Travelling Victoria

At long last we picked up our 3-month campervan and hit the Aussie roads! We thought the best way to split our blog posts was by states and so this blog post covers our travels in Victoria state: from Melbourne through to Cobargo (which is in New South Wales, but ACT is such a weird little NSW-wrapped state that per-state got very messy real quick!).

Friday 14th Feb: Melbourne to Phillip Island

Friday morning, we flew back from Launceston to Melbourne to collect our next camper, this one for 3 months from Let’s go Rentals. After a detailed handover from Miko we headed on our way to Three Blue Ducks, another place from the Master Chef Australia which we watched. A really cool location with a Huge 5m deep wave pool opposite we had one last restaurant meal of chicken/beef burgers with mum and dad before heading on our way to Philip Island.

Saturday 15th: Phillip Island

Turns out rainy days are perfect for blogging/route planning, and we spent most of the day doing just that! The evening though was a super special treat from Ellie and Lee for Christmas, a trip to the Philip Island Penguin Parade. Following tips from people who had done it before, we stood on the board walk to watch around 700 penguins cross the beach and return to their burrows. We did have a favourite though which was this little guy who stood just in front of us and waited patiently for his mum to come back! A wonderful if not very cold evening hats and long trousers all around, something Mike hasn’t worn since we got married last year!

Sunday 16th: Phillip Island to Wilsons Prom

The rain had mostly disappeared so we could start our exploring without being soaked! Our first stop was the Philip Island Grand Prix Circuit. Pretty awesome to see them preparing it for the race next weekend but it did mean we couldn’t walk on the track.

Our next stop, again courtesy of Ellie and Lee again was the Koala conservation. We saw 15 cute Koalas mostly rescued from injury or bush fire, but they were so lovely. We were lucky to see lots of them eating as they tend to spend around 20 hours sleeping!! We got lucky with seeing a koala joey who was 12 months old and super close to his mum still. He only came off his mum’s back around 1 month ago.

Next stop the Philip Island brewery, a chocolate shop and Big Koala because no location is complete without chocolate and beer! Mike was designated driver for today, so we got a mango and Guava sour to take away. And the chocolate shop gave one of the best hot chocolates to date, possibly challenging some from Belgium! A last-minute find was the pinnacle walk just on the edge of Philip island. It was a 1 hour return walk along the beach and cliff edge to see some cool rock formations. Finally, the sun was starting to peak through the grey clouds of Victoria and we could feel the Australian warmth coming back ready for tomorrow’s adventures in/around Wilson’s Promontory.

Monday 17th: Wilsons Prom

Waking up to the sound of the birds we knew the sun was shining for our day of walking and swimming. Another day, another mountain in Chloe’s words we headed up Mt Bishop for views over the Prom. A much tamer walk than Mt Amos but still a few boulders and a little rock face near the top. The views were beautiful and the sky so blue. We took a detour on the way back down via Lilly Pilly Gully to see the nature walk. Although we didn’t see much nature besides a very awake snake, we saw the aftermath of a giant landslip and also the 2009 bush fires.

After some sammies in the back of our van we headed to Squeaky Beach. We had high hopes but also didn’t know what to expect but it did not disappoint. With every step in the ground your feet squeak due to the round ultra fine quartz particles in sand. No trip to the beach is complete without a little bit of sunbathing and then a play in the sea. The sign warns of random direction waves and strong rips and that was definitely felt but the waves were great fun as long as you could touch the floor.

A final little stroll around the Wildlife Walk took us to about 5pm. A lovely flat easy walk finally and we saw heaps of Kangaroos and even 3 wild Emus! Australia really does have a lot of wildlife. A short drive took us to Wilson’s Prom Big 4 to chill out for the night.

Tuesday 18th: Wilsons Prom to Buchan South

We headed back to Wilson’s prom this morning to do the Big Drift Walk to a huge set of sand dunes surrounded by Forrest. A lovely walk and the breeze at the top of the dunes made it easier to stand the heat of the day! The walk warned of being easy to get lost and boy we are glad it wasn’t windy as our foot prints would definitely have disappeared… they’d half gone when we turned back!

