Hi friends all,
January saw us busy as usual with doctors, friends and family stuff. We went down to Pat and Allan's for a BBQ with Sig and Bianka, Benny from TR came round for dinner, dinner with Karen and David and another night with Jack and Sandra, lots of stuff really. I had a Basel cell carcinoma removed which is fine now. This busyness continued into February with more lunches and dinners. We meet up with Sig and Bianka at the caravan show and again later in the month to celebrate some birthdays, mine in Nov, Ian and Sig's in Feb, lovely lunch at the Post Office Hotel in Coburg. we also did a little baby sitting for Robert and Mel. The van went to Cell for a holiday for 3 days and we stayed at mum's, a few things to fix before we went away. Saw Di and Allan Telfer at the caravan park.
Ian grave me a lovely new lens for my camera at Christmas so I have been trying it out. It's a Tamron 150-600mm telephoto zoom, it's fantastic. The Galah was across the creek from our van, this was the first shot with the lens, very happy, the Tawny Frogmouth Owl was at Stewart and Annette's place in their front garden when we had lunch with them.
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| Galah at Warrandyte |
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| Tawny Frogmouth Owl |
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| He is still looking at me |
I just need to take some shots so the plants in Greig and Josie's garden in the park was next.
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| Sunset in Melbourne |
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| Pretty Pale Blue Budgerigar |
We left Melbourne on March 12, and headed to Warragul hoping to have dinner with George and Sandra, but they got the days mixed up so we missed them. But we had afternoon tea with John and Dianne which was nice, saw there new new home. From Warragul we proceeded to Eagle Point and a great stay with Judy and Bob in their front yard. As you can see from the photo's they took us all round the place. The Silt Jetties which are 6 km long into Lake King, Paynesville and Bairnsdale of course.
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| Us parked at Judy & Bob's |
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| Cliffs on the Mitchell River |
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| Ian & Judy walking on the beach |
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| Beach on Silt Jetty's @ Lake King |
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| Australia Pelican |
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| More beautiful Pelicans |
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| Interior of St. Mary's Catholic Church Bairnsdale |
St. Marys church is amazing the Murals painted inside by the Italian artist Francesco Floreani who was out of work in the depression, he started them in 1931.
We left Bob and Judy's on Sunday with the view of free camping around Cann River, but it was lunch time when we arrived there so we had lunch and kept going to Eden. The rain had started before we got to Cann River so that may have had something to do with our dissuasion to keep going. On Monday we had a look round Edan, also went to look at the Seahorse Inn which was built by Benjamin Boyd in 1849 as part of Boyd Town and the Ben Boyd Tower but missed that as it was on another road. In the afternoon we headed to Green Cape Light Station in the Ben Boyd National Park, the Lightstation was built around 1883, lots of bits to look at along the track into the Lightstation.
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| Disaster Bay in Ben Boyd National Park |
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| Walking track to City Rock, Ben Boyd National Park |
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| Green Cape Light Station |
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| Green Cape Light Station and Keepers Cottage |
We were unable to go to the Navy Wharf as a navy ship was docked. So we headed north to see the Pinnacles, these are so beautiful it was just a short walk to the viewing point or you could walk down to the beach and around to the cliffs. The highway from Lakes Entrance to Edan is narrow windy and above all you bounce all the way with the uneven surface and don't forget the hill climbs. Actually it was like that all the way to Batemans Bay and beyond.
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| Red Cliffs or The Pinnacles in Ben Boyd National Park |
We continued our drive north to our next stop at Batemans Bay, on the way we stopped at Bega to visit the cheese factory, just and info centre really. Our first night in Batemans Bay we were surprised to see Heather and Paul jumping out of there car, just as surprised to us as we them, so had drinks later after dinner, so nice to see Cell friends as well as Jayco friends. The weather hasn't been the best but have had some lovely days as you can see we did walk on the beach.
