This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Monthly Archives: October 2016


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1998 Travels February 5

THURSDAY 5 FEBRUARY     NELSON

Today was the day to fit in all the things I’d wanted to do here, but hadn’t yet tackled!

Bought diesel at Nelson again this morning. Still 78cpl. We could probably have gotten it cheaper somewhere like Mt Gambier, but tell ourselves it is good to support the local businesses. The truth is, we didn’t think of it then!

Today we went exploring in a different direction – in the Portland direction. I really wanted to visit Swan Lake – another place I’ve heard of in connection with school outdoor education trips, but not been to.

As we drove down the track from the highway, John realized from the signs that there was a 4WD track through the sandhills, to the beach. I knew that dune buggies did a lot of driving on the dunes here, but hadn’t known about “proper” vehicles doing it.

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We started up the first sandy slope – and soon stopped short! Vivid memories of the Hilux battling to manage the much easier sand tracks around Coffin Bay came to my mind. But John got out, let down the tyres (which he should have done before we started up), and we then churned on, really quite easily, right through to the beach. It was a deep sand, steeply sloping dune track about 2kms long – mainly for dune buggies.

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Truck stuck!

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Truck unstuck!

John was really thrilled with his Great White Truck! We decided that having normal AT tyres on the Truck, rather than the fat ones of the Hilux, may have been an advantage.

We walked a little on the beach, but the sand was deep, so it was not great walking.

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On the beach. The 4WD track comes in from the left, where the sign is visible

Retraced our way through the dunes, then stopped by the grassy camping area behind the dunes to pump up the tyres again. Having the inbuilt air compressor is a boon for this sort of thing.

Drove around to look at Swan Lake. This lake has been formed by the big sand dunes blocking a little creek. Despite the name, it was not all that attractive – and there were no swans! It was quite low in water. We thought the camping area rather desolate.

Back to the highway; closer to Nelson, we took the unsealed road to Lake Monibeong. This is the largest one of a series of lakes and swamps at the back of the large Discovery Bay sand dunes.

We continued on the track to the parking area beyond the lake, then took the walking track to the beach, and along this to Suttons Rocks. It was about a 3km round trip, by the time we did some beach walking too. There were some steep gradients for John to manage, but he got there. Absolutely vicious mobs of March flies swarmed around us as we walked – which was a great incentive not to stand still. They disappeared once we reached the beach, mostly.

Drove back to Lake Monibeong. This big lake was quite attractive – much nicer than Swan Lake. The camp area was nicer than that at Swan Lake, but still did not appeal that much to me.

We had lunch at the picnic area here. While we were eating, John put his bait trap in the water, and caught some little bait fish.

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Lake Monibeong

Drove back to Nelson and to the Estuary Beach car park. Walked the Livingstone Island Nature Walk, a loop walk around through the salt marsh area. Walked about 2kms.

The water in the estuary seems even higher now than it did the other day. It is right across the road now in two places – last time we drove down here it was only partly over. I guess there is still water coming down the Glenelg, though there has not been much rain in its catchment area, for quite some time. Local opinion is divided on how soon the bar at the river’s mouth will breach and allow the river to drain out to sea again, but most seem to think it will be soon.

We drove out to Sapling Creek again, so John could fish. Here, too, the river was noticeably higher than the other day. There were only little fish biting on John’s bait. We could see lots of baby bream – they ate any scraps thrown in the water and nibbled on bait when we dangled it in the river.

After a very full, but wonderful day, it was another late tea. Soup, toasted cheese, Xmas pudding and ice cream.

John had a sore upper back and shoulder area, today. He was worried that it might be a sign of blood clots in his lungs again, since he is no longer on the warfarin. However, it seems muscular to me – from all the bowling and/or bouncing and jarring it about on the rough track we rode yesterday. But we shall monitor it carefully.


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1998 Travels February 4

WEDNESDAY 4 FEBRUARY     NELSON

After breakfast, I did two loads of washing.

John continued the repair work on his bike. I cleaned up the van and washed the floor.

We had an early lunch because John was going to Port McDonnell to play bowls.

I read the paper, did some embroidery, finished a letter to daughter.

I spent quite a bit of time watching the many birds that are around our site. They seem to have accepted the van’s presence and take little notice of me. Today I was visited by some firetails, a little wattlebird, a New Holland honeyeater, an Eastern spinebill, both Mr and Mrs fairy wren, some silvereyes, a yellow breasted robin and some carolling magpies. There were also crimson rosellas chirping away nearby, at teatime. There is a diversity of vegetation around Nelson, given the coastal  and the river environments, which may account for the variety of the birds. I felt lucky to see so many different ones.

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The sand bar closing the Glenelg River mouth and resultant lake

 

John enjoyed himself at bowls – he found the men very informal and friendly.

