Victorian Alps, Omeo, Bairnsdale, Yarram, Tarra Valley, Phillip Island

Tue 14/12/10 – Pigs Pt Reserve freecamp, 9km sth of Tallangattta - 32oC on planes/23oC at altitude – fine/med windy.

Up at 8:30am after I was up till 12:30am on internet – amazingly 3 mile Dam had vg mobile reception due to proximity to Mt Selwyn ski field...

We did the Mt Selwyn walk incl the Gold fossikers walk. It was an alpine meadow walk that was quite boggy in places. There were some old remnants of the mining era incl stamping press, trucks, cars, tanks etc. As we got upto Mt Selwyn we were rising up the ridge and then onto the ski-field itself. We walked up to the top chairlift for 360 degree views on the snowys, though bigger mtns were around blocking the view.

We drove down to Yarrangabilly area (rd nth to Tumut), but it wasn’t as impressive as the rd we had been on so we turned around and drove back to the New Chums Hill (lucrative claim by newbies when others were purposely giving them what they thought was a dud claim. There was a large stamping press (moved from elsewhere) and a massive sluicing drum on display. Apparently 3 mile dam was built to provide water for the sluicing ops here!!! The holding ponds at the bottom of the hill are still visible.

We drove onto Cabramurra, the highest town in Oz, which is still the base for the Snowy Mtn Hydro authority. The lookout was impressive and the photos of the snowy scheme development were superb at the general store. It was pretty cold and windy here. The trees had were mostly destroyed by fire in 85/93, so there were plenty of white tree skeletons – it was a little spooky. There were a couple of dams with spillways, though no HEP plants. We drove down the western side of the Snowy’s and onto very hot planes of foothills – upto 32 degrees.

We did a walk to see a trestle bridge for the old railway line 20km west of Tallangatta – quite a tourist walk these days. We drove along Lake Hume a flooded valley with 1000’s of half submerged gumtrees – quite a weird sight! This is a massive lake! We arrived at our campsite at 6:30pm – we must have done 3-4 hours of driving – quite slow up in the snowy’s and wandering wavey rds in the foothills with some steep descents and climbs as we moved between valleys.

I wandered around the riverside campground with a racing river due to recent rains – many places were partly submerged around this area. One rd we were due to come along had only recently been re-opened and still had the sign for “water on the rd” – we didn’t see any, but saw some rivers/ponds lapping at their banks.

I spoke with an older traveller in his Toyota Hiace who had plenty of good advice – he had driven 400k km around oz in his van – working and travelling.

Wed 15/12/10 – Mt Buffalo Nat Park Camp - $17, 21oC at altitude – fine/windy with mid-avo showers/thunder. CW +11.9

Up by 6:30am and left campsite by 7am. Drove into Beechworth via a maze of roads where we stopped to explore this beautiful historic gold mining town. On the nearby hills there were 13k men exploring for gold in the 1850’s. IT was the richest strike in Oz I think. The gold foundry in town was sending 13koz of gold off in stage coaches. This was also the area where bush rangers tried their luck with the authorities with some success. The mentor of Ned Kelly, Harry Padden(?) honed his skills in this area and was held in the town gaol where he was tried by the court.

We got fuel at 134c/l – not too bad as anything under 130c is vg, though it was an Ampol stn, so no 8c discount. The right rear tyre was 7 psi lower than the others that were 76 psi.

We drove onto Mt Buffalo, an imposing granite mtn range up a winding 33km rd stopping off at the base of the granite outcrop (Mackeys lookout), which was a part of the “Big Walk”. Then the lookouts at the chalet and then a walk down to the Undeground river and got back just as it started raining. The rain lasted 1.5 hrs while stopping at the Nat Parks office. We went onto the Cathedral picnic area and waited out the rain. At 4:30pm it cleared and we went up to the Cathedral rocks and the Hump at 1695m along granite paths of v.nice small steps.

We drove upto the “Horn” and then the final 1km upto the summit for stupendous 360 views incl all the Snowy’s and Vic Alps. We left at 6:40pm and then drove back to the Lake Catani campsite where I had a shower and K put on dinner and then we swopped. We had finished dinner by 8:30pm and were pretty tired after a lovely avo!

Thu 16/12/10 – Mt Buffalo Nat Park Camp - $17, 21oC at altitude – overnight thunderstorms/clearing. CW +/+

Slept in after a poor night’s sleep – no idea why, apart from the altitude perhaps.... 1200m(?).

The weather was sunny in one direction and misty from the North where the weather was coming from. We did some local walks incl the monolith and gorge. We paid our camp fees at park HQ and then walked back via the lake edge to the camp to pick up our bag of lunch and water etc. We had lunch and left at 1:30pm to do Mt Dunn, Og Gog & Magog peaks etc etc walking up alpine meadows by a stream with the odd bog to cross. We then climbed 2 major granite peaks and saw plenty of high country wild flowers. The whole loop took us 6 hours with 45 mins on the phone to Mark Partington in crisis with Cherie again. Had a late dinner and early to bed.

