This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Tag Archives: Lakes Entrance


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2017 Travels October 20

FRIDAY OCTOBER 20     LAKES ENTRANCE TO HOME     350 kms

The six day duration of our stay here was determined by John’s Saturday bowls, so today was going home day.

Our pack up was quick and easy. I wondered what our watching neighbour thought of that? His would take him hours…

Between Lakes Entrance and Bairnsdale, we had to slow down for a small group of wood ducks crossing the road – no young ones amongst them though.

Lake King in the distance

I noted the existence of the Bairnsdale to Orbost Rail Trail and wondered if grandson and his father had ridden that one, yet. I hadn’t known there was ever a railway through to Orbost. Knew that it went as far as Bairnsdale, of course, from taking groups down to the school’s camp at the Banksia Peninsula, in the late 80’s, on the train. I had been very pleased when the Victorian government re-opened that service, after a period of being closed down. I am a believer in the efficiency of country rail transport.

Nicholson River

Also in that section, we slowed again, where a traffic policeman had pulled over a motorist. It was only after we’d trundled past, that it occurred to either of us that John should probably have slowed to 40kmh, in line with the new rules regarding emergency vehicles.

Saw more interesting, new signage, out of Bairnsdale. A sign regarding tailgating and an instruction to allow three seconds between vehicles. There were arrow marks on the road surface for a distance, which I presumed were meant to show the actual three second distance, at 100kmh. It looked an unrealistic distance to me, one that very few drivers would try to maintain between cars.

We were rather intrigued by the multiplicity of coloured roadside posts. Apart from the usual white ones, there were blue ones in some sections, orange and yellow in others. I had no idea why this was so, but spotting the different coloured sections provided some interest.

The black and white Friesian dairy cows were dominant on the pastureland around Sale.

There seemed to be so many caravanners and motorhomers travelling east today – wondered where they were all heading. We passed same, regularly, from the time we left Lakes, right to where we turned off the Monash Freeway, in Melbourne.

Before Sale, we again had the GPS instructing us to travel via Maffra and Heyfield. We’d intended to try this route, but John was not listening to either the GPS or me, and missed the turning.

Today it was very obvious why the GPS made that instruction. Roadworks!  Lots and lots of sections of roadworks. Both sides of Sale, in the town,  and on from it. It will be good, though, when the highway is duplicated all the way through from the Latrobe Valley. So travel was rather stop/start.

Coming into Sale, I suggested to John that we detour back to the Victoria Gardens to give the dog a walk and us a coffee break. So he turned down the side street – only to see that it was closed off on the corner by the Gardens. There was no other street for us to turn into, and with parked cars the road was too narrow for us to U turn. He continued on, slowly, toward the traffic controllers at the barricade. One approached us and said we could turn into the street to the left, and moved the barriers for us.

There was some sort of bicycle event happening, with riders going around the edge of Victoria Gardens, and support vehicles and crews parked up the side street we turned into.

Unfortunately, that side street was a dead end! It was just wide enough for us to U turn at the end, complicated by the rubbish bins left out – must have been collection day. We cleared a green bin by millimetres!

Our friendly traffic controller waved us back the way we’d come and moved the barricade again for us.

So my bright idea had not been so bright, after all. Just one of the little hiccups of Coastering with the car behind. It would have been an equal problem in our caravanning days – except they would probably have made us turn in the first street – with much to-ing and fro-ing.

Just out of Sale we were passed by a Coaster, going the same way. It was a new one, with the new more square roof shape, which will make it easier to put cupboards inside, when conversions are done, we think. It was still in bus mode, but with an older couple as driver and passenger. I wondered if the people were running it in before converting it. Think I’d like one of those……… We could see it for some time, getting further and further head of us, slowed by the roadwork sections.

Today we could see the ranges to our right, from Sale through to the Latrobe Valley. They were still slightly hazy, after yesterday’s rain, with the moisture in the air.

Avon River at Stratford

Travelling through Traralgon is the pits. Why on earth didn’t they put a bypass around the place when the duplicated road reached there from Melbourne? It is going to be ridiculous: good duplicated and divided road cruising from Melbourne to Traralgon, ditto the Sale side, before too much longer, and in the middle the long slow crawl through sprawling Traralgon, with so many sets of traffic lights. Ridiculous.

It was a relief to get onto the freeway.

Just on the edge of Traralgon there was a rail bridge over the road, with a sign reading Briquette Rail Line. I’d never noticed this before. Wondered do they still make briquettes from coal?

