The Floating Caravan

Sorrento - Port Phillip ferry.

Pouring with rain this morning as I packed up the van. Not the best fun I've ever had. I placed my warmest jumper and Collorado Boots on and then the wet weather poncho. I was slightly happy though to be leaving the crappy van park in Frankston. Notice how there is no post for Frankston as there was nothing to record or photograph...

So we head off toward the tip of Port Phillip Bay, a beautiful town called Sorrento and the departure point for one of the most interesting ferry rides we have had. The whole unit with 4WD and caravan will be on board the ferry to make the crossing.

 This was the best option to get around the city of Melbourne instead of having to head North through it. Can you imagine the traffic and roads going through the city? the ferry was a much better idea. $150 was as much as we would of spent on the long drive around anyway. The video capture was fun as the girls weren't sure of what to expect. After boarding the huge vessel with our big rig we popped upstairs for coffee and nibbles and enjoyed the 45 minute cruise across the bay. Roly poly ride during the middle made the girls laugh while trying to play in the children provided play area

Plenty of room for the whole rig. 

bitterly cold up on deck.

Fun little egg chairs for the girls on the way

  Off the other side we were the main attraction to the on lookers as we hauled the 13metre + rig off onto the dock. Toot Toot! off we go again.

The crossing video

 if you click the 'you tube' logo the video will play larger

   On our way to a Anglesea Beachfront Family Caravan Park, a Top Tourist park ( which we now members of) and we new that Bells Beach was only a 2 kilometer detour to have a peak at.

Bells Beach





 if you click the 'you tube' logo the video will play larger

 Holy Moly the wind was intense. In the video i couldn't hold the camera steady due to the strong gusts of wind along the well known stretch of beach. 

Spot the crazy wind surfer.

Me & Lily Braving the windy conditions.

A quick cup of coffee and on the road again. rain rain rain non stop but a much better stay with all amenities and a "park where you like' approach to the whole park... I did promise the girls some family bike fun on the tour bikes available but the rain keeps us away, at least for tonight anyway. if there is a break tomorrow then i will take them for a spin around the beach front and surrounding areas.

At least i will have some catch up time for the blog and Internet posting.

.

Farming The wind!

We have realised that going around the most part of Australia is going to taker some serious moving on our part so it is decided to get going to the other side of Melbourne and onto the great ocean Rd and head up toward Ballarat and the then the Grampians. South Australia will soon be in our sights. Up early and drive away from Port Albert.

   Today we didn't think we would be in the car for 4 hours but it just turned into that. The drive was lovely through the dairy farms in this area and all of a sudden we noticed wind turbines in the distance. they got closer and closer.. til we read a sign that said "Toora wind Farm. Who knew that there was such a thing as a wind farm. These things looked huge from the bottom of the hill so it was worth investigating. We had to travel uphill for 10.7kms.We chose 1st gear on the truck and chugged for what seemed five minutes. A true test for the Toyota which is proving itself to me over time. Oh My God. so glad to have come up the hill. These things spinning in the wind high on the hill where amazing. i love this sort of shit!

  Check the video. Hopefully you can hear the whoosh of air that the turbines create. The specs are as follows:

Toora Wind Farm has 12 wind turbines

 with a total generating capacity of 21 MW. 

The wind farm was constructed by Vestas 

Wind Systems for Stanwell Corporation and 

was completed in 2002.

Height of turbine towers (to rotor hub)   67 meters

Length of blade                                    33 meters

Number of blades per turbine                3

Type of tower:                                     Tapered steel tube

Number of turbines for Toora Wind Farm: 12 (1.75 Megawatts each, and 21 Megawatts total)

Toora Wind will produce enough electricity to power more than 6,600 homes, and prevent the release of approximately 48,000 tonnes of greenhouse emissions per anum.

 if you click the 'you tube' logo the video will play larger

We then rolled back down the hill and kept going .. and going... and going through Stoney creek, Koonwarra, Leongatha and became closer and closer to Dandenong/Melbourne. 

Our intention was to get to the Puffing Billy Steam Train at Belgrave for the kids to ride on. BUT the afternoon was drawing closer and we didn't have a booking for the night. Frankston was on the coast and near to our destination so that's where we went. Puffing billy will have to go on without us today. The weather as we got closer and closer to Melbourne became worse and worse. After feeling lost again we booked into the BIG 4 Caravan Park at Frankston. This would have to be the worst stay so far. We where placed in a mud pit in the rain and charged premium pricing. The traffic here is shocking and we decide that Melbourne Sux. Can't wait to leave here tomorrow and get on the Port Phillip Ferry and then onto the great ocean road.which everyone tells us is amazing.

