Lake Sambell Caravan Park, Beechworth.Vic

Beechworth:

Beechworth is one of Victoria's best preserved  former gold mining towns, situated in the north-east of the state. The commercial center extends along Camp street and Ford Street, presenting an almost unbroken series of elegant buildings and historic shop-fronts, many of which date back to the 19th century. The post office was built in 1869, the former Bank of Victoria (now a gold jewellery store) dates back to 1857, and there are several historic hotels and churches located in the town centre 


Arrived at Mt Sambell CP Friday around 11am set up, prepared the fire for our first “camp oven roast” and a fine meal it was, potatoes, pumpkin and a marinated roast started to prepare the gravy only for Linda to realise it was 3 years out of date and only purchased in recent weeks but regardless of the gravy the meal was “GREAT” saved the rest for lunch on Saturday. Sat by the fire and watched the late comers come in and set up in the dark etc, some arrived as late as 10pm

Saturday: Woke to cook the normal bacon, eggs, and tomatoes with toast how good is this camping caper. Took a walk in to town. Linda need to get some new glasses as in her drunken state last night she managed to step on them and broke them completely.

Arrived back at camp where Hutchie + Wendy & Malcolm + Nikki arrived early afternoon, more wood for the fire was ordered and a meal on the Webber of Tandori chicken pizza + garlic bread another great feed stayed up late drinking around the fire as you do. During the night Linda wakes me to tell me she needs to be “sick” sometime later she made the call to go outside (around 2am) and bring up her dinner, she blamed the little cake she had, sure!!!!!

Sunday: visited the Beechworth Jail for a guided tour, some interesting stories from the guide around the inmates, executions and even Neds Mother and her 2 day old Daughter were inmates at the prison. Back to the bakery to buy lunch and returned to the CP to consume possibly the best sausage rolls ever

Spent the afternoon layzing around camp and a few km walk around some bush land from the CP quick dinner then off for the night tour of the “mental asylum” Lindas has been on at me for years to do this so we went!!! All 6 of us went was to the 
mental asylum quite interesting the history but would have preferred to stay at camp and a have a few drinks around the fire. Bed by 11pm

Sunday: We got a way early but needed to open the camper up as it was little damp glad we did as it was a lot wetter than I thought another great decision otherwise mold starts to form from packing up wet 

Caravan Park

Caravan park

Caravan park

Home sweet home, for the next 3 days 

Lake Sambell

Camp

Linda cooking, oh no!!!!!!

Bush walk around the park

Bush walk around the park 

Getting ready for the night 

BRILLIANT !!!!

Delicious !!!!

Pizza and bread, how hard is this

Linda having breakfast on the way home, she loves her MACCAS pancakes 

Colac Colac Caravan Park, Corroyong Vic

Location:

ColacColac Caravan Park Clack is located six kilometres from Corryong and is located on the Nariel Creek. 

Corryong is a country town located in the far north-eastern corner of Victoria, around 120 kilometres east of Wodonga  and near the pristine upper reaches of the Murray River. It is famed for its picturesque scenery and unspoilt natural attractions including rivers, mountains and forests.

The main road through Corryong is the Murray Valley Highway which is a wide boulevard with sections lined by deciduous trees whose leaves erupt into vibrant colours during the autumn.

A good overview of Corryong and its immediate surroundings can be enjoyed from Playles Lookout which is accessed via Back Thowgla Road.

Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson wrote "The Man From Snowy River" which captured the heart of the nation and tells the story of a horseback pursuit in the mountains of the Great Dividing Range. It is claimed that the inspiration for the character in Paterson's poem was local stockman Jack Riley (born in 1841), and his grave can be found in Corryong's cemetery via the entrance off Parish Lane.

Left early Saturday morning to meet up with Hutchie + Wendy & Jamie + Fee @ Maccas for breakfast on the Hume @ Glenrowan Arrived at the caravan park around noon to find Scott + Sue & Geoff +Kay there already setup from the previous night meet some new “swaggers’ and set off in the afternoon for a drive up to where there is a hang gliding launch pad just outside of town, half way up got stuck in a stretch of loose stones and gravel tried a number of times to go fwd without success at this stage Linda bailed on me and some of the group helped out – the solution was taking more air out of the tyres and a hard right foot SUCCESS !!!! made it up to a flat area where I picked up Linda for the rest of the trip, a stunning look out with great views, well worth the effort, back to camp for “nibbles” a quick dinner and a  few drinks the off to bed.

