Rewind 1: Tidal River to Bendigo - Oil leak the second

So, as promised, I want to continue some of what we did before our arrival in Perth, as it was great and it shouldn't be ignored. These backtracks are for our own benefit as much as anything so if you're not interested in stuff we did last year, then stop reading now. When we last rewound, we detailed you with tails of sandwich-stealing seagulls and snuffly wombats and all the majesty that is Wilson's Promontory National Park. Cue flashback:

The drive from Tidal River to Warburton was rather long and once again we found ourselves having to battle with vague maps and poor signage. We hadn't had breakfast and our hopes of making up for it in Fish Creek were dashed as the decent looking cafe was closed. The next town along, Leongatha had a better offering (one that was open!) and we were able to get an eggy fix as well as a good amount of caffeine.
We drove through beautiful forests to Warburton, a lovely town on the edge of the Yarra Valley, you guessed it, one of Australia's most famous wine regions. We called in to Chandon, the Australian outpost of the famous Moet Chandon company. They have a beautiful winery and cellar door and even offer self-guided tours around parts of the winery with explanatory panels for each stage of the winemaking process. We also visited a brewery (makes a change!), this was White Rabbit the sister brewery to Little Creatures based in WA. Next door (conveniently) was Giant Steps winery, not as welcoming as some we've been to, but still some decent wines and we came away with a couple of bottles.

From the Yarra Valley we drove along winding roads through Healesville and Marysville, both devastated by bush fires in 2009 when 34 people lost their lives.  Signs of the fires still remain but they are thriving and creative communities nonetheless and continuing to rebuild. We made for Alexandra and a decent free camp just outside of the town. We were finally enjoying some sunshine, our drive North was spurred by hopes of sun and we found it, for now at least. Alexandra is a lovely little town and we were thrilled to find Redgate Espresso, a lovely cafe with free WiFi and free iPads on which to surf! How very modern! We spent two nights here owing to the fact that the Melbourne cup was on which meant bank holiday, which meant crowds everywhere. Thankfully the crowds failed to materialise in our little pocket of Alexandra and we were rather pleased about that.

From Alexandra we took a slightly indirect route to Bendigo. We had to stop by the brilliantly named village of Break O Day and we stopped for lunch at Flowerdale. Somewhere on the way Annie was struck by the realisation that her shoes which had been safely stowed under the car, were probably still there. Only the car had moved and the shoes were still at the campsite, they could still be there now! We headed to Flowerdale, not only because Annie's name is Flower, but because the local hotel (and by hotel they mean pub) had won best Parmigiana in 2012 as awarded by The Hotelier's Association of Australia. We had one for lunch (to share as they are generally huge) and it was truly excellent. We have explained the beauty of the Aussie classic Parmy once before but as a refresher it is: a crumbed chicken breast, topped with a slice of leg ham, covered in napolitana sauce and topped with melted cheese. Phwoar.

On the road, we also discovered one of our favourite wineries, Rees Miller. He only had Pinot Noir for tasting (like we care) but it was all organic and it was delicious. He was a very interesting person to chat to as well and even sold us a copy of his self sufficiency magazine! We spent the night at Greater Bendigo National Park which was a bit of an arse to get to but free which was all we needed. The next day when visiting Bendigo town centre, we pulled up outside the information centre to collect some leaflets. On our exit from the building, we saw a huge pool of oil coming from our car. Rather than move it, we called Roadside Assistance (a 12 month membership had been included when we bought the car). We scrambled to get a few things out from the car before they took it away and we stayed in a cabin at a nearby caravan park. Unfortunately the garage wasn't open that day, being a Saturday so we had to wait a couple of days in Bendigo until it could be fixed, but the important thing was that it got fixed!

Bendigo is a real gold rush town and it shows in the magnificent buildings.  During our time there, we visited the Central Deborah Goldmine and took a tour down below which was fantastic. Wearing hard hats and lights we went down into the mine as though we were a mining crew, our guide was our boss. We had a drilling demonstration and inspected the operations as our boss determined whether we were up to the job of miner, invariably we were not. The mine was worked on 17 levels and is no longer operating other than for tourist purposes. In its time it removed over 1000kg of gold.

