December 08 Camping Trip - The Final Days

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The penultimate day was also a short travelling one. We had our first bad weather of the trip in Coleraine, with rain and wind and the tent bucking around us. We ended up getting up early and sitting in the caravan park laundry where it was warm and dry. Once we hit the road, though, we more or less followed our noses.


Wannon Falls was our first detour. I can imagine these in wetter months with water gushing over this overhang. We didn't spend over long here - the old legs were starting to be a bit sore from all the walking of the previous week. After a quick explore and a few shots we hit the road again.


Only to leave it again a short distance later to check out Nigretta Falls. Again, these are infinitely more spectacular when in full flood, but what can you expect when you visit in summer? You can walk right down to the water here.


On our way through Ballarat we saw a sign for Sovereign Hill and decided to go have a look. I balked at the prices they charge to get in - it was $67.50 admission for the two of us! And to think people yell and scream and spit at me on weekends over being charged $1... Anyway, we decided that we were there, so we might as well just pay it and go in. I really wish they'd charge a reduced amount for people who arrive within 2-3 hours of closing time. There are so many things to see and do, and demonstrations, that simply aren't on after 3pm, so we missed nearly all of them. We did however see an $80k gold ingot being poured... mmmmm, shiny. Entry to SH includes in the ticket price entry to the gold museum across the road, which is... interesting, I guess. We went just on principle cos of the cost of tickets to SH!

After all that we decided to head to Daylesford. On arrival we tried to get a cabin at the Victoria Caravan Park, but they only had a campsite left. We figured we deserved to spend out last night in a bed, so started ringing around trying to find somewhere reasonably priced to lay our heads for the night. Difficult - it was holiday time, after all.


Enter this place. It's called the Pine Cone Motel (P: 03 5348 5522), and it's about 10km out of Daylesford heading east in a place called Bullarto. We were the only guests, probably because it was out of town. Nevertheless it was a lovely little place, only 6 room, and the lady who runs it was lovely.

The next day I took mum around some of the places I saw on my first visit to Daylesford. We had a quick wander around the Convent Garden, had a look at the botanical gardens, then a long wander through the stuff at the Mill Markets. We thought about staying another night, but decided we'd had enough and wanted familiar surroundings, so headed home. Of course we didn't go the direct way, that would be "normal". Instead we detoured out through Trentham.

It was a great trip, but I was still happy to get home.

The final leg:


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December 08 Camping Trip - Day 6

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Before leaving Naracoorte we decided to check out the local caves. While they were definitely bigger than PMR, I didn't find the formations anywhere near as amazing.


There are a number of tours you can do at the Naracoorte Caves site. We chose to do the Alexandra caves guided tour. The pic above was probably the best I have. It was hard to get the angle right, what with idiot kids running around, getting in the way, and generally being a pain, but in this pic you can just make out the reflection of the stalactites in the water.


Included in the price of the Alexandra guided tour was entrance to the Wet Cave for a self-guided wander around. Maybe we just had cave-and-walking overload by this point... Either way, it was a pleasant little walk around.


Mum had heard about a little lane in Penola where you could wander down and see cottages from ages gone by. After a rather disappointing lunch (I won't mention any more about that) we found our way to Petticoat Lane and ambled along. This field o' lavender was enough to set my temples pounding.


The showpiece of the lane is definitely the two Sharam's cottages. Much of the history behind them now escapes my memory, but check out the link. Those cottages are tiny! So hard to believe people used to bring up entire families in that small amount of space. Reminds me somewhat of the terrace houses that used to be behind my work building. And here I am rattling around a much bigger place all on my own, with almost enough stuff to fill it!

We'd originally intended to stop at Casterton that evening, but ended up pushing on to Coleraine. We had our first dose of bad weather that night... rain, wind, the tent bucking around us... Scary!

December 08 Camping Trip - Day 5

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As you can see, we took the long way to get to a few places. From Mount Gambier we headed for Naracoorte, but not on the most direct route.


As you can see, the overcast weather followed us a way to Beachport. This jetty used to be something like 4,000 feet long. That's a fraction over 1.2km in the new-fangled metric system. It's not that long now - only about 2,200 feet (670m).

Once we got to Naracoorte the weather improved quite a bit. That evening mum had a small tooth incident - would you believe there wasn't a dentist to be had in Naracoorte, Casterton or Hamilton until mid January? Sheesh. Still, she soldiered on. From Naracoorte we could easily have made it back to Melbourne inside a day, but mum decided it wasn't that urgent.

