Another animal action day on the beach at Lakes Entrance. We took the 4km walk along the beach to the entrance to Gippsland Lakes, then back along the historic bushwalk on the northern side of the strip. Rusty relics lie in the bushes, winches used to build the seawall, timber posts that used to house bells, and much more besides. Seals and dolphins swam into ride the waves at the entrance, while a group of seals basked further out, sunning their flippers out of the water as they lay on their backs.
Location
Lakes Entrance, Victoria
Categories: Animal Action, Journey Narrative, Location, Travel, Travel Adventure, VIC
Tags: Dolphins, Gippsland, Lakes Entrance, Seals
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Change of Plan!
With Mt. Kosciuszko off the menu for now we’re heading for the lowlands and warmer conditions. My goose-down sleeping bag had a fatal rupture when I got in at Yarrangobilly and by morning the inside of our Camprite Trailer looked like a snow-scene with everyone covered in and inhaling goose feathers, The weight of the car and trailer on some of the off-road tracks in the mountains had guzzled petrol, and was giving the breaks a good workout so we decided to leave the Alpine region and head down. Into Victoria now the Alpine Highway gave us a direct route south, through verdant green countryside. Every now and then we stop for the cows, who when not being herded to the next paddock, are grazing the long grass by the verge. I’m not sure how effective a deterrent it is but dead foxes are strung up by the side of the road making quite a macabre spectacle.
Categories: Australian Outback, Journey Narrative, Location, National Park, Travel, Travel Adventure, VIC
Tags: Mitsubishi Pajero, Mount Kosciuszko, Yarrangobilly
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Yadboro flats
Driving on from Pigeon House mountain we stopped at Yadboro flats by the Clyde river. The road had just been graded so everything was covered in dust. After the exhausting climb in the heat cooling off in the river was the best end to the day. Next morning we were up at 6am looking for wombats and found one scrambling around the river bank 50m from the camp. Then we found an ornate satin bower bird building it’s display bower, intricately decorated with blue objects and yellow flowers. A great place that we could have stayed longer at.
Categories: Animal Action, Australian Outback, Journey Narrative, Location, NSW, Photography, Travel, Travel Adventure
Tags: Bower bird, Camprite, Mitsubishi Pajero, Yadboro
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Conquering Pigeon House Mountain
It turned out to be a bit of a challenge but our 6 and 7 year olds lead the way to the top. A 3-4 hour round trip involves a steep climb from the car park, a flat stretch through thick scrub, then a second climb to the base of the mountain top. This is then negotiated via metal steps and ladders to the peak which reveals a fantastic view. A challenging climb rewarded by the spectacular views from the top, especially of the Castle, a flat plateau in the Budawang National Park.
Categories: Australian Outback, Challenges, Journey Narrative, Location, National Park, New South Wales, Travel, Travel Adventure
Tags: Budawang, Morton National Park
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Booderee Wildlife
Possums arrived in droves last night to the campsite, with the sole purpose of raiding any foodstuff that might have been left in reach. Tell-tale footprints on the stove and tables showed the action didn’t stop after we went to bed.
This morning we had many more visitors, wallabies and kangaroos.
Categories: Animal Action, Australian Outback, Journey Narrative, National Park, NSW, Travel, Travel Adventure
Tags: Booderee, Green Patch, Jervis Bay, Kangaroo, Rosella
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Birds and Booderee Botanic Gardens
Just a couple of our avian visitors, many more of whom we encountered today in the verdant botanic gardens. One of the favourite spots was the mossy path through the forest gully pictured below.
Categories: Animal Action, Journey Narrative, Location, National Park, New South Wales, NSW, Travel, Travel Adventure
Tags: Jervis Bay
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Booderee National Park
Jervis Bay is beautiful! The birdlife at Green Patch was fantastic. In a couple of days we have seen variegated fairy-wrens, endangered eastern bristlebirds hopping through the dense bush, ospreys, sea eagles, king parrots, eastern rosellas, wood ducks and much more. There are swamp wallabies, kangaroos and echidnas around too, some even tame enough to pat. At the derelict lighthouse we found a snakeskin (brown snake!) almost 2m long.
We played a variation of Pooh Sticks with pumice pebbles we found on the beach – Pooh Stones.
Categories: Animal Action, Beach, Camper Trailer, Journey Narrative, Location, National Park, New South Wales, NSW, Travel, Travel Adventure
Tags: Booderee, Green Patch, Jervis Bay
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A farewell Stein in Manly
Martin serving up a Lowenbrau favourite at the Bavarian Beer Café on Manly Wharf. Farewell drinks on a beautiful evening watching the sun set behind Manly Cove
Trip Planning
My trusty Australian Geographic Map of Australia (for Travellers & Dreamers) is undergoing serious scrutiny at the moment. Even the kids are getting into it putting their suggestions on coloured post-it notes (one of Hannah’s suggestions – “Perth – lots of swans”)
Map of Australia for Travellers & Dreamers – to keep us focused.
We have 3 weeks planned in Tasmania from mid Nov, Christmas booked in Kangaroo Island, so we’re filling in the gaps between departure and January. We’ll be starting the adventure in Green Patch, then a practice climb up Pigeon house mountain, before we make an assault on Mt Kosciuszko a couple of days later. That’s our first challenge, so if you have any others please send them in and we’ll consider them. Just remember we have 3 kids 6,7, and 8 and the challenge has to be done by all as a team.
From The Snowy Mountains we’ll be making our way to Wilson’s Promontory to do Challenge # 2 – to visit the most southerly point of the Mainland at South Point (guess what 3 other related challenges are?). That one might be a bit challenging getting the kids to hike 16km.
We then will head up the Great Ocean drive, through the Coorong, towards KI, with a few stops no doubt in the Coonawarra, for refreshments of the Cabernet variety.
Categories: Australian Outback, Camper Trailer, Car, Journey Narrative, New South Wales, SA, Travel, Travel Adventure, VIC
Tags: Mitsubishi Pajero, Mount Kosciuszko, Trip planning
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New Tyres (Falken Wild Peak AWD)
Today I got the new tyres for the car. We’re going to give Falken Wild Peak tyres a go. Five new 17 inch 265/70 tyres and a wheel alignment. We’ll see how they perform over the months to come. The tread is supposed to be quieter on bitumen, better at dispelling water, and very different from Coopers or BF Goodrich. Let’s hope they are as good off-road as they are made out to be.
Fifty Toes Walkabout 
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