Friday, 20 February 2015
10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, February 2015 Gagebrook Tassie
10th, We did have a very noisy nights sleep, it has taught us to camp further from the main highway, so we headed off as soon as we woke planning to have breakfast down the road. We stopped at Deloraine even though I had passed through on many occasions I had never stopped to see the beauty of the place, the parks near the Meander River are a credit to the town, there are a lot of great old buildings in good condition that has a lot of history. After breakfast and a walk down beside the river we stopped to talk to an elderly couple who were taking penny farthing bikes to Ellendale for the annual race, the bikes are fascinating they look very challenging. We take our time and then stop at St Peters Pass rest area for lunch, this is one of the most pleasant rest areas in Tassie, from there we went to brother Pauls place, it was great to see Paul, Esther and Jackie, Lillian came up for a short while in the afternoon.
11th, Spent the day catching up with the family and getting ready for Jackies birthday the following day.
12th, Jackie is having a birthday bbq party today, friends and family come around, Benson arrived which was a nice surprise, it was a marvelous day with lots of food and laughs in the evening we practice with the metal detectors in the back yard digging little holes like bandicoot holes in the lawn, Paul did find a gold plated catch off something.
13th, This morning we want to do a bit more practice with the metal detectors so we go to Kingston Beach, while we were there Paul and Jackie found $3 apart from ringpulls and Merv and I found a small torch. When we had enough we went to the beauty parlor were Esther works to see Virginia and Esther, then home for lunch, there has been so much food, trifle, pavlova, Christmas pudding and the most amazing chiffon cake, with lots of delicious mains.
14th, Merv helped Paul in his shed today, they put the canopy back on the ute, the weather is not great so in the afternoon we watched the movie mama mia, very good, while the weather was bad we have watched a few movies and some extreme fishing.
Wednesday, 11 February 2015
9th February 2015 Tasmania
We headed for the Spirit of Tasmania approx 6am, there was a long wait to load due to quarantine is carried out Melbourne end. The trip over was a bit windy and choppy but the worst was the boredom, it is a long time to sit even wth a book I wouldn't do a day trip again at least a night trip you can lie down and sleep.
After disembarking we travelled down the road till found an area that looked suitable to stay for the night, this turned out to be a very noisy stop.
8th February 2014, Melbourne
Today we headed to Melbourne to book into a big4 so we can leave the boat with them while we are in Tasmania where we are heading tomorrow. On the way we went via Lilydale to have a bbq with Alf and Jude freinds of Merv, it was a very pleasant afternoon, they want us to go back that way when we are heading home.
3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, February 2014 Rosebud
When we arrived at Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula we found it very surprising that the coastline for kms was campsites run by the councils, these are right on the foreshore a lot of them with veiws of the water, there are rangers that are there to take care of things the ammenities are modern and very clean, we were more lucky than some as we pulled in near the ranger office and had no trouble finding our site, apparently some areas aren't as good as others. After setting up we walked down the beach it is very pretty, quite shallow when the tide is out but still good for a swim, we then done the usual of checking out the boat ramps, one of the ramps that was closest to our camp charged $15 per day usage with out a car park vehicles had to park on the street, the next one down charged $11 per day for parking but was a good ramp with jetty and heaps of parking, this was the one we decided to use.
4th, Tourist day again today we drove down through Sorrento and Portsea then walked out through the national park to the heads and up around the old gun stations. It was great up on he cliffs watching the big ships coming in and out through the heads.
5th, Fishing today, there is a bit of wind but no swell so it was ok, we headed out to a snapper mark and anchored up but we couldn't get to the bottom before leather jackets got us so we went on the drift, it was then dozens of small flathead, we tried quite a few places with the same result, I even tried for a sqid the only thing of any size we caught was 2 skate which of course was released. The wind came up a lot stronger in the afternoon so we decided to come back out the following day but get up very early to beat the wind.
6th, Up nice and early out on the water only to have the wind twice as bad as the day before and was very choppy it was impossible to travel without getting drenched, we were out for awhile when we both decided that we couldn't be bothered getting soaked for a couple of undersized flathead so we went back in and Merv packed up the boat ready to leave it when we go to Tassie. Afternoon came the wind dropped completely the water glassed off it was Murphy again having another go at me, we took our books, drinks and snacks to the beach had a swim and relax till sunset, very nice.
7th We thought about taking the boat out today but as everything was packed up we couldn't be bothered, we walked along the street window shopping, went to an icecream shop for one of the necessities, then groceries before a thunderstorm moved in.
31st, January, 1st, 2nd, February Phillip Island
31st, On the way to Phillip Island we drove along the bass highway then weny off and followed the coast, there arr some rather interesting places along the way but we stopped at Inverloch for lunch in the park, it was such a nice place we almost stayed there the night, we went for a walk onto the beach after lunch but decided to carry on.
