Harries Family Happenings

Easter 2012–Day 6

We awoke to the unfortunate sound of rain – not a good sign, we don’t like packing up in the wet it is probably the worst thing that could happen when we camp. Brendan went around the tent blowing smoke – from the cold not because he was angry.

After breakfast in the camp kitchen, it was much warmer than outside, and packing up the wet camper in the cold we had some well deserved hot showers before leaving the township of mighty Ballarat – todays temp 2-13 !

We drove thru the city of Geelong and saw the home field for the Geelong cats in the AFL, then stopped at the local Kmart for a few more warm clothes for Brendan and had a warm lunch.

On the road again this time going towards Torquay where we stopped for pictures of the lighthouse at Spit Point and then at the local surf beach. We then made a detour to see the famous Bells beach which had just finished hosting the Rip Curl Pro Surfing competition (local Gerringong girl Sally Fitzgibbons won the women’s). We continued on our way going along the Great Ocean Road. The scenery of rugged coast lines dotted with rocky beaches with pounding angry waves and high jaggered cliff faces was a consistent view with every curvy bend of the road. Deciding that it was getting late we pulled in to the big 4 caravan park at Apollo Bay for the night. It was definitely warmer here on the coast (still cold enough you needed jackets though) but alas the rain had once again followed us and is crap weather, hopefully it will improve for the morning.

Easter 2012–Day 5

Today was an extra day we decided to have in Ballarat, so we had a sleep in, which was a good thing seeing how it was windy, raining & cold enough to freeze the nose off a polar bear (keeping it clean in case of any underage reading!)

We decided on cooking breakfast – the traditional camp food, bacon & eggs, in the communal kitchen, which was dry and warm, and free of smoke until we started to cook.

We ventured out to do some shopping in the centre off Ballarat, easily we found a Rays Outdoors & bought up on warmer jackets & a pair of walking boots for Brendan, he seems to out grow every pair we buy within months ! We also purchased a gas heater fitting which fixes to the gas bottle, that’s David trying to make me more comfortable.oh he’s so sweet – you know what they say – happy wife good life !. Next stop, a Coles store for a few extra items we needed & Liquor Land for a few drinks for me. As it was still raining & viscously cold even with our new jumpers on,we decided to treat Brendan to a warm easy meal at the local Macca’s which was located on Battery Hill, where the Eureka Stockade took place.

After dropping the food off at the campsite we went back to Sovereign Hill ( was a complementary extra day ticket ) to see a few of the extra shows we missed. We saw pure gold being smelted & poured into moulds. A pantomime about robin hood & red riding hood in the Victoria Theatre. We also experienced a under ground mine tour of when miners were trapped under ground in the 1800’s in which 22 people lost their lives, we went on the mine trolleys in total blackness, Brendan couldn’t see my hand in front of his face until it hit him, then another commentary & light show, it wasn’t bad but could have been better.We tried our luck at gold panning again, but only managed to obtain a small flake. By now it had started raining again, we decided to head over to the Gold Museum for a look. There were a few interesting items on show and was nice and warm,.We viewed some large nugget’s of gold, coins, old memorabilia & machinery, but every other person visiting the area had decided to do the same thing so it was packed.

Must try out the new heater tonight !

Easter 2012–Day 4

The Easter Bunny came to our camp site, so Brendan must have been good..

Brendan was up & off early with his friends, scootering around, he didn’t come back to the camper for ages so David & I gave up on him for breaky and had bacon & eggs with out him . Brendan was off on an Easter egg hunt – provided by the staff at the caravan park, he was happy, he came back with a bag full to share