Naracoorte isn't the most thrilling place... There's an interesting museum-type setup at the information centre with plenty of info on the old shearing days. I'll tell you about the caves we saw the next day in another post.

December 08 Camping Trip - Day 4

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Day 4 of the camping trip didn't involve all that much driving, although as you can see we did take the long way from the Princess Margaret Rose Cave to Mount Gambier.

Because we knew we weren't going far we took our trip through the cave in the morning, first tour of the day. I've always had a fondness for caves and still have happy memories of visiting Jenolan Caves west of Sydney a decade ago.


PMR Cave isn't nearly as extensive as Jenolan, but it still has some amazing formations. This one above they call the cave guardian. Can you see the face peeking out of the wall? Creepy, eh?


And this is probably one of the most famous formations in PMR - it's called the wedding cake. The formation to the left of it is ever so slowly getting closer to becoming a column - can you imagine how long it took to get this close?!


When we finally left the cave we headed for Port Macdonnell on the coast, and I'm so glad we took the detour. In town the waterfront is lovely. The view above was taken out of town, heading along toward a lookout. So much interesting stuff to see in this place, but it was just a fleeting stop. I managed to pick up a couple of Noritake teacups and saucers in mint condition for a couple of dollars at the local op shop, so I was happy!


We also had a bite to eat here at the Breakwater Cafe Take Away. This beast is the steak burger with the lot. Droooooooooooooooool. It was fan-frikkin-tastic. I've had so many steak burgers that were very ho-hum, with limp salads and tough, chewy meat. Not this one. Despite its size it disappeared in short time, so I must have been hungry, and it must have been good.


With our bellies full we set off north to Mount Gambier. On the way in we took the opportunity to pull over and take a few snaps of the blue lake. I can't remember all the bites of info on the boards there, but I hope you can make out the amazing blue of the water.

Once we'd researched things to look at and made camp there was just enough sunlight left in the day to do a little exploring. First stop, the Cave Garden in the town centre.


All the publicity pictures of this show it when there's water gushing down. We were obviously there in the wrong season for that, but these gardens were still wonderful. So peaceful and beautiful. It was a shame to see, though, that some people had used it as a place to throw their rubbish.


And the last stop that day was to the Umpherston Sinkhole. I took so many pictures of this place it was hard to choose just one to include. This place is amazing, and a lot of effort has been expended to make it a really pleasant and peaceful place to visit. There's a BBQ and tables tucked under a ledge hiding behind the ivy where you can have your lunch, and benches dotted around the bottom to sit and take it all in. I went nuts taking pics of the various flowers and things (something I seem to keep doing... I love taking pictures of flowers) and even managed to get mum to pose in a few pictures too.

We slept well that night, to be woken by a light rain the next morning so we packed up the tent in short time (we were getting pretty good at it all by now) and had a great breakfast before heading further into SA.

December 08 Camping Trip - Day 3

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Day 3 of the camping trip saw mum and I leave Portland and head for Nelson and, from there, Princess Margaret Rose Cave. Such a shame that Google seemed incapable of giving me the ACTUAL location of PMR... ah well.

As we weren't in a hurry, we got to Nelson at about lunchtime. Feeling the siren call of a meal of fish and chips we headed into the Nelson Hotel.


There are a number of different types of fish you can have - we chose the butter fish, grilled. You can get an awfully large serve for a fraction under $20, or for a little under $15 you can get the half-serve. Mum and I elected for the half-serve, with one serving of chips shared between us so we'd have plenty of room for their salads, which the lovely ladies make themselves, fresh every day. They all tasted superb, with my favourite being a pasta salad with the most delectable dressing. Note also the massive amount of tartare sauce I've heaped on my fillet of fish... the fillet was quite a good size, but it got a little covered up.


Across the road from the pub is the boat ramp. I took so many pictures of pointless but relaxing scenery on this trip.


If you look the OTHER way from the pic above you'll see the boat sheds. I love this pic, the sheds look like they were built a damn long time ago and haven't had anything done to them since.


To walk off our lunch we went about halfway around the Livingstone Island Nature Walk, where we took in views of the mouth of the Glenelg River. Beautiful, eh? If we'd been wearing better footwear we'd have done the other half!


About mid-afternoon we headed for the cave. Along the way we saw a sign for a lookout at Donovans. Isn't it lovely?


