Sunny Coast to Mornington Peninsula

February 4 to February 13

Finally on the road, albiet not really holidaying as we plan to travel pretty quickly to Melbourne for a couple of appointments. We visited Leah's cousin in Warwick and overnight-ed with our mate Jenny in Tenterfield as we headed down the New England Highway, until we reached Tamworth (stumbling on a local car club show and shine, all of 10 cars, but two really unique samples of 1964 Lotus Elan, and 1967 soft top Ford Thunderbird). We decided to take a few days and travel the smaller highways and byways as we headed west, overnighting in Caroona. 

Caroona Hall Free Camp (they could have mowed!)

We traveled west to the Black Stump Highway (I kid you not) which we then followed south to meet up with the Castlereagh Highway . A few hours stop in Gulgong to watch the Superbowl on Feb 8, then further west to meet the Mitchell Highway then south to Canowindra for that evening. Part of the enjoyment of motorhoming for us is finding interesting freecamping locations to stay overnight. There is usually plenty of options in western towns and localities, so we didn't need to visit a caravan park on this leg of the trip.

South on Route 81 through Boorowa and Harden to Gundagai. Visited the dog on the tucker box (bit smaller than I expected) before overnighting in Gundagai. 

Adelong Falls and Gold Mine Ruins

We read about Adelong Falls in the Visitor Information Centre so headed to Tumut then Adelong. Arrive at the Falls for morning tea only to discover a flat rear tyre (one of the duel wheels). Some may not know my poor history with flat tyres (unlike Leah and my fellow ski-trippers), so limped back to Tumut where a very friendly tyre shop owner dropped everything to assist. Good news for once, the valve stem had failed. It was replaced, checked, and back on the road at a lot smaller cost than expected. Back at Adelong Falls for lunch and a dip in the waterholes. The gold mine ruins from the mid-1800's were an unexpected highlight, a 1 hour walk with excellent information signs and history.

Into Albury for overnight stay at the SS&A Club (free overnight parking for self-contained vehicles), and a great club dinner in air-conditioning (we had a 35 degree day and tyre stress, a fair reward).

Into Melbourne, chores done and overnight with Anneke and Warren. After being more than amply fed and watered there, we headed down the Mornington Peninsula to weekend with Margaret (my Step-mum). 

So next week we start our "touring" in earnest, a slower pace and lots more sightseeing. We are heading down the Great Ocean Road and winding our way towards South Australia, no time constraints and no specific plan.