On the road at last

After all the trials and tribulations of last week, we hit the road on Sunday morning.  We headed east through TRARALGON  to SALE, then north east to BAIRNSDALE.  From there N.E again on the Great Alpine Road to a small town called BRUTHEN about 27 km from BAIRNSDALE. A total of about 155 km.  We are staying here for two nights while we explore the area.  After all the problems with the caravan, it towed like a dream and after the first 100 km we started to feel comfortable and cruised along at 100 kph with no problems whatever.  Our smiles grew bigger and bigger with each with each kilometer that passed.  The Pajero handled the van easily but was gobbling up diesel at the rate of 19.5 litres per 100 km, according to the onboard computer.  A little higher than we expected but it may come down as we get used to travelling with the van.  We are in a motor camp by the Tambo River with lots of Galahs,  Rosellas and Sulphur Crested Cockatoos all around us.

 It only took us about 15 to 20 minutes to set up the van, and then we were off to BUCHAN about 50 km away on the eastern edge of the Snowy River National Park to have a look at their famous caves.  We drove through beautiful bush and rolling high country farmland, taking a few side trips down rough roads to so called lookouts, only to find they weren't, finally arriving at Buchan to find out we had missed the last guided tour by 10 minutes.  We consoled ourselves by saying they probably weren't as good as Waitomo anyhow.  We had a look around the township and their beautiful camp ground adjacent to the caves, and Cameron had a quick swim in a pool fed by an underground stream coming from the caves.  He didn't stay in long.  Reckoned it was too cold. 

After the swim we popped into the local pub, (as you do),  for a 'pot', not a glass, of beer and chippies.  Got talking to a couple of the locals who told us the temperature of the water in the swimming pool was a consistent 11degrees.  Cameron must be getting soft!!  One of the locals was a farmer and when I asked him why there was no stock to be seen on the farms, he told us they had just come through a 13 year drought and all the farmers had had to ditch at least half of their stock.  This season they had had plenty of rain, and now, with grass coming out of their ears, they couldn't afford to buy stock to graze it.  So after 13 years of drought and no grass, they now had grass falling over and going rotten in the paddocks. No wonder he was in the pub!!

Today we did a Tiki Tour around LAKES ENTRANCE which is a beautiful seaside town which reminded us of Mount Manganui.   This is as far east as we will go, and tomorrow we head back west to the coast south of SALE, about a 100 km away,  where we are going to try free camping  for the first time. 

From the somewhat happier campers.
Here endeth the second lesson.