Port Albert, Coronet Bay, Melbourne, Sunbury.

Port Albert

We are now starting to curl around the bottom of Victoria and pop into an advertised Free Stay at Port Albert.

The town is trying to attract travelers and have set aside part of the parking area for the boat ramp for caravans and camper vans. If the weather had been kind it would have very picturesque but again the weather has closed in and it is FREEZING and blowing a gale. Unless you held onto the door of the caravan it would get ripped out of your hands. We met Janette and Barry from Cleveland, who had been travelling for some time. We invited them over to get out of the cold and just chatted for hours. That night we wandered over to the local fish shop, apparently the attached restaurant is rated the 3^rd best fish restaurant in Australia but was closed so we got fish and chips at the shop, fantastic. We went for a wander around the town the next morning and soon discovered it is very much a ghost town trying to revive itself, many smalls towns are struggling.

On our way to Coronet Bay we dropped into the Toora Wind Farms. It was a windy drive up the mountain but apparently it is not the right thing to be dragging your van up there as these people were staggered that we were parked up there with our van and made sure that we were not thinking of going any further up the mountain. These 12 turbines are huge being 67 metres high with blades 66 metres. Onto the town of Foster, very friendly town with community gardens in the main street where you could pick a strawberry and in a few weeks lettuce and other vegetables. The museum was great and was based primarily on the schooling in the area around the early 1900s. Schools were built 5 miles apart to make it attractive for families to move into the area. There are many drives where you can visit the sites of where all these old schools were. Onto Wonthaggi to get supplies, we are moving along quite quickly as we need to get to Melbourne for the wedding on the 17^th November and to meet up with Karen and Chris at Coronet Bay later today.

Coronet Bay

What a lovely place and Karen and Chris have built a beautiful holiday house overlooking Phillip Island, the sunset was spectacular.

The next day Karen and Chris have taken up for a tour of the area, having a beautiful breakfast and dropping into this shed where if you could think of it he would probably have it. If only I had some room I am sure we could have bought have bought something old. Karen and Chris had to get back to Melbourne, so they left the keys to their house with us and we settled into a bit of luxury for a few days. We drove around to Phillip Island and again being confused by the daylight saving missed a couple of things but we did make sure we got to see the ‘Fairy’ Penguins which are now called ‘Little’ penguins. I thought it must have been political correctness gone mad but these same penguins have different names across Australia and New Zealand so they have adapted the same name of ‘Little’, must have something to do with their size. We gathered at 7.00pm on the far Western end of Phillip Island right on the beach on viewing platforms on the waters edge and waited and waited and waited. But the wait was worthwhile when these beautiful little creatures came waddling out of the water and scurried up the beach and into the bush searching for their nests. I always thought that their nests were close to the beach but they were up to 100 metres into the bush.

Back to Wonthaggi to have a look around, get a haircut, and have a look at the black coal mine, this tour has been a highlight. Brian was an ex-miner who now does mine tours. We dressed up in the hard hats and headed down 167 metres via the old entrance where they dragged the coal out by horses. Just the whole atmosphere of the mine and the grounds was an eye opener, I just love this stuff. The jaw bones are of a whale washed up on the beach in 1923.

Time to pack up and move onto Melbourne to stay with Karen and Chris again and help them to prepare for the wedding, towing the van through the suburbs and finding a park in the local shopping centre was a test which thankfully we passed.

The next few days were a blur with meeting up with relatives, performing the wedding ceremony and having a highlight of meeting up with Ben and Shell at Melbourne airport, there were lots of tears. The wedding went like a dream, with Belinda and Al being entertainers they had some great friends and they certainly entertained, a great night with lots of fun, hugs and kisses.  Belinda is also a music teacher and had her students performing during the ceremony, she has done such a great job in teaching them.

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Ben and Shell that night as we were staying in Sunbury and they were staying in the city. A double-decker bus picked up the party goers, including the bride and groom and they disappeared into the night to party some more.

More breakfasts, no more drinks more hugs, caught up with some friends, Neil and Di who had come to Sunbury for a birthday party from Brisbane. We visited Rupertswood which was the birthplace of the ashes, opulance in the highest degree. The classic old building has been brought back to it's former glory.



A family lunch at the Goonawarra Winery, more hugs and kisses, back to pack up and move on to our next adventure and meet up with John and Wil who are coming down the Murray.

 

 

 

Genoa, Lakes Entrance and Port Albert

On to Genoa .......

On our way south through to Genoa we followed the tourist drive rather stay on the highway. The roads were very windy with lots of single lane wooden bridges. When you are towing 24 foot of van it does make an interesting drive. We followed the coastline but the view were very restricted because of the strange looking mist (cloud) most of the way along the coast. We stopped in Bega to have a look at the old Cheese Factory. We tasted some great cheeses
 especially a nice hot pepper cheese that once bought didn't last too long with a nice cold beer.

We stopped at various beaches as Patrice does love the sand between her toes.

 A small stop at the NSW VIC border was a nice place just to show you that we are still talking and she doesn't hate me. I am sure that I am getting more greyer with each day of travel. (insert by Patrice - "nothing to do with me...")

On to Genoa ...

The Old Service Station that was once a thriving business.

This was once the main highway

Genoa was the centre of cattle droving starting in 1863 and it grew to a nice little town over the years. Large compressed earth 2 story pub, large stores, service station etc, later came the caravan park. But like a lot of small towns the highway was diverted as the 2 lane wooden bridge couldn't cope with the increase in travel and sizes of trucks. Genoa died in the late nineties and all that is left is a ghost town. The caravan park in now a free stay which is still in very good condition and survives of the donations made by travellers.

