14/1/03 - 4/02/03

Well, we are FINALLY on our trip. Thanks to the terrific help from numerous friends, we eventually (after a false start – the caravan chains were not tight enough and dragging) departed at 8:30pm on Tuesday the 14th Jan. 

We started the sorting/packing process on boxing day. Marg basically packed the house while I did the workshop, garage, attic and study. The amount of quality items (junk?) that needed to be sorted and errrr stored at the tip…. 

Anyway, with friends disassembling things, doing the tip runs, packing, cleaning windows, shelves, floors and calling round WITH drinks, it still took more than 2 weeks!!! Without the help mentioned above, we simply wouldn’t have made it in time. It is certainly different having to pack up an entire house, compared with packing to go on holiday.
We didn’t get too far initially, as food was needed desperately…. But instead we had a Mac Attack. Finally at 9:30pm we left Moe and drove as far as Gumbuyah Park.

Lunch in Narre Warren, then to Torquay where we spent the next three days ‘vegetating’, sorting a few things out and recuperating. Peter & Sarah Segger called in to see us on the final day of their 13 month trip around Aus with three kids. The youngest is 2, so all he will know is life in the van!

Parking in Apollo Bay for lunch looked like a problem, but a convenient Fair on the foreshore provided good camouflage! Simply a matter of driving over the curb onto the grass in front of the fair and we blended nicely (The Cove Family Circus???? – VERY apt!).

Next stop was Cape Otway. A couple of nights in Bimbi Park (thanks Drew) where we be-friended the substitute caretaker. He shared their campfire and BBQ and made us very welcome, including showing us the smallest Koala we have ever seen without its mother. At not much more than 200mm tall, it was “soooooo cute!!!!” (quote from Maddie!) The lighthouse was interesting – my first time inside one, and the view from the top was spectacular, with the sun low in the sky, but the wind……… No wonder the weather forecast uses Cape Otway as a reference point! Open air theatre after dark with Laurel & Hardy and the Flintstones – then an announcement just before the end of the final movie, about the fires in Canberra – our first ‘news’ for over a week! Up with the big ariel and a conversation with a Ham in WA filled in a few of the details, but lack of mobile coverage meant we had to wait for another day before we could ring Bob to check they had escaped. 
A conversation at the lighthouse complex entrance led to a visit to a B&B the next day. “Come for a cuppa” she said…. We arrived about 10:00am and finally departed after 4:00pm, after having lunch cooked for us and a very enjoyable day! Then came the ‘interesting’ part… trying to do a 3-point turn on a narrow windy country road with the van on. Eventually we found a farmers gate that was just big enough and not to steep for us to back the van into (between his gateposts!) and turn around. (Hope you didn’t wait at your gate too long Helen.) A walk through the rainforest at Triplett falls left only enough time to make it to Princeton. “You wont back it through there mate – want me to move our motorhome?” ( a Winnebago from Tassie) “I like a challenge” said I, and it fitted… A UHF handheld CB form Marg and the radio in the car makes the backing of the van quite easy. Many things in common made conversation with the Taswegians easy, with the usual ‘show & tell’ session (“You call THAT an ariel, I’ll show you an Arial..! etc. etc.)  
Next day (the 21st of January) we headed off to the 12 Apostles. At Lochard Gorge the girls wanted to go down onto the sand. On a whim I decided to go down too. “Is it you?” “Is it you too?” It was… Helmett, a German visitor who was staying with our (ex) neighbours, Mandy and Greg. Mandy was there too, along with her family so it was a great reunion! As they were staying at Port Campbell, we booked in there too and all had dinner together in their cabin – another great night! (See pic below Can you spot the ‘dog’ in the top right pic?))

A chat with the owners of the General Store brought about another co-incidence – I had known the lady’s grandfather (Bill Midew) – Dad had been in Morwell Lodge with him MANY years ago. I think he died about 15 years ago at 93, and was a great old bloke. They have given us an introduction to her brother in WA who runs an Oyster Farm, so that should be good.

That night, we were DWARFED by our neighbour. A ½ million dollar Winnebago that was like a 5 star hotel inside. I knew it was class, when they lowered the hydraulic rams from the floor and jacked/levelled the whole thing before opening the door. Next came the electric steps, and finally the people. Out with the carpet for the ground at the bottom of the stairs, and carpet mats for each of stair. In 3 minutes, the table, lounge chairs and cocktails were out and the owners were kicking back! Marg and the girls were playing Billionaire at the time – a little synchronicity perhaps? The owners had shipped it out from Switzerland to Brisbane, travelled to Cairns, down to Sydney and Melbourne via the coast and then to Warrnambool. They were on their way back to Melb and The Prom before flying back to Switzerland for 4 weeks. They’ll return to Melb and then travel around the rest of Australia, before shipping it to the states for 6 months, then back to Switzerland! As Marg said; “but it’s NOT camping” – aint that the truth!!!

