Cann River & Eden NSW

On the move today so early start and pack up Eden is a fair drive. It has been nice staying here the weather was great. There has been a fair bit if smoke hanging around though, from the nearby fire at Cann River. As we pass through the smoke gets really bad and it is a little bit scary. We have to stop 5km on the other side of town there has been a road accident and the road is closed. Tina reads while I upload some new songs and update the blog. Vic has had 2 months of fires now and I bet they wonder if it will ever end.

We are doing the usual showers, washing, power up the batteries and watch some TV. Mind you the TV works good on the 12v and the reception hasn’t been to bad so far.

We have noticed that the wildlife has been leaving us alone which is a change from Tassie where they never left you alone. But there are lots more birds in Vic and now in NSW. We purchased our 1 month fishing license and headed down to the wharf. There are lots of fish here We caught a leather jacket and some under size Trevalley they and other fish need to be 30cm here but the Salmon is no minimum size. No real luck so back to the van for tea.

Binn Beach

After a bit of hap hazard attempts at planning we have decided to move on to Pearl Point which is near Bemm River. There are 3 free camp spots here all with good beach access but are not advertised anywhere. I’m not sure they want anyone to use them. We pick Binn beach it is very secluded and sheltered. After setting up we head down the beach as usual. Because we have plenty of fish Tina and I agreed to a 30cm minimum for fish. It is a busy arvo with more than 10 undersize salmon and Flathead are caught. We would catch more if it wasn’t for those bastard crabs. I’m excited by the amount of flathead but cannot pull and large ones.
Chicken and spaghetti for tea and a movie, Pirates of the Caribbean - Worlds end. It goes for nearly 3 hours and we only watched 2 hours before the laptop battery went flat. Thank God.



Bloody Crabs they will attack everything!!



Up and down the beach in search of larger fish but nothing but Salmon and Flathead. I threw some salmon back that were ok to keep but under our 30cm rule. Just so I didn’t come back empty I kept on 26cm Salmon. I fished again after lunch and before dark but only the same. There are lots of fish and I tried lures, different and larger rigs bit no change I did get rid of the smaller salmon but kept catching those under size Flathead. I did lose some gear today too!!



Becsue we keep forgetting to take photos of the fish these are little Salmon that we through back, next time i catch one of those undersize Flatheads i'll remeber to photo some of them as well.

Lakes Entrance

Today the workman building the new toilets started up just after 7.00am, this is not a bad thing I would like to get back into getting up a little earlier and we have a fair drive today. After packing up we drove to Sale and did some shopping. Then off to Blue pool a swimming hole in a creek at the bottom of the Alpine mountains. Tina had a swim and I waded around. I left my new Adidas slip ons behind, I’m very upset about this as they were my masseur replacements.
Lakes Entrance is an amazing place and the views are spectacular. We have checked into the North Arm CP which is on one of the outlets here. A couple of days relaxing and no fishing.

We are moving along the coast towards NSW and are now in Snowy River country. We had a look along the coast near the river outlet but there are no cheap campsites. We stopped for a fish at Point Ricardo where several people are fishing the beach. I’m fishing with the small rod again and it feels a little intimidating when everyone else has such a big rod. There is nothing happening and the crabs are onto everything. All the guys gave up and left so I moved in the trough they were fishing. There are bites in between the crabs mostly small Puffer fish. Then a school of mullet move through and I pick up 4, 2 big ones for mullet. I lose a couple in the surf and one makes it onto the beach but flapped back into the water. I have caught enough for tea and the school has swum away. The puffer fish didn’t bugger off though.
We drove back through Marlo and have stopped at one of 5 or 6 rest stops along the Snowy river in between Marlo & Orbost.
We Importantly check to make sure we have TV coverage as Carlton are playing Richmond tonight. All is good and we are having Flathead for tea. I’m playing around with some new lures and the fishing are starting to stir in the river, a snag a quick yank on the rod and Bang what a hit, straight into my Bicep. I’m hooked and hooked bloody good. Tina has a try to get it out but we have never done this before and aren’t really sure what to do. Orbost is only 7km away so we decide to drive into town which has a hospital. Now it is lucky we are not in the city because we could have missed the entire game. But 10 minutes after we arrive it is all over. A needle in the arm and then a rusty pair of pliers form the doctor who assure me he has done this before and the lure is out. I hope this becomes my lucky lure. You can only base the hospital system on your own experiences and in this case I can only have the highest level of praise and the hospital system in Australia is so good Tina didn’t even get to read one page of the mag in the waiting room. Thanks guys, we are back in time to see the start of the game.
A quick word on the Carlton, Richmond game go the Blues!!