Coal mine

There were more roadworks, on the freeway, around Morwell. A long one lane crawl at 40kmh. There was the usual moron who came speeding up the left hand lane, after all the rest of the traffic had slowed and merged to one long lane, as per electronic instruction board, some distance back. Then he had to push across into the merged lane, in front of us. A white Mitsubishi AWD type vehicle – John let him push in front of us, but honked at him. I hoped the loud noise gave him a fright. Karma will catch up with him, one day…….

At Moe, we left the freeway on the slipway to the Old Gippsland Pioneer Settlement, where we knew there is a long stretch of parking beside the road. Parked there, along with several caravans and cars. Walked dog. Took ourselves over the road to the toilets, then sat in the bus and ate the lunch I had thought to pack this morning. It was a good place for such a break, and straightforward to get back onto the freeway, after.

Good parking area at Old Gippstown

It was 12.25 when we left there, on the last leg.

Traffic on the Monash Freeway was not too bad – it actually did not seem as heavy as it had been on Sunday! The roadworks continued……

Freeway and roadworks

Somehow, John missed the turnoff to Eastlink. I think he was expecting the lane he was in to become part of the slip road, but he actually had to diverge left onto it and realized too late. I have to admit it is rather a confusing deviation, and the GPS instructions of merge left and keep right did not help!

We took the Wellington Road exit, further along, then had to make our way back to Eastlink.

On the trip down, last Sunday, the ETag had not been registering and beeping. From Lakes Entrance, John had phoned City Link and they said they would send a new tag out to us. However, on the way home the damned thing began to beep again, when it should! So do not know what had been going on there…..could be interesting to check the City Link account in a few days!

We came off Eastlink at Canterbury Road and made our way on the familiar road home, getting there at 2.20pm. Just missed the start of the big afternoon traffic build up on these roads.

By 3pm, we were all unpacked again and trip was over. Except for washing the bedding, which can wait a while, and wiping out the fridge, tomorrow.

I love motorhomes – it is just so easy.

Lakes Entrance had proved to be an excellent place for a short getaway and one I’d be quite happy to return to.

Lakes Entrance

STATISTICS:

 Kms travelled:   695kms

Fuel cost: $83.79

Nights away: 5

Accommodation cost: $252.90


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2017 Travels October 19

THURSDAY OCTOBER 19     LAKES ENTRANCE

After a restless night, I was up at 7am. The morning was rather warm and humid and that got John up at the early hour – for him – of 9.30am.

Our Lakes Entrance site

During the night there had been one of those little incidents designed to make mobile life that bit more unpredictable. Soon as I appeared, the guy opposite came and told me he’d turned off our water tap at 6am, because the site was flooded. Seems our hose connection had burst off. I’d heard a noise at 3am, but thought it was the dog jumping out of her seat bed. The hose had been leaking when we had first set up, but John thought he’d fixed it.

With the really sandy soils here, all the water had drained away quickly.

The van opposite moved out, then the one two sites down moved onto the vacated site. I couldn’t discern any difference between the two sites to justify the rigmarole of relocating, but there must have been some reason.

John fixed the hose then played computer games. I read and did some sewing, outside.

From the late morning there was cloud build up from the west. Definitely looking stormy.

Looking ominous

John wanted bread and cheeses for tea so we went shopping for a nice crusty bread and some Turkish rolls.  Bought some brie, a cheddar, blue cheese and a jar of bread and butter cucumbers. Went to the floating fish outlet and bought a couple of kilos of flathead pieces. Back at camp, I packed meal sized lots of flathead for the freezer, keeping out enough for tomorrow night’s tea.

By lunchtime it was really humid. Mid-afternoon there was heavy rain and some wind. That passed, then there was more around tea time and later in the night.

Storm coming

The rain cooled things down considerably and made it a much more pleasant night for sleeping. I went to bed early, being tired after last night’s poor sleep.


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2017 Travels October 17

TUESDAY OCTOBER 17     LAKES ENTRANCE

We both had a sleep in until 9.30 and I woke to a lovely day – blue sky and sunshine. It felt warm, though there was a slight cool breeze. No sea mist this morning

I walked Couey and then had my breakfast outside, whilst John slept until later. I sewed for a while. John did some bowls club work on his laptop.

I was a bit startled by the sudden appearance of a man from the other side of Bus. He was a worker on a scallop boat and was doing the rounds, selling them – freshly caught, cleaned and $30 a kilo. Too tempting to pass up – I bought a kilo, hoping he was legit and that we didn’t wind up with food poisoning. Sometimes one trusts…

The dog was walked a couple  more times, including across the bridge and down to the little park. It was really a lovely day to be doing not much.

