Bourchiers Beach, Koonoomoo

Location:
Goulbourn Valley Highway to Koonoomoo. Head north from Koonoomoo towards Tocumwal after approx 5km take a right turn (east) onto Greens Lane. once on Greens Lane (heading east), after approx. 1km, you'll go through the first of 2 cattle grids where you then turn left through the 2nd cattle grid and follow the track alongside the levee wall. 

Approx. 400m after going through the 2nd cattle grid the track swings up over the levee wall and continues through the forest for approx. 1km where the track opens out onto a large cleared area of sandy beach and shady camping spots. The track now follows along the back of the beach for nearly 1km and there are camping spots all the way along. 

Left home early Friday only around an hour’s drive to camp arrived to find 2 others already set up on the sand bar a little apprehensive towing the camper onto the sand as never driven on sand before, aired down tyres and set off to camp spot right along the river had mini jam donuts cooked in our new $18 Dick Smith 12v portable stove  

By late afternoon a lot more of the group had arrived and more into the night. Set of to find some wood and nearby a number of large trees had fallen down so these became the fuel or the next 2 nights, a lot of wood was burnt. Quick dinner of pizzas on the Webber then off to the fire for hours of laughter and drinks

Saturday we had to travel back home or Kirstie’s 22^nd birthday at a pub in town so we took the opportunity for a shower and the use of a flushing toilet, life’s little luxuries!!

Arrived back at camp for another night of fire and drinks where another couple of cubic metres of timber had been collected by those in camp for another great night around the camp fire for more laughs and drinks in bed around midnight

Woke Sunday morning to a great day where we packed up at a leisurely pace only to have the handle of the jockey wheel come off so had to get some help to lift the drawbar to engage in the hitch on the car, the trailer is now in the garage on bricks

A brilliant weekend !!!!

 

 

 

Neighbor's "Ozpig" we need one of these !!!,

 

Getting dinner ready

 

 

View from annex

 

 



Dave (future son-in-law) Lexi and the lovely Linda



 

The camp

 



The camp



 

 

The view

 

Linda and her farking phone

  

Getting ready for the night

 

The night, a great time again

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Talbotville camp area, Talbotville

We set of or our 2nd attempt to drive the Blue Rag Track and camped overnight at Talbortville arrived at camp mid afternoon on the Friday meeting up with 4 other's from Myswag (we meet 2 at our previous attempt at Dargo Pub)

Left earyish Friday and while driving somehow the subject go onto alcohol (Linda favorite subject BTW) and that I forgot to pack her Scotch !!!! quick stop at Bright to get her a bottle then we decided to go have a look at Mt Hotham quick look then back on to Dargo / High Plains Rd heading towards Talbotville

Arrived at camp where Tim and Sara had already set up and we unpacked our swags and set up camp for the night, the others arrived (Adam, Geof and David) and proceeded to set up there swags a few hours around the camp fire with drinks then off to bed.

Woke to a clear morning sunrise was after 7am so a little sleep in. The weather had cleared a fair bit from the previous day where back burning was occurring in the surrounding areas which could have put a downer on the drive as the views from the Trig point is supposed to be the highlight

Left camp for the drive arrived at Blue Rag Track fortunately a group had just been up (not a lot of room to stop and let other past along the track)

Arrived at the Trig point quite windy and cool but the views certainly made up for that. Spent a good 1/2 hour up top the noticed others coming up along the track so we headed back and fortunately was able to find some room to let other past. Once back on the Main Rd we headed home and the others headed back to camp



About Talbotville

Camp area

Behind our swags

Camp area, "burn of under way" 

 

Our camp + Tim and Sara

Camp area

View from swags

 

Camp area



Linda setting up camp

Our camp for the night

 

Our night under the stars

No 1 camp, Mt Dissapointment

Another overnight in the swags at Camp#1 @ Mt Disapointment camped with Hutchie + Wendy friends we met at previous Myswag camps the intent was to camp overnight and go fro a 4WD around Mt Disappointment with some other's


Arrived late afternoon and set up camp for the night with a nice fire, a few well quite a few drinks lots of laughs a little rain and a good sleep ready for the drive in the morning. Met up Sunday with another 8 cars for the drive around Mt Disappointment which was our 3rd 4wd and probably our most enjoyable lunch at another camp are called Andersons garden for lunch stopped at Murchison Gap lookout for a snack then the drive home, unpacked and set the camper up for our next camper trip in 3 weeks.

