South Gippsland

Our main reason for being in this part of the country is to attend the wedding of Cherryl's nephew.  The wedding was held on the beach near Inverloch, a beachside town about 2 hours drive south of Melbourne. We had booked into the Inverloch Foreshore Campground some months ago so we were assured of a large grassy site about 50m from the water's edge over the sand dune.








The wedding was held a few kms west on the sand overlooking the Eagles Nest rocky pinnacle.  The coastal scenery of the Bunorong Coastal Park is spectacular and the sun shone for this special occasion.  Dinosaur fossils have been found on the rocky flats and the "Dinosaur Discovery Dig" is held most years by the fossil hunters at Melbourne University.








The entrance to the Wilsons Promontory National Park is about 80km east of Inverloch, and it's about another 50km to Twin Rivers near the southern coast.  There are many campgrounds in the park but only Twin Rivers is accessible by vehicles - the others are walk-in camps.  We had a picnic lunch at Squeaky Beach.  




Wilsons Promontory is the southernmost point on the Australian Mainland.  We took the scenic route to the park and stopped of at several places which look over "Wilsons Prom".  There are several lighthouses along the treacherous coastline and we stopped off at Cape Liptrap.







About 50km to the west is Phillip Island and we booked in to the Penguin Parade to see the nightly procession of the Little Penguins from the ocean to their sandy burrows.  The penguins wait until after sunset to make their way up the beach and there is a strict "no photos" rule.




We've managed to stay in Inverloch for over 2 weeks and will soon be making our way eastwards again.  We had hoped to spend a week or so on the Mornington Peninsula but that will have to wait for another time time we weren't able to find an available campsite.

More From East Gippsland

There was plenty to keep us busy while we relaxed for six days in the Lakes Entrance area.  We had a couple of days of rain and overcast weather as well as several sunny days.  Lakes Entrance is very much a holiday, beach town and the nearby "big smoke" is Bairnsdale, about 35km away.





We drove to the Nyerimilang Homestead which is managed and maintained by local volunteers.  We walked along some of the walking paths through the bush and along the cliffs.  Then we had a picnic morning tea in the manicured gardens, serenaded by fairy wrens , wattle birds, crimson rosellas and magpies.








We continued our drive along the coast to the little village of Metung then turned north towards Swan Reach and Bruthen before turning east to Nowa Nowa where we had another short walk in the Lake Tyers State Park to look at the gorge.  Then it was on to Lake Tyers Beach for our picnic lunch before making our way back to Lakes Entrance.









At Nicholson, about 5 km east of Bairnsdale on the Nicholson River, we stopped off to visit the Native Plant Nursery and Gardens.  We had a pleasant walk through the established native gardens.




There's a good "foodies trail" in the area so we called in to a local orchard to buy some peaches, nectarines and plums direct from the farm.  We also visited the blueberry farm to buy some blueberries and bought a bottle of locally made blueberry liqueur, delicious when mixed with sparkling white wine!

East Gippsland Lakes

From the Victorian High Country we've continued south as far as we can go and now we're camped at Lakes Entrance in East Gippsland.  A rare occurrence for us is to have several days of rainy weather, so we're glad to be holed up at the Silver Sands Tourist Park.  The Gippsland Lakes drain into Bass Strait.  There's not much between us and Tasmania!

Being a holiday town, there's a few things to do here and we're just waiting for some fine weather to get out and about.  We'll be here for a few more days.

Victorian High Country

About 15km from our campsite on the Upper Murray River is the Victorian town of Corryong.  The legend of The Man From Snowy River relates to some of the men from this area.  AB (Banjo) Patterson immortalised  these men and their horsemanship in his poem.  One of these men, Jack Riley, is buried in Corryong and there's a statue outside the information centre.

Khancoban is at the southern end of the Snowy Mountains.  One day we drove to Thredbo Alpine Village for lunch - just because we could.  The 2 hour drive along The Alpine Way was very picturesque.  It's been about 30 years since we've driven this road and it's as beautiful now as it was in the 1970s/1980s.  We decided to tour the Murray 1 Power Station.  There's an excellent information centre and we enjoyed watching the DVD about the Snowy Mountains Scheme, a true nation building scheme to bring hydro-electricity to eastern Australia.  The scheme began in 1949 and was completed in 1974; 25 years of post-WWII development which shaped Australia and employed many post-war European immigrants.