Cunninghame Arm – looking east from the bridge

Mid afternoon, drove to the shopping centre to pick up a few groceries and some wine.

Some of the Lakes Entrance fishing fleet

When we got back, there was a guy setting up a camper trailer on the next site. He’d parked almost a metre into our site. Had we not come back I am sure he’d have put his guy ropes across our car parking space. I saw him holding a guy rope and surveying the car after we’d returned. In the end, he left both ropes dangling. He made some comment to John about always liking to set up right in the corner of his site because his trailer was so big. And it was! He had a young girl with him and said his wife had gone shopping. She stayed away for a good couple of hours more – reckon she was avoiding the set-up work, and I could see why!       

Note the pink painted lines that denote the site boundary!

I couldn’t believe the outfit this man had. Apart from the large camper trailer, he put tarps over most of the site, then draped a lot of shadecloth around. He set up a fair sized gazebo. There was a portable BBQ with its own large gas bottle. Given that he’d started before we came back from the shops, his setting up took another three hours! The rig was ridiculous. He did say they’d had trouble fitting in on some caravan park sites. I’m sure of it.

Our intrusive neighbours

We had to move where we’d been tethering Couey because of his intrusion into our site – it was the area with the afternoon shade.

Unfortunately, they were here for four nights, before heading further west. Not great neighbours. Only three of them but they were quite noisy.

I cooked some of the scallops for tea, in garlic and butter. Served with a fancy Caesar type salad. Delicious. Froze the remaining flathead strips and scallops.


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2017 Travels October 16

MONDAY OCTOBER 16     LAKES ENTRANCE

The day began sunny and pleasant. I took my breakfast outside and enjoyed the sun whilst having it. Mid-morning, a thick sea mist rolled in and it became cooler.

There are lots of banksia trees planted in the park and these are the haunts of wattle birds.

Native vegetation at the caravan park

I took Couey for a walk around the park perimeter. She promptly became a target for the wattle birds, who kept swooping at he, making clack-clack beak clashing noises. She tried valiantly to pretend they didn’t exist, but was very keen to keep moving.

John got up about the time the fog came in. After his late breakfast, we drove to the central shops. I browsed a quilting fabric shop and indulged in a modest purchase.

The main street town – the Esplanade – is most picturesque, running parallel to Cunninghame Arm, which acts as a marina along here. Lots of very good looking boats were moored, boat trips were on offer – both in the lakes system and out in the ocean. It is a great place to wander, watch boats and people, and take photos.

At the floating fish restaurant and sales outlet that we have patronized on previous stops here,  I bought some flathead strips, a piece of duckfish and half a dozen oysters that John wanted. The fish here is fresh of the trawlers each day, and what is available varies, depending on what has been caught.

Can’t get much fresher than this…

Lunched back at camp and took Couey for a walk, over the bridge and down to the little park. This time, as well as some more swooping wattle birds, a magpie got into the mix too. Saw some interesting looking houses across from the park, with frontage to Cunninghame Arm.

Drove back to town again and onto the area called Bullock Island, opposite the entrance to the lakes system. Down a dirt road from the marine businesses and fish co-op was a lookout  area that was walled to protect from erosion and where there were more boat moorings. A refuelling point for boats was a bit further around. This was an interesting vantage point. We could watch a few people fishing from the top of the wall. Any boat traffic going from Lakes Entrance to other parts of the Lakes system has to come past here, so there were various small craft to watch. It is below the main highway that comes down the steep hill into town, so we could also see the traffic.

Looking east from Bullock Island

There looked to be a big trawler working just outside the Entrance. John was hoping to see it come in through the channel, so we hung around for a while. But it seemed to be working in a pattern that took it back and forth outside.

Big boat working outside the entrance to the Gippsland Lakes system

The entrance can be tricky to negotiate. It is not very wide and the currents can be an issue. There have been boats capsize there in bad weather. It has required ongoing dredging to keep the entrance open and make it safer for shipping.

We were just about to go, when we realized it was actually coming in, so stayed to watch it negotiate the narrow channel.

Ship coming through The Entrance

 Nearby, a man in official work clothes was taking photos of the vessel and told us it was in fact a new sixty metre long dredge, to be based permanently here. It had been built in China specifically for this job, costing the Victorian Government $23 million. It arrived here last month, for trials and final handover from the builders, and started its dredging work less than two weeks ago.