View into camping ground

Getting ready for drinks



Setting up for the night

Camp

another nice fire, many hours of laughs

Linda pi$$ed taking selfies in swag

Morning

morning sun rise, woken by Linda snoring

Our little camp area

Dargo Hotel, Dargo

Another Myswag camp (our first in our NEW SWAGS) the plan was to stay overnight at the Dargo Pub Dargo Hotel camping area which is out the back of the pub close to a creek that runs through and drive the iconic Blue Rag Rang track   Blue Rag range however the weather conspired against us.

Left home around 8am Friday met up with another couple Hutchie and his wife Wendy done lunch in Bright overlooking the ovens river in a park nearby, easy lunch the drive to Dargo. Travelled towards Mt Hotham them took the Dargo-High plans road over the top of the mountains elevation was around 1100m to Dargo mist and fog in some places had visibility to only a few meters (in the middle of summer!!!!) gota love Victoria weather

Arrived at the Pub where others had set up Vic+ Graeme, Clarky soon after Adam arrived so we set up camp down near the creek 5-swags and a CT. After a few drinks around camp we headed to the pub for dinner then back for a few more after dinner drinks then off to our much anticipated sleeping accommodation this was after Linda (drunk as a skunk found new uses or her newly purchased shewee)

Rained overnight /all night but we had set up our camp where we stayed dry all night the rain hitting the tarp was a constant all night but somewhat relaxing we slept relatively well Linda even managed to wake me with her snoring - we have separate king single swags for that reason !!!!

Up early forgot to fill the jerry cans with water so making coffee consisted of leaving the kettle out in the rain to let the water drip in from the tarp and using the water from the melted ice in the esky then a feed of bacon on bread then packed up for a 4WD (Blue Rag was not done due to being overcast with mist, clouds and rain) this is the highest point in Vic with views of the mountain tops as far as you can see, we intend to attempt this latter in Feb/March

Left camp and headed out to a track called "crooked river track" going to Talbotville this track has some 18? odd river crossings which are normally quite low but given the rain in recent days the river was higher so we turned around as my level of 4WD experience was not as high as the rest so we headed back to Dargo then on towards Bright to discs our 2nd nights camp with Hutchie + Wendy, we meet up and decided to head home as another night in the rain was not as appealing as heading home. quick look at a place called "Buckland Valley" nice cam area but was overrun with fly's as soon as we got out the car probably a better place to camp outside of summer

The drive in along Dargo /High Plains road in some places

visibility was only a couple of meters

Another pic of the drive over the Mountains

More of the mountains on the drive in

View of the  camping area at the back o the Dargo Hotel

Camp area, backing on to the creek

Camp area

View from our swags

The "Dargo Store" opposite the Pub

Linda being Linda DRUNK AS !!!!

getting breakfast ready

James Reserve, Lima East

James Reserve, Lima East is situated in the north-east region of Victoria in the Strathbogie Ranges. The campsite is on the banks of Moonee Monee Creek (Black Charlie Creek). Go through the shops at Swanpool and turn right past the recreation reserve following the sign to Lima East. Turn left 1.4km down the Lima East road. After 7.4kn this turns into a gravel road. James campsite is a further 5km on the right more info on James reserve

Arrived around midday to find the DSE there mowing the campground as it turned out after walking around a few acres of the camp with only 1 other there Linda wanted to camp in the spot that the DSE trucks were parked, she had a quick conversation with them and they moved and we started the unpack around 45mins latter (around a 5 acre camp, only 1 other there and we waited to set up to get Linda's "prime" spot)

Only 90min set up our record thus far, quite warm however the nearby trees were certainly handy in the afternoon and we walked around exploring back to camp and a great steak cooked on the webber even tho it was still warm we waited for the sun to go down and the temp to drop so we could have our "camp fire" although small still nothing like camping having a few drinks around a fire. Unfortunately due to Lind's excessive drinking was not a good nights sleep due to her snoring all night, maybe next time I will bring the swags as a precaution so I can sleep

Woke Saturday early to the birds carrying on from around 5:30am stoked the fire, cooked the morning breakfast of bacon, eggs and tomatoes on the webber and decided that another day out with the heat would have been too uncomfortable while a nice spot not a lot to do compared to other places we have stayed. Packed again as quick as any other time (think we are getting the hang of it) but the hard floor down the track will be a nice change.

Creek runs along the back of the camp, you can here the water when its quite

Around 6 camp spots with fire pit hot plate and table+chairs

View from our annex

Camp spot or the "prime spot"

View form the entrance to reserve  

View from cam back towards road

Camp

almost ready, and another great breakfast camping