We travelled further south into more of the Victorian High Country to camp at the Hinnomunjie Bridge Camping Ground.  The old wooden trestle bridge is one of only 3 original bridges in Victoria and the axe marks can be seen on the hand-hewn logs.

Back to Omeo and we did the tourist thing, visiting the "Judicial Precinct Museum".  The Court House and Jail are just two of the old buildings in the precinct. 

The Cuckoo Clock Shop is full of European clock and Christmas Decorations, it's a good thing they weren't all set to chime or cuckoo on the hour.  On Australia Day, January 26, we joined in with the local celebrations in the park. 

There were many gold mines in the Omeo area and some of these have been preserved with walking trails and interpretation boards.  We walked around the Oriental Claims area.  There's also the Pioneer Claims area which we saw from the lookout.  Alluvial gold was mined here and huge amounts of dirt were dug and washed to obtain the gold.  There is still evidence of the stonework channels which were built to divert the water flows.

We managed to catch some fish in the Mitta Mitta River while we were camped here.  A couple of trout and a nice big silver perch provided us with some fresh fish dinners.

Back in Oz ..... and Back on the Road

We've been back in Australia for just over a week.  It hasn't taken us long to get back into the groove.  We picked up our caravan from Murrumbateman near Canberra and took a couple of days to restock the cupboards and pack our clothes and other stuff into their rightful places.  On Wednesday 13th January we set off again.  This time we've headed south into Victoria.

Our first night was spent at Morleys Creek Campground in Gundagai.  We've stayed here before and this time we had only one neighbour.  Perhaps the other campers had decided to stay in the caravan parks so they could use their air conditioners - it was 42C.

The next morning we made our way further south and stopped at Holbrook - "The Submarine Town" - for lunch.  Holbrook was originally called "Germanton" and the name was changed after World War I to honour Lt Norman N.D. Holbrook RN who was awarded the first Naval Victoria Cross.  There is a 1/5 scale model of Holbrook's submarine, a Submarine Museum and the above waterline structure of HMAS Otway.

After lunch we turned east onto the Murray Valley Highway towards the southern end of the Snowy Mountains.

We're camped at the Indi Bridge Campground near Upper Towong (Vic), about halfway between Khancoban in NSW and Corryong in Victoria.  This is a little piece of paradise on the Upper Murray River in dairy country.  Near Khancoban are the Murray #1 and Murray #2 Power Stations which are part of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electricity Scheme.

The air is clean and the skies are blue - hopefully we'll catch some trout in the river (we're not too hopeful of this as the water is a bit too warm).

Sawasdee Thailand

Our transfer from Helsinki to Copenhagen and from there to check-in for our flight to Bangkok was uneventful.  We just chilled out in the airport at Copenhagen and we were able to pack away some of our heavy clothes.  We certainly won't be needing them for a while now - we'll be warming up in Bangkok.  The flight was uneventful, although we had a bit of turbulence as we flew over the himalayas.  We all managed to get a few hours sleep after our last couple of early morning rises.




We're back in one of our favourite cities - Bangkok.  Shoppers paradise and plenty of gold and glitz!

One of THE places to visit is the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Keow, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  We've been there many times and are always awed by it and the reverence of the Thai people.  Today the Temple will be closed at 2pm for the "Changing of the Clothes Ceremony".  Three times a year The King changes the clothes on the Emerald Buddha.  The Buddha is carved from a single piece of jade and wears seasonal clothes - summer, winter and rainy season.

We've spent much of our time here shopping.  We also managed to see Star Wars - The Force Awakens; in the First Class Cinema at the Central World Shopping Centre.  We have one more night in Bangkok.  Tomorrow night we're back on the plane to fly back to Brisbane where we'll say goodbye to our grand-daughter.  She'll fly back to Townsville and we'll fly to Canberra.

We've had an AMAZING 5 week holiday.