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| One of the lovely beaches near Batemans Bay |
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| Ian enjoying the beach |
Whilst at Batemans Bay we headed up to Canberra to see old friends of mine from days long ago, we had the best night with Dianne and Richard, we stayed over night. On the way up we stopped at Braidwood and Bungendore, we had to drive up the Glyde Mtn. I have been fretting about this as I didn't want to take the van which we left in Batemans Bay, turn out not as bad as I excepted. We also went on a drive down the highway to Mogo is was just another little tourist place, not even a cafe open at 3pm in the afternoon (not yet the season), from there we headed to Tomakin and back along the beach road, nice drive beautiful beaches and rocks, we will have to see the unusual formations another time.
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| Marilyn and Dianne |
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| Marilyn, Richard and Dianne |
From Batemans Bay we continued north along the Princes Highway to Woollongong, we stayed Surf Leisure Resort, right on the beach in Fairy Meadow (loved the name). We have had bad weather all the way and it continued for our stay here. I really wanted to see the Sea Cliff Bridge, it rained all day, we had lunch in a nice pub/cafe overlooking the ocean. The highway wound its way around the cliffs through little towns. We walked back along the walkway for a short way but the rain turned us back.
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| Sea Cliff Bridge |
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| Sea Cliff Bridge |
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| Sea Cliff Bridge and pedestrian walkway |
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| Old road on the cliff face |
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| The rock fall area that took out the road |
From Woollongong we had a choice of which pass to go up, as we had the van on we didn't go Bulli Pass or through Stanwell Tops, it was the Princes Motorway and into Sydney. We only stay one night here as we were having dinner with more friends from a long time back in Melbourne, Janet and Kevin. After we arrive we went to the Miranda shopping centre for some lunch, supposed to be better than Chadstone (ha ha) we walk for miles as we wanted the Post Office not in the centre. On arriving back we found a card on our door, it was John and Wendy, we were very happy went and had a drink with them before we went to dinner. In the morning it was a slow pack up as Janet and Kevin came to see us, then John and Wendy as well. We travelled across the Sydney to the M5 motorway through Holsworthy (not like is was, couldn't see anything I remembered). We had lunch on the Hawkesbury River and continued onto Forster.
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| Picnic stop on the freeway on Hawkesbury River at Mooney |
We arrived in Forster late in the day, Murray arrived while we were still putting the van on site, such a lovely welcome, had dinner with Murray and Tina that night, on Friday we went to see the National Motor Bike Museum in Nabiac, a very interesting place if you like motorbikes.
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| Daimler Motor Cycle at the National Motor Bike Museum |
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| Little Motor Bikes |
On Saturday we meet up with Murray and Tina and went out into the Pacific Ocean on the Wallis Lake with lunch at a nice place on the water, really cute to pull the boat up by the pier, tie it up and have lunch. It was a really nice day with friends.
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| Ian and Murray launching the boat |
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| Sand, Sea and Rocks |
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| Our wake |
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| Ian watching and Murray driving flat out |
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| Tina and Ian |
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| Tina |
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| Murray at the controls |
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| Ian at the controls |
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| Australian Pelican on the wing |
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| The bridge crossing Wallis Lake |
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| Ian, Tina with Murray getting the boat out. |
On Sunday night Ian and I went to Bella Bellissimo for our wedding anniversary, we walked over from the caravan park, it was a lovely evening. So on Monday we were off again still heading north to South West Rocks this time to see the Trail Bay Goal
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| Trial Bay Goal |
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| Inside one of the cell blocks |
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| This is the kitchen, door on right was bakery, door on left was butchery |
This is an amazing. From there we head to the Smoky Cape Lighthouse, the weather has not improved at all, this was a small lighthouse but a steep walk up to it.
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| Smoky Cape Lighthouse and cottages |
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| Looking south from the carpark |
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| Smoky Cape Lighthouse |
Our visit to South West Rocks ended the month on March, so that end s this blog. The weather has been wet and windy all the way so far, the roads have been narrow, rutted, potholed and quite bad. We had rain come in the van in Woollongong thru the vent, Ian has fixed that. We are well north now in Darwin so in the next instalment of Dryden's Travels you will find out more about our trip.
Love as always to you all
Marilyn and Ian
😀🚙