Fri 17/12/10 – near Omeo (rest area) - 14oC at altitude/23 Bright – late day showers/windy. CW +/+12

Up at 6:45am and had b’fast, a quick view of the lake at 8am and then started the Dickson’s Falls (+ lookout) 4km rtn + ½ the “Back Wall” along alpine meadows from Cresta Valley carpark. The Back Wall was moving nicely up a rocky lunar landscape, changing as we drifted over rises into the next bowl, all the time with spectacular view of the Horn in the background. The view was better going on the out leg than the return.... We got back to the Van 2 hrs later.

We drove straight back to the Cathedral Picnic area and I went straight onto Le Souef Peak with a side trip out to the Sentinel (a pillar like rock) and the Castle (too hard for me to climb). I stayed up beyond the Sentinel and looked over the bowl below and beyond two peaks incl Mahomet’s Tomb to the many mtn ranges beyond and a town in a valley beyond (probably Porepunkah). I sat there for ~ 30 mins in a blissful state – like a bird overlooking its territory. The walk/sit took 1 hr.

We drove onto Rollason’s Falls and met the couple we met on the 1^st day at Park HQ, who were on a week’s holiday here and were very keen walkers. Had a nice chat and got a couple of tips from them. The walk was 2km downhill to the upper + lower falls. The lower section was a double waterfall with a swirl due to the rocks it came off at the top and an awesome tail-race that it flowed out of. We stood astride this tail-race and enjoyed the water racing passed. The upper falls were also vg, but we couldn’t get down near them.

We had a 2pm lunch at Eurobin Falls Picnic area and took in the falls from near the road – with a distant view of the plateau face above – way above!

We drove onto Bright and spent the next 2+ hrs looking around town, river walks and the info Centre.

The river was fair racing and had been well over its banks in the last few days/weeks. There were info boards on the gold mining operations and running out of town of the Chinese miners as they were doing too well....

As it started to rain we drove up onto the mtn ranges sth of Bright peaking just before Mt Hotham with its ski-fields below the town for the most part. The climb was above valleys on both sides consisting of dead tall gum tree’s and other mature native forest area’s. The area looked rather desolate/barren with a white tinge. We stopped several times on the way up to take in the view. It was very cold and the fan on full heat was barely enough, the wind was howling. It was a typical ski resort with big markers on the edge of the road and a huge drop-off on at least one side.

We drove slowly thru Mt Hotham and the Dinner Plain townships, DP was a nice modern stylish cottage alpine town and Mt Hotham had 20 or so multi-level resorts perched on the edge of the saddle of the mtn top, with many ski-lifts on each side esp the East (as we noted). We only noticed 1 nice 1 hr walk out of Dinner Plain, so that was no real loss.

We drove on to the free-camp we had planned to stop at, but it was down a decent sized hill near a swollen river on a dirt rd – too many risks for our liking with nearly bald tyres. We drove another 10km and found a rest area overlooking Omeo and the mtn’s beyond incl Mt Kosciuszko just 1 hr before sunset in a mostly clear sky. The odd shower blew across with still strong winds.

Sat 18/12/10 – Reeve’s Beach (near Yarram below Sale) - 18oC – showers/v.windy. CW +0.7/+12.7

Beautiful morning after early showers passed with great views out from the campsite. We checked out the Gold info boards in Omeo and then drove thru gorges along rivers down to Bairnsdale to look for a LPG gas servicing place – no joy on Sat!

We visited the “Egg Lady’s” studio and were blown away with her creativity making all sorts of things from egg shells – so many subjects it was amazing!!!! We drove on to Reeve’s Beach via Sale and had a quiet late avo/evening watching cricket and walking the long 90 mile beach. The weather calmed down nicely late avo.

Sun 19/12/10 – Phillip Island - 18oC – heavy thunder/showers/v.windy

We got up at 7am and left at 7:30am and drove up to Tarra Valley and onto Tarra-Balook Nat Park by 9:30am. We did a number of the walks around the park consisting of fern tree’s and Mtn Ash + Myrtle tree’s, some up to 75m high. We finished walking around 11:30am and went into Park HQ and saw the video and info boards about the area. The young park volunteer was very informative and over-keen. We drove back down to the Tarra Valley campground (The one David is buying) and had Devonshire Tea and sussed out Margaret the owner and host. She was a wonderful host and a great connector type. We saw the talking cockatoo and gave him a good scratch. We also saw the fern tree’s in the garden and the Croc skull in the pond – very nice! Across the road were some deck/picnic chairs with river-front views.

