Thursday 01/04/04
4.4/15.1 24.6/-33
Last
night was an emotional roller coaster. After the depressing
call from P&O I rang our tenant. He had
sms’d me two weeks ago after being unable to get thru to my
dud phone and of course I never received it. We talked for
ten minutes about his promotion to Brisbane and he has assured me that
the lease will be honoured by P&O and execs coming from London
may well take over. Phew! That was like being hit
over the head with a cricket bat and getting a double Swedish massage
three hours later.
This
is possibly the prettiest camp we’ve had this trip.
Waters edge is just outside the door step with ruler straight bay waves
crashing onto the beach like a slow heavy breathing
metronome. Tho there is still a lot of cloud on the horizon
we can see the full stretch of peninsular leading to the Prom on our
left, the rocky coast to our right and islands in the middle.
Walkerville was a lime burning township in the 1920’s tho
little remains other than a few hidden kiln walls and
foundations. It was mostly destroyed by road making but Vic
Parks are doing a great job of resurrecting the area as a coastal park
and putting in some great walkways and viewing platforms.
Last
night I thought ‘this is bullshit’. Here
we were backed up to a lushly vegetated cliff face with incredible
views, the sky cleared for the moon & stars, perfect TV
reception without even putting up the aerial, booming mobile phone
coverage, internet access, talking to our kids and friends on the
phone, looking at the digital photos on the computer screen, hot water,
dinner ready to cook, double bed waiting and Margaret in a happy
mood. It don’t get much better than that J.
This
morning began with ABC news reporting a new Gippsland giraffe farm
hoping to make big profits from neck steaks, an RSPCA spokesman
incensed about an endangered species being farmed for table meat and
the abattoir employees union complaining about an unsafe workplace and
demanding a height allowance. Add the news that the great
ocean road is to be made one way and it must be April first J.
Today we continue hugging the coast with Philip Island our Target.
PM.
Well
we almost got to go to Philip Island. We got packed up and
took the camera with us to retrace our steps from yesterday
evening. Leaning over the edge from a newly built lookout we
noticed some old structures that we had to go down and across the beach
and rocks to see. Turned out to be the remains of the
original big lime kiln. It has been partly
‘restrained’ rather than restored and had a couple
of explanation boards. Interesting stuff reminiscent of the
shale operations at Newnes but nowhere near the size.
Decided on the way out to take a look at the camp we had been heading
to before we discovered Walkerville. Bear Gully is
OK. Probably 50 sites and not well described by the
book. It does not allow dogs, is on the beach not 5Km from it
and there is limited space for big rigs.
We
drove back out to the bitumen in very strong winds with gales forecast
for this area. 10Km down the road got a hell of a surprise
when the remains of the damaged awning decided to give in to wind and
water and ripped off, the roller and remaining strut dangling by the
trusty coat hanger restraint and the fabric flapping madly at
70Km/h. A hasty pull over and out with pliers and Stanley
knife to remove the mess and strap most of it to the roof.
Thanks be it did not do any more damage to the truck. But uh
oh. We had a large dark hole on the other side which used to
be covered by a nice white hot water service cover. Remember
the bush I dragged past getting out of Bear Gully said a little
voice. Bugger! Backtrack. A few steps
from where we had parked lay a lump of bush and a savagely customised
HWS cover. It’s at times like these that
I’m grateful for a few tools and a bit of initiative. An hour
later and after some gentle tapping, bending and persuading it was a
fair representation of its former self albeit some greenish scuff marks
and dimples. It’ll do and another new coat of paint
will fix it.
That
done, going on for 2pm, blowing a gale and raining I decided it was a
nice arvo to stay put and try to get the map software to
fire. Margaret curled up with a book but I don’t
think she’s getting far with her eyes shut J.
Friday 2/4/04
6.6/17.1
24.3/-38
Crazy Melbourne weather. It cleared to a cool
starlit night but this morning is covered in cloud
again. At least the wind has dropped. I seem to
remember that it was also last year that the weather seemed attached to
the same switch that ended daylight saving and went from summer to
winter overnight.
A
couple of power notes.
The
redarc relay which charges the house batteries from the truck when
driving has been invaluable this past week. Our solar input
has been negligible but we get almost 30 amps into –70Ah
batteries when we drive and recover well in a couple of hours on the
road.
Much
smaller power, rechargeable AA’s for the camera.
I’ve had 6 of 10 NEXcell 1800mAh NmH ($6 each at Jaycar) fail
inside 12 months with little use. I bought a set of Arlec
NiCads for half the price and initially they have outperformed the so
called top of the range.
We’ll try for Philip Island again. Watch that bush!
PM
A
pleasant drive into Wonthaggi. Old coal mining town with a
big shopping center. A local reckons house prices here have
gone up by 270% in the past 3 years. If true that’s
one heck of an investment. Where are my 20/20 hindsight
glasses J. Found a tap and garbage bin at the cemetery
(always a good spot) so filled the tanks, packed the shopping and
binned the packaging. We picked Hamer’s Haven off
the map as a place for lunch and maybe a fishing spot. Small
car park, no views, 2 dunes with a wade between for the beach and a
mile of shallow water surf. No fishing, nice pommie beef
sango sambos for lunch and a good remember for an overnighter as there
were none of those unsociable signs. On the way there we
passed the local tip and disposed of the awning struts.
Philip Island. A landmark in the trip but I really
couldn’t recognise much from what I thought I remembered from
30 years back. I probably also saw some bits I
hadn’t been to. The Nobbies and the blowhole were
just brilliant. Explosive surf, rugged views, penguins and a
lot of hard work gone into a couple of Km’s of boardwalk,
viewing platforms and car parks. The penguin area is totally
overdone for coach loads of tourists. Cowes is like a
southern Byron Bay and for the whole island, beware the $1000 fine if
you dare to park your motorhome on council land. I.e.
everything but chockablock caravan parks. Margaret was
uncomfortable about even looking for a freebie and I didn’t
need much encouragement to get outa’ town. We took
off into the sunset with the gps set goto Yallock Creek rest area, some
35Km out. Probably only 10Km out we came across a signed
roadside picnic spot called George Bass Reserve in where we think may
be the town of Bass. Pulled off down to the small river bank
and under a timber trestle road bridge that sounds like cracker night
every time a car goes across. Hopefully they will all be home
in bed when we are.
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