When we arrived at Phillip Island we booked into the Beach Park in Cowes this turned out to be a very quiet pleasant place to stay with lots of rabbits lying around in the sun, I did try to sneak up on one for a laugh but had no hope, after setting up we walked along the beach to the main jetty, watched people fishing, swimming and leaving on tour boats, later after dinner we tried off the beach for a fish without any success.
1st, Tourist day today we drove out to the end of the island where they have the penguin parade, on the way out we followed along the coast on a dirt road, the scenery from the cliffs breathtaking, when we got to where the penguins came in anyone could park up around the corner and watch if they wanted, there is a grandstand built and the beach is floodlit but we went down onto several of the beaches and they were all covered in penguin burrows if you wanted to see them you certainly didn't have to pay, we never worried we had one near our boat a week earlier. At the far end there is a boardwalk built along the edge of the cliff if you pay $23.40 you can walk along this then spend more money in the cafe and souvenir shop, or you can drive along the road like we did, where you can stop where you want and see much more than on the boardwalk, while driving along the road we saw several pairs of cape barron geese. After lunch overlooking caorie bay we went for two further walks, one along a boardwalk through mangroves and up onto a lookout the other through the Koala conservation area.
2nd, Fishing day today when we went out it was pretty windy but with no swell we decided to drift and try picking up a snapper or flathead, we hadn't been fishing long when we saw birds diving and white water so we went to investigate hoping for good fish but what it wasn't anything to catch just great to watch, a large seal had caught a rather large carpet type shark and was thrashing it on top of the water, throwing it then diving with it, during this it was taking large bites out of the shark, the seal brought it right up to the boat as though it was showing me, it looked like it was playing as well as feeding. We drifted for awhile longer then moved further down and anchored up, as soon as we anchored I caught the biggest king george whiting we had ever seen it was 40cm, we ended up catching 8 of these and 2 flathead before we went in, when we talked to locals about them we were told they call them back slappers, they say when you tuck them under your arm to get the hook out the tail slaps your back. These fish were so easy to fillet and absolutely delicious to eat.
Monday, 2 February 2015
Sunday, 1 February 2015
27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, January 2015 Yanaki Wilsons Promontory
It was a nice day we arrived at Yanaki caravan park sun was out and there wasn't much wind.
After setting up we walked down to the boat ramp while we were there some boats came on with nice catches of flathead and whiting, we were looking forward to going out the following day, we couldn't go out when we arrived as it was low tide and the water receeds way out and the ramp can't be used. That afternoon was calm and warm so we went for a walk down along the side of the bay on a nature trail, lots of rabbits along that snd in camp, no wombats only their burrows. During the night the wind came up big time.
28th, As today was far too windy to go out fishing we thought it would be a good time to explore Wilsons Promontory. It was nearly midday when by the time we entered the park, as we went around a corner in the middle of the road was a wombat, a first for Merv and in the middle of the day. We continued to Tidal River which is the main area for camping, shop, visitors centre and ranger station. After picking up maps for the walks we set off on one of the closest walks which was to the top of the hill overlooking Squeaky Bay and Tidal River. On the way back to camp we stopped at Darby River we were thinking of taking the canoes on the following morning.
29th, The wind was stronger this morning so we headed back to the national park, the first walk was out to Millers Landing this was a good 8km return with nice parrots and wallabies on the way with a large amount of swans, spoonbill and heron. The next walk was Cotters Beach which was 2 1/2 km, on the way out to the beach we saw a large female samba deer. After this we continued to the wildlife walk where we saw some big kangaroos, a copperhead snake and a whip snake, it was time for a picnic so we went back to Tidal River so that after we had eaten we could get a delicious icecream. Next was Picnic Bay and Whiskey Bay approx 2km.
30th, The wind had dropped off but it was still overcast and cold and we just couldn't be bothered going out to sit and get cold so we went back to the park. The first walk today was to Little Oberon Bay which was a bit over 12km return, worth it for the scenery, it was lunch after that then on to Lilly Pilly Gully this was another 6km but walking through the ferny gullies was good for the soul. After we finished here it was getting quite late so we decided to go back down the trail where we had seen the samba deer, it was only approx 500m, when we got down there we went through the bush to a natural plain that had a lot of rushes on it, I mentioned to Merv it was a likely place to seea wombat, sure enough in next to no time wr found a really light coloured one, Merv had never seen a wombat and I had never seen one that color, as I was walking around to try to get the best photo I came across a very large tiger snake, I then realized the type of place that we were in was ideal for tiger snakes so we carefully went back to the trail. As we were heading out there was some emus on the road, we stopped to take a photo as they are much bigger than the WA ones, as I took the photo a buck hog deer run across the road, it was a great day. We thoroughly enjoyed this national park, we didn't camp in the park as they wanted $59 for an unpowered site, we just drove in each day only approx 20km.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)