Paradise beach on 90 Mile beach Vic.

Up early and packing up the van and car. It has been a pleasant 4 days but it is time to start the next chapter. We say our goodbyes and head off towards Lakes Entrance. Our route doesn’t take us through the fires zones only around them. It is very hot and 450km+ trip today. It gets hotter and hotter and the distance to travel is probably it bit far so we have decided to stop at 90 mile beach and we have set up at Paradise beach.
It is a free camp just back from the beach and because it is the weekend it is quite full. We find a spot but it is in sand not on the nice grass. After we settled in I headed down in search of the big salmon, no luck but did catch a nice mullet.
It is a little overcast this morning with a few spots but cooler. We walked the 4km to the local shops for some bait and to call the family as there is no reception where we are camped. We walked back along the beach where there were a few people fishing. One guy had caught a large salmon but no one else seems to be catching anything although we did spot a Skate with its tale cut off on the beach as well as the odd Puffer fish.
When we got back I was off again determined to catch a bog salmon too. No luck again but did pick up a few more mullet as well as the odd undersize salmon. I tried just before dark as well but only succeeded in feeding the millions of crabs.

Up at 6.30am surely this time the salmon must be around. Not long after I started about 20 Dolphins rock up and go on a feeding frenzy about 100m from shore. I was going to chuck it in but decided to hang around. About ½ hour later they start biting but only under size salmon. The about ½ hour later again the Mullet started, I can clearly tell the difference between the two now. Another couple of nice mullet, we have enough for a good feed tonight more were on offer but I ran out of bait. So back to the salmon I tried, Pilchards, Squid, lures and some mullet but nothing. No one here is catching salmon and we have fished our third day now. It is nice having the van and being able to hang around without moving each day.
Tina has finished the Potato factory and has moved onto the Twilight as long as I keep fishing she will have it finished in a couple of days.
As yesterday we went for a walk again, we are trying to lift our fitness levels a bit. We both headed down for a fish this time and we headed up the other way. It did not take long and big hit this was no little mullet. I landed it and what a beauty it was 39cm Flathead. It was the only thing we caught the tide is right out and the trough is just full of crabs. Back to the van and some lunch, Tina is learning chess so we had a game.

Back to the beach for another fish and back to the spot I caught all the mullet. It was dead quite not a single bite for ages then another big hit. This bugger did not want to come in and it was thrashing wildly near sure. It was another Flathead this one 46cm. two in one day although I’m hunting for salmon flathead are just as good. I caught some small salmon, Tommies and then my first ever Tailor. This has been a great spot and I’ve caught heaps of fish over three days it certainly pays to put the time in. Next time we catch some fish like this we will remember to take a photo before we fillet them all. Looks like fish is on the menu for a couple of more nights, the mullet was beautiful.

Lazy days at Heathcote

After we packed up we headed of to Joe’s at Heathcote a nice 160km drive. As we thought after 6 weeks living in a 4WD the caravan was a great sight and the inside is huge. It didn’t really take that long to empty the car and sort our most of the stuff. Joe is bowling all week but we had a good chat when he got home.

Off to Bendigo for some shopping, a couple more car parts, some serious washing and trying to get the Power steering hose fixed. Yes the one brand new thing I fixed on the car bloody leaks (Not happy Jan!!) All good got all the stuff we needed and arrange a fix for the hose even got to see a bit of Bendigo which ahs also grown lots over the last few years

We have spent the last few days mostly relaxing but have also fitted some car servicing with Oil, Air & Diesel filters all getting replaced as well as a coolant change. We also had to get the brand new Power steering hose repaired. I’m fairly pissed off about this as I specially got this repaired so it would last the Aus trip. The original one only had the smallest leak but the new flash one I paid $200 to get fixed lasted only just over 6 months. Thanks to Joe’s recommendation we went to McCullough’s hydraulics who not only fixed the hose but added joiners in so if a hose ever went it could be fixed individually and one hose at a time. All this for only $116, however before I sing too many praises we will see if it lasts.
Joe plays lawn bowls and it is country week in Bendigo, so after replacing the power steering hose on the side of the road we ventured off watch him play. His team did really well and we in the last 8 but couldn’t quite make it through. We have been getting ready to go to Lakes Entrance and we are off there tomorrow.