As we left the rain started pouring incl lightning. The road was awash, so it was pretty slow going. We bailed on going to Port Albert and headed straight to Phillip Island. The thunderstorm downpours contd on and off and the wind was v.strong.

We stopped off at San Remo and K got Hot Chips etc and I did a lap of the waterfront – v.nice, but wild today!!!

We arrived at 5pm and parked the van down by the front steps to the house. The ground was a little soft, but vg considering.

We spent the evening catching up with H&W till 11pm, when we all crashed, though I tried in vain to get TV reception for NFL.

Mon 20/12/10 – Phillip Island - 18oC – occasional showers/v.windy

Good nights sleep, though windy and plenty of rain. I tried again to get TV reception at front of van, but did have success upstairs, except for ONEHD –doh! Talked and got the paper till 3pm.

We all worked in the garden pulling out punga’s + agapanthus + red hot pokers. I went off fairly quickly and washed the van and both of H&W’s cars. We finished soon before it started raining. Evening on computer + setting up TV.

Tue 21/12/10 – Phillip Island - 18oC – windy morning/fine avo. CW +0.2/+12.8

Left early to do xmas shopping at Cranbourne and got back to PI by 12:20pm, a little stressed but relieved to have the job out of the way. Dan arrived a couple of hours later. We all chatted and after dinner went along to Cowes to see xmas carols, fireworks and a luna eclipse at 8pm. The eclipse stole the show IMHO. It had cast a lovely silhouette along the calm clear water. Dan & I spent quite a bit of time tuning our TV’s and me learning how to use my recording option to the external HDD. We chatted about all sorts of quirks of RV’s and K&I learnt a lot!

Wed 22/12/10 – Phillip Island - 21oC – sunny all day/cool out of sun. CW +0.3/+13.15

Slept in and after a computer/lazy morning we got along to the shop to post our letters and walk along the harbour beach. Dan found some serious rot in his van and highlighted many other shortcomings incl every screw that has no washer or seal over the top of it.

I put a buy order in for 6 Tech US stocks from TC recommendations today by 1am. It was filled when the mkt opened at 1:30am.

Thu 23/12/10 – Phillip Island - 19oC – Overcast cool morning/sunny avo - CW -1/+12.1

Slept in and listened to sky bus news podcasts from 1-2 weeks ago. Listened to rest at 3pm while working on cleaning mastic off the fridge vent + side of van. The screws along the bottom were rusty and the timber was waterlogged and rotten. They were worse than Dan’s, and the seal along the bottom was still in place!!! It dripped down the break in the seal at the top LHS of fridge vent and down the channel in the plastic vent and sat along the seal on the bottom plate (pine). The ply on each side of the pine was also largely a write-off. Half the left vertical pine frame was water damaged – bottom 1/3 severely. The whole rib was removed. The section to the right of the bottom rhs also had to be removed. It was a big cleanup job that took 3hrs for Dan & I.

I helped Fred the neighbour carry the two part wardrobe across from his place to Granny’s room. Heather absolutely loved it when she got home – real high quality workmanship! It required some junk/furniture removal to get in the room.

I also bought RXM.ax + MIN.ax just before the mkt closed after getting glowing reviews from Gerrard Paynter + Mike Heffernen on the Fri avo BRR round table. Two excellent analysts esp Gerrard.

After a lovely chicken dish + trifle for the 2^nd night – yum! Dan & I went for a walk to the surf beach to miss the sunset for the 2^nd night running. We walked along the beach and back up past the surf club.

Karen & Heather drove up to Cranbourne to pick up the books for Douglas and do the pre-xmas shopping. They also went along to Cowes to get some anti-stick for Heathers new Wardrobe made by neighbour Fred – what a beauty!

Fri 24/12/10 – Phillip Island - 22oC – Perfect day - CW +0.3/+12.4

Dan completed the clever stuff with our fridge side vent. Fred kindly cut the bottom and LHS vertical dowl (treated pine). He shaved part of the bottom dowl for a perfect fit. Dan glued it with Aquaglue(?) and after that dried he put on the Simpson glue/sealer (permanent!). Dan also sealed up his Water lid screws. We had a lazy afternoon, except for Wally doing the lawns (worryingly near our exposed drying sealant on the van!).

Sat 25/12/10 – Phillip Island - 19oC – Overcast cool morning/sunny avo

Had a skype video chat with M&D, Damien and family for 25-30mins at 7:30am before going to church for the Cowes 9am service. Wally, Dan & I spent an hour or chatting. We had a huge lunch with just about every meat/seafood type! Yum!

We had a late avo nap & then went up to Sandra’s at 6pm for leftovers and a full family gathering & present opening.

It was very loud, led by an intoxicated Sandra. We got home around 11:15am.