Gold was first discovered at nearby Ravenswood in 1851 and by the 1860s diggers were no longer tripping over surface nuggets so the deep mining began. Many mines operated in the town and ripumour has it you can walk from one end of town to the other completely underground.

We also visited the excellent Regional Art Gallery and the Golden Dragon Museum and Gardens. The museum is home to two impressive imperial dragons, Old Loong is the oldest in the world and Sun Loong which is the longest in the world at over 100m long. Old Long is retired but Sun Loong still makes an appearance now and then. The museum also details the life and inevitable hardship of immigrant workers in the mines during the gold rush.

When we were finally reunited with the car, we continued North toward the border of New South Wales. More on that next time.

Peaceful Bay to Yornaning

From Peaceful Bay, we drove back through Denmark and on to lovely Cosy Corner, a free camp site near West Cape Howe National Park, though not part of the park itself. It's a small and unsurprisingly popular camp ground as not only is it free, but it is very sheltered and only metres from the beach, and as a bonus the loos were pretty OK too!!! We camped amid peppermint trees which had intertwined to form a perfect canopy over the camp ground and as there aren't many camping spots, we were lucky to have arrived when we did. Tom will attest to the fact that I can be annoyingly particular when it comes to camp spots, but on this occasion there was really only one to choose from! Being a freebie, we opted to spend two nights here even though it was still quite rainy.

When the rain eased, we explored the beach and tried to do a bit of fishing but our only catch was seaweed and lots of it. We also admired the nocturnal visitors, particularly a brave little marsupial which I first thought was a rat. Then I was convinced it was a Gilbert's Potaroo, Australia's rarest marsupial, but later research showed it to be a Quenda, a type of Bandicoot. Nonetheless, he was cute and pretty fearless as he foraged by our feet.

After a nice couple of days in Cosy Corner, it was on to Albany, our last stop on the South Coast. A nice, reasonably large town with lots of beautiful old buildings and very friendly locals who shared with us their enthusiasm for the town and the region. First stop was the Boatshed market to check out some local produce and so on before heading to the Albany outpost of the Museum of WA. They had a very interesting exhibition about the Second World War and the role of Australian soldiers in East Timor. It is fascinating to learn about the war from this part of the world and it really brings home the reality of the worldwide impact of a part of history that we are really only taught a snapshot of.

Being a Sunday, not much was open in Albany so we decided to head to another free campsite, Norman's beach set in the beautiful Whydachincup National Park. We drove about 50km out of our way along mostly dirt track for this site for no reason other than it was free, but it was worth it as we had the place to ourselves! We pulled up to a small parking area /camp ground and read the info about the beach, named for the three Norman brothers who at one time owned much of the land nearby. The parking area was lined to one side with trees and as the ground sloped away, it became evident that some of the trees were standing in water, as though there was a lake there, though no lake was marked on the map. We took the path over the dunes that led to the beach and from this higher vantage point we realised that this was Norman's inlet, once connected to the ocean, it is now separated by the sandy beach and so it makes it more lake than inlet. As we followed the path round and reached the staircase that led us to the beach, we both let out a WOW at the scenery around us. It felt very remote and it was very beautiful. To our left, a high rocky hilltop half covered by cloud, dark green trees interspersed with large granite outcrops. In front of and below us, a pristine sandy beach and the azure blue of the ocean with pounding surf. To our right, the bay curved round with more rocks protruding into the sea and more hillsides rising in the distance. All along the beach, big granite rocks were emerging from the sand and even in the greyness and drizzle of the afternoon, we couldn't fail to be in awe of some of the best scenery we have seen thus far. It is a thoroughly special place and I hope to add some photos before too long.

The following day was back to Albany to stock up before we began to head North. It occurs to me that Albany is a very friendly town for us travellers. Free internet in the library and WiFi that works outside as well. Free plugs to charge your gadgets, free showers and loos, free drinking water for campers and a microbrewery! Or so we thought, it turns out that they don't have a brewer right now which is a real shame! Anyway, Albany seems like a pretty great place to me.

