Hello Famly & ACT

Well we made it to ACT (Thursday 21/3/13)! That in itself was mighty fun, (car troubles) but once we arrived here, we were spoilt so much. Was sad to have just missed Uncle Raymond who had left a few days before. Donna, Geoff, Belinda(though we rarely saw her due to work, and an active social life)& Phillip were more than welcoming. Geoff even cooked us up a veg Laksa, as well as Donna cooking up other awesome treats like "the best" pumpkin soup in the world, Curry's and a pizza night (god we missed pizza). I had to step in one night and request/demand that i cook as i was missing it (a little bit), i got to create some yummy Zucchini fritters, produce grown in Geoff's Veg garden.
Nick and I introduced Sequence to Donna and Geoff, and nearly 4 hours later we were still playing around the kitchen table, being supplied awesome nibble foods,with poor Donna having to go to work the next day, we called it quits (Boys up, for now).  First night without the dogs for nearly 3 months. There just happened to be a thunder storm, so we were woken by Sahara who had managed to open up the sliding front screen door and wander through the house to find us (ssh don't tell Geoff). So after a bit of a cuddle Nick went and slept in the van with them, aww :)

Next day Nick and I made full use of the showers and washing machine, and did a bit of a tourist drive, we had been here for our yr 10 school camp so we decided we really wanted to visit the Memorial and Parliament houses again. We also did a bit of research and found on the Happy cow website (best veg website ever) a couple of Vegan/Veg restaurants around, so we had the most amazing best Value lunch at Kings land Vegan $9.50 for a massive serve, service amazing food fantastic. We even went back!!!



 

Telstra Tower from the National Art Museum's "red carpet"

 



We got back from our explorer drive, and straight after dinner we hit up sequence again! ha (girls up now). We planned to catch up with Belinda Saturday night, to see Canberra's night life... Well after picking up Craig on the way Donna dropped us off ( gotta love mum's) to see the "seedy" side of Canberra. See Below

  WTF ! Urinals on t\he main street !

 So Yes i made a deal with nick, if his"urinal" shot was going up so was my "peace love and drunk" shot. Met a heap of Belindas friends, lovely bunch of people. Although alot of ferals were out as there was a Mauy Thai boxing night on, and alot of randoms wearing costumes, we assume this isnt how Canberra people get their kicks. (walking around in old sailor costumes, and a few ppl mixed in with some random super hero's get ups on show)

So after scabbing a ride home with a lovely "p" plate driver named Brittany, at like 3 am it was off to bed.!!! 


We went to the Harvest Festival. Great Idea, and alot of "like minded" people. I ended up gravitating towards a Animals Australia stand, and got some great information, from some lovely people. I have decided to go Dairy Free again. I do not want to support the Dairy industry.

After a third night of sequence the boys came from behind and (somehow) won! Nick Had planned to do some more WWOOFing, but the place didnt want the girlies to come along, so luckily we could stay at Donna/Geoff's and Nick went off. The first day after dropping him off round 6:30 am, in the dark, with fog and frost brr, dont like Canberra cold (earliest start for a while, cept the occasional sunrise, even then we can get back into bed) he came back at lunch time with a box full of organic produce (yah) Next day he got picked up round 6, and dropped off at 4 ish with a 6pack and a handshake, from the owners son. Nick said he really enjoyed himself, and the offer to gan employment was there too! He got back exhausted but managed to get to Kykoshuin karate, trained hard for a few hours, with over half an hour travel each way, came back even more exhausted!! Donna even let Nick use her car which was better on fuel than the snail!!

So we came to pack up on the 27/3/13, and once we got on the road (long story) found out that nick had left his keys and our mobile in the console of Donna's car, which happened to be at work with her. So after driving back to Geoff we found out she had a arvo break in 25 minutes, and we were about 30 away. So off we sped, lucky this was the same way Nick had come to Karate the night before in Donnas car, so we kind of knew where we were going...Made it just in time, got a big last cuddle from Donna, and said our thanks again we were on our way from Canberra!!