Our journey was taking us out of the National Park and towards Buchan Caves campground for 2 nights. We stopped in Foster to cook some lunch in a car park and a little stroll before carrying on to Agnes Falls. An impressive gorge with a cascading waterfall. Despite the rainfall over the past few days, it was still low on water so we saw quite a lot of rock face.

We had a long drive ahead so took a stop off at a nature reserve and board walk - our first dud of the trip because it turns out the board walk was closed due to storm damage from 12 months ago! We continued on through a very smelly town with a huge swamp/bog and we were glad to make it to Buchan Caves Campground - a cool remote place filled with birdcalls. Perhaps the infamous lyrebird? Maybe just a kookaburra or crow…

Wednesday 19th: Buchan South and Lakes Entrance

We spent the morning in the campsite planning our next few days of travels and overnight stops, before heading out to Lakes Entrance to explore. En route we stopped off to see the Trestle bridge: a really old rickety wooden train bridge that endured several decades before a wildfire damage put it out of action.

We made the most of our day visiting Lakes Entrance by first calling in at the Shell Museum and seeing “the big Australian Octopus” on the roof. We then called in at Big Bear donuts for some scrumptious treats, a mint choc donut for mike and an Apple/Rhubarb jam and Custard for Chloe. We crossed over the foot bridge to reach the Lakes Entrance beach - part of Australia’s 90-mile beach to enjoy our donuts with the pelicans! It definitely feels more like 90 miles than it’s NZ counterpart!

The afternoon was rounded off by a decent length detour to visit the Sailors Grave Brewery which was quite frankly in the middle of nowhere. We drove along Princes highway and came across another trestle style bridge which was so long, we didn’t stop but Chloe did manage to get a video of 2/3 the bridge! We were not disappointed (though emphasis on the royal “we”). The brewery had over a dozen beers to choose from, with a selection that even I thought were “pretty out there”! They were pretty good beers, and it’s rare that a brewery makes so many sour beers, so we came away with 4 even wackier sour beers. Time will tell if I regret that decision!

In the evening, we continued our platypus hunt with a walk along the creek/river in Buchan Caves Reserve. We may have found a wombat and a wallabies/Joey’s but once again the platypus avoided us.

Thursday 20th: Buchan South to Cobargo

Today started with a tour of the Royal Caves, the caves initially opened to members of the public for tours in 1907 by Frank Moon. Due to the flooding last year in Buchan the entrance is blocked because of mud/dirt so we went in through the exit. The path itself was quite narrow in places but overall the cave was huge and filled with stalactites, stalagmites and some really cool curtains. We also saw some flow from the fairy caves - a sparkly white calcite formation which was super beautiful, we definitely understand where it got its name.

Our next destination was Eden to see the Asling beach rock pools. On the way we stopped at the Gorge Lookout for lunch. The gorge was pretty impressive, but phone cameras couldn’t really do it justice. Our next stop 1.5 hours down the A1 was called the McKenzie Rainforest Walk. We pulled off the main road at a rest stop and less than 500m down was this awesome 1km walk consisting of 2 swing bridges. We also saw a big and brave Lizard. Shortly after this stop we made our first border crossing from Victoria to New South Wales - we were going to pull in to get a selfie but having watched the car in front of us nearly fly off the side of the road to get the picture, a quick shot from the car was what we decided on!

Next up was the rock pools I had promised mike. I knew how much he loved them so we donned our togs and set along Asling beach to go exploring the rock pools. It wasn’t long until we realised it literally meant swimming pool in the rocks so not quite what we expected but the water was at least warmer than the ocean. A chill in the pool and a walk along the beach was in order after 3.5 hours of driving the sun was beautiful but I’m definitely a bit pink now.

Our free camp for tonight was at the Cobargo Hotel on their patch of land at the back. We decided to go in for dinner because the reviews online raved about the food, and it did not disappoint! Burger for mike and a Chicken Parmi for Chloe, we were stuffed by the end. A quick walk along the main street found us a gnome face in hole so you can laugh at us just like the logging truck driver did too!