Sun, 20th Feb - Shallow Inlet

Sunday morning saw us leaving Paradise Beach and heading to Port Albert.  It was raining all the way and blowing gale force winds ... not nice for travelling, let alone towing!  When will we see some summer weather??!!  Port Albert has 6 overnight camping bays in the carpark adjacent to the marina ... not really for us, so we left Port Albert and headed on to Port Welshpool.  It was still raining heavily and blowing and only 16 degrees.  Fish and chips on the waterfront was the way to go, watching the choppy waters of the Port.

After lunch we moved on again to a place called Shallow Inlet on Wilson's Promontory.  We went into a very sheltered bush camp ($10 per night for the privilege).  No power but great composting loos!  Not sure how 'the Wrecker' is going to go getting us back out of the tight little spot in the morning though. Just a short walk through the scrub lead us to the water again.  We didn't stay long as you can see below what the weather was like.

 'The Wrecker' had no trouble getting us out of the tight spot (she of little faith!!! hahaha).

Brrrrrr .....

Bit of a squeeze in and out ...

Fri, 18th and Sat, 19th Feb - Paradise Beach

After another night of rain we drove to Paradise Beach which is a beautiful free camp spot heading towards the northern tip of the 90 Mile Beach in Victoria.  We have stayed there before and found it very sheltered and pleasant.  It is a very short walk over a small sand dune to the beach which is on open ocean.  The following day (Saturday) we drove to a place called Emu Bight camping area (inland and a little further north).  We are so pleased we left the van at Paradise Beach as the roads were extremely rough and the camping area was nowhere near as nice.  We had sunshine and a 30 degree day ... wow!

Saturday night was interesting as there was a party of youngsters having a great time.  Paradise Beach has a small village and the party seemed to be somewhere in the streets nearby.  It wasn't until next morning that we heard there were several young fellas running around stark naked!  We think they may have come into the camp area to access the beach for a swim.

Our campsite at Paradise Beach

 

Fri, 18th Feb - Lakes Entrance

We left Genoa this morning ... gloomy but dry weather after raining all night.  Fortunately our campsite had reasonably short grass so it was not too unpleasant to pack up and move.

We drove to Lakes Entrance and called in to Whiters Caravan Park to see Tony and Barb and Michael and Julie.  Unfortunately, Michael and Julie were away in Melbourne, however we saw Tony as he was doing some maintenance work on one of the cabins.  He was very surprised to see us as we had given no warning of our arrival.  We then headed up the hill to their beautiful home and caught Barb sitting at her computer.  She made us a much appreciated cup of coffee as we had a short chat.  Their home is lovely and in a lovely area of Lakes Entrance.  We filled our water tanks and headed on our way to Paradise Beach.  

Wed, 16th Feb 2011 - We're Finally Away

It was raining on Wednesday but we left home anyway.  We travelled as far as a free camp on the side of the road at Genoa.  A beautiful spot and far enough away from the road to not be bothered by noise.  There were 4 or 5 other vans camped for the night so we felt quite safe.  Rick broke a piece off one of his teeth while eating a nut bar but apart from that didn't do any real damage.  He's not known as 'the wrecker' for nothing.

The next day after a night of rain, the sun came out so we left the van and drove about 35kms in to Mallacoota on the coast.  We watched a fellow catch a sea snake on the wharf there, bought some groceries and headed back to the van after lunch.  The temperature rose to around 30 Degrees during the day.  The Wrecker decided to cook a lovely dinner, but managed to poke a sharp knife through the gauze on the screen door when bringing the dirty dishes inside.  Oh well ... there's plenty more gauze where that came from!

Our campsite at Genoa