Found a really nice camp spot at Binalong, but sadly, a real crazy local woman (who looked friendly enough from a distance while she was walking her dog) was a bit weird, and in the course of telling Nick where he had to go, for the free camp QUOTE 'Dreadlocks are from hell' 'triple J play Devils music'..'see you late you piece of shit' UNQUOTE, Diagnosis turrets??!! Anyways we found this lovely spot, at a football oval, the Girlie's had a good walk around and we had a good rest.

This grasshopper was a freeloader... he hung on for ages, and we needed to pull over to let him off, free ride over.

Driving though the car problems (in the high lands)

We were driving through the High Country and witnessing some amazing views and taking some small roads and tracks for that matter. This is where the term Snail really took effect.

On the way we stopped at the "Oriental Claims" which was a area of land they had destroyed to produce gold over many years but in very small quantities. The records show they produced 1 and 1/2 Tonne in 50 years, the country has paid dearly for it and they wrecked the water source too! We did the little tourist walk they had there, through the mine site and learnt the facts about Hydraulic Sluicing for gold( basically washing the mountain away with high pressure water and sifting through the run off). Over 50 km of channels (aquaducts) were dug to divert water for this process.We passed through Omeo and were feeling pretty tired at this point, but decided to push on a little further to find a nice bush camp. Back on the birt roads...



Driving through this part of the country we saw wild dogs that had been hunted, scalped and strung up from road signs, many of them over a vast area of dirt road. We felt that this was definitely NOT the right country for us to stop in, for a number of reasons, so we pushed WAY, WAY on. Through many more bush tracks and steep, narrow, winding roads until we though we couldn't handle any more bumps on our rumps... then we came across the lovely outskirts of Nariel and Stacey's Bridge.

Lovely spot to set up camp, tall gum trees, large open grassed (maintained) areas, next to a river or in park lands, and well maintained pit loos. We all jumped out eager to stretch after a huge drive and go for a walk. The girlie's fetched out the local rabbit warren, which i had conveniently pulled up next to... yeah, another adventure park for dogs! We put them on the leash so they wouldn't disrupt too much wild life and whilst on the lead Delta ran under the car and came out with oil on her jacket... the car problems begin. (She has since been forgiven for 1) running away at Marley Point and 2) being the bearer of bad news. )

Nick can explain for anyone who may be interested (i really have no idea what this all means,except we are going slower, blowing more smoke and that this will cost $$ to fix)

Leaking Oil from the rear main seal (remove gearbox, clutch and flywheel to fix : ( big job) , Leaking Diesel from the filter and some of the hoses (so thats where our economy was going) lucky we were carrying spare oil, filter and hose clamps. So the next morning we top up the oil and chug on to the next bigger town.

Onwards we went towards Corryong ( on a Sunday the 17/3/13) stopped at a lovely look out. Nick had a look at the car and i made a few phone calls and got up-to-date with facebook and posting my last blog. As well as finding out some dreadfully sad news about one of the students i used to work with at Wiltja.(thanks for being available to talk with Petra) Once Nick had decided the locals might not be too happy with him spilling diesel in the lookout car park we called the  RAA (RACV).

There is humour to this as we had spoken with Eleanore, my bestie, and our mail sorter(and i mean that with the most affection, thankyou soo much, couldnt do it without you xxx.) just before and she told us of our due bills, we decided to pay health cover and the last full water bill we will see for a year and the RAA could wait a little(even though it had just expired).

So we head to the RACV and talk to the fellow who gives Nick a few tips but says we need to call it through. After i had just spoken to Eleanore i call her back requesting BPAY information.
So we eventually call it in and get this country mechanic to come help us on a brilliant (blue skies, warm breeze) Sunday afternoon. Nick and i played a guessing game of what we were interrupting him from (cricket match, Sunday lunch) anyways i love the quick service you get with country towns, less than 20 minutes and he rocks up.

He replaced the fuel filter and cleaned the in line filter which was full of metal particles from the tank, tighten the hole clamps on the ageing fuel lines and bleed the air from the fuel system. not the hardest of jobs but frowned upon when being done in a lookout car park. (thats nick again)


Back on the road again and fuel problem fixed but still leaking oil, were trying to think of it as a constant partial oil change every time we top up, but she will hold out till we get back to Adelaide.

