Bainsdale/Lakes Entrance

After a very rugged night rain, rain & more rain plus some gale force wind we woke to a blue sky and a windy day. After doing some chores we set off to Bainsdale to have a look around the town and have some retail therapy at the Rivers Store and stop into the Chemist for the drugs that keep our arteries unclogged and the pressure valves from blowing. We then travelled onto a little coastal village Metung that is approx. 10klm off the Princess Hwy on the way to Lakes Entrance. Lovely holiday area, boating, fishing and wildlife on an extensive water way, would be beautiful in nicer weather.

Our next stop was the town of Lakes Entrance where we walked over a walkway to Main Beach, would have appreciated it a lot more if the temperature was 10 – 15 degrees warmer. Had an enjoyable lunch at the Sports Bar and returned to Paynesville.

Hobart to Paynesville

Wednesday 23rd May finally arrived and it was time to start our caravan travels again. We had a couple of issues with the packing the main one was finding my shoes in the wheelie bin! Bazza had kindly offered to take them out, he thinking I had cleaned my shoe cupboard out and I thought he was taking them to the caravan, lucky for him I found the misunderstanding before the bin had been collected. Could have been very costly for him! After saying a sad farewell to Tania we headed north via Brighton where we caught up with some long time friends. The weather had been fine when we left home but by the time we left Brighton it was starting to rain and we encountered patchy showers travelling north. We did have a nice clean car and van when we left but that did not last for long. We travelled through to Ulverstone to catch up with some fellow travellers that we had met in Queensland a couple of years ago and to pay a visit to dad’s resting place and pop some flowers near his plaque. Finally it was time to meet Les and Pauline whom were also on the same sailing as us, I got my wires crossed (not listening) and had us waiting outside the wrong hotel. After a quick phone call was able to get the correct location to where we should be, and then it was onto the check in and to line up for boarding. We had to wait around an hour so we enjoyed a nice cuppa while we waited, at last it was time to board only Bazza had just decided to visit the loo and we were left in the middle of the car park all by ourselves, as everyone else had move off. The trip on the boat was quiet comfortable only a little rough arriving in Melbourne on time. We headed S.E. to Tooradin where we had the caravan booked into the Jergens factory to have a couple of minor additions done. While we were waiting we drove down to Flinders passing through Hastings where Jason had spent time when he was in the Navy and training at HMAS Cerberus Naval Base. On the road again by 1pm we then headed to Warragul where we stopped for the night then today heading off travelling through Moe, Traralgon, Sale, Bainsdale and then finally ending up at Paynesville. We arrived here around 3pm unhooked and decided we would take the ferry to Raymond Island as you can see lots of Koalas we only managed to find a mother and baby. The ferry trip is only about 200metres from Paynesville to Raymond Island takes a whole 2.5 minutes to cross, Bazza was slightly disappointed as he was looking forward to the crossing. It is now raining quiet heavy and very cold will stay here for a couple of nights and do some sightseeing weather permitting.

Time to tickle the Ivory's while doing the washing!