The following day we continued along the Great Ocean road and AGAIN met friends – Paul & Bernadette Broeren, at one of the lookouts. They too were staying in Warrnambool (our next stop), so we had a BBQ with them; yet another enjoyable evening.

If you’re in Warrnambool and want to see a good show, the new laser show at the maritime museum is very good. Telling the story of the Loch Ard, the visual effects were really impressive, and worth the $52 it cost us to see it.

Around this time, Jess broke the news to us that she wanted to have her Belly Button pierced. An appointment was made, and we were told it’d be a half hour wait. We left the kids waiting, while Marg and I nicked into a supermarket. Unfortunately, the half hour wait wasn’t, and Jess was done before we got back (or was it fortunately???) Maddie spent the time pacing the floor with her hands over her ears in case she heard Jess. Eventually, she figured it must be over so she removed her hands (from her ears…) just in time to hear Jess let rip with a “Friggin Hell”. ‘Least, that’s what she assures us she said! Apparently she expected them to numb the area first, instead they just stuck the needle through…. Three days later (10:30pm) we had a visit to Portland Casualty as the infection appeared to be taking hold. All checked out OK and it is now healing nicely.

Next major stop was Port Mc Donnell. The site of the original lighthouse seemed a good spot for dinner as there is a fairy penguin colony below it. The lighthouse was abandoned in 1934 due to it shaking in the wind. The fairy penguins were cute – the kids were all waiting anxiously for their parents return from the sea and each emerging parent was besieged by hungry babies, making the parents return to their own burrow and baby/s almost as difficult as the original climb up the rocks. A severe storm hit during the night and made our ‘parking’ spot somewhat rocky… I felt there was a 99.9% chance we would be alright up there, but the small chance of being blown over finally made me call it quits. At 4:30am I finally bundled the kids into the car and we motored down to the town. For what remained of the night.
Mount Gambier’s blue lakes are at their best at the moment and we were told they are as blue as they have ever been! At Warrnambool I had met a guy (at the Sprint Car championships) who lived near ‘the Gamb’ and was milking 700 cows twice a day! He invited us for a visit, which we accepted. It’s a big operation, with 1800 acres, 11 bulls, 700 cows and about 300 calves. Currently making about 20 cents per litre, it’s costing him 23 cents to produce! His 8 million dollar investment isn’t giving him too good a return! Jess got in there and helped with the milking, not without some fear of the brown cascades… 
A night visit to Umpherston’s sink hole is always worth while and we weren’t disappointed again. It is a hole about 100metres in dia and 30 metres deep that has stair access down to the terraced gardens. Creeper hands down from the top almost to the bottom and possums abound. We had gone prepared to feed the possums, and the girls really loved a couple of the baby ones. 

We were told that Robe wasn’t much of a place so we didn’t intend to stop. Well… that was thee days ago and we’re still here! The first two nights were ‘free’ stops. The first one at the new and very flash boat ramp overlooking the harbour with all the cray boats, had a nice and clean public toilet (always better than using the one in the van if possible – saves me work…). The only down side was the boats all leaving at 4:30am. However, we went back to sleep (the girls never heard them leave…) and didn’t hear any of the 13+ cars that put boats in at the ramp before 8:30. We left the van therefore the day and looked around town then headed out onto the beach with lunch. It was a perfect day, no wind and clear blue skies. The girls then had driving lessons, each doing about 7km’s along the sand and practising three point turns and using the anti-lock brakes. Maddie seems to have only two positions for the brakes; off or on!!! Anyway, driving on the beach was a first for all of us and we had a lot of fun. By this time, most of the day had gone so we picked up the van and made it all of about 100 metres to the foreshore! Finally today, we have made it another 100 metres to the Robe SeaVu caravan park and are parked in a terrific spot with ocean views on three side (well two and the back…). 

 

Well, I think that’s enough for a first effort. It’s gone midnight, I’m sitting outside at the card table listening to the waves breaking only 20 metres away, and hopefully I’ll send this away tomorrow morning. I hope you found it interesting, let me know… 

Love from Jim, Marg, Jess and Maddie.