This is what awaited us....
So this where it get really fun and we start pushing through to Mt Kosciusko. The poor snail it still blowing smoke and putting along, but she kept going, thanks Nissan, and Nicks loving driving....having to go up some steep roads in 1st gear, sometimes we can get thru in 2nd, were really lucky if we find we can make it up in 3rd. So can you just imagine how long it took us to get to this first lookout, called Scrammell's lookout. We both decided that we didn't want to push the car any further for the day, and we all needed a rest. We pulled up and spent a chilly night in the car park.

It was frosty cold when the sun was up, and someone who was there admiring the view said that it was already 9c. When the sun started going down, the mountains turned this amazing pink colour, which only lasted a few minutes.

We turned a little "crazy" with all the cold, that's Nicks "crazy" face. The stars were AMAZING, being high up, and with nothing else around, like street lights and such.. It definitely was a 2 dog night (on the bed).






When we got moving the next day (which took a while, as we had to thaw out), we kept creeping along, at a slow enough pace to piss off all the cars behind us (sorry, well actually not really). Our first stop of the day in Kosciusko was the Creek. Glad we didn't stay here last night as it was next to the road, and didn't have the same charm as the lookout.

 Spot the happy Girlie's below.

What a beautiful creek, the water was so clear, the sun was out and the sky so blue, it magnified all the pretty colours of the rocks below the water level. We pressed on and climbed really high. the landscape changed so much, the trees were all dead, and it was 'bleak" looking. We were at the Great Dividing range. We were coming up to Thredo and Mt Kosciusko.

 



 

 

We continued on, eager for our first look at Thredbo, albeit in the summer months, but to see the "Alpine Village". It was cute and looked exactly like what we had pictured, the shape and style of the buildings and all, and wasn't as empty as we thought. The chair lifts were still going, for the bush walkers. We would have liked to go for a hike, but couldn't risk walking around with the girlie's, in a national park, that they weren't meant to be in, in the first pace, and couldn't possibly leave them in the car for 6 + hours. Them's the breaks. To warm up on the way down from the mountains we found an awesome schnapps distillery called wildbrumby. Tasted all the schnapps then ran... hehehe.

 

 

We drove through Jindabyne and found a really yummy cookie factory, where we spent probably more than we needed to but they had these amazing seconds. mmm so good.

 

On Monday the (18/3/13) our way through Cooma approx 140km to Canberra (on our way Wakefields!!!) We noticed a Kyokushin Karate dedicated club. Its the same "form" that Nick has trained in Adelaide, so he went and enquired, after they had finished their Monday night training. Guess what, they train on Wednesday nights also, so WE are going to train tonight. The Sensai has even said we can put the dogs in the backyard while we train.

 

This is the beautiful spot we have camped at Numerella river, the clouds covered the mountain backdrop this morning. How beautiful.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Dogs Grave

Our awesome spot at Dogs Grave in the Victorian High country



We Moved on from Dargo once we got the all clear from the CFS, and drove through the Victorian high country, on our way towards Mt Kosciusko. We took one route (after we had gotten lost and found our way again, we are following some pretty basic maps) that we climbed 1500m following rough logging tracks that hadn't seen a grader (because they were so steep) in quite some time, and the car was really being pushed.... it was a warm day, and we are (slightly) overloaded LOL.




We were grateful to see the sign for dogs grave and noticed a bunch of council workers hanging around doing what they do best (and not grading the roads). Quite strange also as we were far from a town. We drove in and didn't really know what to expect and saw this grave site with a gravestone?
"Boney" a drovers cattle dog was buried in 1862 here, and we wondered why a dog burried so long ago has created a campsite there? Was a lovely spot though, lush green grass, and a deserved break after driving on bumpy dusty roads.

 

Silt Jetty's / Den of Nargun

We found a little spot tucked away

Off to Eagle Point… After getting some much needed supplies from Sale we headed off to Eagle Point where the Frenchies in the Wicked van told us they had spent the night. We stopped at the lookout an it was amazing,  270’ views over this lovely part of Victoria. Could have spent the night there, but we decided to check out the point. Off we drive past the caravan park, no wonder there was “no camping” signs up , and down this long dirt road. At points along the road there was literally just the road and ocean on either side. There were lots of people down the end fishing so we decided to drive a little ways back and found a great spot to camp. The fish were literally jumping out of the water, there was no real wind, no annoying mosquitos, we had the best view and the sunset was amazing ( yes John check out the pictures).  