For once we managed tea at a reasonable time. I made poached chicken breast with mango, potatoes and broad beans. We followed it with some of the  Xmas pudding my sister in law had given me – very nice cold, with ice cream.

After tea, John decided on a bike ride, to test out his repair work. We rode along the path of the Great South West Walk, which follows the Gorge, from Nelson. Followed this until it met up with Moores Track then took the latter back to Nelson. It was getting late when we started out, and was dark by the time we got back. The ride was rather marginal and risky at the end, with kangaroos hopping away in fright as we rode by. We did not set out to go so far – or at least I didn’t – but rode 9.4kms.

It was also hot work, because we were really hurrying at the end. I’d already had my shower at 5pm, before John decided on the ride, and didn’t want another, so I went “unwashed” to bed!

John wrote postcards to his daughter R and to his sister. His elder daughter, S, is due back from a six-month posting to Bougainville, today.


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1998 Travels February 3

TUESDAY 3 FEBRUARY     NELSON

We drove across to Mt Gambier to buy new tyres for John’s bike. I shopped for groceries and fruit there.

On the way back, went to Piccaninnie Ponds and fished in the surf breaking on the beach. No bites.

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The Piccaninnie Ponds outlet creek flowing over the beach to the sea

 

John phoned the bank to check our balances. His final pay cheque has hit the account. His last wage! It is rather scary to realize that there will be no more comfortable fortnightly salaries – just the much more modest superannuation money.

At the van, John began fixing his bike. He went to the rubbish tip to find a piece of metal to repair the mudguard that got damaged when the bike fell.

I read the paper and did some embroidery and watched John’s efforts.

Tea was the bream he caught yesterday, for him, with french fries and corn. I had fries and some salad. Bream has too many bones for my liking – and it wasn’t big enough for two, anyway. For dessert John had bananas and yoghurt, and I had yoghurt.


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1998 Travels February 2

MONDAY 2 FEBRUARY     NELSON

Another hot day to start, and total fire ban.

Today marks 4 weeks into our trip! That has gone so quickly.

More sightseeing today. We drove to Piccaninnie Ponds, just over the border into SA, by the coast. This is an area of swamp, pools and wetlands, notable because there are limestone cave formations below the Ponds that go very deep and are very spectacular – if you are a diver!

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The main pond at Piccaninnie Ponds

The groundwater wells up from the caves below and forms a sizeable  outlet creek that flows to the nearby sea. It is this upward flow of groundwater that originally eroded lines of weakness in the limestone to form the cave network.

We looked at the diving platform built out over the edge of the water. There was no diving activity here at the moment.

Walked to see the beach and to look at the mouth of the outlet creek. That emerges from the bush, then flows for some distance along the back of the sand, before finding a way to the sea. It looks as if it didn’t used to take this route, because the boardwalk to the beach now drops into the creek, and the driving access track is roped off. But it is all very attractive looking. We picked our way onto the beach and walked a little way, but it was hard going in soft sand. To add to that, there were really persistent March flies around – one had to be very vigilant not to be stung.

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The outlet creek from Piccaninnee Ponds to the sea

Donovans Landing, on the SA section of the Glenelg River, was our next destination. This is not all that far up the river from Nelson. We drove through the little settlement there and parked on the access road near the landing. From there we walked along a path that went behind the boat sheds and river shacks that are actually built out over the river. Here, there is a narrow strip of land between the water and the river cliff. In the few places where this occurs along the river, people have built such structures. Walking between them and the cliff is like walking through a tunnel. Some have even built over the top of that, so the “tunnel” is roofed – very dank and dingy in places. Most of the structures would be flooded downstairs now, with the river so high.

A local told us that one of these sold for $130,000 recently – there is no problem selling them, apparently. I find the price unbelievable – probably more than we’d get for our house in Melbourne! Each to his own – definitely not my taste.

As I was walking behind the shacks at Donovans, something stung me behind the knee. Don’t know what it was, but it really hurt.

Went back to the van and set out to ride the bikes along the Glenelg River Drive. We haven’t ridden the bikes since we’ve been here. It was pleasant riding, in the bushy surroundings, on the gravel road, and the day was cooling down quickly. But after about 3.6kms, John’s back tyre blew out. He wasn’t going too fast and luckily fell on his “good” side. It was scary, though – what if he’d fallen the other way?

We had to walk almost 4kms back, pushing the bikes. I didn’t feel I could ride on alone and leave John to his efforts.

After that abortive effort, John wanted to go fishing, so we drove out to Sapling Creek landing. The afternoon was getting on by now. He had some nibbles from little fish and then caught a decent sized bream. We stayed until dark, but there were no more bites. Except for those the plentiful mozzies inflicted on us!

