KILLARNEY BEACH CAMPGROUND ( Victoria near Port Fairy)

Killarney Beach is a campground just 6km outside Port Fairy, Victoria where fishermen come to hopefully catch fish by the dozens.   Well that didn't happen while we were there.   But, what did happen was we forgot it was Easter and tried to book into several caravan/camping areas but to no avail.  So we decided to stay where we were, with a lot of people came in for Easter but the fish as I said were not biting. Powered site:  We paid $23.50 per day, but when we booked one week it came down to $13.40.  There is a caretaker at the campground, lovely grassed area's  either powered or unpowered sites. It has a large undercover childrens play area, flush toilets and hot showers.  Worth the money.
At Easter we met some great people next to us.

 Killarney Beach campground.

Killarney Beach - Cape Bridgewater Victoria Australia

We decided to go to Cape Bridgewater which is down from Portland on the beach.
We left to  travel the 115km around 10am with Robyn driving, Drew actually let me drive while he was watching the scenery which was lovely rolling green hills, then sheep & wheat low lands.
We travelled through Portland, the main street was closed due to a easter market day, on the skyline we could see the wind turbines dotting horizon, and the 40kms to Cape Bridgewater township then onto Cape Nelson with wind turbines everywhere.  At Cape Nelson parked the 4x4 & followed the directions to the blow holes.

Drew walked the extra 500m x 2 to the "petrified forest" but Drew said it looked more like lava tubes.  Take a look at the photos and see what you think.  Petrified forest - the name comes from an early theory that avancing sand engulfed an ancient forest of coastal trees, petrifying them.  The formation is actually a collection of hollow tubes of limestone called "solution pipes" eroded by millions of years of rainfall.  The process starts when water gathers in a shallow pan of sand and seeps downwards disolving the limestone.  The mneral staujrated water then cements the sand forming hard truck shaped pipes.

We finished and drove back through Cape
Bridgewater, small beach town.   We travelled the road which we had already driven down.
Called into a historic inn to have lunch and it was called Yambuk Tavern cica 1850.  It was rather small inside but looked great on the outside.

Huts of the high country - Day 2

Woke 6.30am with heavy dew, cold had breakfast & off we go to the high country.   We were going to visit - Craigs hut, King hut & Tomahawk hut.  We headed out towards the mt stirling road through the check point up to where we were to air down.    Once we were on the track it was very rough and quite a drive up the mountain as you will see in the photos.  We arrived at the top of the Mt Stirling, windy but could see forever.   Drove onto Craigs Hut & had lunch.  We then drove to King Hut which was so very windy that Fred tried to get up his drone, but it was far too windy.  Our final hut was Tomahawk hut which was quite small.   We arrived back at 5.20pm.  Adrian led the other group which were back a lot earlier than we were, in our group was Lee & Geoff, Russell led the group, Allyson & John, Michael & Brenda, Fred & tailend charlie was Robyn & Drew.  Tea was sausages & salad.                                               MORNING DAY 1

Top of Mt Stirling

CRAIGS HUT

Craigs Hut

KINGS HUT

Huts of the high country - long weekend getting there to Frys Hut campground

DAY 1:  Woke early & packed a bag.  Drew packed up the outside of the van ready for storage.  Out of there by 10.30am.  Travelled the road to Mansfield where we stopped and shopped at IGA for food & chemist.  After that we went to the service station and filled up the 4x4.  While there Russell Leggatt (President 4x4 club) came up and let us know he was there & waited for us so we could follow him to Frys Hut campgound.

When we arrived we found that Lee Taylor & Jeff Davies had arrived just before we did, we all set up and waited for the others to arrive, when they hadn't by tea time we cooked ours and ate tea.  We sat around sharing stories of other time they have camped out in the bush.  Still waiting, waiting until around 8.30pm (dark) when first arrived was Adrian Borg, then Ness & Damien, & Jason, Kaye, Vaughan Steele & kids.   With the last arriving at 10.30-11pm  we all helped people arrange the camper trailers, tents etc and in bed by 12.30am.

Day 2 - Brooks River Reserve - Howqua Victoria

Left mid morning drove through Alexandra heading towards Lake Eildon only to find after consulting the map (paper one) we found we were heading to the wrong side of Lake Eildon!!!

Back tracked through Alexandra which looks a lovely small town.  We headed to Mansfield and then onto Howqua.  We were booked into Howqua Valley Resort for tonight Thursday night and then again Monday and Tuesday nights and in storage Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights.

We were put overlooking Lake Eildon, it was lower than normal.  Met Jack (next door) & Drew had a drink with him, nice fellow waiting for his family to join him over the long weekend.

The countryside is lovely rolling green hills with the Alps looming very near, and we found a black Llama roaming the caravan park, he needs to be shorn but as the staff say they cannot catch him.

We will be off tomorrow after we park up the van.  Cost for one night is $45.  Storage was $15pn

2017 trip around Oz - Maldon-Alexandra Victoria

2017 - trip of a lifetime:

First day out we were travelling towards Howqua where we have our caravan booked into the caravan park.
We left Maldon around 11am heading for Broadford to weigh our car & caravan.  Travelled through some nice country good roads, the weighbridge was on the northern side of the town on the main highway.  We weighed in at 3320 kg which was the car and the caravan weighed in at 2820.

We drove through Tallarook, Trawool, Yea & Molesworth.  The countryside was particularly nice coming into Broadford and where we started to climb into the lower high country.

We picked out our free camp to stay and it was 5km west of Alexandra.  It was a bush block with partial views over the river, very dusty & cattle everywhere but we were only going to stay one night and the cost was good.  The free camp was at Brooks River Reserve.  Another couple (European) in a beat up combie were already there and we didn't even speak with them.  The long drop toilet was smelly.  We marked it 2/5.