FRIDAY 30 JANUARY     NELSON

Drove to the village after breakfast. Filled Truck – 78cpl. Got some tourist information and lunch supplies.

Spent most of the day driving along the Glenelg River, in the Lower Glenelg National Park. The lower section of the river is in a gorge, with limited access. I wanted to visit several of the river access points and canoe landings. Some of these are names I’ve heard in conjunction with my school’s outdoor education canoe trips down the Glenelg River gorge.

We left Nelson on the unsealed Glenelg River Drive, which angled NE to intersect the river near Sapling Creek, some 26 kms from the river mouth.

From Nelson, near the mouth, the river does a  loop to the northwest, into SA, before turning east back into Vic. There was not much in the way of access tracks on that loop section, from the Victorian side, so we chose to start our exploration today at Sapling Creek.

Took a little access track from the main “road” to the river. There was a small landing dock there. There were also several fishermen here, including one man with a boat, who had just landed a big mulloway. The fishing is supposed to be excellent at the moment, because the river mouth has silted up, so the river is “closed” and at a higher than usual level.

We saw a Nankeen Night Heron here, lurking in a low tree over the river – first one of these we have seen. The one we saw first was quite ginger in parts – they are also called the Rufous Night Heron. Then we spotted a second one, higher up in the tree – this was not as richly coloured and we think it may have been a younger one.

Next little detour was to Forest Camp – 31kms from river mouth, where there is another landing. There were some fishermen here too, but it was a much poorer view of the river, for us.

Moved on fairly quickly, to Battersbys Landing, 35kms along the river from its mouth. This had great river views and access to the river and the landing. It was a great picnic spot, and we ate lunch at a table provided.

We spent a couple of hours there, just watching for birds and enjoying the place.

A few kms beyond Battersbys, the River Road joined the sealed Nelson-Winnap road, then further along that we turned towards the river again to look at Pritchards Landing. The river access here was alright, but the camp area here was rather bare and sandy. It is a camp area where one could take a small caravan, and, back in Hamilton, we had been debating about staying in the National Park, rather than the commercial campground at Nelson. We now thought we were much better off where we were – much nicer! It is probably better to be out of the forested National Park, too, with the fire risk being as it is right now.

Continued on the Winnap  road for a little way, then took the Inkpot Road to that feature. The Inkpot is a sink hole that has filled with water to make a little lake. Because it is sort of stagnant, rotting tannins in vegetation have turned it a black colour – an interesting contrast with the pale grey sandy soils around it. We felt it was a rather gloomy place. Walked around the Inkpot, then returned to Nelson on the sealed roads.

From the village, drove out to Estuary Beach – but because of the high water levels there was no beach!

We drove and looked at the river side access points near the caravan park. Watched a number of boats heading upstream – presumably for night time mulloway fishing.

Tea was spinach fettucine with a tomato-ey sauce. After, we ate figs (given to us by B and M the other day), stewed, with icecream – I bought some of the ice cream wafer slices, that fit into the little freezebox of the fridge.

There are more people in the park tonight – an influx of fishing men into the permanent vans for the weekend.

We drove 92kms today, with a lot of stop and start and gear work on the tracks. It does seem to be getting easier for John.