Cross to Victoria and the Pennisula - 15th September

We headed out back via Cooma, continuing our way through the Great Dividing range at 1100m and then down thru Platypus country "Bombala" towards Lakes Entrance.
The platypus has featured on Australian coins since 1966, at last count their were 900 million platypus circulating Oz on 20-cent coins designed by Stuart Devlin. Unfortunately no platypus sightings today but we enjoyed the landscape, cattle and sheep farms with lots of lambs even though the countryside looked very dry for winter. We continued on and crossed the boarder into Victoria!

See photo -  As we came out of the thick forest..
Amazing regrowth after fire.

As we made our way south through the State Forrest, after 1 1/2 hours of extremely bumpy roads from the local log trucks we needed to stop for a rest. Along the way we were going to stop overnight just outside of Orbost (Snowy River Country), however the location was near the local river and farms proving to be a little too smelly, not to mention the mosquito's! So we decided to press on to Lakes Entrance and see what caravan sites were on offer.

Most the ones on the waterfront wanted $60 per nite and it wasn't even holiday season, nor was the weather great, so we looked one street back and found a great place ( 5 star ) for $35 per nite (see our itinerary page for details), we parked up and got sorted for washing and the usual stuff. The owner dropped by for a chat and let us know what was good around town while the boys grabbed there bikes and were off for the afternoon, we managed to get some chores finished and had a quiet arvo by the play park.

See photo - So much biking to do at Lakes Entrance
when do you stop.

Next morning we were off down town for a ride / walk to check the place out, we stopped and watched the fishing boats offloading their catch before heading for the skate park and back to the van for lunch. After lunch we took the boys down the park for a play on the swings then it was back and showered to go out to the local for dinner, Aiden managed to run into the neighbours caravan bumper and break his reflector! so it was down to Repco for a new one....... Aiden then had to go and see the man to explain what he had done - all by himself!

See photo - Bugger .. a long way to drive to not
make the most Southerly point!



See photo - Emus at Wilsons Promontory.

Next morning it was off to Wilsons Promontory (most Southerly point of Australia), the roads were not kind at all ... and have been getting worse since we left Canberra, but that's what you get for building them on clay with minimal road base! We arrived to find that half the park was closed since the storms earlier in the year!!!!!! Bell and Riley managed to go for a short walk and they all got to see Emus and Kangaroos quiet close, even some very cute looking Christmas type beetles which Riley just loved. It has lots of walking tracks and we could have stayed longer, but we had lunch and hit the road for Phillip Island, by now it was Saturday and the touring cars were on the Island for the weekend. After 400km of  winding, bumpy roads later, we arrived at the island and our van park in Cowles on the north coast.



See photo - All the white dots are birds, Nobbys Point
Phillip Island.

See photo - As the boys walked off, the little
fella popped out his head!

We got setup and then hit the road to visit the Seabird colony on Nobbies Point, we saw lots of birds (Silver Gull, or as we call them Sea Gulls!) giving each other piggybacks much to Riley and Aidens entertainment. Riley now knows that this is how birds make eggs........and that's it! As we walked we even got to see a penguin in it's nest, the sound of the birds around was incredible. We booked our seats for the Penguin Parade which started at around 6.30pm, so in the mean time we explored the visitors centre and found people paying $5 for a live camera view of the seals on 'Seal Island'. The rest of the display was very interesting for young and old, and well worth the look.

See photo - The family with the penguins .. Do you believe it!

The Penguin Parade is split into 2 stations, one is a general viewing area on the beach, while the other is along the route where they come up into the dunes to their nests, along the way you can witness their behaviour from courting to competing for a mate's attention including the usual territorial disputes. We paid the extra for viewing along the route as their are less people and you get a better view of the " birds in action", we all loved it, we even got to see a lightning display which Riley could not stop talking about. Officially you could not take photos, but we managed to get a little video of the amazing sounds they all were making, unfortunately it was way to dark to get any stealth photos!!

See photo - Bells favourite car.

Next morning it was off to the V8 Supercars at Phillip Island, once inside there was heaps to do for grownups and also the kids, they had an entire 'Cars' area with Mack the truck activities and bouncy castle! Did you know that motor racing started at Phillip Island in 1928! However there is more to it than that, for all you race car fans you will find this link an interesting read. There was also displays by local car clubs and an entire events pavilion for sellers and modifiers, here we saw some new Mustangs, Comaros, and 2 replica cars from the Transformers movie....... very well done. We managed to find ourselves a place to view the start from. It was full of action after one of the drives had a stalled start which apparently was a pretty rare event, later there were even some geese that decided to go across the track. They had a great shuttle service, which stopped at 5 places around the track so we made the most of it. By 4pm we decided to call it a day (race was still going ) it was the longest race next to Bathurst apparently, and head home with two tired little boys.



See photo - V8 Supercars all lined up on the grid before the start of the race.

Monday we decided to stay another couple of nights and slow down..., we hit the beach with the boys and had a BBQ lunch ( it was 27 degrees ) and then have a drive across the island to the local surf beach " Smiths". We found a place with caves carved into the rock outcrop on the beach "Forest Caves', as the surf was huge it provided a great opportunity to view it up close....... water temp was only 14 degrees! that's Bass Strait for you. The boys enjoyed dodging  the spray from the breaking waves and watching the surge inside the caves, we made our way back along the beach to the viewing area along the dunes and sat overlooking the surfers in the distance............. the only thing missing was a nice cold beer!

See photo - Forest Caves - Riley, Chris and Aiden taking in the view from all directions.

Tuesday was our last day so we decided to do some grocery shopping and plan our trip to Kirth Kiln in the mountains outside Lilydale, we called the ranger and he was more than happy for us to call in whenever we wanted, take note ** Victoria has abolished ALL national parks entry fees** all states should follow suit, National parks must be available to all, not only those who can afford the entry fees!.



See photo - The Kiln

See photo - Dinner by the fire.

What a lovely break from the busy lifestyle of suburbia (much needed). It was an interesting drive on about 20km of dirt road, with the occasional .."watch out for that...### hole". As we pulled in there was no-one around. Perfect .. so we parked up after a tight turn in the bay (the wheels just skidded over the gravel) and Riley spied the fire pit. So off we went collecting kindling and wood. .We headed out for a walk after Riley had ridden his bike into a puddle and got his shoes covered in mud, which he was not happy about. The walk took us to see the Kiln which was used to make charcoal for gas powered vehicles during the war. We went by the river where we think we saw a platypus, but the boys were chatting loudly as usually and we could not get close enough.


See photo - Walking through the forest at Kirth Kiln.

On our return back to camp we lit the fire and of course did the marshmallow thing. After the boys went to bed us big people stayed up and listened to the tranquillity of the fire crackling and the animals in the Forest, with the back half of our bodies freezing and the front toasty warm by the lovely fire. Perfect .... and best of all no wind at all, just lovely clear skies that we could see from the gap in the canopy.



See photo - Riley's first Panorama photo he has taken.

The next morning we awoke to the tranquillity only a national forest could provide........ then the boys awoke! the weather was good and the sky's clear, we grabbed the cooker and had pancakes for brekkie outside while the boys rode their bikes around the camp. We were arriving at Brad n Annie's at around lunch time so we packed the van and went for a quick bush walk to see what was around, we found a little Centipede then made our way back to the van for the trip across to Lilydale.

So here is our latest Piggy Backing, Waddling, High Octane YouTube video!



See image - This part of our trip from the Snowy Mountains to just outside of Melbourne.