 We set up, have got it down to a fine art now, cooked a yummy veg burger for dinner, then nick headed out of the kayak. The stars were amazing that night! We got spoilt! I really do love gazing at them they are majestic, and it’s a great sight when they light up the sky, we had part of the Milky Way in all her glory right above us.

 

Had a slow start the next morning, might have something to do with that beer we bought in Sale…. Decided we really couldn’t be bothered moving on so we spent the next night there also.

The girlies were having a great time, there were massive water rats...

 

When we finally got moving on Thursday (14/3/13) we headed back towards Bairnsdale was there was a Cultural Centre we wanted to check out the other day when we drove through, but we were too late it was shut.  We had to wait around till it reopened as there was a workshop going on. (I found out later that they had Aboriginal Elders down from Arnhem land as well as Native Indians working together with the local Kurnai / Gunnai  people to work out a plan /guide on how to treat people, for various illnesses without using western medicine, and focusing on traditional techniques .)

Anyway it was great to go and have a look, the Elders of Kurnai people have worked so hard to get this museum open, was officially opened in 1994, and they have since been trying to get back items of significance from Melbourne museum. It tells the story of the Aboriginal people from the Gippsland area, from before, to when white man settled, and currently. Well worth having a look, if your near this part of the country.

 

 

 

 

Onward bound…. In the museum I read about this special women’s place called the Den of Nargun that was located within a national park. It was on the way to Dargo, where we were headed, so we thought we would go and have a look. Once we got there nick stayed in the car and I made the journey. It was a crazy steep walk, and only super-fit Bear Grylis could have done the walk in 15 minutes, the signposted times kept changing… but once there it was amazing. It’s just really sad that people have come through and broken things off and not shown respect for such a place of natural beauty, and special place for the Kurnai people.



 

We moved on and found a lovely place to stay called Orrs camp spot, about 10 minutes out of Dargo, and lit up a lovely campfire and had another beautiful display of starts to keep up entertained. We even cooked some popcorn over the fire.

 

 

Once we arrived in Dargo we both found it such a cute/ quaint little town, with lots of old “period” type houses, very green and lush in a beautiful valley. To set the scene even more we had to pull over and wait for a herd of cows to walk past, on their way to get milked! We checked with the CFS when in Dargo, as there have been some horrific fires around this region, and we had planned to drive thru Mt Kosciuszko???

 

Long Weekend approaching

So we decided to head on the next day, looked at the map, and found a place called Reeves Beach, approx 30 Km from where we were. It is along the 90 mile beach strech of coastline. We started packing up all our stuff and a wicked van pulled in ( French tourists) Next thing we see is a country Sheriff car pulling in (with lights on) and speaking to them from his open passenger window. He stays for about 5 minutes, then moves on. Nick and i are wondering what is really going on when one of them asks us over. She speaks broken English but tells us to have a look at the side of the van. Its got a big picture of that Gangham dude bending over a chick, saying "do it Gangham style" Nick and i start wondering what these country police are like.....
Onwards to Reeves Beach, we drive in and its a lovely spot, in the middle of the countryside surrounded by paddocks with dairy cows, big blue skies and temp increasing. We drive thru and it looks to be full, then upon closer inspection we notice that it looks as though a whole heap of locals have bought down their "clapped" out vans and dropped 'em off, cheap, permanent holiday home. Its like a run down ghost town, there were a few people round, and some actually lived there. We backed out slowly as to not attract attention and, on the way found the "tourist" spot, nice grassy lawn, big gums and beach access thru the dunes. (hadnt been spoilt by the locals)

We jump out to check out the beach, it was awesome, so we decided to hang tight on the tourist side and set up. There were a few people round so thought we'd be safe and not "attacked" by the locals.
Well wish we tried the toliet before we decided to stay.... this was the long drop from Hell (even writing this its coming back to haunt me) Nick was talking to a few of the people who had decided to live permanently there (friendly chap he is) and they were saying that there was no lock on the door, privacy concerns and all that, so they tried to screw one on and couldn't stand the smell any longer and screwed it on crocked, in a bid to get outta there. When he repeated this to me i just wondered why they had chosen the closest site to the long drop to call home.... Its times like this i long for our Porta Potti (but then i actually wouldn't really want to carry around our shite, and break it down with chemicals and all that) so it was really just a fleeting thought...