So it was a very late tea – potato salad, lettuce salad and tinned tuna.

A cool change had come in earlier than forecast, and by night time it was quite chilly. This will be welcome across the State as there have been bushfires today around Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo, many caused by lightning during last night. To date, I think we have been very lucky to avoid fire areas.


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1998 Travels February 1

SUNDAY 1 FEBRUARY     NELSON

We were up at a reasonable hour, to get a few things done before driving to Mt Gambier for bowls.

John did the ironing, in the caravan park laundry, using our iron. I polished both our sets of bowls – might as well look the part!

Today is a total fire ban day and it got really hot, from about midday on. The temperature got to 39 degrees at Mt Gambier, and there was a hot north wind blowing.

We bought a pull apart loaf in Mt Gambier and went to a park to eat that for lunch. I had allowed enough time before bowls to stock up on some food supplies, but supermarkets are not open on Sundays, in SA. There went that plan!

Bowls started at 1pm. It was very hot out on the open greens – and humid too. The conditions were really too poor to enjoy the day. The hot wind gusts increased through the afternoon and made it even harder to play well. John’s leg started hurting quite badly, part way through the afternoon, and put him off his game. I played erratically, as I usually do. We lost both games, but enjoyed the company of the people we played with.

I think I was rather dehydrated by the end of the day.

Tea was steak and salad, followed by stewed figs and ice cream.

Phoned son. I had to drive down to the village to do it. The phone here at the campground only takes cards – and the new ones at that – which we do not have. Asked him to forward mail to Portland.

A check of our expenditure to date shows that we are keeping within the $200 a week for food and extras  –  just. We are well under budget on fuel expenditure and also under on our caravan park spending. So far, so good.

At least it cooled down at night, so we could sleep, even though it is total fire ban again tomorrow.


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1998 Travels January 31

SATURDAY 31 JANUARY     NELSON

Drove to the store for the paper, and John bought some bait prawns.

After an early lunch, drove towards Port McDonnell because John wanted to go fishing. For some reason, he is not interested in trying to fish in the river around here.

We retraced the way we’d come home on Thursday, and went to where Eight Mile Creek opens onto a little beach. We both fished there, for a while. There was a lot of weed that kept snagging on the lines – very annoying. I caught a toadfish – hope it is not an omen that the first fish of this trip is one of those!

We gave up there, and moved on to Port McDonnell. Spent some time walking out along the Breakwater and watching other people fish there. It seemed to be very weedy and rocky bottomed.

Eventually, John tried some fishing off the Breakwater approach, where some people were catching small mullet. He had no bites! I happily read the weekend Age, in Truck.

And thus the afternoon passed. We decided to have an early tea – fish and chips – at Port McDonnell. We ate these overlooking the marina area – watching all the small boats with people trying unsuccessfully to catch fish!

Back at the van, John spent some time trying to master the HF radio. He actually got through to the Sydney operator and got in an operator connected “phone” call to K and P – but it was an anti-climax because they were not home!

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Our large and bushy site at Nelson


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1998 Travels January 30

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.

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Glenelg River at Sapling Creek Landing

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.

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Nankeen Night Heron perched over the river, and another one hiding

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.

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Picnic lunch by the river

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

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The very high level Glenelg River at Battersbys Landing

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.

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The Inkpot

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.

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The places we accessed in the Lower Glenelg National Park


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1998 Travels January 29

THURSDAY 29 JANUARY     NELSON

Quiet caravan parks are not conducive to waking up early, it seems! It was 9.30 before I stirred.

The weather had changed during the night and it had rained and was quite cool, with gusty squalls still happening.

I abandoned the idea of riding to the store, after breakfast, for bread and a paper, due to the continuing rain.

Our drive to the store turned instead into a trip to Mt Gambier, across the border in SA, because John wanted to check out bowls there! I drove for most of the way because John wanted to fiddle about and see if he could get the HF radio working properly – he has to learn to use all its functions, yet.

First stop was at the Tourist Information Centre – the Lady Nelson Centre, where there was, at the front, a full-sized replica of the ship of that name. The Lady Nelson was the first ship to sail through Bass Strait, pioneering the route for subsequent shipping. On that first voyage, her captain sighted in the distance and named Mt Schank and Mt Gambier.

The Information Centre was excellent. Apart from some free tourist brochures, I bought a couple of postcards and three  books that describe roadside stops and camps around Australia. These cost $36 but should be worth having.

John found out that there are two bowls clubs in town. We drove to the nearest one – the RSL Club – where he booked us in for a Triples game on Sunday afternoon. I waited in the Truck – could hear a lot of sirens in the distance and wondered what was going on.