After pitching our tent for the night at Princess Margaret Rose Cave campsite we went for a wander. We were a bit late in the day to catch a tour of the cave, but there are plenty of other things to look at there. This is the view from one of the several lookouts of the Glenelg River. Water skiing is allowed in certain areas of it, and we saw several people taking advantage of that to cut up a wash (wow, did that sound as lame to you as it did to me as I typed it?).


At the bottom of the cliff is a little jetty you can fish from. Uh, that's not it there in the pic, I'm standing on it. We had a great run with weather while we were away.

A little more on the camping at the cave - there are a few powered cabins, and also a few van sites and 8 tent sites (none of these are powered). But there is an awesome camp kitchen behind the toilet and shower block with toaster, kettle, microwave, fridge, hotplates, and a few eating utensils. There are only 2 toilets and 1 shower per gender, but with the number of people to share them so restricted we didn't have any problems. I'd recommend this camping ground without any hesitation, and I'm planning to visit there again.

It's amazing, the few words I've put on here really don't sum up how far we walked each day...

December 08 Camping Trip - Days 1 & 2

Mum and I went camping this year for Christmas. Without all the little side-trips and driving around, we travelled over 1,200km in the course of 7 or 8 days. The first day, going from my place to Portland, was one of the longest we spent travelling, at just over 4 hours. I'll post our trip, a day at a time, because I want to share some of what we saw with you. It was a fantastic trip, so stay tuned for more.


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The day after our afternoon tea experience we packed up mum's car and hit the open road - Honda CRV beats modified Pulsar hands down for space and travelling comfort on rough roads! First stop - Portland, to share Christmas with my brother, his partner (M), and her family.




We didn't do too many things while we were here, but M was lovely and drove us around a few of the major sights. The Cape Nelson lighthouse is the first picture, and the next two are views from that headland. It really is a pretty place, I'm sure I'll be back.

Woodend Market

So what do you do on a lazy sunny Sunday when you have to take it easy? I know! You hitch a lift with the oldies along leafy shaded roads to the Woodend Market!

Of course, it being a Sunday, it was about lunch time by the time we got there and, as we meandered through town I spied Bourkies Bakehouse on the corner opposite the markets. They were quite proudly advertising that that they were Vanilla Slice Champions. That's a pretty damn big claim. And I figure I'm fairly well qualified to offer an opinion. Besides, there's something about warm flaky pastry, meaty filling, and tomato sauce that just gets me salivating, so it seemed like a logical choice for lunch.


Here you can see a few different types of vanilla slice, as well as custard tarts, apple slice, apple pie, and some jam-and-cream buns.


Please excuse the worse-than-usual quality of the pictures - I was stuck with my phone and the camera in it ain't so great... hard to believe the model I was using a few years ago took pictures that far surpass the last two phones I've had... but I digress. This is a "charming" and "quaint" little moving display in the corner of the bakehouse... some things are just a little too cutesy for me...


We ordered, clockwise from front-right, vanilla slice, regular sausage roll, steak and onion pie, curry steak pie, mini apple pies, and a plain steak pie. D had already eaten his large sausage roll by the time I got to the table, so I'm not sure how it stacks up in size to the regular. I loved the sausage roll - perfectly flaky pastry (which was repeated in all the pies), not an overly greasy filling, great flavours. The steak and onion pie was delicious, with big chunks of onion sitting on top of hearty gravy-and-meaty filling sitting just under the pastry top. The steak and curry pie was apparently almost like someone had made a beef curry on rice, then cooked it in a pie case. The plain steak was reported to also be pretty good. D and D-W thoroughly enjoyed their apple pies.

And the vanilla slice? Hm, it was pretty damn good. But a "champion" vanilla slice? I'm not sure, I think the one I had in Sorrento (someone help me out - would that have been at the Sorrento Village Bakehouse?) topped this one. But it's a VERY close call. Take a trip to Woodend on the 3rd Sunday of the month and decide for yourself :-)

ROADTRIP!!! The Grampians

I've been meaning to see something of the Grampians for nearly three years now, so on some much-deserved time off last month I spent a couple of days in Halls Gap, doing some light bushwalking and ooh-ing and aah-ing at the mountains and other pretty sights in the area. Below are some of my favourite pictures to share with you.


First stop was the Boroka Lookout, just off Mt Victory Road west of Halls Gap, with some stunning views down to the town and out across park bushland. Thankfully I wasn't driving so I could take in the full majesty of the sights on the way there. It's such a shame that the road out is narrow and winding, with no place to safely pull over and grab a few snaps, as it truly was awesome.