A good days travel with a yuk ending.

A Storm in a Port

Today we pack up our mobile home and head closer to the Great Ocean Rd. About and hour and a half drive sees us at a little place called Sale.

Sale Catholic Church - Very Impressive

We pull by the River that runs all the way from Lake wellington in lakes Entrance to have a bite to eat and throw in a fishing line during lunch. A picturesque little park by the water was a lovely break. No fish were caught though.  We head off again to our destination Yarrum and the roads are bumpy as ever. 

  We reach Yarrum by mid afternoon and there is not a caravan park in site. With no Internet connection at all OR phone coverage we stop for a play in the local park which was totally cool with little mushrooms everywhere for the girls to play with and wooden play castles as well.

I walked up to get some info from the "information center" but this is no Information centre. It is just a post office/art gallery with some pamphlets on the local area and not much at that. We feel kinda stranded with no where to stay. So we both made an executive decision to head to the coastal area nearby called Port Albert. We hear the fish and chips here are the best around and if we are going to be stranded it may as well be with a full belly of yummy fish & Chips.
 14 kms further and WOW! what a gorgeous little bay with fishing boats and jetty's everywhere. And Not many people at all.  There are no van parks and so we check our maps to find there is a FREE overnight stay area right next to the waters edge for 6 RV's (recreational vehicles). I had to take some video to show where we are staying.. a look out the door is directly 20 feet away from perfection. I throw out a fishing line and watch it from the lounge in the van.. hahaha what a life...

View from our door. Port Albert

We have to 12 volt power here tonight but we have over 20 channels of TV and full amenities thanks to the hard work of my mate Kevin and the 12 volt system checks that he did for us..

Then comes the storm.
We wondered down the street and the girls rode their bikes to the fish and chip shop.

Anchorage type posts line the footpaths.

We sat by the waters edge and watched a far away storm over the ocean brewing. There were 2 storms that night. One over the ocean and one from the west which was headed our way. We made it just in time to shower and settle. a gust of strong wind and POW!  Check the short video for this intense view from the van door..
hard to believe that this little paradise could change to this. hell of a good fun 30 minutes though. Then it was all over and we settled back to a night of TV and cuddles in the warm van.

 if you click the 'you tube' logo the video will play larger

View from the jetty to our van

Hire boats available

Night shot of the Boats before the storm came

Lightening Shots just after the storm had past. See it in the distance

.

Trestle Bridge and the Koala

 if you click the 'you tube' logo the video will play larger

The fairy cave

Google seems to be best friend when we can get online. Great for finding local area attractions and things to see.
I found an interesting travel spot about 40-50kms out of town, called Buchan, (pronounced Bucken) and aren't the people there happy its not called Fuchan.
There is a set of Limestone caves there that can be toured through and sounds very interesting. Anything that the girls have never done before i think is a winner.

Buchan countryside

We head off for a 1pm tour but as we grab MacDonald's for a quick lunch on the way, they run way overtime by 12 minutes and we have to rush to get there. We miss the 1 pm main tour through a cave called the Royal cave. We have to book the next cave but what a great thing to have happen because the next cave is called the 'fairy cave'. Now because we have time up our sleeve we can take some great little photos of our girls under some awesome lighting conditions. Their are kangaroos sleeping here and there, so a couple of photos were taken and the girls were hopping around like Skippy. The most gorgeous colours are at Buchan at this time of year. I could easily spend a day photographing the streams and township etc...

30 feet away

20 feet away

Colourful trees of Buchan

The Beginning of our walk to the caves

Georgeous Lily

Beautiful Mia

Cool Tree

 Onward to the cave and we wait for our guide "Heather' to arrive we have a quick chat with fellow cave goers on the cool steps at the entrance. All different travellers from around the world.

This Fairy cave is 500 meters long and the first part of the entry is straight down a very steep set of stairs which are all dripping wet and dark. The cave was discovered in 1906 and is as it was when found. I new i would be photographing dark areas so i definatley took the canon in for its low light capability. I shot the following photos on 5000 ISO for you photographers out there. That is quite extreme settings for those of you that are not photographers. And hand held at 25th sec.
Down we go as the tour guide tells us the story that has been going on for millions of years underground. drip drip drip the limestone travels down the stalactites. It takes about 100years to form only a 10 cm formation.
Not to mention the ocean floor shells that where stuck to the ceiling in a 10 meter high chasm. Now that's a long time in the making. Not just 7days. Sorry I'm an atheist.

