East Gippsland

May 17 – Wilsons Promontory

As we pulled out from the camp ground a kangaroo hopped across the road. Definitely need to keep an eye out for animals out here. We were headed to Wilson's Promontory National Park and had another beautiful day for it. As we entered the park there were all kinds of wildlife warning signs up and one advising you to get off the road if you stopped for wildlife. At one point there was an emu crossing sign which seemed pretty ridiculous to us until shortly afterwards there was an Emu on the side of the road. We stopped for a bunch of photos and then as we started off again we saw another one going off into the trees. Pretty Crazy! We stopped at a few scenic lookouts and enjoyed some breath taking views before stopping at Tidal River Campground. We got the low down on the walks in the area, unfortunately a bunch were closed due to severe flood damage last year. We picked out our campsite and ate some lunch. Then we headed off for a walk to Pillar Point. Along the way we had some awesome wildlife encounters. We had a kookaburra flying just ahead of us for a little bit and then there was a kangaroo chilling on the path. We got some photos of him before he meandered off the path. Up at the point we had some spectacular views of the coastline and the different islands just off shore. The sun wasn't right for photos in the one direction so they wont do justice to the view. We took a different route back to the camp called “Tidal Overlook” and got some more great views of the coast. This is about as south as you can get in mainland Australia. We really enjoyed sitting and soaking up the fantastic views on top of the point. When we got back down we attempted to sit outside but it was a little brisk. Beau made us tea while I bundled myself inside (I'm currently crocheting myself a toque). We found the battery was oddly low and it was quickly depleted even though we were only using out little lights inside. We made some tomato/garlic/bean soup for dinner and then started up the van to charge the battery up a bit. We are going to go into the store we purchased the battery from because it looks like we might have a dud. We did see a bunch of wombats wandering the park as well as some nasty possums.

Emu

Look out view

Tidal River

Kookaburra

Kangaroo in the path

No Justice

The view back towards the campground

May 18 – Reves Beach

It was pretty chilly last night but not unbearable once huddled under the blanket. It was warmer when we woke up this morning but it was also overcast too. It was very windy so we decided against hiking up a mountain. We made our way out of the park and saw some kangaroos hanging out on the side of the road. We stopped in the little town of Foster for groceries and gas. We also popped into the information center/library and used their free wifi. I hadn't really gone through my pictures or written up on the computer so I couldn't do much of a blog post. We continued on to our free campsite for the night called Reves Beach. It was a little bit bumpy to get down here and it's not the nicest of campsites but for the price it'll do. We took a nice little walk along the beach and then read in our chairs outside till it got too chilly for that. We have the ocean to lull us to sleep tonight.

May 19 – Paradise Beach

It was raining a bit when we first woke up but fortunately it subsided before we got up. The sun had come out and we enjoyed our breakfast outside in the sunshine. We headed out and onward to our next stop which was Paradise Beach. This beach is a part of 90 Mile Beach as was Reves Beach. It was a nice little campsite. Beau and I took a long leisurely walk on the beach but it was too cold to go barefoot. After we came back to the camp we set up the chairs and tried to enjoy the great outdoors. Beau played some guitar and I crocheted until our fingers got too cold. Sadly it was cloudy and there were surprisingly quite a few mosquitoes out, or mozzies as they call them here. I thought it would be too cold for the skitters but I was wrong. We ended up being driven inside.

 

May 20 – Sale

It was a clear sunny day when we awoke and we took full advantage it by setting up our chairs and table outside in the sunshine. We enjoyed our oatmeal and coffee and warmed ourselves in the sunshine. After breakfast we finished packing up and headed off again. As we got into the town of Sale we saw a market going on. It was mainly a flea market with people selling all kinds of stuff, tools, clothes, books, knick knacks, and also some vegetables. We bought a wack load of carrots and some red peppers for pretty cheap. We had a little walk around and then down along the river. This town was apparently very important back in the day as a main thorough fair for goods coming up from the ocean. After our little walk we bought a burger from a bbq stall at the market. The burgers were good with “salad” (coleslaw), egg, beets and onion but they were missing the cheese. We went to the information center and got loaded up with pamphlets for our future route. While in town we got some groceries as well as some odds and ends from the dollar store that we needed. Beau also picked up a guitar booklet so we can have a little more variety in his song playing. We filled up with petrol headed out of town. Our free camp spot for the night was a roadside rest stop. Not the nicest of places but there were bathrooms and I think any caravan park nearby would have been on the roadside too. I figure it's better to have free highway noise than pay for it.

May 21 – Dotti gets an Oil/Coolant Change

After a not too restful sleep we awoke to a little bit of frost on the windows! It was definitely brisk last night. Our stove just managed to last us for breakfast before the fuel conked out. We headed into the town of Bairnsdale where Dotti had an appointment with a mechanic. She needed her first oil change and a coolant flush. We went into the visitors center and got some info on the town and surrounding area. Across the road from the center was an Autobarn, the store where we had purchased the battery from. We went in to see what they could do for us and fortunately the guy knew what he was talking about and had a check of the battery and said it was a dud. They had to call our original store to find out what they could do for us since they didn't have the same battery in stock. We got lucky though and they straight up swapped it for a better battery they had in store. It probably costs about $50 more than the one we had originally purchased. Saweet! After our battery score we went into a camping store to check out stove options. Ingo and Monique had given us a small propane tank they had kicking around so we were trying to figure our whether we should stick with the small camping stove we have and buy canisters every two weeks for $12 a piece or get a new stove top and fill our propane tank. We found out some information from the camping store dude and decided to go with the propane tank set up although we weren't going to buy the stuff from the camp store since it was way more expensive, go Super Cheap Auto. We took the van to the mechanic then walked back to the library to use the internet. We stopped into K-Mart first and Beau bought a new cotton t-shirt. We are also on the look out for a new travel game since you can only play crib so much. At the library I got my blog a little up to date with some pictures and Beau did the same with his website. We then went to pick up the van and just under $200 later she's ready to keep going. We headed towards Lakes Entrance to a Caravan Park for the night and a hot shower. It's been much too long since we've been clean. While we made dinner we chatted with the Aussie couple who are the park managers as for four weeks ago. They were very nice a let us hook up to power without charging us for it! Beau and I both had stinking hot showers and loved every minute of it. Tonight is much warmer than last night which is a blessing.