Scotts Head

The last four days have been spent at Scott’s Head an absolutely beautiful seaside village and beach, with a great surf break around the headland.

 We have spent our days enjoying time on the beach, swimming in the clear water with its pleasant water temperature. Lazing around watching the many surfers, paddle boarders and of course enjoying lovely walks along the beach.  The caravan park is located alongside the beach and we had a great site that backed onto the sand dune with beach access close by.  The sand dunes have quiet dense vegetation a great habitat for the very large Monitor (lizard) that came to visit looking for water. I was very wary with leaving the caravan door open after seeing what was lurking in the vegetation also a little wary as I used the beach access.

Today we were entertained by tree arborists that were in the park cutting back some of the many trees, we were unable to access the van for a couple of hours as they trimmed quiet close to our site.  Baz had washed the van when we first arrived, but after today we have a film of dust over the van from the chain saw and the chipper. Hopefully it will blow off tomorrow when we hit the road again, could have spent a couple of weeks here no worries at all.

Walkway from caravan park Scotts Head

Good thing the beach whale was well camouflaged

Beautiful clear water perfect for swimming, surfing,
paddle boarding etc

Monitor (lizard) making it's way up the track to the beach

Another visitor that came for a drink
 before making it's way back into the bush.
It was also in Camouflage colours!

Hawks Nest

Wednesday we left the Hunter Valley making our way to Hawks Nest, a small township adjacent the northern head of Port Stephens. Once we had double lanes out on the Princess Hwy and north of Newcastle the traffic settled down and we were able to travel at our own speed without worrying about what traffic was held up behind us. Only a short trip 90kls which took us through the delightful seaside township Tea Gardens, have since learnt that John Howard has a holiday home there. I am sure it must be along the boulevard opposite Jimmy's Beach as the homes there were stunning.

Our destination was a few klms out of Hawks Nest at the Myall River Primitive Camp. As soon as we entered the camp ground we could see that it was definitely a place we wanted to stay, lucky for us there were still a few areas to choose from along the river bank. It didn't take us long to get the chairs out and begin enjoying the serenity of the river and bird life.

This was an amazing camp absolute tranquillity, ended up staying for three nights and could have stayed much longer. Thoroughly enjoyed the camp fire each night that our neighbours shared with us, also watching the dolphins swimming past just on dusk and the daily visit from Pete the Pelican.

Relaxing beside the Myall River

Picturesque Myall River

Same picture at sunset

Pete

Jimmy's Beach Nelson Bay

Echuca-West Wylong-Coolah-Cessnock

It's been a few days since my last blog, thought I had better catch up with what we have been up to.

Upon reaching Echuca we took both the car and van to a car wash to give them a thorough cleaning after the dust storm that passed, leaving us very dirty in it's wake. It was also a chance to catch up on the washing after being on the road for a week. We had intended to only stay one night but rain set in and not only didn't we want to get the vehicles grimy quiet so soon, it is much safer travelling on dry roads.

The rain cleared late Friday, so it was on the road Saturday crossing over the Murray River that has certainly been affected by over use of water resources and drought. We were now in NSW and heading north looking for the warmer weather. Mid afternoon after travelling around 400 klms we pulled into West Wyalong and went to the showground/race track for the night. The next morning it was lovely to watch the powerful horses out on the track trotting around at a fast pace.

Leaving West Wyalong we travelled further north to Dubbo from there we headed East towards Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. Our next stop was at Coolah Sporting Club which offered free camping alongside the bowls green and that also overlooked the golf course. We supported the club by going for a Chinese meal that night, I am sure we spent more than if we had gone to a caravan park and paid fees.

We have spent the last two nights at Cessnock which is located in the Hunter Valley and is central to all the wineries. With so many great cellar doors in the Region it is impossible to visit them all so picking just a few we set off this morning to enjoy a tasting or two. I was blaming Baz for leaving wet cloths in the car as there was a distinct pong, forgetting that he had acquired himself some Blue Cheese from the Hunter Valley Cheese Company.

The Mighty Murray looking very depleted of water

Baz getting supplies of St Anne's White Port 

Being good sharing a Bee Sting at the Beechworth Bakery

West Wyalong track work

Not a car to be seen Coolah Sunday afternoon

Silo Merriwa 

Hunter Valley, Peterson Sparkling Wines

Cohuna

We finished travelling the Art Silo Trail today and were a little disappointed with the last silo as it seemed a little insipid compared to all the previous ones, but was still impressed with the talent that it takes to create these artworks. 

