a photo of him when he was 11 years old and  in the Army Cadets at school. Grandma had sent it to her mother and she had kept it.  The cousin we were talking to had made up an album with some of the family history in.  Went back to van to check house plans Garry was emailing to us.  Talked to him and then went back down to hall for lunch, tea and cleanup.  Family reunion over.  Back to van and crashed again.  Big weekend, BIG week before.