We plotted the address of Sovereign Hill into the GPS & started off for the day. The grounds were large, scattered with replica homes & tents of the gold diggers and families,old steam machinery, displays such as tin making & blacksmith, there was a theatre which had live performance’s, a School – Brendan sat in the front row learning to write using a quill & ink. We tried ten pin bowling 1800’s style – using wooden pins & ball. A ride in the horse drawn coach around the area was a must, Brendan got to sit up top with the driver.A redcoat soldier display along the street, with guns being drawn was a treat and drew a large crowd. We tried our hand at fossicking for gold, Brendan & David found a few slivers but alas no big nuggets, it was fun.We had lunch at the local bakery – 3 serves of Devonshire tea’s please. The rest of the afternoon consisted of various activities including a visit to the local bar for a drink, looking at the Chinese section of the town, visiting the local confectionary shop – we were a bit late & they had sold out of all the toffee apples ( they looked really nice ) and a red hill gold mining tour underground – where we viewed a replica of the 2nd biggest nugget found, before we decided to have a rest & freshen up back at the campsite before returning for the nights activities.

We had booked a dinner & show for tonight, it started at 5.30. We arrived and had complimentary drinks before being taken in to the dinning area where we had roast lamb / chicken dinners followed by dessert – chocolate moose & apple strudel, it wasn’t too bad. The show followed it was broken into 4 sections. The first section was a short film in the theatre which describes the gold digging days leading up to when the Eureka Stockade took place. Next we walked outside to where we were fossicking earlier during the day ( it had an eerie feeling at night,) for a light show / commentary of days gone by with the escalating tensions between gold diggers and the government. We then boarded the vehicles which took us to the third section of the nights events, an area designed singularly for the show, we sat in a theatre style room, and once every one was settled the screen opened allowing us to view the show of the full sized eureka area comprising of camp sites/ mines, government tents, church and even a circus tent that was on the hills in front of us. There was a commentary of events that happened between Nov to Dec 1885 leading to the Eureka stockade, with the music and lights playing over sections of the area, you could visualise the people living there, we had burning hotels, murder, mayhem and even some gun fights,and of course the raising the Southern Cross flag etc . Lastly we were driven back to the main street where Peter Lalor, the leader of the Eureka Stockade miners, made a speech to us all about the need to fight for your rights. Overall this was a very good production and we all enjoyed it.

Easter 2012 – Day 3

We still had a early morning planned and at 6.30 the weather wasn’t too bad, after showers & packing up our bits, luckily we didn’t have to pack up a wet camper, & pieces, we had breaky – because we had splurged and spent money on a room & meals we just had our own cereal in the room, it was a little bit unfortunate that our plates were in the camper but the room had coffee mugs – yes I made us eat out of them – it wasn’t too bad, Brendan just had to have 2 cup fulls rather than a bowl full.

We started out for Wilsons promontory – the southern most point in the Australian mainland, early, and had hardly any traffic, we did get a bit concerned when it rained heavily again, but within 5 minutes the sun was shining once more- although it still is windy, it was a bit fresh today so we all had long sleeved shirts on.

We reached the Prom’s entrance and took photos for prosperity. After driving a few kilometres in the National Park we had a kangaroo jump out in front of the car, David managed to avoid it, then after a few more minutes of driving we rounded a corner and came across a large flat grassy area which had a emu grazing on it, we stopped for more photos, Brendan had to keep his eyes open for more wildlife after that.

There were some very picturesque views along the way to Tidal River – the camping and information area. Once we reached Tidal River area we browsed the various information centres & shops, buying a few postcards & magnets etc, it then started to rain again, so we decided to head back. Along the way we stopped for a few more photos. We also stopped at Darby River and did a 1.1 km walk to the beach area, there are plenty of walks all over the National Park, this was one of the smaller ones.

We left Wilsons Prom and started out on our trek to Ballarat. We stopped for Fuel in Yanakie the price were surprisingly similar to home. We made another stop and had lunch at Kelly’s Bakery in Korumburra. We drove thru Melbourne and saw the Rod Laver Tennis Park which looked like a hive of golf balls, the roads were really good. We arrived at Ballarat at around 3.30. We set up the camper,and even though we were working we noticed that it was getting cooler, long pants and jackets were put on. When we finished Brendan took off on his scooter, playing on the jumping pillow & made some new friends.

