Victoria countryside

After leaving Fulham we criss crossed our way around Victoria, we drove through the Grampians but choose to camp outside the National Park, Cherrypool camp at Brimpaen was a nice spot in the bush, we elected to stay away from the gravel toilet area instead we found a nice spot in a clearing sounded by bush. We were only driving short distances, some camps were only 12klms away from the previous overnight stop. 

We had arranged to meet up with friends Brian & Lis at Laancowrie Reserve which is beside the Loddon River, 20klms from Maldon. We have friends in Maldon and were calling in and staying a night or two on Monday so that gave us two nights to catch up with Brian & Lis. As usual it's always good to meet up and exchange stories, they were returning from Ahnem Land and had a great experience staying with people they knew. Laancowie was reasonably busy, everyone still had plenty of space but if I have a preference it's looking at no one camped nearby. We did meet some interesting people though, a German prospector and his Asian wife and another couple who came in towing a Ultimate Nautilus Camper, I had read about these bit this was my 1st opportunity to see one. We owned a smaller Ultimate camper back in 2002 and loved it, comparing this to that we both agreed that this was to lavish and expensive for something that requires setting up.

Before we knew it the days had passed us by and we were then visiting Mal & Lynne, the last time we visited they were talking about doing some alterations to their cottage, this time we got to see the near end result, what they have done with the help and expertise of a local builder is transform the weatherboard house into a funky home with a beautiful deck.

As usual we had travelled to quickly and still had more than a fortnight to fill in before getting down to Vickies sister's home at Mt Eliza, so we continued to criss cross our way around Victoria. We found some lovely out of the way camp spots, one freaked Vickie out because we were deep in the bush at Langi Girhan State Park and she was concerned about bush fires, not that any where around, also there was a late arrival of a vehicle coming in that also had her on edge. We survived the night, and the birds greeted us with the beautiful sounds of the bush.

We spent a night at Avoca, and another near Ararat, at present we are camped at Lake Elingamite near Cobden, we intend to make our way back down to the coast and travel along the Great Ocean Rd & the Otways.

Hello Tate

We now have two grandsons and four granddaughters, baby Tate was born in the early hours of Saturday three weeks ago, we arrived at our daughters home in Adelaide mid morning and Tate and his Mum came home a few hours later, amazing! Child birth is easy apparently ;-)

So within a few hours we were holding our new grandson, of course he is very cute but he doesn't do much so my attention was taken with his older brother Oakley who is full of energy and a typical boy except for his hair which is a tussle of curls, he has a beautiful nature but can turn on the screams at will, it was lovely to hear him babbling on incoherently, his vocabulary consisted of mama, dada, hot hot, and a few others but the best was PopPop or Nanma .. Aww melt your heart.

We stayed three weeks and in that time Tate got into some sort of routine, he loves his food and had already lost that new born baby look, he is very alert and moving around a lot, Erin will have her hands full with two energetic boys to look after. 

Of course a visit to Adelaide has to involve going to Chicken & Rice in the Adelaide Market China Town, here we have the best simple Chinese meal ever, it's not so much the chicken & rice but the laksa soup and spicy ingredients, it is simply delicious !

Time to leave and continue on, Oakley didn't know what was happening as we drove away with the caravan in tow, his mouth opened and he just stared ... I'm sure I heard him say PopPop come back ...

We headed for the Coorong where we have previously stayed, our intention was to follow the coast all the way to Barwon Heads and take the ferry across to Rosebud and avoid the Melbourne freeways and traffic, but after staying at 42 Mile Crossing in the Coorong we changed our mind and decided to head inland and find some new camps plus revisit some we have liked previously. 

Our second and third night we stayed at a lovely town in Victoria called Dartmoor, it's well known for the tree carvings in the Main Street but it also has a lovely camp area at the end of the road with lush green grass and plenty of shade trees, picnic tables and fire pits are also provided. The camp ground is free and situated beside the Glenelg River, it had water in it but was fairly low and not suitable for canoeing which it is sometimes used for. Plenty of bird life which is always a pleasure to see, I love the bright colours of the parrots we see over east.

After setting up camp I got the mountain bikes off the van and noticed the new bracket I had made for the bike rack had broken, I was always apprehensive about attaching the bikes to the rear of the van due to the dynamics of bumpy roads transferring the shaking to the bike rack and it appears my thinking was well foundered, fortunately it appears it only broke due to the thickness of the metal I used but to fix it I needed a welder and some thicker steel. I found both at a friendly local named Graham, he was cleaning a harvester outside his large shed and he kindly allowed me to use his tools and found me some suitable flat bar steel. Within 45 minutes I had Mark 2 version completed, I tried giving Graham $20 but he wouldn't hear of it, he is like me, Old School where you help people where you can and expect nothing in return, What goes around comes around.

We spent the Saturday watching the AFL grand final between Hawthorn and West Coast and it was not the result I was hoping for but my son in law Aaron was estatic as he is a proud Hawks supporter, the only downside is we get to hear how good they are now they have won 3 in a row! Give them their due, they are !

Leaving Dartmoor on the Sunday Vickie directed us to a beautiful camp beside another river at Fulham Reserve near Balmoral, this place ticks all the boxes, a lovely deep flowing river which we are camped right next to, no one else close by, plenty of birds, plenty of fire wood. Last night we had a camp fire and used our camp oven to cook a delicious lamb roast and veggies, it just doesn't get much better than this except the bugs became very annoying and we went inside the van and continued our scrabble competition, best of five we are two even, tonight's the big decider.

Safety Bay WA - Adelaide SA

We have been home since the end of June and we are looking forward to getting back in the road. The 1st part of our trip is another drive across the Nullabour and visit our youngest daughter Erin who is due for baby #2, this is very exciting and we wouldn't want to miss being there so hopefully we arrive before the action starts. 

