From Melbourne we trundled east down the road and along the coast to Wilson’s Promontory, which is a peninsula that extends out into the Tasman Sea. It’s a National Park with lots of beaches and walking tracks. Our campsite was near the beach and already occupied.
This fella decided that "Su Casa, Es Mi Casa", and tried to pinch Karen’s lunch. We spent the following day walking and driving around the park. The scenery was spectacular, if typical of this southern coast. We enjoyed walking the coastal trails and the Tidal River. Next day, we pulled up stakes and moved further east exploring the small towns along the way and walked through this example of a cool temperate rainforest in Tarra-Bulga National Park in the Strzelecki Mountain Ranges.
Eventually, we ended up staying the night in a place called Seaspray along the 90 mile beach. Despite a windy and cloudy end to the day, the next day dawned clear and sunny. We continued along the beach to this spot.
Yep, my beach, according to the sign! However, since there were several people on my beach, we decided to leave it to them and take a look at the Lakes National Park. This is a spot where various rivers back up behind a 90 mile stretch of sand dunes to form a series of tidal lakes and excellent waterfowl habitat. We drove along the lakes and spotted lots of pelicans, black swans, and other birds. There was a nifty walk and viewing platform along Reese Lake that we walked and enjoyed.
By the end of the day, we barely made it to our next destination, Cann River. We finally made our camp in the Peach Tree Reserve on the Tamboon Inlet. It was a little fishing camp and we spent many hours visiting with the local fisherman around their campfire. It was great! On the following day, we drove over to Point Hicks to see the light house. It was a 2.8 km uphill walk to the lighthouse, but well worth it.
After a long climb up into the light house we were treated to magnificent views of the coast line all around, although I must admit to being a little "edgy" out on the narrow steel balcony at the top of the light house! The old rotating beacon is still intact although it has been replaced by a smaller, automated light on the outside of the tower. The original heavy glass prism lens reflects the ocean scene below.
This is how the stair inside the lighthouse looks from the top.
If you look closely, you may be able to see two of the other folks on the tour on their way back down.
I tried my hand at a little surf fishing. It was great to get a line into the water again! The surf was great and the sun was warm. Better yet, there was no one around. Unfortunately, I couldn’t entice any fish onto my line, with the exception of a few sand crabs who kept stealing my bait!
Finally, it was time to move inland. This whole area of Victoria is known as Gippsland and consists of the coastal areas and inland hill/mountain country. We set our sights on a series of caves near a town called Buchan that we’d read about. Because we spent a good deal of time sightseeing along the way, we arrived too late in the day to tour the caves so we stayed in the very excellent campground near the Buchan Caves. On the next morning, we toured the caves. Once again, we were mesmerized by limestone formations.
This is a particularly long series of caves of which we explored only one of the two caves open for touring of the several kilometers of caves in the system.
From there, we picked up the Great Alpine Road and arrived in Omeo in the Victorian Highlands. After talking around town a bit, we slipped off to the nearby Victoria River where I was able to catch a nice feed of Brown Trout which we took back to Omeo for dinner. Along the way, we identified a nice, vacant campground along the river to which we moved the next day. It was great to have a free campsite, both in terms camping fees and free of other campers! We explored the balance of the Victoria River and the historic Victoria Falls region that next day. (This was the former site of Victoria’s first hydro-electric plant, built for a private mining firm in 1908.) But, despite a good effort, I was unable to find any more trout in the river! I was quite surprised because the falls and pools were excellent habitat! Later I would find that the low water flow in the rivers below our camp resulted in high water temperatures which made the trout lethargic and uninterested in feeding. Even so, it was great to work along the river.
We then moved on through the Victorian Alps to Mt Hotham and enjoyed the views from the mountain and ski area. We finished the day in a little town called Bright along the Owen River. The leaves on the deciduous trees were starting to change with oncoming autumn and were beautiful. After some unsuccessful fishing in the river, we set up camp nearby and treated ourselves to a Bright pizza and beer dinner instead of fish! Kinda glad I missed the fish that day - the pizza was good!
From Bright we continued along the mountains to Mt. Buffalo National Park. The park and lodge at the top were very dramatic, but a cloud formation at the top of the mountain kept us from enjoying the view from the top. We continued on our way toward our goal for the day - Mt. Buller, with a stop in Glenrowan.
This is where the infamous bushranger (highwayman) Ned Kelly, clad in his home made armor, was captured in a bloody gun battle with police. The icons above represent where Ned and his gang stood during their shoot out with police. The town contains several museums with information about the gang and it’s history one of which we toured in some detail. In the end, Ned was hanged for murder in Melbourne, bringing his colorful career to an end. We arrived at the base of Mt Buller late in the day and made camp in a delightful, grassy campground. Next morning we drove up to the top of the mountain where I pulled this fella and his steed up short.
This is a statue erected in honor of the people who opened this harsh country to ranching back in the 1800's. It stands in the middle of one of the biggest ski resort areas that we’ve ever seen. Heather’s family lived up here for a couple of years while running the ski rental shop - it’s one of their favorite places and we can see why! The view from the top of the mountain is not to be missed!! On the way back down we spotted this "tree house" along the side of the road. Must be used by really small folk in those mountains!
Back down the mountain we sped. To Melbourne we went - to finish our tour of the city and some unfinished business to complete before continuing on around the great land of Oz!!