That afternoon we drove up to Mount Barker to visit the marvellous winery known as Plantagenet. As luck would have it, I was tasting again, such a hardship. They have some amazing wines and pretty good value too, I would say that though (we did get 15% off!). We came away with 4 bottles: An Off-dry Riesling, an oaked Sauvignon Blanc, a Cabernet Merlot and a Syrah. While in Mt Barker, we paid a visit to the butcher and bought some Jarrah smoked bacon for the next day's breakfast and lunch. It was delicious!

From there it was 20km down the road to Porongurup, a very small settlement nestled in the hills of Porongurup National Park, somewhere we weren't even planning to visit until we saw some pictures of it in Albany and were recommended it by some locals. On our arrival at the little caravan park, we were assured by the owner we had chosen a good time to arrive as there forecast was good for the following day. She was right and we woke to blue skies for the first time on the trip! We climbed up to Castle Rock in the National Park and walked to its summit where there is The Granite Skywalk, an amazing metal walkway attached to the granite rocks and allowing impressive views over the surrounding areas. From there, to the South we could see Norman's inlet and we also looked North toward the dramatic Stirling Range, where we were heading. Access to the Stirling Range National Park is somewhat limited so we decided to just drive a little closer and have our picnic lunch with a good view. They rise dramatically from the flat plains and are covered with such thick green scrub they look as though they are wrapped in wool. We drove for a few more hours, picking up the Great Southern Highway and stopping on the way at Gnowangerup and Wagin. Wagin is home to another of Australia's big things which we have mentioned before, Wagon is home Rambo, the big ram. Wagin is in the heart of a region that seems to exclusively have Merino sheep and Rambo came into being in 1985. From Wagon we realised we were in easy reach of another free camp, Yornaning Dam so headed there for the night.

Is that a feral pig?

We left Carpenters Rocks and after a pit stop for caffeine we were on our way to Portland, a small town with a huge smelter! We found this out partly because you can't miss it but also partly because we nearly drove into it owing to my poor navigation. So a stop in the tourist Info's is a must in every town, if only to get a better map and at Portland, we discovered the existence of free showers AND free camping, though not in the same place but still, really useful! The campsite in question currently ranks as top after nearly two months on the road: Narrawong Forest reserve. The first night we spent, it was rainy and cold but even so we spotted a few wild wallabies approaching the picnic areas. One even had a joey in her pouch! While they were cautious, they did come incredibly close and it was amazing.
The next day, we drove along the coast to Cape Bridgewater to see the blowholes and the petrified forest. Not so much a petrified forest as rock formations caused by erosion that leave trunk like structures on the cliff top. It really does look as though some trees have turned to stone, hence the name. Unfortunately, the tide wasn't right for the blow holes and it was incredibly windy so we didn't hang around (don't worry Mum, there was a guard rail at the edge of the cliff). We did however head down to the wonderful beach cafe for fish and chips, or nachos in Tom's case. Another stop in Portland on the way back to the Narrawong forest where we camped for the second night and thankfully this time it wasn't raining. While preparing the car for the night and our food we heard the most bizarre sound. To me, it sounded like a warthog or pig and having read about feral pigs in the paper, I was half expecting one to run out of the bushes at us. Tom decided to investigate despite my insistence that I couldn't bear to ring his mum to tell her he'd been attacked by a pig. Of all the dangerous things in Australia and it's a pig that gets you! Well, needless to say a pig it was not. The source of the sound (described as similar to a motorbike by another camper) was located in the trees after some carefully aimed deterrents were fired in Tom's general direction (Poo in other words). It was a wild koala! To hear what it sounded like, check out this video. It's good to know what the sound is though, so we know if there is a koala nearby, not a feral pig though. Hopefully we won't be finding out what they sound like anytime soon. We think he was getting annoyed at the other campers heading past him to the loo every few minutes, keeping him awake. That same evening, we saw the beautiful wallaby with her joey a few more times, even passing really very close to us at one point. The final reason we loved camping at Narrawong forest was that as it got dark, we saw thousands of glow worms in the trees. Quite magical which appropriately takes us to our next stop, Port Fairy.
xAnnie