Orbost
The beautiful thing about the travel is the history of these small towns. Towns were built on the building of railway lines and mining. Schools were established every 50 miles to assist families to move into the areas and so the spread of the population occurred. Most towns you go to have majestic churches and numerous pubs.



 
 Our next stop is Lakes Entrance situated right on the coast just out of the Wilderness Coast. This is a thriving town relying heavily on tourism and fishing. The early days of lakes entrance saw large homesteads established on sheep farming, the homesteads now are either in ruins or used purely for tourism.

 The Cunningham Arm footbridge was originally built in 1937, repaired in 1966, refurbished in 1998 and replaced in 2009. This bridge takes you from the town centre across to the surf club based at the beginning of 90 Mile Beach.




There are numerous black swans all along the coast.

Went for a drive and found lookouts, dolls and crafts (closed, thank goodness) We went for a wander through one homestead called "Nyerimilang" (which was also closed) but we still saw many of the old things that are still there for you to see. The laundry which appears to be built for very short people still had the old boiler, wringer and various other pieces.

The shearing shed is still intact even with bits of fleece still hanging from the rafters.

We came across an echidna which has making a mess of the walking tracks.
Went for a walk this morning, cold, windy icy, cloudy, thunder, lightning and rain.
All along the main street are wood carvings all done by John Brady who has carved these numerous items from enormous tree trucks and a chainsaw.

On our way back it started to clear up giving us beautiful views from Remmies Point.


After our exploring, it was nice to get all dressed up and go out to dinner to celebrate a great trip so far.

More to come..........

Murramarang National Park, Waldron's Swamp Rest Area and Easts Narooma Caravan Park.

Pretty Beach.

Drove from Shoalhaven Heads to Pretty Beach in the Murramarang National Park, south of Ulladulla and about 30klm North of Batemans Bay. Car going well and now more instances with the Starship Enterprise.

Very nice National Park, powered sites, hot and cold showers which had to be paid for and trust me I had to pick the one that was broken.

The beaches are beautiful  but still a little bit cold. We went for a walk out on a rock mass which was huge but we were a little worried about the approaching tide as the waves splashing on the rocks were going higher and higher. We couldn’t believe how clear the water is, if you didn’t know you think  that there was no water in the rock pools. The algae on the rocks was the greenest we have ever seen, it was almost fluorescent.

Being Tia’s birthday we decided to write a birthday card in the sand and take a photo to send to her.

Went for a drive to Bateman’s Bay for a bit of a look around as we had decided we were not going to stay there. Great views from a couple of lookouts and again fabulous beaches.

Came back to Brooman’s State Forest, would have been interesting to stay there, all State forests are free to stay.

The camp oven has been a hit, we have cooked a variety of meals from yummy stews to roast chicken.

We went for a walk to Snapper Lookout and then around to Mary Beach, just beautiful and a nice walk to boot.  We were walking along when this guy on a bike chasing us, it was Wil who we met at Coromal. We are starting to notice that you start to run into the same people every now and then.

Waldron’s Swamp Rest Area

Packed up and moved onto a rest area called Waldron’s Swamp where we were intending to spend one night. It must have been a great spot because that night we had 16 vans in the rest area.

Met Gary first who was Mr ”Have a Chat” who bailed us up as soon as we got there, we later met Den and Lynne and Gary’s wife Pam, they were friends travelling together from Forster, what a great bunch who made us feel welcome, so much so we ended staying for 4 days.

It was hard to remember what we did but all I know is that we laughed hard and had a great time, met other couples, made a heap of signs for caravans and cooked a lot on the camp oven – pure bliss.

Went to the caravan and camping show in Bateman’s Bay, quite a good show with heaps of very nice vans and lots of toys. Bought a 12 volt shower for free-staying and the best bug zapper you have ever used.

Narooma

It was hard to leave but we packed up, leaving behind some great friends and moved onto Narooma Big 4 Caravan Park for a bit of luxury, after 7 nights of free stay we had a bit of washing to catch up on including washing the car and caravan. We wanted to use this as a base to do some site seeing so booked in for 4 days.

Our first day trip was to Bodalla where they have a cheese factory opened in 1914. The town of Bodalla was a town of many firsts. First town in Australia to use milking machines, Bodalla was the first commercially made cheese in Australia and the first to be exported to England. The All Saints Anglican Church opened in 1881 was a beautiful old church. The town was owned by one man Thomas Mort, everyone worked for Bodalla Cheese and included 16 dairy farms, 3 cheese factories, a school and a main street.

We came back through the tourist drive of Dalmeny, again more beautiful beaches, clear blue water and we even spotted a whale.

After we got back we decided to zip across to the shops and we bumped into our ‘Swamp’ friends, Den, Lynne, Gazza and Pam, they were getting water from the information centre and were heading down the road to Mystery Bay, another free stay.

The next day we decided to visit them to have a look at Mystery Bay on our way to Tilba. We all headed to this quaint little town of Tilba and had a another fun day, visiting little stores, another cheese factory and generally exploring this town. The girls had a go at Hoola Hooping which was a bundle of fun.

 

Today was windy and cold but we had a game of outdoor chess and went for a good walk up to the Bar Rock Lookout at Wagonga Inlet. The Narooma Golf Course overhangs the cliffs and has wild undulations, what a classic course. The wind blows so hard that the trees are bent over.