We drove to the town centre to get bread for lunch. The sirens I’d heard were due to a seven car pile-up in the middle of the main street. It was hard to work out how such an accident happened, but it was a real mess. Some bystanders seemed to think that the first driver had some sort of “turn”, jammed the accelerator down and hit some other cars, which hit others.

Bought bread rolls, to be eaten without fillings, at a small bakery that did not have much choice, then drove up to the Blue Lake to a lookout, where we ate, sitting in Truck. We did a small walk on tracks around the lookout area. The Blue Lake was very blue!

Mount Gambier itself is a volcanic feature, containing four maar formation lakes – created by explosions of hot steam during the most recent volcanic phase. The Blue Lake is the largest and deepest of the lakes, the next biggest is Valley Lake. The other two are more like shallow swampy areas.

The Blue Lake is known for changing colour between bright blue in the summer, to a more normal grey colour in winter. The colour change relates to changing water temperature – in summer, calcium carbonate crystals precipitate out of solution and refract light rays differently.

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The very blue Blue Lake – obviously not reflecting the sky colour! Mt Schank in distance

We drove down into the part of the crater that contains Valley Lake, past the Blue Lake Caravan Park, which looks a good one. We did not stop long there, or do any walking.

Port McDonnell was John’s  next destination – because it has a bowls club! The road passes close by Mt Schank. There was no activity or information at the bowls club, and the village looked rather desolate and windblown. We were not tempted to get out of the Truck and walk around.

Followed a road along the coast for some way, through farmland, and that eventually led us back to the main road to Nelson.

It was 7pm when we got back to the van. Not bad for a trip to the local shop for the paper!

So tea was late – salads, followed by mango.

There had obviously been quite a lot of rain at Nelson, through the day. Fortunately, the sandy coastal soils seem to drain quite well.

We saw a number of “new” birds today – some in the sense that it was the first time we recorded them in our bird book, although we had seen them in times past. But there were some we had not ever seen before – particularly the Cape Barren Goose.


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1998 Travels January 28

WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY   HAMILTON TO NELSON   130kms

I didn’t get up until 8.45, and John not until 9! There was no sense of urgency to get away with such a short distance to go, but even so! Began the pack up at 9.45, got away at 10.45. John thinks an hour to do that is still too long. I am not sure we can cut it down by much.

Hitching the van to Truck was quite straightforward again.

We drove to Nelson via Digby and Dartmoor, and from Dartmoor almost to Nelson on a minor road.

Went into the Kywong Caravan Park, where our powered site was $12 a night.

We are on a large, “bush” site, with shrubbery on both sides. It is a big park, with only a few other occupants, though there are a number of permanent vans. There are no outside lights near us, so it will seem lovely and dark at night. The amenities are large, and clean; they have a sort of a keypad on the door, into which one must punch a code – I have not seen this before. It is different to the usual keyed lock.

It took us a while to set up the camp again. I still do most of it because John can’t manage lifting or heavy work. We both  need to work together to put up the awning – that is quite time consuming. It slides into a sail track fitting on the side of the van, and then we have to put it up with five poles along the front, and they need pegging down. We did not have a fixed, pull out awning put on the van, for a couple of reasons – had seen some where an awning on the poptop pulled it off line. Our type of awning is more secure if a wind storm comes up when we are away. But the penalty for this is the time and effort involved in erecting the thing and taking it down.

After lunch, John de-greased the bikes, which had picked up a lot of dust on the dirt roads of the Grampians, when up behind the Truck.

Then we went for a ride to explore the village, which did not take long! Continued on, out to Ocean Beach – that part was quite hilly and tested John’s leg. We rode 12.2kms.

For tea I made hamburgers and we had those with salad and strawberries to follow.

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Our back roads route from Hamilton to Nelson – & a couple of our Hamilton drives in red


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1998 Travels January 27

TUESDAY 27 JANUARY     HAMILTON

Today turned out to be mostly a rest day. John’s leg was quite sore today – probably from too much bowling!

It was again quite warm and humid. The run of extreme weather events over much of Australia is continuing – now there are cyclones up north and massive flooding of Katherine and areas around there, in the NT.

I did our washing, including the sheets and towels. It did not take long to dry.

We had a browse through some shops. I bought a lightweight, plastic mincer – might come in handy to make decent minced meat. We bought a doormat and John got some cheap fishing gear.

Had a late lunch – rolls – at 4pm. So tea was late, and light – soup, a bread roll, and strawberries.

We did as much packing up as possible.

The phone was working again, so I phoned son. All is ok at home. My daughter has been in Melbourne, for some weddings. They are then going to Shepparton to pick fruit. She and her husband have plans to travel Australia, working as they need to.

It rained during the night – quite heavily.