Fun on Phillip Island

As promised here are some photos of our stop at Port Albert (where we stayed on Sunday night 29th July 2012), it is very quiet there in winter.
The weather moves in quickly and then passes. We had raincoats on then off then back on again, but we did get to enjoy our fish'n'chips with the locals (check out the big grey albatross at the back).


We have been having some fun today on Phillip Island, we did have a little sleep in (as we arrived here yesterday arvo) and then made crumpets with peanut butter because we are at a Caravan park with the luxury of having a toaster in the camp kitchen...it's the little things in life! (sorry, no photos of these).

We went for a drive around the island to get our bearings and have some awesome photos of' The Nobbie's' (a rocky outcrop of land on the South Western tip of Phillip Island) there were no seals to be seen but it was still a stunning view, and we did see a little penguin in it's hutch.

We visited the Chocolate Factory on the Island, 'Yes' that is Liam eating a penguin (chocolate penguin).

Then we headed off to the Penguin Parade - which has been commercialised amazingly well. The little penguins arrive on dusk and there are hundreds of them. Everybody sits on steps waiting for them to arrive, then you can follow them along a series of timber boardwalks, (just like the ones at The Nobbies). You are not allowed to touch the penguins, but they are sometimes less than a metre away. It was a sight to see, but no photography allowed, which is understandable, there were about 300 people waiting to see these little creatures catch a wave into the beach and waddle their way up the grassy dunes to their burrows.

The boys are sound asleep and we are going to join them. You will not hear from us for a few days as we are heading into Melbourne. Kim is helping out Jocelyn and Joe at a trade show and Mal is going to spend some quality time with the boys - 2 against one, anything could happen.

From Bairnsdale to Port Albert & onward

When we were at Buchan we had the opportunity to visit Little River Falls and Gorge, which is Victoria's largest gorge. 

There was a short bushwalk to each lookout and it was well worth it for the views. 

We departed Buchan on Wednesday 25th July and headed to Bairnsdale where we stayed in a Caravan park that had a camp kitchen, mini putt-putt course and a small animal sanctuary - with emus, sheep, alpacas and chickens. 

Next stop Traralgon (Thursday 26th July) via Sale and the caravan park in Traralgon had a games room, the biggest 'big screen' TV our family has ever seen, aswell as an indoor spa and jumping pillow - Caravan park luxury.

Then the next night (Friday 27th July) we free-camped in a tiny little town called Walhalla, which has approximately 20 permanent residents. 

We had flushing toilets but no running water or electricity - from one extreme to the other.

There is so much to see and do in Walhalla, we went on the Long Tunnel Gold Mine tour which explained the history of the local mines in the area, and we actually went deep into a mine and saw the equipment they used over a hundred years ago, Liam even got to test it out.

The next day we had a special trip on the Walhalla Goldfields Railway, Jay had a great time.

On the same day we even squeezed in a visit to Mount Baw Baw in the afternoon.

There was not much snow at Mount Baw Baw but the boys had fun in the slush - it was freezing!!

We stayed in Moe on Saturday night (28th July), no putt-putt or jumping pillow there, but there was a frog in the bathroom.

Last night we free-camped in Port Albert, and I must say the fish'n'chips is good there. The views are amazing, but I will upload those photos tomorrow and let you know how Phillip Island is going - we are staying here for 2 nights, so get ready for some penguin photos.

Buchan Caves Adventure

We stayed for 2 nights in Buchan (Monday 23rd & Tuesday 24th July) and had a great adventure, the photos will speak for themselves.

We had the campsite to ourselves. There was nobody else staying in the campsite...possibly had something to do with the sub-zero temperatures.

The place was full of kangaroos, here you can see them hopping past the camp kitchen 

We did a tour of the underground limestone caves,
it was tight fit at some points.
You can see Liam and Jay walking through in this photo.

The caves run under the campsite, throughout the national park. You go underground at one end and walk through the series of caves and climb staircases to exit above the hill.
The limestone stalactites and stalagmites form when water drips into the caves and slowly (over 1000s of years) droplets of water form these amazing structures.

There are some beautiful bushwalks around the campsite, with some very interesting things to see.

Liam was looking for fossils in the stream when he was surprised to find a dead kangaroo that had been munched on - Liam suspects it was the work of a tiger quoll, which are also found in the area, but we did not see any.

In this photo you can see where the earth's plates have moved (1000s of years ago) to cause a ridge which is highlighted by the 2 different types of trees growing on either side of the ridge.

There were many photo opportunities on our walks.



We had a great time in Buchan and thanks to Sarah and Paul who recommended we visit there, it has been one of our favourite spots so far.

Across 2 States and one Territory

It has been so long since my last posting because we have either had power or internet access but not both.
We really enjoyed our time in Canberra, even though we only stayed one night, we visited Parliament House and The War Memorial.

 We stayed at EPIC (Exhibition Park In Canberra) which is a great low-budget option when staying in our nations capital. It was absolutely freezing, and we woke up to a thick frost on the grass in the morning. Staying on a Friday night (20th July) was a good choice (a fluke on our part) as we woke up on Saturday morning to a fabulous Farmers Market, with plenty of fresh produce (fruit,veg and meat), fine foods (cakes, roasted nuts, handmade chocs, an array of continental delights) and good coffee. There were even performers for entertainment, which made for a lovely lazy Saturday morning, as it was only 100m from our caravan.

In the early afternoon we headed back towards the NSW coast and stayed in a van park just outside Bateman's Bay. We fired up the BBQ and cooked the pizza and snags we had bought that morning at the Farmers Market. They went down well with a glass of red (thanks Sharyn it was a beautiful blend) all on our classy melamine crockery.

We woke this morning to friendly quacking at our door, Jay was keen to feed our friends.

On Sunday we are headed off to a free campsite at Genoa, just across the Victorian border, so it's a big day of driving but we stopped off along the way at Narooma, which is such a scenic little town. We had a play in the park and the boys rode their scooters. There are so many little towns with quirky little shops along the way. We arrived at a free campsite in Genoa, Victoria on Sunday afternoon 22nd July 2012. No power or running water but it was a great adventure. We took short walks along the Genoa River and the old Genoa bridge.

We have since been to Buchan Caves where we stayed for 2 nights but that deserves it's own posting so I will add that in the next day or 2. Tonight we are heading to Bairnsdale.

On our way

Our trip was delayed by 2 days but we were on our way by Thursday 19th July 2012. We hooked up the van and headed for our first stop, Nowra, to visit the Van Hovens. We arrived to big welcoming waves at the front gate and Liam decided to run for the last 20 metres. 

We enjoyed an evening with our friends by the bonfire, which we really needed because it was c*h*i*l*l*y.

Overnight the temperature got down to 3 degrees, but we were snuggly warm in our sleeping bags in the van. 

The next morning we had yummy pancakes for breakfast (thanks Joe) and the boys (Joe, Mal, Liam, Scott, Sean and Jay) enjoyed a bushwalk. 
Liam collected eggs fresh from the chicken coop - they don't get much fresher than that - breakfast for tomorrow.

We're heading off to Canberra today, I wonder what we will see there?