13 Oct 09

Adelaide to Warragul, Vic

We left home at 7:20am and arrive in Warragul 8 ½ hrs driving (and about 850km) later. We had a very uneventful first days travel. The “highlight” I guess was when we got a bit wayward coming into Melbourne, and had to do a little double back to get back on course.

Going through Melbourne we were on a toll road for about 2 mins, when we got to Warragul I rang the Company, City Link, to pay the toll. For our 2 min use of their road we were charged $12.50!!!!! mmmmmm Now that really is a case of “Highway Robbery”!!

We checked into our hotel in Warragul, The Best Western. It had one of the most comfy beds we have come across in hotels. Highly recommend this one.  On the recommendation of the Hotel, we had dinner at the local Country Club. We both had a chicken schnitzel and we shared a bottle of Riesling. It was actually nice, it seemed to be breast slices crumbed, and accompanied by salad and chips.

14 Oct 09

Warragul to Mallacoota, Vic

We woke at around 8am, had breakfast and were back on the road just in time to catch peak hour in Warragul at 8:45am. Once we negotiated the 2 other cars on the road we headed east for Mallacoota.  Again it was an easy drive, only 425kms to Mallacoota.

We stopped at Bairnsdale. We parked directly outside St Mary’s Church, it looked interesting so we decided to have a look inside, something we do a lot of when we are overseas but never seem to do at home when we travel.  Apparently it is famous for its frescoed ceiling. It was amazing to find a church with such a ceiling in a smallish county town in Vic. It would not have been out of place in Europe. The painting was done by a lone Italian artist from 1930 over a period of about 7 years. He did it in two stages and apparently he did it for very little payment.  Anyway, if you are ever down this way it is well worth a look. After the church we did a little shopping. First we went to Aldi, looking for an electric fan heater (the weather forecast isn’t pleasant, rain , more rain and cold nights until about Sat or Sun). We finished up getting some apples, mushrooms, asparagus, onions, tomatoes and bananas.  We were amazed at how little it all cost, and to our surprise , and delight, all were good quality except for the apples, which after tasting, we threw away.   We found a little fan heater at Harvey Norman.

Back on the road, we stopped twice coming into Lakes Entrance. Once illegally on the way in to check out the view (getting back on the road was a little “hairy”, across the road on a blind bend with our camper trailer in tow!!) and then we went back a bit stopped at the lookout at the top of a hill over looking the Lakes Entrance area. Both spots gave great views. We then drove into Lakes Entrance and got some fish and chips for lunch, which we ate at a park.

We then drove onto Mallacoota, arriving around 3pm. All the way from Warragul to Mallacoota we passed lots and lots of motorbikes heading to Phillip Island for the Moto GP. We also heard that there was a Barry Sheen Memorial ride taking place on Thursday and they were expecting at least 1000 bikes to take part in it and they were warning of HUGE delays on the roads the ride was taking. In Mallacoota we set up our camper trailer on a waterfront powered site and sat back and relaxed for a while, before going for a walk around the caravan park and into the village to see what was about. Mallacoota is a fishing town of about 2000 people, and is pretty quiet at this time of the year. After sausages, onion and mushrooms and a glass of red for tea we had an early night.

15 Oct 2009

Mallacoota.

Weather forecasters got it right. Intermittent showers during the day and showers over night. But that didn’t stop us doing anything. We woke late, around 8am. The bird life around here is crazy. We hadn’t realised how noisy birds are at night, they seemed to be awake all night and filled the night with a steady background noise.

In the morning we had a walk around the village, I got a fishing licence and then we went down and got post , read the paper. After a couple of relaxing hours totally uninterrupted by fish (yes , not one bite!) we had a cheese platter for lunch looking out over the lake and into national park and hills disappearing into the distance. It doesn’t get to much better than that.

We then went up to the visitor info shed, and got some maps of the area and loads of really great ideas for things to do.

We then went for a drive along the foreshore drive. The lake was just magic at every turn.  We eventually stopped at a couple of small jetties and took a few pictures of the scenery and some birds. We then drove to the coast and had a look at a few beaches we climbed over rocks and collected shells, (it reminded me (deb) of when we went crabbing with Dante and Tessa at Lady Bay, just minus the crabs!!   We took lots of photos of the beach, then I wanted to take one of the foam on the waters edge and the sand, just like the one I am going to have in my office – it was too difficult for me – I will be reminded of that every time I look at the photo in my office) 

We saw an old WWII Bunker (that is under restoration – it was used for coast surveillance in WWII, interesting) and some amazing looking rock formations along the coast.

Being 4pm, Deb said it was “Beer O’clock”, so we headed back and I had a beer, did a little more “fishing” ( got to find another word for baiting a line and hook, casting it into the water and never being disturbed by the fish).

Lamb chops, asparagus, onion and mushies for tea, and then into our warm, fan heated tent for the night, tough life huh!!