Mt Gambier and Victor Harbour

Well it's been a few days since my last post so I've got to try and piece together what we have done since. We packed up reasonably early on Wednesday morning and said see ya later to a few people that were camped next to us without knowing that see ya later was going to be two days later( I'll get back to that. We were pretty excited as midday we would be picking up our new jayco swan outback that was sitting at the heard for us.

When we got back into Mt Gambier we unpacked all our stuff at the park as quick as we could and I headed of to jayco whilst Laura and the kids stayed and played at the park. After a few hours of tutorial , me with the jayco and the dealer with our camper, I headed home with a brand spankin new jayco. Having never brought anything of value new before we were both excited and frightened to touch anything, we set it up and admired our purchase before quickly realising we had done the right thing. This van will make life so much easier to travel with two small children and I'm sure this will go to every place our old camper would have.

On Friday we had to travel back into Victoria to register the van, Portland was the closest so we made a day of it and took some lunch, I was very surprised by how beautiful Portland was and equally as surprised as to how big it is. After going to Vic roads we past what looked like a. Good quality butcher so went in to get a few days worth of meat. The friendly butcher also gave us some touris advise to go via bridgewater he said that it was one of the best beaches in Australia, he didn't disappoint it was amazing.

 

So then on our way back we stopped past a gas supplies place to ask about a fitting for the webber q to connect to the jayco and who do we see, the couple that camped next to us, they were picking up a Webber q themselves, the chances of that happening are slim so had a quick chat and then set back up at camp for the night.

The next morning we packed back up again and we were off to Victor Harbour, not really realising that it was a 5 hour drive, the longest of our trip so far, the kids were great for the drive. We got into Victor harbour and once again were blown away by the scenery, the town to me is a cross between lakes entrance, Inverloch and Mornington Peninusla just the beaches are a bit more wow. 

Now is where things become a bit more painful and at times they would have been a little more then pg rated with the thoughts crossing my mind, we had got to the van park and unhooked the new machinery when all of a sudden snap, as I was winding up the pop top the wire broke, I walked around and not that I'm blaming her but Laura forgot to unclip one of the hold down latches. Well I think we did pretty well to not come out of it in divorce an dime sure in a week or so we will laugh a this but at the time I was fuming and Laura was ready to end it all. After a nights stay at an apartment at a cost I won't disclose but at 5pm on a long weekend in a tourist town you can imagine what it cost to stay.

Google has now overtaken a dog as mans best friend because after an hour or two I was able to figure out that it's useable in a limited capacity until we get it fixed, so this morning we set it up at the park again to some prying eyes and with the weather turning on a gem off to the beach it was. Australia Day was great, we were out and about and forgot about yesterday's mishap. After going to Port Elliot for a swim we went into Victor harbour and over to what's called Granite island for some sightseeing and an ice cream. On the way back we spotted some dolphins, then sat in the park for an hour until we head back for a feed. The day was finished off with a few frothies, some snags and shazlicks while listening to the hottest one hundred.

Tomorrow we head into Adelaide for a few days of scorching temps and the who knows from there.

Beachport

You know the saying don't judge a book by its cover, well beachport is a perfect example. When planning this trip I only put beachport in because i was told that they had a beach 4wd track to and from Robe so I thought why not, I knew nothing else about the place I will definitely be putting this on a must do again list.

    

When we entered the town the first thing you noticed was the beautiful colour of the water behind the old style shops and buildings. We set up camp and wandered into town for a walk, sometimes you get a feel for a place just walking down the street, and this place  had a holiday feel about it. Walking past the 750m long jetty Laura asked if we wanted to walk down it, I think we made it 50 meters down before the wind tried blowing us off it so Makenzie decided it was a good time for ice cream. I was almost going to say no until we walked past the shop and I realised that it was a licenced venue so Laura and Makenzie had ice creams while Luke had a couple of beers, win win if you ask me.

I was told by a couple of seasoned travellers next to us that the beach drive from beachport to robe drive was a bit chopped up as it has been busy the last month or so and to drive down to cacunda national park. I asked him how to get there from where we are staying and he told me to just drive on the beach and follow the coast then you will hit the park. I was so excited and I think Laura was the exact opposite.

   

I got to the spot  where old mate told me and got out and aired down the tires and put the car into high range 4wd. I still couldn't believe you could just jump on a beach and drive 20 Kms to the next town, you just can't do that in Victoria. We started driving along the beach and I think with each kilometer passed Laura became more comfortable. Getting to a little town called Southend we had to head off the beach and into the national park, the terrain became ruffer and Laura became a bit more tense, the kids loved the bumpiness though and Makenzie was even asking me to drive crazier.

We almost got to the next beach and all I had to do was get up a dune that was on a slight lean, well I took it a little easy and got Paddy bogged, Laura's pupils started to dialate and I thought she was going to flip. I reassured her that once I dug the wheels out we would be fine, which I did and we were, we then proceeded to drive along the beach until we had to turn off and come back home. All in all today was a great day driving with some great scenery and I think now Laura is more comfortable going off road.