Sunday bacon and eggs for breakfast at around 9am the others went off for another drive we stayed back as we needed to sort out the annex walls and put up the ensuite as we had not done either since we had it fixed, alas !!! Another issue with the zippers that will need to be returned and fixed hopefully back in time for our next trip

We went for a drive to the Murray 1 Visitor Center, adjacent to Murray 1 Power Station and went on a tour of the facility arrived back at camp for a more afternoon nibbles, dinner and more drinks around the fire. Linda latter in the night reenacted her drinking through a shewee that certainly had most in fits of laughter, at this stage thought she would be better in bed but NOT Linda!!! we got to bed around Midnight

Monday Linda and a few of the others set of for a 7km walk into town I cleaned up camp and waited for the call to come and pick her up, arrived at the local bakery where everyone was eating cakes, sausage rolls, and Linda treated herself  to a nice little chocolate “hedgehog”  as a reward. Around lunch time we decided to do a self-drive tour (from info we got at the local info center) around the area visited Bluff Falls, Embery’s Lookout on top of Mt Mittamatite (had to wait a few minutes for the cows to get up and move) and finished the day off at the Man From Snowy River Museum back to camp afternoon tea drinks, then more drinks around the fire and to bed relatively early around 10pm (Linda was not up to another drinking night)

Up Monday packed and home around 12:30, another great weekend away with old friends a really enjoyable weekend 

The drive in to the park

A creek runs through the back og camp, we camped about 10m from this

afternoon drinks under the tree's

yep, on the ipad 

our camp

Park entrance 

View from the road, out side the CP

Creek in park

Creek /park

The group we camped with 

first time we put the awning and ensuite up 

Masters Landing, Gunbower

Getting there

About 30km from Eucha along the Murray Valley highway towards Kerang, Right into Torrumbarry Weir road (signposted –mobile phone tower on the left) travel along to the weir entrance is on the left and another 3km to Masters landing site a number of camp areas along the river’s edge all along this road camp grounds are signposted.

Set off from home for another weekend  we got about 750m from home then remembered we may not have packed the fly-spray so a quick turnaround back and noticed that the garage door was left open from when we pulled the trailer out (good decision) as these would have stayed open all weekend otherwise

Arrived mid-morning and proceeded to set up the camper and make home for 2 nights right along the river bank, set up chairs and watched the world go by, an afternoon of dips, cheeses, snacks followed by watching around 20 Kangaroos coming down the river edge in the afternoon for a drink. BBQ dinner of chicken and salad followed by a number of drinks under the stars, limited internet coverage which was annoying Linda as you got to have internet when you’re camping!!!

Woke Saturday morning customary bacon, eggs,tomato and toast cooked for breakfast on the Webber. Had some issues with both fridges (one for food and one for Linda’s grog) cutting out due to low voltage from the batteries turned everything off and tried to get the solar back into the batteries and charge up so there was enough to keep both fridges going. Early afternoon the temp reached around 36deg with only 1 fridge working (we made the decision the drinks were more important than the food) so we kept this fridge on power.

Set up the new screen annex wall that we had to have replaced due to a problem with the zipper when we first brought the camper, this worked quite well now and will be a great addition in enabling to have set up with no fly’s around all the time under the annex.