Avalon Air Show

Back to Geelong for some car parts, Tina needed a haircut and my search for shoes. The Tojo has always had a squeaky barn door problem and net soon confimed this to be a common prob. Over the last year I have tried a few things but the fix is 2 new parts. Toyota dealer could get 1 in 2 days and the other form Japan but 2 weeks. After a little negotiation we arranged postage. Off to the haircut a bargain at $15 and not only did I get some shoes I picked up a hair shaver for Jason(the first one I got him for Christmas was crap). Then the difficult stuff beer, Vic has expensive beer if you don’t want to by VB or Carlton Draught. Finally got it sorted
We are staying at Lara sportsground near Avalon Airport for the International Air show. We are Glen’s ground crew he has 2 Jabiru’s and there is camping there with free shuttles to and from the Air show for 4 days. Mel flew in a normal plane and Glen & Carl flew over in one of the Jabiru’s ( for those who don’t know that stands for bloody small plane) and we all met at the campground and off to the Shell club for Tea. It was good to see family again. Did some footy training on the way to the club and got offered a Guernsey. Just one kick was all it took. We had great steaks for $11 some beers.

Up early the oval and campervan area was pretty full and they had great showers in the footy club. Took the shuttle over to the AS( I’m fairly sick of writing Air Show) and met up with M&G (also abbreviated) There are lots of planes little tiny ones with tarps as wings right up to C17, Hercules, 777 and other as well as jet fighters. We got to look in so many planes right up close touch and feel. There is every aviation & Military supplier here.
Then there are the flying displays they were just awesome, where do I start they had the smallest aerobatic planes to the large bulk carriers, all the jets F1-11’s, FA18’s,
The B1 bomber and so many others. The Jets are just so unbelievable they can turn in the smallest circle and one went straight up to 5km in what seemed like 3 secs. All this maybe 100m odd from the runway. None stop low passes with some great sounds. Carl & Glen were like Tina & I at a musical festival or a child at the show. It was a very long day and the night session was spoiled by late shitty weather. We took the shuttle back to the campground which had got even more packed.

My car part had arrived and this time Mel needed a haircut so back to Geelong. It is quite crappy this morning very overcast and raining. Haircut good, car part in hand back to the AS. The carpark is wet and muddy and lots of people have left their lights on.
We looked around the military displays a lot again today, I have deliberately left out the Tina falling off the Big Army tank story but for those of you’s who were there I milked it the entire day in a search for laughs. The military stuff is cool and the Australian defence force have some great stuff. It looks really cool and they market it well but really they teach you to kill people and most ,likely get killed yourself. Anyway I’ told old I can’t even join if I wanted to. We saw some more aerial displays and headed over to the Auditorium for awards for plane displays. Andy Thomas was to speak. This was cool free beer & food. All was going well and we ware talking to some Singapore Air force Personel when the call for the military to leave came out, then this big nasty sergeant came in and yelled at them and they all ran out. We didn’t know what the hell was going on. Then finally we were told that a storm had just blown through and planes had been turned over as well as tents. Well that got rid of most of the rest of the people in the room and a bloody .lot of open beers and food. 200 became 20 and the waitresses begged us to eat more food and we drank as many “VB”s as we could. We met some people including Joshua and Damien, Joshua’s home made plane died and he had to crash land it on the beach on the way down from Bega in NSW.
Eventually they cleared all the food and beer Glen’s plane was not damaged and we headed off. There was some serious damage to tents and displays so we took the shuttle back and headed to the Lara Sports club for some more ales. We Joshua and Damien as well as some others from the AS.
That night there was an explosion a fight, 50 rampant teenagers and god knows what else going on outside that night but apart from all the noise no drama for us.

Very wet but no tent damage for us at the campground. We took Mel wine tasting and I drove us all around Geelong districts in the XR6, nice car for a Ford. We met Glen & Carl back at the Sports club in the arvo and said our goodbyes. We bumbed around in the arvo and had a great Pizza for tea. We were very tired and crashed out straight after.
A special thanks to Glen & Mel for getting us camping and special access tickets to the Air show for the 4 days we enjoyed not only the Air show but hanging out as well.
“Thanks Guys”

Lorne

We arrived into Melbourne on a misty morning and made our way down the coast to Lorne via Geelong & Torquay, these towns have certainly grown. We are staying at the Lorne CP.
The Great Ocean road has lost none of its appeal since the last time we drove there 4 odd years ago although Michael drove we all had a hangover and well the XR8 doesn’t really go that slow. Lots of shops as I needed new Joggers but the shops seem to only open on the weekends.

We had a canoe and I have tried to catch some Bream in the little riverlet at the CP with no luck just small Salmon. A pretty relaxing couple of days again a walk around, the most expensive beers so far $10.20 for 2 pots. Caught a salmon and some tommies off the beach so back in Vic and some fish.