A long catch up finishing at Bright with a change of camper!

After Blanket Bay we joined the grey nomads and surfies and camped at Johanna Beach for a few days.  It was a free campsite next to a long, wild and rugged beach.  Campers of every size were set up in grassy paddocks. Apparently it is a favourite surf beach but on the days we were there, we came to the conclusion that you would have to be an extreme surfer to stay alive on the waves.  I became extremely anxious just letting the boys play in the shallows – a definite no swimming beach.  It was perfect though for long walks and for meeting interesting people!

Take Nick and Peta from Ballarat for example….Nick was an Opal miner in his younger days and as we sheltered from yet more rain, under our little retro awning, he told us stories about Coober Pedy.  Over 40 years ago Nick and 4 friends found an opal worth $360 000. That’s a lot of money now, but back then it was even more of a fortune.  On another occasion he found a couple of good sized Opals and put them in a McDonalds bag for safekeeping.  Later on in the week he cleaned out his car and guess what? He threw the opals in the rubbish and they were never to be found again!   He was a character and gave us a DVD with some episodes of “Opal Fever”(All about Coober Pedy and opal mining) to watch while it steadily rained outside.   He and Peta also showed us a small jar full of small opals that they had collected “noodling” - which apparently means going through the tailings from old mine sites.  We’ve decided that we’d like to visit Coober Pedy on another trip.

Our next stop on the Great Ocean Road was to explore the famous 12 Apostles, which are tall limestone stacks in the ocean.  They truly are beautiful and we viewed them from many lookouts and beaches. Our favourite spot was Wreck Beach as it was much quieter than the main lookouts and we walked until we found an anchor from one of the many shipwrecks along this piece of coastline.

At each stop Oscar measured the wind speed, atmospheric pressure, temperature and wind chill using an anemometer, which he borrowed from the Parks Centre.  This was another fun subject for Camper School!

On one beach there was a very friendly black dog that looked a lot like our friend Tia (Anna, Michael and Sam’s dog) She was wandering the beach at the base of some very steep steps.  She did not seem to be attached to anyone and was extremely thin.  She followed us for a long time and would walk next to us and play with the boys.  We lingered for a lot longer than we planned as we tried to find her owner but no one turned up.  The black dog just joined another group as we all silently and slowly made our way up the stairs.  Had she fallen from a boat?  Had she fallen off the back of a ute and made her way to the beach?  Was she abandoned?  Was a family searching for her? We decided as a family to try and help.  We rang the local Shire Ranger who said he would send some one out to pick her up.  We just hope she finds a home, as she was friendly, intelligent and gorgeous.

Our van unfortunately has been a bit of a lemon and our next stop was Warnambool for a few repairs.  Luckily Warnambool turned out to be beautiful with a safe swimming beach, adventurous flying fox in the park and a perfect pathway for lots of Ripstiking for the boys!

From here we went to a most beautiful old whaling town named Port Fairy.  The streets are lined with many original cottages and other buildings such as churches and an old school using the local Basalt rock.

We were very fortunate as Anna and Sam flew over from Tasmania to show us Port Fairy and Anna’s mum and dad, Ursula and Charles travelled from Melbourne.  They have a lovely little weatherboard cottage almost in the centre of town with a backyard full of 16 different varieties of fruit trees and a perfect place for our camper.

We had a very enjoyable time walking around Griffith Island, admiring the light-house, a variety of beaches, interesting architecture, eating fine food and drinking wine!  We ran into two Tassie friends, Simon and Caroline, who are travelling around Australia as we were investigating a replica of an early 15^th. Century Spanish boat named the Notorious.  We drove to an extinct volcano, met some emus and spied a few more koalas.  The boys loved catching up with Sam and Anna and we enjoyed the lively conversations with Anna, Ursula and Charles.  

Jon and I were a bit distracted though because it had become evident that our camper was just too heavy for our Subaru to tow easily.  Jon was finding it difficult driving also and was concerned our car may blow up!  An amount of time was spent researching new car options and the trying to sell our camper so we could buy a lighter set up. 

To give ourselves a couple more days to work all our options out we headed up to the Grampians, which surprisingly is not a very hilly drive from Port Fairy!  Oh …I am so glad we did, as it is beautiful!  We made straight for a walk on our first day named “Hollow Mountain” and it was perfect for two young boys who fly up rocky steep terrain.  There were the most amazing views and caves to explore.  The mountain is literally hollow in places and you can crawl about and explore.  We had lunch inside the mountain – a bit cold but interesting!

After a lot of Emails, phone calls and driving we have sold our Jayco and bought a second hand aluminium camper trailer.  We have left our kayaks and about 150kg of gear tucked away at Ursula and Charles’.

We then drove to Bright, which is one of the areas we really wanted to visit, and Jon found the towing much much easier!  The Subaru seems fine and we even set up the new rig in the dark without too much trouble.

First day in Bright was hot; the many deciduous trees are delightful.  I would have said it was just almost perfect until we woke up this morning and discovered that our brand new Waeco fridge and all its contents had been stolen.  Another family had their esky and a lot of alcohol stolen too but retrieved the esky from the river early in the day.  The policeman came around quickly, Jon drove the 2 hour return trip to Wangaratta and bought us a new fridge.  Insurance will cover most of the cost but it is not a nice feeling at all to have had people steal such a heavy item from literally next to where we were sleeping.  Ours was found broken in the river about 1.5km from our camp and returned to us later in the day ....the policeman is questioning a couple of suspects!  I guess all of this is life experiences which as a family we can analyse, discuss and learn from.  

Our day needed improving so we have finished it with a beautiful 10km ride on the Rail Trail, icecreams and homemade gourmet pizzas.  A couple of chapters of "Eragon" and a game of crib!

We’ve locked absolutely everything up tonight and I have at last finished a blog to catch you all up on our news.

Hope all are well.  Thinking of you all.  Angus is missing home and friends heaps!

Jenn