It was called the Tommy Norton. The original boat of that name was a paddle steamer that used to operate on the Lakes over 150 years ago and towed other vessels through the dangerous Entrance, back in the days before dredging.

We watched it make its slow way through the little cut from the Entrance. A catamaran was too impatient to wait for it and proceeded to motor across the path of the big boat, earning a very angry blast of the horn. A small Coastguard boat, though, waited back then passed around the back of the dredge. I wondered if it was following the catamaran – maybe it would get “booked” for failure to give way?

Big boat offended by the catamaran

The dredge’s berth was just along from where we were standing so we watched it berth.

Turning right…

Obviously it had the modern engines that enable easy sideways movement as well as front and backwards.

Turning around…

The crew parked it more precisely and easily than I can park my car!  Quite fascinating to watch. There seemed to be four crew members.

Parallel parking

Good to see this government investment in the ongoing port and fishing operations of the Lakes.

Thence to the very attractive Visitor Information Centre. I did not pick up much material there, as we were not really intending to go touring about. I did buy a beautiful art card by a local artist, featuring a rainbow bee-eater bird.

Back at the Bus, I changed the leg dressing, whilst John took Couey for yet another walk.

Chatted with our neighbours for a while. They were off to Merimbula tomorrow. Had done the three hour cruise on the Lakes this morning – said it was great and well worth doing. They had seen dolphins. Unfortunately, because of dog, not an activity open to us, though I would really have liked to do it. John thought he might like to do the five hour fishing trip, out at sea, which costs $160. He would think about it.

Our tea was later than usual, because I stayed talking. Salt and pepper flathead strips – very yummy.

Both in bed by 10pm. Must be the sea air.


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2017 Travels October 15

SUNDAY OCTOBER 15     HOME TO LAKES ENTRANCE     345kms

As usual on most Sundays, I was up early in order to breakfast with M, who comes to dinner Saturdays and stays overnight. She was invited to join us on this little trip, but had other appointments.

John had to get going much earlier than was his usual custom.

Breakfast over, in a leisurely fashion, m departed and we got stuck into the last minute preparations. Pot plants were watered, power points turned off, laptops and camera packed. We were soon ready to move Bus out onto the street, hitch up the Terios behind it, load the dog – who had gone into her usual anxiety mode. As in…”are they going to go somewhere without me?”

Trundled off at 10.15am on a pleasant morning. Blue sky, some sunshine, only high cloud.

Drove through Bayswater. There removal of the railway level crossing there, earlier this year, had certainly improved the traffic flow. Onto Eastlink to the Monash Freeway.

One hiccup, though. Our e-tag did not beep as we passed under the detection gantries. Had no way of knowing whether the tag in Terios was picked up. That was something that would need to be checked in the coming week. We discussed whether these things have batteries that need periodic replacement? Or if it had just died, for reasons unknown.

Once onto the Monash we were into roadwork territory. It seemed that lanes were being added. So, from Eastlink, to beyond Berwick, there was constriction of lanes, and 80kmh speed limit, and a confusion of yellow and white line lane markers – the yellow ones were the temporary ones to follow.

It seems that, these days, there is just constant catch up being played, where Melbourne has outgrown its infrastructure – and then the improvement of this leads to more growth, and so on. Those of us in the outer east are waiting to find out which route, of three alternatives, will be the chosen one for the extension of the Ring Road, which currently rather abruptly ends at a standard road. I would love to see the government be truly visionary and create a true outer ring road around the urban area, but that is not likely to happen.

We seemed to encounter a lot of traffic, compared to what I would expect on a Sunday. This was so for both ways – towards Melbourne as well as out the way we were going. It flowed, but was solid, and did not really lessen until the Latrobe Valley region.

The day was quite hazy. Usually, travelling the Princes Highway through the near parts of Gippsland, the blue rises of the Great Dividing Range can be seen to the north, quite close in places. Today, they were hardly visible at all.

Approaching Morwell, the chimney stacks of the now closed Hazelwood Power Station were to our right. It seemed strange to see these without any smoke or steam coming from them.

Defunct power station

But further on, at Traralgon, there were the familiar plumes coming from the Loy Yang plant.

At Traralgon, our unpredictable GPS wanted to direct us via Heyfield and Maffra, thus avoiding Sale. This seemed strange. When John moved the gadget from his car to Bus, this morning, he had not changed it from car to truck mode, so it would not be picking up on things that might worry us, like low rail bridges! So we ignored it and stayed on the highway. Later we realized that its requested detour route was because of the several lots of roadworks happening along the highway. But being Sunday, construction was paused, so the works didn’t bother us.

