CENTRAL VICTORIA

After another night with our friends at Tagambalanga we headed south on the Kiewa Valley Highway to the Rosewhite  Road as we had been told of a nice camp on one of the side roads. Turned out the spot was privately owned but we did discover an incredible B & B called the Castle. Very impressive.

At right is a bogong moth, one of the biggest found in Australia.
This guy was under a street light in Tangambalanga.

The scenery driving through the Kiewa Valley was beautiful in the morning.

The Castle B & B.

We continued on through Myrtleford and then took the C522 just north of there, heading for the King Valley. There are several camps along the Whitfield-Wangaratta road which we wanted to check out. Edi Cutting was a lovely spot so we decided to stop there and spend the next day exploring further south. It was a good decision.

King River at Edi Cutting.

Fungi at Edi cutting - or is that a cheeky little elf at the front?

The camp spot at Chestnut is across the road from a caravan park and is actually part of the park. The fees aren’t cheap and if you want to shower etc you have to go over the road. There were, however, quite a few little camps just off the road which were beside the river. We also took a drive up to Lake William Hovell where there is a boat ramp and large picnic area, but no camping area. It looked like people camped further back and towed their boats to the dam.

Lake William Hovell

The autumn colours of the trees were starting to really stand out.

This guy was chained up beside the road and
looked quite chuffed with his special shelter!

King Valley is promoted as a gourmet food and wine district and there are lots of wineries and eating establishments. One place even offers lessons in Italian cooking. The area is also part of Kelly Gang country and we visited Powers Lookout, which overlooks the valley. The views are spectacular as are the tales of the bushrangers. The lookout is named after Harry Power, a local bushranger who had his hideout nearby. Apparently Powers was eventually captured because he was dobbed in by Ned’s uncles. Honour among thieves?

King Valley from Powers Lookout.

Next morning we continued south through Mansfield and on to Alexandra and Healesville, heading toward the Mornington Peninsula and our oldest son Dave’s Navy Graduation Parade at Cerberus. While looking for a caravan park near Healesville, we took an unintended route and ended up driving along a lovely rainforest track through the Don Valley to Launching Pad. We even saw an elusive lyrebird run across the road. What an ungainly looking bird. Finding a dog friendly van park was tricky and there are no free camps this close to Melbourne. We were lucky enough to stumble onto a park at Pakenham where we got some washing done and had good value tasty pizzas for dinner.

We had a hassle-free run into Dromana in the morning, via a scenic drive down the western side of Mornington Peninsula. John had a great time reminiscing about places he’s frequented during his army training days at Balcombe. All that’s left of that base is the gates, the oval and a memorial plaque. The rest of the base is now a residential area. We took a walk on the beach and checked out the lovely colourful little beach shacks that line the coast here. Apparently you can have one of your very own for only around $70 000.

 

Our caravan park at Dromana, the Peninsula Holiday Park, was the only on the Peninsula that allows dogs and they only have 4 caravan sites available all up. The rest of the park is taken up by permanent residents and holiday cabins/vans. It was well set up though and had great facilities including an indoor swimming pool and great recreation room. We picked Dave’s girlfriend Kristie up from the train at Mornington and had her with us for the Thursday night. The weather was a bit drizzly and very cold. Thus we were unimpressed when the heater in the van threw in the towel on the second night. Luckily with power we could run the air-conditioner on reverse to keep us a bit warm.

Friday was a lovely day as we attended Dave’s Grad then had a nice dinner at the very old Dromana Hotel.

Dave on parade.



A happy Dave & Kristie after 3 months apart.

We spent Saturday catching up on washing etc and having more of a look around the area, including the lovely houses of the rich and famous at Mt Martha.

It took us a couple of hours to navigate our way up the eastern side of the city mainly via the motorways, and onto the Hume Highway west of Epping. Apparently you can take the motorways and Tollways across the West Gate Bridge and get onto the new Ring Road which joins the Hume north of Melbourne, but this seemed the long way round to us so we stuck to the eastern side.

Since we were due in Wagga Wagga on Monday to have the batteries in the van checked, we decided to head straight up the Hume Highway through Albury/Wodonga and into NSW. We did a drive through Euroa and Glenrowan to have a peek at Kelly Country, but it all seems very tourist driven. Maybe next time we'll stop for a closer look.

Unfortunately, we noticed a lot of rubbish had been dumped at many of the camping spots we pulled into on this part of our trip. Maybe because it was straight after school holidays. It is very disappointing to see though. If people keep doing this kind of thing, councils will just close the camping spots down. I don't think it is the oldies who frequent these spots that are leaving the rubbish either, but they are the ones who will miss out the most.

Some people are just lazy grubs!