We cooked tea & washed up in the communal camp kitchen area.

David has informed me that it is currently 10 degrees and it should be a balmy 8 degrees in the morning warming to a fine and lovely 16 degrees – I don’t think we bought enough warm stuff !

Easter 2012–Day 2

An early start and we head to Macca’s for a quick breakfast.

We showed Brendan the Oyster farms growing along the Merimbula river

A few minutes later and we were in Eden, we went to the Killer Wale museum, but it didn’t open until 11, as it was only 8.30 we decided not to wait

We concluded that every second car going north, was towing a boat.too bad we didn’t bring ours down here we may have sold it.

We passed thru some pretty towns.stopped for lunch at a small town called Nicholson,it was on the river and quite nice

We made it to Sale (this was planned for the first night) at around 2.30, we stopped at the tourist info centre for some brochures etc., we continued on our way, the plan was to find a free stop, hmm none around, so we then phoned a few caravan parks.hmm all booked out for Easter, at this stage David was starting to get a bit testy, as he had said we should book our campsites due to it being the Easter Weekend and all!.We continued on our way to Foster, there was a free site west of there, unfortunately we got a bit lost but ended up finding it, but, when we got there, it was a look out & had a sign advising no camping. Ok , now what.we went back to the comfort inn motel we saw & asked if they had a room.by this time it is around 5pm, guess what.no all booked out..but the owner Lynn phoned around for me and found a room at the hotel/ motel in Fish Creek around 15 min drive.. Thank you.

We arrived at Fish Creek, and found the Hotel, you couldn’t really miss it, David wasn’t too impressed but I went in to pay. From the outside it doesn’t look much but the room was quite nice. We all had showers ( 1 night with out and we start to stress ) and made our way to the dinning room which was also quite attractive. The food was good but the plates were huge (not the meals, just the plates).. after about 2 hours we went back to the room. We were really surprised as it was lightly raining

It started pouring down and strong winds started blowing.I was so glad we weren’t in the camper trailer, it sounded bad enough in the motel room! This continued on and off, all night!

Easter 2012–Day 1

Our holidays didn’t start out as planned, our Victorian High Country trip was cancelled due to flooding & road closures etc then we had to wait for a parcel to arrive Thursday, we eventually left at midday At least we could carve up the tar for a few hours.

After passing Bermagui, the joke in the car was that “this” was the furthest south Brendan had been, then a minute late no this is.it went on all afternoon,

We saw a fully dressed Storm Trooper pushing a trolley along the freeway between Bega and Eden’ unfortunately we didn’t have anywhere we could pull over safely to take a photo , I think we were all silent for a good minute before we checked with each other at the same time that we did actually see him..It was the strangest thing

We ended up stopping at a free campsite, Yellow Pinch Dam, on the outskirts of Eden and set up for the night , there were already 2 caravans and a Kombi van, but still plenty of room

Brendan was fascinated by the coloured rock, pink quartz, found around the area.

After tea we chatted with an older couple from SA who were telling us about their trip

We then had an early night so we could get up early ( OMG yes around 6.30..that is in the morning) & catch up on some KM’s we didn’t get to today. It was a nice warm night, with nearly a full moon, so was quite bright. Being off the main road a bit, it was also very quiet!

Cape York 2011 – Not quite the Ending We Hoped For

The rest of the photos can be seen here!

Well, it didn’t end as we had hoped, but for the first five weeks it was very good.

Though it was a little hectic, with usually getting into a campsite, with just enough time to set up the tent & cook some dinner, before it was too dark. Then being up, fed & packed to go again, by 8:30am.

We became quite good at packing up 😉

The Cape, wasn’t as difficult as we had expected, though we did manage to get water over the bonnet a few times, and the Infamous Gunshot Creek required nearly everyone to be pulled out, at the bottom, due to it being so steep that the car’s front end was digging into the mud at the bottom of the incline!