There was clearly much effort – and expense – being put into duplicating the highway from the Latrobe Valley to Sale, and beyond, to Bairnsdale. Much of the section from Traralgon to Sale was already complete.

We needed to stop in Sale to give the rather hot dog a drink and walk, and get ourselves some lunch. On our past few trips, I’d stopped my usual practice of packing lunch before we left home, as John inevitably was tempted by the bakery fare at Yea or Heathcote. Today, I should have made some! We didn’t see much of promise, food wise, where we could park the rig, as we drove through Sale. But, on the far side, there was a Red Rooster, so we turned down the side street before it and found Victoria Gardens – easy parking.

Hot dog

John walked to buy lunch and I watered and walked dog, who was really hot. She still had much of her thick winter coat, it seemed, I might need to investigate some sort of cooling jacket for her, for hot travel days like these. Or see if we could get vehicle air-con installed in the Bus. It did not appear to have ever had this and of course the motorhome unit on the roof does not work when we are travelling.

Victoria Gardens Sale

John came back with a chicken roll for himself, and a small container of chips for me. Not the healthier fare I’d have preferred, but beggars and all that…

There were a couple of interesting old water towers in the Gardens, on one of which restoration work appeared to be happening.

Water tower at Victoria Gardens

It was 1.45pm when we left Sale. As we drove past the Red Rooster it became apparent that there is quite a cluster of food outlets in that section. There was also a pizza place, a Subway and a hot bread bakery. I will remember that for future travel.

Stopped again at a park in Stratford – a toilet stop for the humans, this time. The little park there would also make a pleasant coffee or lunch break spot. There was easy parking and some information boards.

Road accidents have been a problem on the unduplicated sections of the Bairnsdale road, evidenced by a new type of road sign we saw there. It showed five arrows branching off a straight line, and illustrated that there were five sections of passing lanes between the two towns. In theory, this deters impatient and imprudent passing and thus reduce the incidence of head-on collisions. In practice…?

Also new to us was an electronic sign board that was lit up with a warning that there were bushfires in the area, with instructions to refer to the Vic Emergency App. All very well, but no help right now. I would have to consult with someone more mobile phone savvy than me to find out how to get that on my phone – one of the grandchildren perhaps?

In the meantime, we trundled on, figuring that if fire was an issue near the main highway, there would be other warnings of a non-mobile phone dependent nature.

Negotiating the main street of Bairnsdale, with its sets of traffic lights, we were behind a caravan that had no working brake lights. As we drew level with that outfit, at the last set of red lights, John beeped to get the driver’s attention, and I held up a sign I’d hastily written, saying “NO LIGHTS” in big letters. From the way the driver stared resolutely straight ahead, hunched over the steering wheel and ignoring us, I suspected he already knew this, and was continuing on, regardless.

The last stretch, between Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance, is an attractive one, with the crossing of the two rivers, the Nicholson and the Tambo, with their attendant small towns.

Tambo River

Then there was the long downhill run into Lakes Entrance, with its brilliant views, from high up, over the lake to the Entrance to the Gippsland Lakes system. It was a pity the driver had to concentrate on the curving road, rather than the view.

Coming down to Lakes Entrance – with the entrance channel straight ahead

Our destination of Eastern Beach Holiday Park was on the far side of the town, down – no prizes for guessing – Eastern Beach Road. Just before we reached that, pulled into a servo and refuelled – it was one with easy access for a rig our size. Paid $1.289 cpl for the diesel.

The caravan park had a dedicated check in lane – usually a sign of a good park. It was a Top Tourist as well as an NRMA one. After discount, I paid $252.90 for our five night stay on en-suite site. At the end of the stay, we felt it had definitely been worth that money.

The site we were allocated was the smallest of the eight such sites, but still adequate.

However, we had to park Bus nose in, and on the shadecloth that took the place of a slab. There was not quite enough room on the angled site to park beside this, without having the back of Bus, and the hitch, uncomfortably close to passing traffic. I did wonder if the man on Reception had sufficient visualization of his sites, because I’d told him, when booking earlier in the week, that Bus was a bit over seven metres long. Any one of the other sites would have been better for us – and they were not all occupied. Next time, I would ask for a more suitable one – as I am sure we would be  returning  here.

En suite sites at Eastern Beach

The ensuite bathroom was excellent. I rated it, along with the ones at Lightning Ridge and Kinka Beach, as the best we have encountered. It was roomy enough and with a wonderfully large shower recess, with glass door – and with a type of bench at one end to put toiletries on. Plentiful hot water too.