From there we continued out to MacKenzie Falls. There are many, many beautiful pictures of the falls to be found online (see Mike Leonard's and Roz McQuillan's as examples), and I'm not sure my meagre offerings can compete, but I think they look nice. So if someone with my mediocre photography skills can capture even a small amount of the beauty in these pictures, imagine what the reality is like. Of course we were there during the dryer season, hence the lack of gushing water. I've already decided to head back in the spring to see it in full flood. You need good knees to get to the bottom, but more so to get back up to the top! The way down is via steep, narrow flights of stairs seemingly carved out of the rock face, and paved with more rock. I'm certainly glad I wasn't the one who had to do THAT little job. An interesting piece of information about the Falls - they are slowly moving further upstream. Yep, that's right. An information plaque states "With every thunderous plunge of water, the soft layer below (the hard rock) is worn away. Eventually the face of the waterfall becomes destabilised and crashes down. This repeated action is slowly moving MacKenzie Falls upstream."


On the way back to the carpark is a path to the Split Falls lookout. Visually less spectacular, I think they were still worth the minimal effort required to see them.


Last stop for the day was The Balconies lookouts. We didn't spend much time there, as it was getting late in the day, but the lookouts located at the carpark still afforded some lovely views.

The end of a somewhat busy Day 1 saw us settling into our accommodation for the weekend. Wotif offers great deals for Heatherlie Cottages, which is a good thing as I would never have paid the full asking price, nice though the place was. I think that, when I go back, I'll stay at the YHA Eco Hostel - it looks good, has received some great reviews, and is a much nicer price as well! You can also hire push bikes in Halls Gap to help you get around town, which I'll certainly look at next time too.


A quick trip to Stawell for morning tea and Horsham for a late lunch filled the earlier part of Day 2, with the Fig Tree Deli Caffe (59 Firebrand St, Horsham, P: 03 5381 1823) providing some great lasagne, and an amazing pumpkin with spinach and fetta filo pastry slice. Then, lured by the picture on a wall in the cottage, the Beehive Falls beckoned.

By far the longest walk of the weekend, but still quite pleasant with an easy gradient and fairly well maintained path, at least as far as the falls - from there I believe it gets a bit harder, but we didn't explore that far. Again, there isn't much water dribbling down the rocks at this time of year, so this is another place I'm hoping to see again in spring. But I hope you agree it still looks very pretty. I was amazed at how clear the water at the bottom was.

Heading home on Day 3, a quick stop at the Ararat Visitor Information Centre prompted a visit to J Ward, the one-time home for the criminally insane, then a ward for Ararat Lunatic Asylum. I recommend the guided tour - especially if you've been to the Information Centre beforehand and received a coupon for discounted entry. Guided tours are given regularly. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the history of the place, with quite a few stories about past inhabitants.

When I go back to the Grampians I'll definitely take a further look at the Balconies, as well as the Beehive and MacKenzie Falls. I've been told to check out Mt Stapylton as well. There's still plenty more to see, so plenty more trips to plan.

ROADTRIP!!! Wagga for a Holiday

Imagine opening your eyes to this in the morning, with the sounds of magpies and assorted other birdies singing you into the waking world. Welcome to my days in Wagga, approximately 4.5 hours drive north of my front door.

I was lucky enough to be able to stay with a friend while I was there - the guy she is sharing the house of was really nice in giving me a roof, also taking care of my food, and endless cups of tea (and rather too much red wine). It was just fantastic. When I left yesterday I was actually a little sad to be heading back to the real world :-( The time away really was exactly what I needed: a few days of peace, laziness, and no work. I even slept well!! (for those who don't know, I don't sleep very well, particularly in new places, so this was a TRULY amazing thing). All up I think I only did about 1,100km the whole trip, so that was nice and easy too.

*sigh* But tomorrow is work again at 7am :-( Then off to Canberra next week. Life goes on, eh? :-)

ROADTRIP!!! Daylesford for a Day

Did you know that Daylesford is only about 95km from my front door? Which means that I really do have no excuse for not having visited this gorgeous part of Victoria before now. With a couple of days off work I decided "What the hell, I'll do it" and went up for a day.


