Rosedale Feb 25 2010

 We arrived here yesterday after a brief run from Paradise Beach, apporx 50 klms. The weather has been perfect during the day but rather cold at night.

 After lunch I walked into Rosedale, approx 1.8 klms and Lynn drove in to meet me. I walked in over the old bridge. It is still in good repair but only open to foot traffic.

 This plague of information is the last in a series of

 information  boards that form a walk around the town  and have lots of interesting information on them.

 This is the second time we have stayed here. We stoppped here last year on our way to Melbourne to catch the ferry to Tassie. The photos were taken last year, but the area hasn't changed at all,so I have used them to show you how nice this place is.

 This was our campsite last year with our old rig.  We were parked in the shade as we had no solar panels other than the potable ones shown in the photo. It was very windy last year and in fact we moved from that spot to round about where we are now (2010) which is out in the open more so we get plenty of sun on our 3 solar panels..

 We plan to be here a couple of days. We have spent most of today in Trarlagon and Morwell to cathc up on a few things and tomorrow we are going back to Morwell to a Home/Lifestyle Expo as there is supposed to be some 4x4's and rv's there as well as caravan and campers.

Our Rig updated 03/2011

 Since we left Darwin in  Sept 08 , we have changed our rig several times. We left Darwin with a Concept21' towed by a Nissan Pathfinder which we purchased in Nov 06 with view to towing. We bought the Concept in  June 08. It was 18monhs old . Buying it in June gave us several months to fit it out etc and make any adjustments. At the time we were living on a rural block  in a camper trailer. We were house sitting an incomplete house for friends.

This  was the rig we had as we travelled  down from Darwin and across Qld, then down through Qld and NSW. It was the same rig but minus the satelitte dish that we took to Tassie. We lost the dish somewhere on the Waterfall way , but only noticed it when we pulled into the  Little Styx riverside camp area just outside of the New England National Park. This rig saw us up hill and down dale and round lots of winding steep roads in Tasmania. We bought a new satelitte dish at Ulverstone but decided to carry it on the front of the van as the pole it was attached to on the back was also lost in northern NSW. 

 In Adelaide we went looking at Vans , but with no real plans of buying another van.

 However we came across our current van , a 23' Traveller and fell in love with it at first site as it had all the features we were missing in our old van. So a week later we were the proud owners of a new caravan.

 We had this rig for about 6 months . We travelled back to Darwin with it and then back down through the NT and across Qld then down the coast into NSWagain. Some of our travels took us to back to favourite

spots and we also explored new areas.

This is our latest rig . We bought the Landcruiser Ute in Cessnock, NSW just before Xmas  and Lynn is finding it much easier to stow all our bits and pieces. The back tray has been modified several times and I'm sure he will rearrange it many times yet .

03/2011

 Well the back tray has been modified but in a big way as it now has a canopy and curtains on it . We got them fitted in Darwin. The sides of the canopy have mesh liftup and lockable sides and it also has a ladder on the passenger side so that we can acess the roof to cart wood etc. The canopy came in handy this afternoon as it allowed Lynn easy viewing of the caravan roof to identify a red trickle of liquid that must have been coming from some palm nuts. Lynn has also rearranged the other roof rack so that the spare tyre is now in the back and the tent etc is now stored on top of the cabin.  This wouldn't have been an issue if the dealer had told us  that the tray wasn't high enough to put the spare underneath when we bought the ute. They only told us about it when we went to pick it up . It is not a Toyota tray but we were told it was identical except for the step shape. You can't trust 'em

Lynn's updated toy

 

Mallacoota 2

  This is a continuation of the Mallacoota blog as there was a hiccup in inserting the photos.

 The weather at Mallacoota was not really conducive to looking around the area. But one day we did a trip down to Shipwreck Creek. Maz advised us to check out the little coves etc on the way, so we stopped at Quarry Beach  and found some very interesting rock formations. The same stuff they rave over and make a big thing of it in the Kimberley so we were pleasantly surprised to see it here.

The rippling in the rock is quite easy to see.

 .

 This is a view  looking towards the other end of the beach and is typical of the rocky parts of the foreshore.

 As we wandered along the gravel road which was quite narrow in places we called into some of the coves but as some of them had steep walks down to the beach itself  Lynn opted not to walk down . However when we finally got to Shipwreck creek  we had a very interesting walk as we found a bird's nest on the beach or rather some other people found it, including a small boy who was very anxious to show it to us. At the time we weren't sure which birds they were as we only saw them in the distance being rather shy.

 On our return to the van we checked the reference books and  discovered that they were Hooded plovers.

 When we first started on this trip we came across signs to a WW11 bunker so we went and had a look. It was very well set out and a lot of voluntary hours had gone into fixing the bunker and setting up the displays.

 Mallacoota was supposed to be  a very startegic centre during the war and  is now part of the World Air  Navigation System. A volunteer also gave a very interesting talk about the history of the war in the area.

Mallacoota Vic

 After 5 days at Mallacoota with fires raging in the nearby National Park we tootled off to Mallacoota arriving early in the morning.

 Although our first day there was very pleasant over the next few days it became windier and some days were quite overcast. The fishermen were still going out on the lake when the wind dropped late in the day or first thing in the morning and getting plenty of fish , but those fishing from the wharf were complaining the water was all stirred up.

 Our friends Marion and Dennis spent the first few days getting setup for their long stay and helping other friends in the same position. When the kids go back to school all the Grey nomads arrive to stay about 2-3 months and catch lots of fish.

 Nearby was a camp kitchen wiht a difference as it doubled as a gathering spot and a place to record your visit by writing on flat rocks your name and date. It was an old building wiht a fireplace at each end.