We were to find that the park had an interesting layout. At our end, the sites were conventionally laid out but all quite spacious. There was an amenity block and BBQ area close by. At the other end, the sites were arranged around a large central grassed area – and I mean large. This contained a playground, camp kitchen and amenities block. There were some cabins with private outlooks onto the Cunninghame Arm of the Lakes, which runs behind the park.

After setting up the camp and finding that there was an area beside Bus where Couey could be tethered on a good length rope, we all went for a walk to explore down Eastern Beach Road. This road continued on, past the park, across a bridge over the tidal Cunninghame Arm, to end by a park area that had a playground and BBQ’s. From there, a sandy wide foot track extended through the scrub to the sea and the Ninety Mile Beach.

A foot track between the park fence and Cunninghame Arm led back towards town and meant that those more energetic than us, could walk that way to town, or a circuit involving that and the beach.

It was a very attractive setting, overall.

I’d brought skinless franks with us, for tea, and a loaf of olive bread, which I warmed up in the electric frypan, to freshen it up. That made an easy meal. John’s sort of food!

We were both really tired. Maybe we were no longer used to travel? So it was an early night. Could hear the waves breaking on the beach – a lovely sound to fall asleep to.


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2017 Travels October

OCTOBER 2017

As seems to happen these days, we did not intend for there to be such a time span between trips. However, as always, life intervened.

Investigation into my thyroid health – or otherwise – extended to specialist visits and procedures. Ultimately, it was decided to let the status quo be, but only after a particularly unpleasant experience called a needle biopsy. This involved not moving whilst a needle probed the gland in question. “Keep very still now, this is really close to the carotid artery” is guaranteed to scare one – literally – rigid, I can promise!

As well, yet again, an ulcer opened up on my lower leg, and required many medical visits through much of winter.

Then, too, the winter weather in Victoria was not conducive to short breaks in this State.

In the way? Just helping, Dad

There were school holiday periods to avoid…and, of course, the bowls season started up again in spring.

Being grounded did give me the opportunity to create another crocheted patchwork blanket – this one claimed by M, who loved the autumn colours.

The latest blanket

John thought he would give some of his vegie garden a head start on spring, by putting up a greenhouse. The plastic structure lasted only until the first strong winds.

Once was a greenhouse…

A little window of opportunity opened up in mid-October, so we quickly planned a few days’ break, to give Bus a run and remind dog about “holiday in Bus”. We just had to hope that the weather did not suddenly get hot enough to adversely affect John’s young vegie plants. It was the very productive vegetable garden that usually kept us tethered to home through the summer months.

Yet again, we contemplated a run along the Great Ocean Road, but decided against that. With the short time available, it would have meant driving most days. Also, dog-friendly caravan parks along that stretch of road were few. The options were too limited for my preference. Given the increasing volume of travellers along the Great Ocean Road, it really was time that the quality of parks, and the range of travellers they catered for, was improved. I would like to see some pet friendly establishments with some en-suite sites – not too much to ask, surely?

So, we decided to go in the other direction, and spend our time at Lakes Entrance, where we could basically just relax and not do much. Whilst we’d overnighted in that town several times, had not spent a longer period based there.

For those previous overnight stops, had used caravan parks close to the town centre, so we could stay hitched up and walk to shops, especially the fish suppliers that were an attractive part of the place.

This time, for a longer stay, space, attractiveness and access to places to walk the dog were our main needs. I focussed on the Eastern Beach Holiday park, initially because it advertised as an NRMA park, and we’d previously found these to be of a good standard, if on the expensive side.

Google maps showed the park to be within walking distance of the ocean, and with a grassed area nearby where we could take dog. What I could see on the satellite view looked pleasant. They offered en-suite sites too, which would keep the driver happy.

I phoned and booked us in for five nights.

The packing needed was minimal, given that most needs were kept permanently in Bus. As I intended to indulge in fish meals whilst in this town that was home base to a decent fishing fleet, the only frozen foods that needed to be transferred from the house were a pack of the dog’s mince, a few rashers of bacon just in case, and some of the Magnum ice creams John had taken to eating for dessert.

Unfortunately, packing did have to include all the paraphernalia required for my leg dressings.

Fed dog a Nexguard tablet, to give her some protection against paralysis ticks, which can be found along the eastern Victorian coast.

Preparations thus complete…


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2008 Travels June 25

WEDNESDAY 25 JUNE   BERMAGUI TO LAKES ENTRANCE   350kms

Given that John wanted to make a substantial inroad into the trip home, today, there was no dawdling about in the morning. Up early, and away just after 9am.