Stalactites

Curtain Formation

Cage for protection

 The girls loved the fairy cave and all the time while travelling through the twinkles and sparkles from the Strategically placed lighting made the girls stay on the lookout for a fairy or 2.
the tour took 45minutes and was worth every cent of a mere $30. What a beautiful place to visit. 10 out of 10

Off home for a rest.. the girls are pooped after walking half a kilometer through the underground wonderland.
A little video of our day for you.

 if you click the 'you tube' logo the video will play larger


.

Lakes Entrance

Arrival at lakes entrance - My Sexy Wife!

Work catch up today. 

Heather takes the girls to an antique coffee shop for a while while i can call some enquiries and do some office work.
In the afternoon we took the girls for a quick bike ride across the footbridge which is huge and expands across the Lake to the main beach.
Plenty of black swans in this area and they come right up to you for a feed and obviously some photos.

Lakes Entrance foot bridge- Race you to the other side Lily!

Oh No! more children coming...

Ahh! cookie and hot chocolate

A storm was brewing and gave me an awsome backdrop for the girls to have a photo with their bikes before we head back to the van.

A massive electrical storm keeps us indoors for the evening and wets the entire anex floor. Oh well rain had to come at some stage of the holiday..

If it keeps up tomorrow we will take the girls to the indoor swimming aquatic centre for heated pool swimming...
The people who run the van park couldn't be beter hosts and we feel we've known them for years. a chat soon turns into a half hour talk on life.. very nice indeed.

Lessons on the beginnings of life

Stormy backdrop

90 Mile beach

Mackenzie Rainforest Walk & Orbost geese

Move to Lakes Entrance

A quick pack up today and make our way out of Mallacoota to steer towards Lakes Entrance. Our trips now are being planned for quicker shorter distances as the girls don't cope well with being in the car any longer than 2 hours at a time. The perfect trip planned with 2 stops on the way. Are we there yet?  Are we there yet? is all we seem to hear and today we hear it within the first 10 kilometers. The movie players are a good investment for these types of days. 'Despicable Me' was their first movie followed by 'The cat in the hat.'
We arrive at Cann river and stop for coffee and to grab a map from the Information centre. 10 minute break is enough because our next stop is only 20mins further at MacKenzie Rainforest Boardwalk.  We prep the girls for a 1 kilometer walk through a very wet but lovely rainforest area. Please see video.

 if you click the 'you tube' logo the video will play larger

After this we pop back into the car for another drive to 'Orbost'. This should put us about 55kms from Lakes Entrance and definately within reach. As we approach Orbost it looks like a one horse town in the middle of nowhere. Slowly driving down the main street we see 2 geese walking along the road. All traffic is giving way to them but then we find a sign that says Give way to geese.

Check the video Below. Apologies for the creaking sound during any raw video footage but any movement from me will produce these pops and crack noises. I will try my best to eliminate as time goes by

 if you click the 'you tube' logo the video will play larger

These 2 geese are just walking along together window shopping at the seemingly empty run down shop windows... Amazing to see and quite funny for the girls. 

Orbost road sign

St James church

There is a parking area at the end of town for caravans and that's where we stop for lunch. Lunch today is pancakes for the girls and mummy and daddy are eating the fish we caught from the day before. a good size Tailor from our boating expedition and daddy caught a pretty nice little flathead the night before while the family were sleeping.

 if you click the 'you tube' logo the video will play larger

After lunch some photos of the girls playing at the park and a couple of mummy at the derelict Butter factory. Nice one Mummy!

all aboard for the final push to Lakes Entrance.

Afternoon arrival.
We are absolutely astounded at the tiny sizes of the caravan parks here... it looks like owners have converted their back yards to make a van park. How they expect us to get in there is pretty tough. Although we found (thank to a local gent that guides us) a great little park that has enough space for us due to its larger size grounds and we book into our first en suite stay. En suite stay parks have a little bathroom at the side of your van for showers etc and toilet. Very handy and a nice change from our squishy little bathroom. Fish and Chips for dinner tonight and we are done... Tomorrow we are expecting rain so we might plan to do some indoor stuff with the girls. Some phone calls must be done as well so Daddy will be kept busy doing that..

.