Nelson to Robe, South Australia

February 21 to February 28

Port MacDonnell, looking for directions

Looks like we have got our travelling pace about right now, as we slowly explore the south east South Australian corner. I think we have only progressed about 150km around the SA coastline, albeit zigzagging inland as destinations interest us.

From Nelson we hugged the coastline to Port MacDonnell where we checked out more volcanic cliffs and rock outcrops. We overnight-ed at Mount Schank, an extinct volcano south of Mt. Gambier. Monday I dropped in to the Mt. Gambier Hospital to have my wrist checked (for those who don't know, I broke it in a spectacular hang gliding accident, for those who do know, you know the actual boring way). Unfortunately the doctor wasn't happy with the healing after 6 weeks and ordered me to endure another 2 weeks in the cast. Caught up with Tim Hockam while at the hospital, he seems to be settling in well in his first year of Pharmaceutical placement.

Nice Overnight Spot, no drinking and driving

Spent a couple of days checking out Mt. Gambier and region before spending two days in the Coonawarra. Even better when a couple of wineries now encourage you to stay overnight! We had a great wine tasting, then a long lunch of selected local cheeses and smallgoods (and wines) at the DiGiorgio winery, previously Rouge Homme. Very nice to wander back "home" after.

Getting an appreciation of the size of wind turbine blades

Weather has been pretty ordinary for a few days, showery and barely 20 degrees during the day, so it was nice to laze around before heading to Millicent. I have spent a bit of time in this area with Ron Corcoran in our "papermaking" days, but it's a lot more fun as a tourist. 

Beachport, again not a bad overnight spot

They are making good use of the wind with large wind farms in the area. The tourist drive through hundreds of them was a surprise. We headed to Beachport and spent a couple of days there and about as the weather started improving and we could do more walks/hikes. Beachport and Robe (where we are this weekend) have some great coastline walks and are very RV Friendly so we have enjoyed the improving weather and quiet towns. I would have been keen to do some fishing but it's a bit too awkward with the cast so will have to bide my time. Given the good weather predictions for the week ahead, I reckon it will more of the same along the coast for the next week as we crawl our way towards Adelaide.

Mornington Peninsula to Nelson, SA Border

February 14 to February 21

Car Park at Winki Pop, Bells Beach

We took the vehicle ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff to commence our trip towards South Australia. It had been about 18 years since we drove the Great Ocean Road, and the first half was just as we remembered it.

Building a "unique" sculpture, Carisbrook Creek Beach

Johanna Beach

Obviously the marketing of this area to the Chinese tourists is excellent, I would guess more than 50% of visitors and drivers were Chinese. We did stumble on Carisbrook Creek Beach (past Wye River and the other areas devastated by the recent bush fires) where stone sculptures have become a thing. We added our piece and headed to Johanna Beach for the night. The weather turned nasty that evening, strong winds and dropping temperature so the next day we were dressed very differently for our visit to 12 Apostles. 
Jumpers and beanies were needed as the maximum reached 13 and wind chill way lower. The car parking and tourist management had improved greatly in this area, so we just followed the masses to get the obligatory photos (you all know what the rocks look like, no need to publish any with us in them). 

Lava Flow Caves, Byaduk

Overnight near Warrnambool, then on to Port Fairy and a change of scenery, we spent the next two days exploring the Kanawinka Geotrail, a large area of recent (8000 years ago) volcanic activity.
Checked out craters, cones, caves and lava flow areas, and frequented small country towns. More tyre troubles heading to Portland (will make a funny story one day), got that sorted out the next day and on to more coastal scenery. 

Cape Bridgewater Coastal Walk

The weather hasn't been great this week for walking, but we have still done numerous short sections of the Great South West Walks. Cape Bridgewater with it's wind farms and volcanic formed coastline was interesting.
More detours inland, including a great free camp in Dartmoor, and we arrived in Nelson yesterday. We'll be off today to enter South Australia, and slowly work our way North and West.

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.

Departure Finally

We have set our departure date and are as good as ready for February 4. There is always something that will delay us, so we just had to set a date and just go.

For those who haven't heard our rough plans, we are travelling Australia in our motorhome for 1+ years, heading for Victoria first, across to South Australia so we can drive up through the centre via Ulluru and winter in the Northern Territory. Across to Broome by early spring and driving south through WA as summer arrives. What happens in between and after that we'll worry about then.

Our plan is to do semi-regular updates every few weeks so you can keep track of our movements, and hopefully catch up when we are in your neighborhood or meet up if you are travelling yourselves and are in the vicinity.

We look forward to your comments, tips and ideas as we progress.

Being brand new to blogging I will keep it really simple, but again if you have any tips or ideas let me know.