Heading to Adelaide for a Wedding

Hi All

The free camp in Langhorn Creek is called Frank Potts reserve, we stayed two nights and it was great, well maintained and clean but you need to get there before 2pm to get good spots, There are lots of places close by to visit, we left here and headed for Adelaide.

We arrived in Windsor Gardens Caravan Park in Adelaide and set up our caravan for a week and then the next day we pick up Terry and Lynda form the airport and took them to there new home for 6 nights in the Camp Trailer next to our caravan.

The weather in Adelaide was very hot well over 40 for 4 days, No body liked it at all, lucky because on the wedding day it cooled to around 34 a very nice change for all. After Adelaide, we headed to Loxton, near Berri and Renmark. Great spots. Right on the Murray River. Did a bit of fishing, (caught

a couple of little ones , I can use for bait. We then headed to Laanecoorie , (a great free spot.) and stayed 4 days. Then it was back into Melbourne to Bob's place in Cranbourne, Bob took on a couple of day tours to the south of Cranbourne very nice places and we had a few great days out touring.

We are now on the Spirit of Tasmania , heading to Tasmania. There we will pick up friends Rocky and Sue from Perth and travel around for 2 weeks sightseeing and checking out the free camp site around Tasmania, our next blog will be from Tasmania.

Thank you Helen and Andrew for waving the pink towel from Heads as we entered the Tasman Sea on broad the Sprit of Tasmania Ferry, The grossing was like a bath tub very smooth Lee hopes the night crossing back will be much the same, here's hoping

Next blog after we leave Tasmania

Stay safe and well Jim and Lee

 Melbourne Eye

 A Lock in South Australia

 Our caravan in Loxton Caravan Park

 Port of Renmark

 Ps Industry 

 Bull in Birchip 

 Clock tower in Birdchip

 The Happy couple on there Day

The gang having a few drinks at the reception

On the move again

Hi All

We are on the move we have left our host Bob in Cranbourne so he can have some peace and quite again in his home with Mrs P the cat.

We have been invited to a wedding in Adelaide so we left Cranbourne and because of the hot weather in Central Victoria we decided to head west along the Great Ocean Rd, we found a great little free camp called Johanna Beach where we stayed for a night.

We then moved on along the Great Ocean Road watching out for the foreign drivers that do not have a clue on how to drive, we are pulling a 2.8 ton Caravan and they pull out of the car parks 25 to 30m in front of you then drive at 50kmh (their are some crazy people out there) we managed to miss them and then they pulled into the next viewing area.

We decided too drive onto Beachport we had a quick stop here on the way from the west over 2 years ago. We booked into the Beachport Caravan Park for 3 nights, there are a few WA travellers staying here for a while, there is a long jetty to fish from, I did throw a line or two in and got two small herring in SA they call them (Tommy roughs) they will become bait for the next fishing day.

Tomorrow we head of for an other free camp near Langhorn Creek the so I can have a few tasting of the grape in this area, will let you know how it goes in next blog

Stay safe

Bob and Lee on Arthur's seat

 Free camp at Johanna off Great Ocean Rd Vic

 Anther picture of Camp

 Looking from caravan park grounds Beachport

Anther picture of Beachport 

Ararat to Geelong

Hi All

We had a change of heart and stayed at Green Hill Lake free camp near Ararat instead of Halls Gap, we did day trips to Stawell, Dadwells Bridge where the big Koala lives, then we got on the dirt roads and went to Roses Gap, Halls Gap, Mt William and Jimmy's creek camp ground and then head back through Moyston.

There are lots of great views overlooking the Grampians along these roads we also picked up some wood for the fire pit back at camp, because we where going to cook a damper for the first time and have a few drinks with the nice people we have met up with in the camp.

We are now in Hamilton and today we took a drive to the falls Wannon Falls and Nigretta Falls and both had water flowing over the falls,

we also stopped at Coleraine where they have an old Train Station that now house's the Information Centre and some old pictures and notes from the past.

We have been to the Ansett Museum in Hamilton as this is were Reginald Ansett was born and grew up, he started offering to take passengers from Hamilton to Ballarat in his Studebaker, by 1935 he had a fleet of vehicles travelling to Melbourne, Mount Gambier, Naracoorte and Warnambool then a year later the first Ansett flight took to the skies a must see if you are in Hamilton Victoria.