We ended up spending a couple of nights there, the beach made up for at the shortcomings. Had lovely long walks and met some cool tourists. We decided that we didn't really want to spend the long weekend there though....

We did some more research and found what looked to be promising Golden sands Beach. On some information we had gotten from a i booth it apparently had free hot showers!!!! So off we go on the way we discovered Australia oldest fully operational Swing Bridge. What an amazing invention.

Some Information about the Bridge (if your interested)

We then headed on and found our way to Golden beach ( not free showers, but $4 for 5 minutes) and checked out Paradise Beach, had a swim and decided that there were way too many people camped in such a little spot, and it would only get fuller as the long weekend was approaching( the long drops were much better mind you)

So we headed down to Golden Sands Beach and found an amazing spot, with an equally great beach, and it was large enough that even if it became full, there would still be enough space for us and the girlie's.

So we set up, well planned by arriving on the Thursday we had the pick of the spots, and got the camp closest to the beach walkway through the dunes. The sand was dirty though as too many people had lit campfires everywhere. So Mr Man went and carried a heap of sand to extend our path to Snail, so we wouldn't bring dirt inside (wish i took a photo) We fed the girlie's and put our rubbish outside and headed off to sleep.... Sahara and Delta ran out barking a few times throughout the night, but we had nothing to worry about as it was an empty camp.
Anyways we got up on Friday and i go the feed the girlie's and ask Nick if he had  moved Delta food container." Of course not" was the answer i received "Why would i do that?" When i tried to explain that it wasn't where i left it the night before Nick thought i was spinning. He wouldn't believe me that it had gone missing, saying things like who would take it.. etc?? So Nearly half an hour passes by and Nick asks me "What have you done with the rubbish bag?" "Why?" "Its gone missing".... Weird.... Any ideas who would take the dog food container and a bag of rubbish?? Needless to say he no longer doubted me! 

We had a great Friday, Nick on the beach fishing. Swimming, napping and reading for me. We even made a shelter and spent the whole afternoon down by the water.

We all had a great day, family fun!!

 

 

 

Then the people started to arrive Friday night.... Soon enough we were not alone anymore and had a few mobs of campers round us. Not too bad though, still had a fair space between us and the next campers behind us.... shouldn't speak too soon......

 

Saturday afternoon, round 3pm See's a bloody tribe of children (8 +) and 3 sets of parents rock up looking for a spot and they decide that camping right behind us/ on top of us is the way to go. Literally!! We look out and they have pegged 3 tents in the space of 2 car parks.(that's like 14 people rocking up on our back door) with one of the tents pegged in on top of our tarp, that was giving us a bit of privacy from the mob behind (bunch on uni students or something smashing beer bongs need i say more) We wondered if these people had heard of personal space. (wish i took a photo here too, but they did not leave their campsite, barely to even go to the beach)

 

So that brings Sunday.... guess what we did?? Another beach day !!! We actually made a sandcastle and called her Myrtle. Yes, we needed to get away from our campsite, we had about had enough, and didn't want to scare the little children.  (you see then we would have to hear the nightmares) (not ready yet)

 

 

 

 

Needless to say we got woken up early Monday morning to "pack up time" and thought we need to get out of here also... So off to pay for a shower (first one in Vic) then off we went



 

 

We stopped into Sale and did a load or 3 of laundry and a local recommended spending the night at Marley Pt. Great Spot Next to a Boat club and a large lake. The girls loved it as there was lots of rabbit holes around and Delta could actually fit in them, so it was like a big amusement park for dogs! . Sahara came back looking like an Goth (eye make up) see below....

 

 

Delta does not star in any pictures as she is in the bad books because we "lost" her for 45 minutes that night, then when we had packed up ready to go we took them for a walk and let her off the lead to burn off some energy and we had to wait for an hour and a half till we could find her and go. (Nick was threatening leaving her( though i really doubt that).) We discovered that she had found the "Game Park" next door that was off limits for dogs, who knows what she got up to in there???