The first day of winter was more like a clear spring day in Tidal River, perfect for a stroll along Norman Beach and a climb up to Norman Point. The round trip was about 5 klm and not too strenuous. The best thing about the walk was it started and finished at the camp ground and therefore no driving was required. The pictures on the blog show how lovely the day was. In the afternoon we walked to the footbridge over Tidal River, with Barbara being more athletic and continuing on towards Squeaky Bay. Christine spent the time admiring the reflections at Tidal River and watching a wombat graze on the far bank.
The nights were always interesting in the Tidal River campground at Wilsons Promontory because of the wild life sightings whilst walking to the bathroom - wombats, possums, a wallaby, a deer and several rabbits. During the day it was the bird life that impressed with crimson rosellas abounding.
On Saturday we said goodbye to the Prom and headed towards Yarram with a coffee stop at the quaint village of Fish Creek, lunch at Agnes Falls and the afternoon touring through the lush green hills of South Gippsland.
On Sunday the good weather disappeared and the rain set in. Despite the weather we still drove up through the mountain ash and tree fern forest of the Tarra Valley up to Tarra Bulga National Park, though we did wimp out on taking long walks. The rain did stop enough for us to walk down to the suspension bridge. After a lunch stop at Taralgon we took the long way back to Yarram. At times the mist was so thick visibility was very low - we couldn't see the massive stacks at the power station until we were almost on top of them!
The rain was still there on Monday when we woke, putting a "dampener" on our drive through to Lakes Entrance. The rivers had spread over the flood plains in Sale and we commented that it wouldn't be long before the highway was cut. A call into the tourist information centre at Bairnsdale was followed by a visit to the adjacent St Marys Church to see the painted ceilings and a drive down to the silt jetties of the Mitchell River near Paynesville. These jetties are second only to those made by the Missisippi River. They are about 11 klm long and pictures from the air show the jetties outlining the shape of the river as it flows into the lake. We drove to the end of one of the jetties and I would not recommend this drive unless some serious work is done to fix the potholes. We had to go to the end before we could get a turning circle for the 7.7m long motorhome. It took us over an hour to make the return trip! It was a relief to get back on the sealed road into Lakes Entrance.
The rain continued overnight and the wind really kicked in. The motorhome was rocking in the big gusts that come through every 5 to 10 minutes - a low had developed off the coast and was sending its full force Gippsland way. Places we had driven the past few days were isolated with flood waters - Yarram, Rosedale, Tarra Valley Grand, Grand Ridge Drive, Taralgon, Bairnsdale and Paynesville. We were lucky to see them when we did, and luckier still to be isolated in Lakes Entrance where the floods were very minor. We got to see the military sandbagging and the media film crews sitting around waiting for the floods to occur in Lakes Entrance with the king tides. They, thankfully, weren't in luck this time.
We ended up staying in Lake Entrance for 3 days and 4 nights. We couldn't get out on a lakes cruise, a walk along the beach was like being sandblasted (on Tuesday at least) and we got to know many of the shops, coffee places and restaurants in town! The Princes Highway north was blocked by downed trees and landslips from Orbost to Genoa. It was Thursday evening before it reopened.
On Friday we finally headed north into New South Wales and with each mile we drove, the weather got better. We wanted to stay in Mallacoota before heading into New South Wales, but it was flood affected and so we had to bypass it. Our first stop was Ben Boyd national park, just south of Eden, to see Boyd's Tower and Red Point. Our lunch stop was the Eden lookout over Two Fold Bay. Photos can't do the bay justice - it is very big.
From Eden we headed through Merimbula, a pretty town, onto Tathra. What can we say about Tathra other than we love it and just look at the pictures. It is a quiet little place on a big sweep of beach. It has a wonderful old steamer wharf, great oysters and a tiny harbour where you can watch the boats come in through a narrow gap in the rocky headlands.
On Saturday we took the tourist drive from Tathra to Bega to Central Tilba to Bermagui then back to Tathra. The weather was glorious, Bega was lush and green, Tilba is a National Trust listed town full of wonderful old wooden buildings and interestings shops and Bermagui is beautiful. We were unprepared for the long weekend crowds at Tilba and we couldn't find a long term parking spot for the motorhome - but we did manage to stop long enough to get some cheese from the ABC Cheese Factory and a pie from the bakery. We spent most of the afternnon in Bermagui, driving around lookouts, eating Gelati (the shop near the tourist inforation centre has great gelati) and generally relaxing before quickly catching up with some cousins of Christine's at the marina before heading back to Tathra.
Today we spent the morning in Tathra and the afternoon driving north to catch the scenery we didn't see last night on the drive back from Bermagui. It was another bright day and we even wore Tshirts for much of the day. It was almost like a winter's day in Queensland!
We've really loved the weather and the scenery here as well as the lack of crowds, however, we will be saying goodbye tomorrow as we head off to Canberra.
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