Mt Buffalo

Yesterday we took a drive up nearby Mt Buffalo, you can drive almost to the top and there is a cafe there, my type of mountain.... It's about 30 ks from the start winding up the mountain, lots of sharp u turns and the road only gets narrow and gravel towards the top, great views up there and a lot cooler to. We kept Bentley in the car as it's national park and didn't see any rangers so that was good. After we drove back down we stopped at Porepunkah near Bright for our picnic lunch and to give Bentley a bit of freedom, when we got back to camp we realised we had left our day bag and flask at the picnic area, we stopped there today to see if by chance it was sat waiting for us but no, sadly it has gone, hopefully someone who needed it is making good use of a couple of dirty cups, old tea bags, nothing for us to really miss except the flask.

A cold night last night and hard to get out of bed this morning, porridge for breakfast and then we headed into Bright and gave Bentley a good walk along the river, the river was used to pan for gold in the 1800's. It was a great walk and we are finding Bright a lovely town.

The top of mt Buffalo

Not sure if this is supposed to look like a Buffalo??

Waterfall on the way down 

On the river walk this morning Bentley just had to go for a swim and a roll in the Stoney ground 

Brian just checking for gold

Finished with an icecream, coffe and zabaglione ..

Brighter weather and Bright

Well it rained for about 2 days, very cosy in our van but the only exercise we got was a drive to Wangaratta and a walk around Aldi! On Friday the rain stopped and we decided time to move on and drove to Bright via the Beechworth Bakery of course and treated ourselves to a pie lunch, Brian had a Ned Kelly and I the Chicken and leek, best pie I have tasted. 

We are camped at Smoko a free camp about 15ks out of Bright, nice little spot, we drove into town yesterday, lovely place lots of Autumn trees, small shops, cafés etc

Weather is cool and crisp, refreshing Brian says, we have had a campfire each morning and night, we are told the weather changes quickly here and up the mountains it's a lot colder....

Plan to spend some time enjoying the area

 

Potato bake we made one night, very yummy

View on our way into our campsite 

Lovely park down by the river in Bright , more like a babbling brook

Town centre Bright

Moving away from the Murray

We have now moved away from the Murray river, we have enjoyed our meander and camps along the river but felt ready to move on. We travelled south west, not very far to Beechworth, lovely town with of course the Beechworth bakery. No free camping close to town so we travelled out to Everton about 15 mins away and found a place by the  Ovens river, busy campsite when we arrived yesterday but today when the rain came it's almost deserted. We are close to the Great Alpine Rd and areas like Falls Creek, Mt Beauty and Mt Hotham which we hope to visit, as I said the rain came this morning, first heavy rain we have had, we took a drive to nearby Myrtleford and up Mt Stanley, our plan was to have a picnic lunch out but the rain was steady drizzle so, we drove to Beechworth and had coffee and cake at the bakery and back to camp with our picnic lunch. So nice to be in our van with the rain outside and we are cosy inside..... Only Bentley wants to keep going out in the rain!!!

Planning on cooking a potato bake in our oven and having some chicken with it for tea. We picked up some chestnuts on our travels today and hope to roast them tonight 

Causeway and bridge at Yarrawonga

We had a drive to Rutherglen, never did find the Port!!!

One of the Towers at Beechworth Gaol

 Lovely autumn tree at Stanley, I think Bentley has similar colours to the tree

Finished with cake at the bakery, beesting and a snicker doodle 

Yarrawonga

Well still in Victoria, moving slowly as usual, we are now in Yarrawonga, some good free camp sites not far from town and seems pretty quiet at the moment, we had a night on the river at Cobram but the track in was narrow and windy, we actually got stuck between two trees on the way in and Brian had to do some reversing etc to get through, I would have taken a photo but we had vehicles behind and in front waiting for us to get sorted....... Anyway we got through and found a spot and thought we might stop awhile, then at about 10,30pm we had a vehicle drive past, reving engine, headlights and completely woke us up, we could see his headlights as he drove further down the river and then he turned back and drove out, took ages for  us to settle back to sleep, Bentley was not unnerved at all and was soon snoring away. Next morning it was raining and with our disturbed night we decided to move on, just stopping in Cobram itself for coffee and cake.