We stayed at Meredith free camp just east of Colac for a night and it blew a gale, we then moved onto Geelong and had another look round town and I did a bit fishing with no luck again! I then took my metal detector to the Eastern beach but also no luck only found tent pegs and bottle tops will try again some other morning that all for now.

We are flying up to Townsville for Christmas on Thursday 19 Dec so I will restart blog in New Year

So we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for both of us. 

 View from Lake to Caravan 

 View from Caravan to Lake 

 Big Koala just past turn off to Halls Gap

 Lee overlooking the Lake in the Grampians  

 More views of the Grampians 

 Our first try at making Damper

 What a good job we did 

 Nigretta Falls 

  Wannon Fall 

 Sir Reginald Ansett early mobil phone place in his Studebaker

 His Studebaker

 Hamilton Botanic Gardens

 Some type of Pine Tree in the Gardens  

In and around Maryborough Victoria

Hi All

We spent 4 nights at the Laanecoorie not free camp, but only $5 Pn which we call free, I when out with my metal detector looking for gold but only found old nails and bit of rusty tin but it was good to have a look. When I got back to the caravan park we met up with Ron and Marie, Ron invited me to go out looking for gold nuggets the next day, which I jump at so I could learn more about detecting.

We started off at 0630 and only went 4km for camp and started detecting Ron showed me what to look for around in the area's where gold might be located, by pointing out the kind of ground and trees around the area. Ron found a couple of small nuggets and called me over to try my detector over a spot which he thought may have a nugget, I started to try and find it with my detector but had no hope as the ground had lots of iron stone and was just to noisy so he told me to sort thought some of the soil with my hands and pass it over his detector to find the item that was making all the noise and I found a small nugget in some clay which Ron call it a Kinder Surprise, I think I have got the fever and may have to look for a real Gold detector.

We were to stop at Avoca, but when we pulled up in Maryborough we thought we would stay a week and make day runs form here, Maryborough has lots of history and there are lots of small towns and villages around the area.

We had to do some washing and as we have not got a generater on this trip we had to stop over in the caravan park which is right next to the lake and we can walk to Town.

We have driven around the area and have seen Castlemain, Maldon, Avoca, Ballarat, Beaufort and all villages between these towns.
We move on to Halls Gap on Friday morning for 3 or 4 nights and will have a look at the local town around the area. 

 Bush-ranger Captain Melville Cave in Kooyoora State Park

 The nugget I unearthed just a little small that the one below

 A few wineries around the area

 This nugget found near Maryborough

Lee outside a small house in Inglwood 

Start our travels again 15 Nov 2013

Hi All

We have picked up our new Van and are doing a shake down around Victoria for about a month, so we can work out how use some of the new gear and pick any faults that it may have.

So we headed off to Bendigo, towing the van was a breeze did not know it was there even when road trains passed the new ESC system seem to work OK because we did not feel the van being sucked into the road trains as it normally does.

Bendigo has a lot of history and some great old building, some of the highlights are the cathedral which took 80 year to complete due to lack of funds some of the other items that are a must to see are Alexander Fountain cicra July 5 1881, Hotel Shamrock formerly the Exchange Hotel which was renamed in 1855 and the Golden Dragon Museum which houses Loong and Sun Loong the oldest and longest Chinese Imperial Dragons in the World, it also now is home of a very large Jade chariot (see picture attached)

We had to move to another caravan park Marong 20km from Bendigo because of the large Caravan Show that was being held at Bendigo for 3 days and we wanted to go to the caravan and camping show so it was not far to travel back to Bendigo.

We are having a good look around the Bendigo, Heathcote and Lodden Valley Regions which also has a lot of history through these areas of Victoria.

Today we had a look at a free camp that I found and it looks a great place to spend a few days so tomorrow we are moving to the free camp and we can test the other good stuff in the caravan and I can do some fossicking with my metal detector and we can do some fishing because the free camp in right on the Lodden river.

That's all for now keep in touch and be safe Lee and Jim  

The Sacred Heart Cathedral

The Alexandra Fountain

 The Samrock Hotel

 Information Center

Bendigo Talking Tram

  The Court House

 The Jade Chariot

 One of the Dargons