Another scorcher of a day. I caught the bus from the Lilydale Caravan Park to the local Toyota dealer in town and picked up the Landcruiser after a 90k service. All good and they appeared to have done a good job, along with an excellent wash and clean out. Did some shopping and then retreated into the caravan with the air-con running for the rest of the day and night. A minor disturbance of some sort in the park during the very hot evening with Police in attendance, but I didn't bother to find out what had happened......
On Friday morning I headed South and East, back to Sale. It was again very hot, so I decided to spend another night there and be able to cool down the van. Had another visit with Bryan & Leonie and talked about maybe going to visit Dargo in the high country. The forecast was still pretty hot and fire danger high, so I was advised to postpone that trip for another day.
Saturday 20 January 2018
Packed up and continued East towards Lakes Entrance, with a diversion from Bairnsdale to do a round trip to Paynesville on the coast to have a look.
As you come into Lakes Entrance from the West there is an impressive lookout, before you descend the hill into town.
Beautiful waterways all around the township, with many wharves, commercial and privately owned vessels of all shapes and sizes, plus a large selection of restaurants and cafes.
Across a walkway from the town and close to the caravan park I stayed in is the town beach, which is nearly the Eastern end of the 90 Mile Beach.
Nice beach, which continues endlessly on from the other side of The Entrance, but then mostly requires a boat to access in the immediate area.
Speaking of the Entrance, this is what it looks like, looking inwards towards The Narrows, with Bullock Island and the town on the right.
On Sunday, or was it Monday, I walked into town and took the three hour Eco Cruise along the waterways back to the West.
The Lonsdale is a steel vessel built in Queensferry as a Queensferry - Sorrento Ferry in the 1960's. An interesting history, then restored and brought to Lakes Entrance just a few years ago.
The "new" Entrance looking out towards Bass Strait. It was constructed in the early 1900's and completed around 1914. It requires regular dredging to remove regular sand deposition from the Ninety Mile Beach.
A really interesting commentary with lots of information on the cruise, as well as huge scones freshly baked on board with jam & cream. Highly recommended.
This particular cruise goes as far as Metung, which is at the start of Lake King, extending to the West.
Metung is a really pretty village, with a good pub that does good lunches and a number of picnic areas with a large range of tourist accomodation, marinas and Yacht Club. I had vistied previously on a day trip from Sale with Bryan, Leonie and Otis.
On Tuesday 23 January, I took a drive back through Swan Reach and Bruthen to the Great Alpine Road.
Driving away from the coast the terrain is initially heavily forested, becoming increasingly steeper as it climbs towards the mountains.
Further into the drive there are extended cleared valleys that have been heavily grazed in the past.
I went as far as Omeo, which is where the road splits, with Mount Hotham to the North West and Corryong in the far North.
Omeo was very quiet in the mid morning, with a pub, a few local shops, cafe and some tourist accommodation. I returned to Lakes Entrance with a diversion through the old gold mining area of Cassillis on the way back to Swifts Creek.
On Wednesday I took a lunch cruise to Wyanga Park Winery, located on the North Arm of the Gippsland Lakes, not far from Lakes Entrance. The 45 minute cruise was quite pleasant but unfortunately the winery was a disappointment. The place was quite run down and the wines were pretty awful. As an example, they had a Rose that was described as a mixture of the Gerwurztraminer and Cabernet, which was exactly what it tasted like. I was at least spared tasting of their pinot as it was out of stock. The lunch at Henry's Cafe in the winery was quite limited in choice, but fortunately the bruschetta followed by scallop bisque soup and home baked bread was not bad. Coffee was very ordinary for Victoria. Not a cruise I would recommend to anyone visiting Lakes Entrance.
On Australia Day (26 January), I set off to the East again and at Orbost on the Princes Highway turned South to follow the Snowy River to the Sea at Marlo.
The photo was taken on the Estuary where the Snowy meets Bass Strait. The area was busy with boaters and families on a day out.
Marlo is very small & was packed with campers for the Long Weekend, so I retraced my steps to Orbost and continued on to the East again. Just short of the border with New South Wales, I diverted to the coast again to have a look at Mallacoota. A pretty coastal village amongst rolling hills with some grazing and some forested. Larger than Marlo, but it too was packed for the holiday weekend, so again I continued to the North East on the Princes Highway.
I took a couple of breaks along the way and rang ahead to see if I could find a van site near Eden. I was successful at Eden Beachfront Holiday Park located on Twofold Bay, near Quarantine Bay, a few kilometres short of the town. The park was very large and also close to full with the holiday weekend, but was in a beautiful spot with the beach below right at the front of the park.
