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Bruny Island getaway

Trouble with winter is that you get a bit housebound! We decided on an overnight stay on Bruny Island to get us out and about.

The Neck campground was our destination - we were virtually the only ones there, being joined right on dusk by another camper - but the site is large and we were not tripping over each other.

Cold night, but warm inside Wanda. We tried out the generator to make sure it was still working, and pleasantly surprised at how quiet it was - not audible even ten metres away.

Also on our itinerary was a stop at Bruny Island Cheese for supplies. Met the resident baker who was proud to show us his magnificent woodfired oven and how he uses it.

Next day I tried a bit of bird photography - plenty of birds, but my skills were not good enough to catch them ... oh well, I have booked a workshop at the Bruny Island Bird Festival.

wanda goes to Sydney for Christmas, 2015

for the last few years we have spent Christmas with parents, either in Adelaide (Mannum) or Sydney.

This year we took our camper, Wanda, to Sydney. The plan was to travel up the East coast before Christmas (while everyone is getting ready for the big day, but not actually on holiday) and then travel back through the Great Dividing Range, including Canberra, Kosciuszko, and Bonegilla, when everyone else has headed for the coast.

We took our bicycles and to ride on trails in Victoria especially, as well as Sydney and Canberra. Also, having had Wanda for a few years now, we have fine tuned our inventory and provisions list for a longer trip.

This is my travel diary. An alternative version may be told on Di's blog.

Melbourne to Bruthen

By 8.00 am we were on the road, having had a sufficient St Kilda breakfast including a good cup of coffee. Siri was our guide, and she did a good job.

For the record, we drove to Devonport the night before to load Wanda onto the Spirit, which was only half full, and had a pleasant enough crossing.

Bruthen is our first destination, but we did not know this until we were well on the way there. Di does an excellent job as tactical navigator on the road and we often wonder nowadays what we ever did without a smart phone and the internet.

There are some great rail trails in this area, including one between Stratford to Traralgon that can be completed by a return trip on the train. Unfortunately, our schedule did not lend itself to this adventure, but it is one for the future.

Stony Creek Trestle Bridge Ride

Our first ride actually started at the Bruthen caravan park where we left Wanda and headed towards Nowa Nowa (30 km). A very pleasant ride, even on the hot day we did it – steady climb through shady forest on a hard packed gravel surface with a few sandy patches.
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We turned around at the impressive Stony Creek trestle bridge which you can’t walk over now – there is a bypass though, and Nowa Nowa is about 5 km further on.

Cassilis and the Victorian High Country

dry and sunburns land ... we had some hot weather through this part of the trip, including the high country

The weather was hot and our destination along the Great Alpine Way did not offer any relief, despite the elevation. Di’s former work colleague and his partner are building a beautiful chalet at Cassilis and we dropped in to see them.

Along the way (which was up the Tambo river valley) we came across a tribute to early settlers who would drove their cattle to and from the high country, and behind it, the real thing – curious cows and a shambolic shearing shed.

​Apart from the heat, it was a great day and a lovely drive. We returned to the coast via Lake Entrance to stay overnight at Cape Conran