Day 154 Thursday 15th September

Home!

Last night we went to Ocean Shores and had a lovely dinner at the Golf Club and afterwards played the pokies. It was a lovely, summery evening and Doug won $90 at the pokies so that was even better.

We left this morning at 7.45 and headed for home. We arrived home at about 10.30 and began to unpack.

What an amazing adventure we have been on and thoroughly enjoyed. We can’t wait for the next trip.

Distance travelled today  155 km

Total distance travelled  24282 km

Day 153 Wednesday 14th September

We have had a relaxing day today. We went for a walk along the beach. The water is so clear you can see the fish in the river. There were people surfing near the entrance to the river but the water was far too cold for me to swim. Yesterday we saw a brush turkey, a frill necked lizard and butcher birds around our van.

Day 152 Tuesday 13th September

We left this morning at 8.30. It was a beautiful day after a little bit of rain last night. This is a lovely place. We headed off to Brunswick Heads. It took a bit longer than expected as there was lots of roadworks going on as well as an over sized load we followed. We crossed the beautiful Clarence and Richmond Rivers. We are camped on the banks of the river at Brunswick Heads. It is such a lovely place here.

Distance travelled today 252 km

Total distance travelled 24 107 km

Day 151 Monday 12th September

We left Dural at 7.30 this morning and made our way through Sydney. It took about ¾ hour to get onto the freeway. Once we were on the freeway it was good. The road was great and there was very little traffic. The road bypasses many smaller towns. There were some beautiful rivers we crossed.

Coff’s Harbour is very nice indeed. We went for a walk to the beach this afternoon and thought it wonderful.

Distance travelled today 520 km

Total distance travelled 23 845 km

Day 150 Sunday 11th September

We left Narooma at 7.45 this morning. The weather was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining, there was no wind and Narooma looked beautiful.

The forests were lovely as we headed towards Sydney. There were some lovely towns like Mogo and Bodalla with boutique shops there as well as some lovely inlets and beach places.

We went through Sydney thinking it would be fine on a Sunday lunch time and it probably was. It still took us 2 hours to get from one side to the other. We are in a caravan park at Dural, near Hornsby.

Distance travelled today  384 km

Total distance travelled 23 335 km

Day 149 Saturday 10th September

We woke this morning to a cold wind blowing and it has done so all day. It is not as cold as Canberra though.

We had a drive around Narooma and saw the surf beach and the inlet which has obviously changed a lot with many rock walls being built. It is a lovely place. There are many new houses here but all we can remember is the camping area near the surf beach.

Day 148 Friday 9th September

Weird weather!!! We woke up this morning to hear rain pattering on our van. We packed up and left by 8.30 but it was still raining.

We drove through some beautiful forest country but there were many large hills (up to about 400m) and the road was very windy. We missed the border between NSW and Vic. I am certain there was no sign. We arrived in Narooma. We went for a quick drive and found the caravan park we were in last time we were here, some 30 years ago. The place still looks lovely.

Distance travelled today  374 km

Total distance travelled 22924 km

Day 147 Thursday 8th September

Today we set off to explore Lakes Entrance.  We went over to the Eastern Beach and saw the ocean or Bass Strait.

We went to the Lookout at Kalimna and saw the lakes and an oil well off the coast.

The lakes system stretches over 40 kms with 3 main lakes, 4 main rivers and about 5 more creeks running into these lakes. They are long and narrow with many islands in the middle. Some parts of the lake are very shallow (only 1 metre deep) while other parts get very deep. There is only one entrance to the sea and they need to keep dredging it so that it doesn’t silt up and all the fishing boats won’t be able to get out.

In the afternoon we went on a 3 hour cruise (Gilligan’s Island) on a boat called the Lonsdale along a part of this system. It was excellent. We saw seals sleeping on a jetty and later some others playing in the water. We saw cormorants, pelicans, sea eagles, harriers, ducks, egrets and many, many swans and their cygnets. They were beautiful. The islands had some holiday houses on them and one island had goats roaming around.

It was a fabulous cruise and we did return home unscathed.

 

 

Day 146 Wednesday 7th September

Happy Birthday Dan

Last night we went to a Japanese Restaurant and had a wonderful meal. I even tried sashimi which is raw fish (salmon, tuna and kingfish). I enjoyed it. It was so cold when we returned.

We left this morning at 8.00. It was really cold. It got down to 4 degrees on our thermometer but the caravan reception said it was 0.4 degrees. Brrrr.

We got to Melbourne and thought we were on the ring road, however, our GPS took us through Melbourne. We crossed the Westgate Bridge through all the traffic and then went through the tunnel. It goes down almost 60 metres. We then continued onto the freeway. It was a little traumatic. Our e-toll worked too.

We arrived at Lakes Entrance and it was still cold.

Distance travelled today 447km.

Total distance travelled  22522 km

Day 145 Tuesday 6th September

When we woke up this morning it was cold and rainy. We went to Sovereign Hill and just got there in time to do the labyrinth tour of a mine. It was good. We went down in a little tram under the ground through some of the original tunnels. The guide showed us how they dug, how they made tunnels and how little light there was down there. It would have been very hard work. The rest of the place consisted of mine workings, tents, buildings, etc. connected with the early gold rush days. We went on a Coach drawn by 4 beautiful Clydesdale horses and we saw some redcoats marching. After investigating the diggings and checking out the various shops we returned home.  Surprisingly, not long before we left it started to hail. Fortunately they were small pieces. After that the sky cleared but it was very cold.  

Day 144 Monday 5th September

We left Apollo bay at about 8.30 this morning. The weather was quite warm with a beautiful blue sky. We followed the Great Ocean Road along the coast through some beautiful seaside towns. The cliffs on one side of us were pretty steep and the ocean was on the other side. We stopped at Torquay for morning tea. It is supposed to be a surf beach but we didn’t see any surf. Perhaps further round at Bells Beach there was surf. It was certainly beautiful though.

Then we continued on to Ballarat. It looks a lovely town and has nearly 100 000 people living here. We went to Sovereign Hill tonight for their sound and light show. It was quite good. We had dinner first at the hotel there followed by the show. The Eureka Stockade was certainly an historic moment in Australian history.

Distance travelled today 207 km

Total distance travelled 22064 km

Lorne

Torquay

Day 143 Sunday 4th September

Happy Fathers’ Day

 We had a great tea last night in the Apollo Bay pub.

What strange weather! It was very warm last night but the wind was blowing a gale. We awoke early this morning to rain and it continued to rain off and on for most of the morning. By 2.00 the sky had cleared and it was a lovely sunny day. Then by evening the wind had come up again and it was very gusty.

We set off to see the Cape Otway Lighthouse.  We travelled through a beautiful gum tree forest where we saw quite a lot of koalas sitting up in the trees. How they balance up there is astounding.

The lighthouse is amazing perched on the cliff guiding boats through Bass Strait. This is where the Southern Ocean and Bass Strait meet. It was built in 1848 as there were a number of ship wrecks off this coastline with many lives lost.

There is also a World War 2 bunker which was built to watch for German and Japanese submarines.

The views are superb with rolling hills leading down to the ocean.