Gippsland Wanderings Feb/March 2010

 Mike and Jeni's place at Nerrena

 After staying at Rosedale fro a few days and geting a few things done in Tralalgon and Morwell we moved on to visit  friends in Nerrena . We had met  Mike and Jeni in north Queensland a few years ago and when we passed through Gippsalnd last year we didn't have time for a visit as we were making for Melbourne to cathc the Ferry to Tassie.  This year we have had more time to visit people and cover a lot more territory .

 Nerrena is only about 9 klms from Leongatha and is mainly a locality rather than a town. Their place is next to the local hall and cricket ground. Leongatha can be seen from their place .

  Leongatha from Nerrena.

   We only spent the weekend with them as they are both working, but on Sunday  evening after an early tea we took advantage of daylight saving and went for a drive to Inverloch, Cape Patterson and Wonthaggi. This allowed us to see some wonderful coastline and lovely inlets.

 Eagles Nest at Inverloch

Jen, Mike and Lynn at Eagles Nest.

 From Nerrena we set off to back track over some country we had skipped near Forster etc. It was a showery start to the day but the further east we went the weather improved so by the time we had reached Reeves beach it was much warmer and the rain had stopped. The roads to the beach were quite narrow and in places they were dirt roads but fortunately they were in good condition and weren't boggy just a bit dusty so that the van after the rain looked very neglected.

 shelter shed at Port Welshpool.

 After spending the night at Reeves Beach and being dissappointed that acces to the beginning of Ninety mile beach was so difficult. You had to climb steep dunes of very deep sand and still be about 400 meters from the beach. We then started to make our way back towards Phillip Island. We called into McLoughlin's Beach  and were pleasantly surpised to see aa lovely quiet community on a pretty inlet with quite a long jetty which was a popular fishing spot.

 We stopped for morning tea at Port Welshpool and came across this interesting shelter shed and an old bouy. The shed had a very interesting mural relating to the maritime history and natural history of the area.

 Part of the mural inside the shed.

 Our next stop was at Toora which is again a lovely quiet place but has more historical buildings . After a quick stock up on supplies here we continued down the road a little way to the Franklin river reserve where we camped for the night. It was a lovely day and with nice mown grassed area the reserve was an enjoyable place to stop.