Having sold the ute that carried our mountain bikes I needed to find another way of taking them away. I initially thought about making up a rack on the front of the van but it would have got in the way of things, so I looked at the rear and this us what I came up with. I was a bit dubious about the way it clamps onto a 50mm towball, but it appears very strong and doesn't move around at all.

The rack is a Thule brand, I also moved the number plate across, the down side is the bikes will get dirty on unmade roads so will need a wash or blow down with compressed air before use. 

We left home around 10am on Monday 7th the day after Father's Day and with Curls (our sister in law) following behind in her small motor home we stayed the 1st night at Boorabin rest area approx 60ks before Coolgardie. The 2nd night was in the bush along the highway, here we had a campfire a few drinks and played charades, Curls was nervous about driving the section from Noresman to Ceduna by herself and very pleased she had us for company, she was continuing on to Canberra and Qld to visit family and would be ok when she knew she had phone coverage. Our 3rd night we camped along the Bight, we had spectacular views but the wind was cold and gusty. A very relaxing night listening to the waves crash against the cliffs of Australia and a good nights sleep. We seemed to be on the road around 8am WA time and stopping around 4pm with some stops in between for food & toilet breaks. Our last night together was in the bush just before Wirrulla, the next day Curls turned off the highway and headed for Canberra and we stopped at Port Parham for the night before going onto our daughters home in Adelaide. Upon turning the phone in this morning we were exited to find out that baby arrived in the early hours and everything went well, so well in fact that Mum & Bubs are coming home the same day, amazing !  

Our 1st night, Boorabin rest area.

Our camp for the night along the Great Aust Bight.

Raising the Stein for friends no longer with us.

The view from the van. 

June 2015 - Ningaloo South Lefroy Bay

Ningaloo 2015 will be remembered for the excellent weather we encountered, and the company of family and friends. Also it will be remembered due to the troubles we had with our brand new Landcruiser 200s VX. We had only taken delivery of our car a week before going away and four days of that was spent with it in Ultimate 4WD having it fitted out with upgraded GVM suspension, BullBar and winch, roof rack and rear storage drawers. Upon getting it back I quickly loaded up our gear hooked up to our caravan and left the next day for Ningaloo.

We only got as far as Moore River when the car started violently shaking and loud banging noises, quickly pulling over my 1st thought was a flat tyre or a collapsed shock absorber, I could see nothing wrong but knew that things were not good so I called Ultimate who could not shed any light so We decided to turn around and head back home. The next day (Saturday) I took the car into Ultimate and they straight away determined the fault was a front left hand CV joint (drive axle). On the Monday I got the call to say it was fixed and they apologised as the problem was caused by them when fitting the new suspension. I believe in life that shit happens but it's how it's dealt with is more important than whinging about it, I obviously was disappointed but accepted the facts and looked forward to heading away again.

Due to our delay in getting our car and then it's drama we had kept having to tell friends Glenn & Karen that our meeting up with them along the road somewhere kept getting changed, they decided to go into Coral Bay for a few days which gave us time to have things fixed and then arranged to meet them at the entrance to Ningaloo Homestead in two days time. I was keen to get there so we left at 4am and after a relaxed comfortable drive finally arrived to surprise them that night around 8pm. The difference in towing our van with the new 200 compared to our previous 79 series was one of quietness and comfort it will certainly have its limitations compared to how handy the ute was but the
comfort factor for our bodies will out weigh any disadvantages.

After being here a week I drove to the Homestead and upon returning to camp we could smell oil from the car, a look underneath revealed oil coming from the front diff and the CV joint had pulled out again. A phone call to Ultimate to let them know and I left the arranging of flat top truck and repairs to them to organise. This was not going to be a cheap exercise for them but they assured me they would do everything required to have this sorted and find out why it kept happening. It finally took 14 days before getting our car back, nothing quick happens in Exmouth. I have now had the car back a fortnight and all appears to be ok apart from a noise coming from the front left brake but most likely sand in the brake pads, the Kinetic KDSS needs to be reset as one side is higher than the other this will be done when we get back and Ultimate go completely over it checking that everything is ok. It certainly has been a huge inconvenience and disappointing especially given that the car is new and has been away longer than we have had it. My confidence in my decision to buy the 200 has wavered but I don't regret doing it. I'm also confident that Ultimate 4WD will continue to make sure that we are happy as they are extremely apologetic.

So the past 6 weeks we have settled in at our camp, we have enjoyed the company of our son Dan and Elle with their two young girls Eve & Heather for a week, Glenn & Karen stayed with us for 5 weeks and have left for Tom Price, Trev & Ashley have also left and so has Maddison who flew in for a week so it's just Dave & Jo and us to see out our last week. Our time has been spent kayaking and fishing, Vickie has enjoyed being able to get on the water as she can get stir crazy :-) sitting around the camp.

Another beautiful Ningaloo sunset

Paradise

Mick and Vickie at Norwegian Bay old whaling station

Awesome time with family and friends

The new Landcruiser and filling the water bladder

Glenn and Karen leaving Ningaloo

Dave, Trevor, Mick

Karen and Glenn

Billy's famous fish & chip night

Ashley & Trev, awesome couple.

Our rig

Poppy and Eve and her 1st Fish her Daddy caught.

Dan & Eve

Eve loving the big sand pit

Bath time for Eve & Heather

Our Niece, Maddison

Another Happy hour!

On our trip home we stopped at Carnarvorn (Apologies again Tammy) and whilst Vickie was getting some fruit and veg a pretender to the throne pulled up alongside us. :-) Joe and his wife were from Ferntree Gully Victoria and on a big lap around Oz, I'm glad he couldn't spell NIKNOFF correctly lol

Pretender to the Throne :-)