A lovely sheltered beach, just a few minutes walk from the caravan.
I spent three nights in Eden, with a little exploring of the immediate area, including a visit to the very interesting Killer Whale Museum on top of one of the many hills in the town.
The story of "Old Tom" a leader of the Killer Whale pack who used to cooperate with the land based whalers in hunting larger migrating whales is quite amazing.
There is an interesting range of displays and exhibits, and
the view from the front of the museum is pretty spectacular as well.
Very hilly town with extensive beaches, surrounded by rainforest and a very deepwater harbour.
On Monday 29 January I headed North again, with a stop in Bega at the Heritage Centre for a good coffee and a generous bacon & egg roll with local chutney - wot no cheese....
A nice stop along the way North and not far off the main road. Bega is at least one Australian Dairy Company that appears to be doing well. They recently bought back Vegemite and Peanut Butter brands from Kraft after many years of foreign ownership.
I also stopped in at Bergamui, another pretty coastal village, home to a deep water game fishing fleet and a nice little marina.
I spent a couple of nights in Batemans Bay in a very well run Big 4 caravan park. Finally an end to several days of extremely high humidity and clinging nights with a lovely cool change with some rain showers.
On Wednesday 31 January I towed the van North again, with a diversion to look at parts of Jervis Bay and a small look around in Nowra, which is quite a large regional town. I booked into a beachside park at Shellharbour, just South of Port Kembla. Ended up right on the waterfront at South Shellharbour Beach.
A beautiful spot with old seaside village now surrounded by kilometres of suburbs. The price of development.
The sandy beach was impressive, large and almost deserted on a Thursday afternoon.
I also wanted to suss out the Visitor Centre at the Bluescope Steel Plant in the Port, where I booked a place on the weekly public tour for Friday morning. The caravan park was fully booked for the weekend, so on Friday morning (2 February) I packed up and towed the van to the Port Kembla steelworks.
I was surprised by the scale of the Port and the works. Much larger than the operation at Whyalla and more comprehensive, beginning with coke and iron production, leading in to steel production and also including "Colorbond" production for roofing, sheeting and fence manufacture. The tour was exceptional value for $20 and ran for about 3 hours. It included a video introduction, minibus tour around the site and a walk through of one of the steel blast furnace facilities and a slab production and rolling mill. The guide Danny had worked as a mechanical hand in nearly all parts of the works and the commentary was excellent. We were all geared up in protective clothing, hard hats, eye protection and a hearing protection cum headphone system that allowed communication in noisy areas.
It really was a great tour, which I would highly recommend to anyone interested and passing through the area on a Friday.
Extensive works, which appeared to be well maintained and surrounded by a suprising amount of greenery to help with dust suppression.
The Bluescope Steel Company is another spin off from BHP, but they have done reasonably well, despite never quite recovering production levels from prior to the Global Financial Crisis around 2008/9. They have however remained viable and have the capacity to expand operations to meet further demand for good quality Australian Steel.
In the afternoon I towed the van to Corrimal Beach, just North of Wollongong where I had planned to spend the night.
A very pleasant park, operated by the local Council and fairly busy over the weekend. Right next to the beach.
Another impressive sandy beach, on which I enjoyed a good afternoon walk.
I came across a jellyfish in the sand. First I had seen on the Pacific Coast.
In the evening and Saturday morning there were a number of showers which again brought a cooler change and relief from the humidity.
Saturday 3 February 2018
I packed up the van yet again and set out this morning for my first transit of the Sydney Metro Area. On advice, I headed up into the hills above Wollongong, quite a steep climb with the van and along the Picton Road towards the M31 (Hume) Motorway and Highway from Canberra. then North along the Motorway to the outskirts of Sydney then on the M7 Eastern Toll Route, followed by the M2 through to Pennant Hills, South West of Hornsby.
Here unfortunately the Motorway system ends for Northbound travellers and there is about 8 km of very busy three lane road through the suburbs with many traffic lights and packed solid with traffic most of the time. At either end, massive tunnel works are underway to "eventually" make a link to the M1 Pacific Motorway to the North. I understand the cost of this link will be massive, and over course it will be a Tollway which will no doubt be expensive "forever".
I survived the transit with the van and was pleased to get onto the M1 heading North towards the Central Coast. It is an impressive road through hilly country with huge cuttings through solid sandstone. Construction during the 1980's must have been a huge undertaking.
I continued on past Gosford, exiting the Motorway near Ourimbah and then heading South West to Toowoon Bay, South of The Entrance. I had made a booking for several days at Toowoon Bay Holiday Park near the beach and that will be the next chapter of my blog. Hopefully it will be updated a bit more promptly than this extended journey.......
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