Mt gambier

Well when planning things it's always best to have a plan b, which is what we used when deciding to travel to mt gambier instead of Nelson on the Victorian side of the border. The reason being that when we were on the great ocean road we thought there would be suitable supermarkets for us to shop at especially for Ryder, we were a bit surprised when there were none especially in port Campell, so we decided that the surrounds of a bigger town were in need

We have been through mt gambier before and as a kid I had been there but you forget sometimes how magic a place is. Our park was situated no more then one hundred metres away from blue lake that was in full colour at this time of year and it took our breath away, the crispness of the colour and the clearness of the water is amazing and both mornings we stayed we enjoyed a leisurely stroll atleast part of the way around.

We woke up Thursday and decided to travel to the princess Margret caves about 20 minutes out of town. We took the tour underneath and once again we were both astounded by natures beauty, Makenzie and Ryder on the other hand couldn't give two hoots with Ryder just wanting to see how much of his fist fits in his mouth and Makenzie almost oblivious to the fact we were in caves.

That night we went into town as we had heard from a few people that the umpherston sinkhole was great and that at dusk th possums came out and you could feed them, so we waited till what we thought was dusk and left for the sinkhole. When we got there we were once again amazed by the natural beauty that we were looking at, the sinkhole had been landscaped about 70 years ago and now was full of hanging Vines and in the hole was a garden full of differnt flowers. Unbeknowns to us was the fact that dusk was about an hour after we thought it was so Makenzie was over it before it even began. We did however get to see two possums on the way out.

So to the day we are supposed to leave and here comes some impulse buying news that still has us in shock. When we drove into town and got to the caravan park and got to chatting to the couple next to us and they asked me about our trailer. I said to them that with the young fella still on bottles that the camper trailer was Hard work. They said to me that a week ago they had a trailer and that there jayco expanda I was looking at was a day old. So for some reason this morning we went into jayco mt gambier for a look and an hour later we put a deposit on a outback swan. I think sitting here having a beer writing this I still am puzzled but I think in the long run we have made the right decision and that we will have years of travel with it.

Anyway we are now of to beachport for a couple of days until we head back and pick up our purchase..

Princetown and the great ocean road

I guess our holiday really started when we left balnarring and we set off towards Princetown ,a tiny little town about 15minutes away from Port Campell. We left as the heat wave had just started to grip a lot of Australia and it was becoming clear as the temperature got warmer that Paddy the Patrol wasn't a. Fan of the heat. We arrived at the rec reserve at about 3ish in the afternoon, which was perfect timing just before the crowds of German and French and basically all the other Europeans came in there painted minivans, I must admit they don't seem at all appealing as a holiday van but each to their own.

It just so happened that two minutes before us another couple had turned up and we found ourselves camped next to them. Straight away Makenzie became friends with their three little girls the youngest being 4 and oldest 8. Over the next three days the girls played and watched movies and had fun and Laura and I got to know ash and Rowena who were from Karratha and were half way round on their big lap.

 

 

We decided on our first full day to do some of the sights so we travelled past Peterborough and took in the sights of the bay of Islands and bay of martyrs then took some more photos at a place called the grotto before we realised how hot it was getting. We decided then to head into Port Campbell to get some lunch and cool off for a while. Luckily as we finished lunch the cloud appeared and it cool of enough to allow Makenzie to have a swim at what was a really nice beach although for me the water felt like it was a recently unfrozen glacier but Makenzie loved it.

Friday was supposed to be a scorcher  going by the weather app so we decided a hour and a half drive either way to Apollo bay and a pub meal was the best way to beat the heat so off we set and drove through the beautiful otway ranges and found what looked like the only shady car park in the town.  We sat and had a nice pub meal and then realised we had the pub to our selves so decided to book a few more nights ahead and plan our next part of the trip. When the weather did the same as the day before and cooled off we freaked home via the cape otway lighthouse which was ok but was pretty darn expensive. As we left there I spotted a 4wd track and made a detour, now this was by no means a difficult track but it was fun getting the car dirty. 

 

While sitting at the pub in Apollo bay we realised we were starting to run low on supplies and as the next place we are to camp is a tiny town on the border with no drinking water at the park we made a decision to change parks and now our next leg will be at mt gambier so until then ciao.

Chaos, Mayhem and then Serenity

Well Wednesday the 8th was liftoff day and it was a big day. The excitement of leaving home and heading away for a few months was overtaken by nerves and anxiety that we may have left something or that we weren't going to fit all of what we needed into the car and trailer. It was an early start and it was go go go. I packed and unpacked, packed again until finally we were happy and ready to go.







It wasn't until we strapped the kids in their seats and started the ignition did we actually feel like we were going to get away and then all of a sudden we were off and it was like we could take a big sigh of relief. I made Laura drive the big rig and trailer to get her feet wet on some familiar road and she handled it terrific, even though we wont be doing massive amount of Km's on the road each day it will be handy for Laura to drive a bit each day to spread the load.


We got to Balnaaring around 3o'clockish and our next test was to start, how are we going to go setting up our trailer with two kids and how long was it going to take. It was lucky that we had nanna around this time to keep them occupied so next time will be the big test. All up though from start to finish we were unpacked and set up ready for a beverage in two hours which by the time we're experienced should be quicker.


Now that we were set up and relaxed all we needed was the sun to shine and the wind to die down and we were in paradise and before to long mother nature helped out and to the beach it was for basically two full days. The hardest part was getting Makenzie out of the water and back to camp.


So from here we have a few days left here at Balnaaring and then we set of for the Great Ocean Road for 3 days staying at the Princetown Rec Reserve and Visiting all the attractions from there. Untill next time Ciao.