On arriving at the town I saw signs pointing to Wombat Hill Botanical Gardens. "Sounds alright" I thought, so off I went. The gardens were small, but lush, and home to this monster of a tower. Tall, and thin, and the stairs were enough to make you dizzy. But I climbed it, and the views were lovely, if somewhat blocked by the old trees (darned trees, who put them there?! hehe).


See that blue thingy waaaaay down there? That'd be the trusty old Pulsar. He performed quite well on the trip, and must have some mountain-goat genes as he handled incredibly well when I took him on gravel tracks (the one at Mt Franklin was mostly bare rock).


From the gardens I found my way to the old Convent (Cnr Daly & Hill Streets, Daylesford. P: 03 5348 3211). This was a truly beautiful place, with so much history. It's now a museum and art gallery, with the most amazing gardens surrounding the buildings, which are a mixture of old and new parts.


Here's part of the front of the building, looking up the hill through the greenery. The first picture of this post is also from the garden. Just beautiful, so calming.


Yet another piece of garden. How great does this look?! I took so many pictures just of the grounds. Also at the convent there is a cafe, Bad Habits, and a restaurant and function room.


Of course, as the cafe offered a devonshire tea I had to partake. The home-made scones were delicious, with thickened cream and sweet strawberry jam. Lovely. Unfortunately it was one of the most expensive I've ever had. Still, it was good, and the atmosphere was lovely.

The gallery and museum at The Convent are interesting, although there is a small entry fee (adults $5, unsure of children/pensioner costs). I spent a pleasant hour and a half wandering around looking at the two floors of artwork. A third floor, much like a small basement room, makes up the museum, with some interesting pieces from the days when the building and grounds were a convent. A little eerie down there, what with the candles and low lighting. But interesting.



From there I decided it was time to check in to my cabin at the Daylesford Victoria Caravan Park (Ballan Road, Daylesford. P: 03 5348 3821). On my way back into town I noticed the sign for Jubilee Lake... you can hire canoes to paddle around the lake, although when I was there the weather was overcast so there were no people, and the canoes were huddled quite forlornly on the shore, waiting for the sun to come out so they'd be wanted again. I can imagine this place would get quite busy in the summer months, kids screaming in the playground, BBQs sizzling, young couples rowing their way around the watery expanse... I must go back for a look on one of those days.



Of course if you go to Daylesford you HAVE to go out to the Chocolate Mill (5451 Midland Highway, Mt Franklin. P: 03 5476 4208). YOU MUST! It was built several years ago by the owners, and it is a bonafide straw-bale house with earth render. What's this mean? 900 straw bales were used to build it, and inside it's cool and funky (and I mean cool as in both temperature and appeal). The smell hits you right between the eyes. Yup, that's right, it goes right up your nose. All chocolates are made fresh on the premises. Caramel and ganache chocolates are made using fresh cream and butter, so you have to eat them within a week or so. Yeah right, like anything you buy here will last THAT long. BTW, I'll never enjoy Cadbury chocolate again. Or basically any other mass-produced chocolate, for that matter. Free talks are given at 11am and 2pm daily. The walls also have some background information on the chocolate, and how the Mill came to be.


Naturally I had to buy me something. I got two boxes of christmas chocolates (plain belgium chocolates), a bag of their 70% dark chocolate, a bag of their fruit and nut clusters, and a sample box that contained chilli mama ganache, caramel cups, cocoabana truffle, port truffles, and peanut butter cups. Possibly something else too, but I can't remember. Ooohhh so good. There's also a cafe out there that offers limited goodies - tea, coffee, hot chocolate, spiders, some soft drinks, ice cream...


With my chocolates safely stowed in my cooler bag I made my way to The Mill Markets back in town (105 Central Springs Road, Daylesford. P: 03 5348 4332). I'm not sure what I was expecting, but certainly nothing this big. It took me about 45 minutes to work my way through the first room, and I thought I was making good time... then I passed through an unassuming walkway and found this... a massive shed-like warehouse of goodies. Some antiques, some genuine collectables, and some junk - just the type of stuff I like wandering through!

There were some other places I checked out, but I was a little pushed for time. I think I need to go back and spend a few days exploring Daylesford and Hepburn Springs. I want to have a better look at The Blowhole, and actually check out the springs in the area. Perhaps when I'm not on quite so tight a budget! Unfortunately I spent a day there, and then the next day had to mosey on up to Bendigo and across to Shepparton before heading home.

All up the trip was around 600km including all the to-ing and fro-ing between attractions. Easy driving. Had a fantastic time.