We had to go back northwards for a little way, across  the inlet again, before turning onto the Cobargo road. This took us initially through forested hilly country, then hilly farming country. Double white lines for much of the way.

In Cobargo, John bought his still, and all sorts of associated paraphernalia to go with it. I remained uninvolved. I hoped that, once we got back home, and other distractions arose, the whole thing would be shelved and never used. I wondered if I could somehow mislay the instruction leaflets?

Driving as far as Lakes Entrance took up much of the rest of the day. The Princes Highway through southern NSW and far eastern Victoria, is not a route for fast travel.

We stopped, again, at Cann River, to walk around and eat our packed lunches.

Went back into the Waters Edge Caravan Park, for a night. $25.20.

Walked to the floating seafood sales place, again, and bought fish for tonight’s dinner, and some to put in the little van freezer, to take home.


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2007 Travels May 29

THURSDAY 29 MAY   LAKES ENTRANCE TO MERIMBULA   320kms

We slept really well last night. The van bed remained so comfortable, even though it was now ten years old.

We made a leisurely departure in the morning. Drove back to the shopping centre, where we refuelled and I bought a few foodstuffs at Safeway, and a newspaper to read later.

Morning at Lakes Entrance

We had a very pleasant, untroubled drive through the forest and hill country of eastern Victoria and southern NSW, to Merimbula. John seemed to enjoy the driving. There was not a great deal of traffic and we didn’t even encounter any of the timber logging trucks that can make the driver a bit tense when they come up behind on the lengthy stretches where passing is not possible. There is a kind of Murphy’s Law about these vehicles. When they are in front of you, they are going too slowly. When they are behind you, they are going too fast!

The skies were mostly blue, with some weak sunshine – it was not all that warm.

We stopped at the village of Cann River to eat our lunch – again, I had packed sandwiches and filled our travel thermos with hot water for tea and coffee,  before our departure this morning, so we did not contribute to the local coffers, this time.

Victoria/NSW border

I’d chosen the Big 4 Merimbula Beach Holiday Park for our one night stay here. It was a bit tricky to navigate there, though, through the main part of the town. An uphill start at a set of traffic lights was a challenge – the Defender was a great towing vehicle but not powerful off a standing uphill start with the van on the back! As usual, John had to use low range gears to get going. Then it was up and down sharp little hills to find the caravan park. Merimbula is too hilly! I guess that does give some great views, though.

The park cost $28 a night. It was situated on the end of Short Point, and we had superb views over the sea and the beach to the north. There was a rock ledge below our site, that the sea was crashing on to, so we had the wonderful sound of the sea as a backdrop.

The park was an extensive one, with clean and modern amenities and a wonderful lagoon style swimming pool complex. It would be a great holiday park for little kids. Given the year we had been having, my mind turned easily to ways to occupy young children!

Caravan Park pool

After setting up for a one night stay – unhitched – we drove back to the main part of town, hunting for a shop that might sell gear to adjust the van brakes. John had left his at home, and was not totally happy with the van brakes. What was new? He had no luck finding what he wanted, though.

Overall, it had been a pleasant day.

I couldn’t believe how tired I became, how early in the evening. The fresh, sea air was already impacting, and I was ready for bed by 8.30pm.


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2008 Travels May 28

WEDNESDAY 28 MAY     HOME TO LAKES ENTRANCE     325kms

We spent much of the previous two days packing the van and Truck. With the crowded house, and all the earlier building and renovation works, the travel gear had been well moved around, and took some sorting out again. At least, this would only be a short trip, compared to our usual treks, so we did not need to take as much. But I packed more winter clothing than was our norm!

We were so looking forward to the break from home and a quiet change!

After breakfast, hitched up the van and parked the rig out on the road. John then lopped some overhanging branches from the neighbour’s trees – so the van parking area would be clear when we got home again.

We pulled away about 10.15am – pretty good, considering. It seemed a very long time since we’d last been out with the van!

Took the “back” route to Gippsland, through Wandin, Yellingbo, Cockatoo, to Pakenham – winding, but little traffic and easy enough. Also much prettier than the alternative of using the roads closer to Melbourne, through the outer suburbs.

We had a good run through the industrial Latrobe Valley, with its long time focus on coal mining and electricity generation. As always, the smokestacks of the power plants were in evidence from the highway.

Pulled off the road near Morwell and ate our pre-packed lunch. Then, continued on, through Sale with its several corners to be negotiated, Bairnsdale and on to Lakes Entrance.