We are now travelling along the Murray River and was making our way to Echuca when we noticed a lovely RV site at Cohuna a small town approx 60 klms from Echuca. We need to go to Echuca as needing to stock up on the White Port from the St Annes Winery for our friends Maree and Brian and of course ourselves. The town of Cohuna welcomes the free campers as most will spend some money in the town. We made a visit to the butcher, IGA and the bakery, spending $'s in the town that otherwise we would have passed through not stopping.

The last Silo at Lascelles

Lake Lascelles Hopetoun

Leaving Lake Lonsdale we made our way north along the Art Silo Trail from Rupanyup to Patchewollock. The trail stretches over 200 klms the paintings recognises and celebrates the region's people through a series of large scale mural portraits painted on grain silos.The artists were from Australia and overseas and the artwork tells a unique story about the each town.

 Hopetoun provides a great area for free camping around Lake Lascelles which is walking distance from the township, in some areas there are powered sites that are $20 a night. We happened to strike it when the National Model Speed Boat Championships we being held there, like a lot of Bumble Bees in a bottle all day long! otherwise a lovey place to camp.  We spoke with one competitor who told us it costs him $30 a race for fuel and glow plugs, a very expensive hobby. We stayed there for two nights and on the second night a dust storm past through with high winds followed by heavy rain. Wish I had thought to take a photo but was too intent on getting back to the van before we got saturated.

Lake Lascelles

Baz enjoying the sunshine Lake Lascelles

Wheat Silo Accommodation 

Silos Rupanyup

Silos Sheep Hills

Silos Brim

Silos Rosebery

Silos Patchewollock

Art Silos Map

Lake Lonsdale/Halls Gap

Sunday we left the van at the lake and headed into Halls Gap a delightful small village situated at the foothills of the  Grampians National Park. We couldn't believe all the cars, people and campers that were in at Halls Gap, we didn't know it was the annual Grape Festival one of the largest festivals in Victoria.

Leaving Halls Gap we made our way up the scenic route to Boroke Lookout, what a spectacular view well worth the drive up. We were very worried that we wouldn't see anything as we en counted heavy fog on the way. Our next top was Reid Lookout which was shrouded in fog, we were at least able to look at the info picture to know what we would  have seen. It was then do we or don't we go onto Mackenzie Falls, as it was only about 7klms more we decided to have a look. Lucky for us there was good visibility and managed a couple of walks to the lookouts, baulking at the 265 steps to the base of the falls, knowing our poor old knees would't like them very much, maybe a lot.

Arriving back at the lake we decided to spend another night and Baz went gathering wood, so we could sit around our fire pot, it was only 14 degrees. Looking forward to when we get to warmer weather, we decided to spend a little time discovering new areas in Victoria that we haven't been to before.

Baz waiting to get warm at Lake Lonsdale

Boroka Lookout Grampians National Park

Reid Lookout would have been nice to
see the ranges

An inquisitive Emu in the carpark 

On The Road Again - Tassie to The Big Island

After an eventful day on Wednesday with someone taking the side out of the Mazda and a funeral on Thursday we finally left Acton by lunchtime on Thursday 3rd May 2019

We made our way leisurely to Launceston, where we caught up with the Tassie Travellers Caravan Club, that were having their monthly muster at Old Macs Farm. What a lovely place to camp, only 10 minutes from the CBD of Launceston, lovely grassy sites and only $10 for the night. Before we left on Friday we walked up to their Cafe Stonesthrow where we enjoyed lovely scones jam and real cream, not that airy fairy fake stuff out of a can.

Friday afternoon we caught up with Dennis and Lyn in Ulverstone before heading over to Devonport to catch the boat. We arrived there at 5.30pm and were directed straight onto the Spirit, no lining up in the cattle grids. We had a relatively smooth sailing only felt a few bumps along the way.

Saturday was an early start with Baz rousing me at 5am, 15 minutes before the official wake up call. Lucky for us we had no one holding us up when disembarking there is always someone that will hold up the vehicles, either by not making note of what deck they left their vehicle and have trouble finding it, or by sleeping in. We got away nicely and had crossed over the Westgate Bridge by 6.10am and were making our way to Lake Lonsdale near Stawell, where we planned to spend the night.

After a coffee and toasted sandwich at Stawell we made our way out to the lake and set up camp. We sat outside for a while but found it was a bit chilly so headed inside for and afternoon siesta, had thought we may have gone to Halls Gap in the afternoon but upon waking decided to leave it to the next day.

Old Macs Farm

view from cafe

Stonesthrow Cafe Old Macs Farm

Lake area Old Macs Farm

Campsite at Lake Lonsdale

Looking at Lake Lonsdale

Water level is very low the floating pontoon
 is certainly high and dry