We decided around1pm that with the temp getting hotter and the power issue would be better just packing up and heading home. Packed everything up probably in the hottest part of the day with no shade covering the camper got home around 4pm unpacked.
Sunday set up the solar to the camper and is charging at a great rate from 11.7v to 12.3 in around 2 hours, now spend the day fully charging the batteries ready for Aust day weekend

Masters Landing, Gunbower – a bit of history (Im not into history but a fascinating read)

Camper set up, fire pit + tables 

the view 

Camper

Out door dinning 

Linda with her new hat

Lindas new drink of choice

getting ready to spend the afternoon snacking by the river 

Sunset

Masters House on sunset

info on the owners of the Hut 

info on the owners of the Hut

Barmah Lakes Camping Area, Barmah

We took the new camper out for the first trip headed for Carters beach / Ulupna Island searched for the camp ground but unbelievably we (I) could not find it !!!! And to believe we have been there before. So we headed to Barmah Lakes @ Barmah state forest to camp another spot we went for a day trip earlier this year and another spot we decided back then would be good to camp, arrived nearly 4 hrs after we left (normally and hrs drive) we did have to return home after a false start when I forgot the solar panels

Anyway Linda was in fine form and certainly had no trouble in letting me know what she thought of the trip so far, Made camp around 2pm first time set up took a bit of time as we had not put the annex up previously. A dinner of sausage sandwiches few drinks and to bed by 10PM

A great nights sleep as we have purchased and “  “ this was always a problem in the other camper for various reasons but this was by far our best sleep since we first went camping some 2 years ago

Woke to the sounds of the birds @5:30am a breakfast on the webber, then we embarked on setting up all the walls etc only to work out that a piece we had specially made (front /side screen instead of canvas) had the zippers on the wrong end well that’s what it looks like will need to get on to them but all in all certainly happy with the setting up. Linda went for a nana nap with the 12v air cooler on another little toy we picked up at a recent camp show- quite impressed actual it did the job in34 deg Temp

Dinner of hamburgers and salad fortunately we are able to eat inside as the flies were something else, could not have eaten in the open as every 2nd mouthful would have had a fly, a few lazy drinks, Linda managed to keep in touch with everyone via FB and at one stage was on FB and texting someone else on the phone (pic below) gota love camping with internet access!!!!

Up again early with the birds quick coffee and breakfast packed up got a few things wrong pulled down camper without closing outside windows and hadn’t taken the annex off, we did laugh as how could you forget to not do it in the right order!!!!, looking fwd to next trip already

Camp already for the weeknd

 

 

Camp

Camp

 

 

She thinks by tipping alachol into a diet coke can will put people off the scent, have a look at the eyes

Cant go camping without internet access

Not fooling me !!!!, close by the ipad and iphone

 

 

At this stage she is on FB and texting friends, love the serenity of camping

another great camping breakfast

 

 

Eating indoors, the flies were a real pain

an Ebay bargin, does not work

A 12v water cooler, work quite well just fill with cold waer and ice, she managed to have a nana nap and it was 34deg

Packed  ready to head home

on our way, the planning started already for our next weekend away

Running Creek Reserve, Howqua

Headed back for a 2nd year to Running Creek Reserve for Melb Cup weekend with some Myswag friends (Hutchie & Wendy, Vic & Graeme, Nikki & Malcom) met up and Mansfield then drive to camp arriving late morning Friday set up camp, pizzas on the Webber for dinner then the customary drinks that evening.

Woke Saturday to thunder and rain and rain and more rain then off to Mansfield markets where Linda managed to consume 20 odd shot glasses of different beverages that were on sale, all this by 11am she did buy a few bottles of “something that tasted nice” she tells me. While walking around the market she also noticed some priceless “wall hangings” and thought we needed 1 to hang in the patio, best $25 we have ever spent NOT!!!!

Kevington Hotelfor lunch, afternoon drive out towards the slate mine collecting some fire wood for the customary camp fire that evening and a few hours spend around the fire, drinking and just talking BS.

Woke Sunday to overcast skies the rain started to fall so we quickly put the tarp over the camper as to make sure the pack up was not wet.  Managed to get the camper packed and headed home to clean it out as we were passing this camper on to Luke & Monika for their enjoyment as we have decided to upgrade to a forward fold camper due later this month

2 enjoyable days even with the rain and our last trip in or ezytrail some fond memories over the last 2 years

Our camp spot

Camp

Linda in the back ground, talking BS

The creek behind camp

Pizza's on the webber 

Camp area 

Got a little wet and muddy when the rain cam down

We had to put up all the front due to the rain, first time in 2 years this was needed  

Camp