It had been grey, misty and chilly when we left home, and the drive through the back of the Dandenongs to Pakenham showed mist lying in the bottoms of the valleys and shrouding the hilltops. But this had started to clear by the time we reached the Latrobe Valley, and it was quite pleasant for the rest of the day, with the sun appearing from behind light cloud, for much of the time.

The highway east paralleled the Great Dividing Range – a distant purple off to our left. It crossed some of the main rivers that flow down from those mountains – the Thompson as we approached Sale, the Avon at Stratford – no prizes for guessing that association! The bridge over the Mitchell River at Bairnsdale gave us a lovely view down the stream, with some small boats moored at points along the banks. Then there was the Tambo at the hamlet of Swan Reach.

The approach to Lakes Entrance is down quite a steep little hill. I have always loved the view that one gets of the town and the lake, as the road winds down to sea level.

The approach to Lakes Entrance (Google)

We booked into the Big 4 Waters Edge Caravan Park for the night. It cost $25.20, after discount. The park was quite adequate for our needs, with modern and clean amenities. It was not a very large park and had several annual sites with permanent structures on them. At this time of year, it was not very busy and we were able to use two sites to stay hitched up.

Best of all, the park was within walking distance to the shops, and just across the road from the waters of the lake inlet.

After the minimal set up for a one night stay, we walked to the main part of town, as far as the floating restaurant and fish sales boat, moored across from the shops. There, we bought a half dozen oysters – for John’s entree tonight – and some flathead tails. We have always found the seafood prices here quite reasonable, and of course the daily catch sold was totally fresh.

Our fish dinner was lovely. I fried some potato rounds, and just dredged the flathead with flour and pan fried it.

The night was chilly and we did not stay up late.


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1999 Travels March 15

MONDAY 15 MARCH   TATHRA TO LAKES ENTRANCE   307kms

We got away from Tathra about 9am. At the bottom of the steep bit of road up from the beach level to the top, John put Truck in low range and second gear and we crawled up the hill – slow but easy.

It was then a straight forward run to Lakes Entrance, though a bit slow through the winding and more hilly section between Eden and Orbost. Negotiating our way through the centre of Merimbula with the van on was not the best, either – we might have been better off to go to Bega and take the highway that misses the town.

We had to stop several times for “bathroom” for John – it must be the effect of the increasing cold!

We stopped near Cann River to eat the packed lunch brought with us. This is a stretch of road that we have driven a number of times before, over the years, so it seems very routine, and does not hold a great deal of interest, just because of familiarity.

Reached Lakes Entrance about 2.30pm. Booked into the Big 4 Koonwarra Caravan Park for $14.40 for the night. This is just to the east of the centre of the town – within walking distance. It is an adequate park for an overnight stop, or a few days.

We had intended to go for a good cycle around the town, after our minimal set up. But discovered, to my horror, that the fridge was not working – and had not been for a while, as all the contents of the freezebox were well and truly defrosted. I was well and truly annoyed! John phoned C  at Trakmaster, who put us onto J – the Vitrifrigo dealer who had supplied the fridge when the van was built. He is also the solar power man. J directed John in doing some tests and decided he knew what was wrong. John arranged to meet him tomorrow, at 3pm, at the Trakmaster factory.

I threw out some meats, but kept a pack of fish to cook extra for John’s tea tonight – he will be having a big feed! Also kept some bacon, which I thought was safe. There was not too much food wasted – it could have been worse. I had run down our usual stocks in anticipation of being able to buy cheaper in Melbourne. There was rather a nasty smell in the fridge, though! I wiped it out with a cloth dipped in vanilla essence. Stacked up the Chescold fridge with the jars, margarine, cheese and vegetable matter from the van fridge, and we ran that through the night to keep things cold. Hopefully, the contents will remain cold enough through the drive tomorrow. We do not run the Chescold on 12Volt in the Truck – had a nasty experience doing this in the previous Hilux, when the fridge shifted and pinched the wire and we went very close to having the vehicle on fire!

About 6pm, we managed to go out for a cycle around the streets, for nearly an hour.

Our intention of having a rather leisurely trip back home, through Gippsland, is now not going to happen, due to having to get the fridge to Melbourne.

Our late tea was John’s fish dinner – large size. I had steak. I am still very wary of eating fish that may have bones. Melon completed the meal.

Today, the van clocked up 10,000 kms of being towed. What a way to celebrate the milestone!

03-15-1999 tathra to lakes.JPG