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

Long trip Toowoomba Qld to Lake Entrance Vic

Hi

It us again, we have been moving a lot and looking at lots of nice places, see map below as to were we have been and the places we have seen.

As we have been moving south the weather is getting colder we are now in Cooma and the people in the next caravan drove up to Perisher, where there was a light Snow Fall, which was enough to make snowballs.

We are going for a days drive today up to the Adaminaby and Lake Eucumbene where the Snowy Mountain Dam and Hydro system is located, we will also look at some of the Snow fields and see if there is any snow. there wasn't any snow, what a shame.

We have taken some great pictures of the Mountains there are a lot of dead snow gum trees on the mountains someone told us it was from the big fire that hit Canberra years ago.

We head for Eden for 6 nights to rest do some fishing and may be a game of golf, and check out some places we did not see the first time thought this area.

After the week in Eden, resting and fishing (did not catch anything we could eat) only bait but still it was good to do.

We are now back in Lakes Entrance Victoria, we stopped here on the way up to Queensland 1 year ago and still had 5 nights we had paid for to use up. so that why we are stopping here to have another look  around and see if we can catch some fish here on our way to Melbourne to fly to Perth for 2 weeks

I hope to catch up with some of you in Perth while we are there.

Sorry I could not work out how to place map from Toowoomba Qld to Lakes Entrance Vic 

 Lee with statue of Gunsynd

 What a big one

 They new how to build a Post Office in the old days and it still a Post Office

 Chinese Garden

 Lee on a look out overtoowoomba

 Toowoomba Sign

 Strange Mountain in Coonabarabran

 Close of of the fallen mountain above strange fro

 Guess where

 Another tip

 Lovely flower

Lee again in flower garden Bathhurst