Torquay Foreshore CP, Torquay

Headed to Torquay Foreshore CP for 3 nights in a cabin, left the trailer at home as we wanted a base as the intent was to travel the historic and iconic Great ocean road and see as much as possible:

Day 1:

left home Friday morning and arrived around Midday fortunately the cabin was ready early and we were allowed in, unpacked and went for a drive stopping at Point Addis then on to Aireys Inlet to have a look at the “Split Point” lighthouse and a beer @ Aireys pub on the way back. Dinner in town at a place called “Bottle of milk” recommended by Kirstie and a feed of burgers and fries washed down with a number of drinks, back to cabin for an early night after some more drinks.

Day 2: 

Breakfast at Maccas then we handed to the “great ocean road” scenic drive stopping at a number of spots to take photos and watch the tourists with their selfi sticks!!! What a laugh! Stopped at Lorne for a look around (one of the best info centers we have been too) a great history on the building of the GOR. Continuing along the GOR we stopped a spot where the W.B Godfrey wreck grave site is situated.

Stop at Kennet river road house then on to Appolo Bay for a coffee & snack then headed to the Cape Otway light house where they wanted to charge $20+ per person needless to say we left. Then onto the Otway tree top walk where they also charged $25 per head but this was something Linda wanted to do so off for an hour walking around the rainforest on an elevated platform, we got to one part where the walkway stretches out some 20 meters just suspended out but the vibration of us walking “scared”  Linda / us so we headed back.

From here we headed back along the GOR to Torquay arriving after dark, a couple of drinks then into bed a big day out!!!

Day 3:

Up early and noticed the GPS in the car was missing (some low life stole it overnight, must have left the car open) fortunately we had the ipad and we headed towards the 12 apostles but to save time we headed through Colac instead of the GOR as we wanted to spend most of the day looking around this part. Well the viewing area was not what we expected at all of the 12 apostles there is a new info center being built, walkways all around the area not what we were expecting at all, expected something similar to the previous day we little areas to pull off the road and expecting buses everywhere. 

The view when you first see it is certainly impressive, very impressive. We headed along towards Port Campbell where we visited another “info center”, coffee and scones the off towards Peterborough where along this stretch is some other stops visiting rock formations on the coast line turned around and headed back along the GOR to Torquay.

Stopped at Apollo bay for a beer/scotch, then hot chips at Lorne and Linda brought a “chiko roll” why I will never know then back to Torquay late afternoon a walk around the beach foreshore and a ice cream in town then back to the cabin another earlyish night and home Monday, a great 3 days   

Kevington Hotel, Kevington VIC

Something different this weekend stayed at the Kevington Hotel in the “honeymoon suite” well that's what I told Linda! with some other friends Scott & Sue and Wayne and his daughter Hanna. We met up at Marysville for a coffee and donouts around 9:30 on Saturday morning and spent some time around town searching for an ATM (my fault we hand no $$) we headed off on our journey.

The weather report for the day was looking pretty sad with a major cold front moving through the area and one website was still advising that the main road we needed to travel “Woods Point Road” was closed but the adventurous we are we set off regardless not long into the drive we came across our the first signs of snow heading past the Lake Mountain turn off. (We had never travelled this way before) and were certainly looking forward to the trip

Lunch stop was at the Matlock picnic area consisting of 12v oven hot pies and sausage rolls while watching a passing snow storm. Back in the cars towards Kevington stopping at the Woods Point pub for a customary beer and scotch and a pic in front of the well photographed petrol bowser at “Woods point” (see photo)

Arrived at the “Kevington” late afternoon sat by the bar for the best part of the afternoon (well all afternoon) then off to the restaurant for a good feed and lots of laughs followed by more drinks. Back to the bar for more laughs then off to bed around 10pm (we think)

The rooms were not to usual high standard that Linda expects but very cozy and quite warm during the night, so warm that I noticed in the morning that the window was wide open, heater off and Linda complaining how hot it got during the night

We were up around 7ish and then off to Jamieson for breakfast @ Debs bakery (Now top of Linda’s well-travelled bakeries) after a lazy breakfast it was over the top of the Big River range to Eildon Township where we took some time to drive around and then found a little spot for a picnic lunch next to the pondage.

After lunch and drove through Alexandra arriving home early afternoon to reflect on a great 2 days away with fantastic company and, now planning next weekend at Torquay!!!!

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