Victorian school holidays have started and it will soon be Easter so campsites and caravan parks will be getting busy, also daylight saving ends tomorrow and then we will be only 2 hours ahead of WA, sunrise this morning was 7.38 am, needless to say we don't get up much before 8.00 am so it might seem more normal when the clocks change tomorrow.

May go a drive tomorrow but today we have been around camp. We had a gas leak on the tap that controls the gas bottles so Brian popped into town and got a replacement and it's now fixed, we had noticed a slight leak about a week ago, but Brian thought he had fixed it but no, anyway sorted now

Camp at Yarrawonga, getting a campfire going

Great fire

Reflections at sunset on the Murray

Par for the course

Well on Saturday we moved here to Echuca, we thought we would find a free spot on the Murray by the river but not to be, we found the area but were disappointed, very muddy in places and lots of campers and after wandering around we decided it wasn't for us, we headed for the Golf club in Moamba on the NSW side of the river and they allow caravans to camp at the back of the resort, lovely spot, about 5 other vans here and it wasn't until we had unhooked and were settling in that I suddenly thought do they allow dogs here, a quick check of Wiki camps says No Dogs..... Oops I missed that didn't I, well felt in a bit of a panic, we had had a long day, it was 4 pm and we didn't want to move, so kept quiet, did think of hiding Bentley under a blanket and only taking him out when it was dark but that was a bit extreme, anyway saw that one other van had a dog, so relaxed a little and thought if anyone tells us to move we will but otherwise just enjoy. It's a great spot, actually a resort, spa, pool, motel as well as the club rooms with 2 bars, bistro, coffee shop and of course gaming room, it's like camping at the Burswood Casino.

Sunday we enjoyed in the port area of Echuca where all the paddle steamers are, we had coffee at the Beechworth Bakery, which is a well known bakery in this area.

Today we went on a paddle steamer for a cruise and they allowed dogs, so Bentley came too, even had his own ticket!  We decided on lunch at the club when we got back and then later back into town to pick up some mail ( thanks Deb) we had coffee and cake at the bakery, needless to say I'm not hungry for tea now.....

Beechworth Bakery

Lovely garden cafe in Echuca

Cruising down the river

Bentley keeping an eye on the engine, obviously knows this is the heart of things.

I'm sure Bentley is enjoying the trip all the othe passengers thought he was very cute ! 

View over the green while we were having lunch

Lunch, quiche for me fish and chips for Brian

Short stay at Mildura

Camped on the river outside Mildura, lovely spot we found yesterday, about half an hour after we set up camp and had put up the awning a storm came through, gusty winds rain etc, both Brian and I were hanging on to the awning trying to roll it up when a fellow camper came to help thankfully and we got it secured away, the rain didn't last long but the thunder rolled around most of the night.

Today Brian took a drive into town to pick up some water and have a Bunnings hit!! 

I stayed at camp making tuna patties for tea etc, after lunch we went a walk along the river, quite a few camp spots along the river most further up by the toilets, on the way back Bentley decided he was hot so went for a swim.... It's ok, he loves the water it's just that he rolls in the dirt after he comes out and by the time we got back he was filthy, so bath time we decided and got buckets of water from the river to wash him, he came up lovely and clean, must be good water this river stuff.

We will probably move on tomorrow as we plan to be in Echuca by Monday to pick up some mail.

View from the van this morning

Lovely spot

One dirty dog, notice his head isn't dirty

Getting water from the river

Bath time

Maybe a massage too...

One lovely clean dog

Leaving Cadell

Well it was time to move on, enjoyed our stay here, over the weekend we had a lot more campers, families with boats, nice crowd. 

We went to the op shop on Sunday, run by two very nice ladies, we asked about water as we needed to top up our 25 and 15 litre containers and one of the ladies took us to her property so we could top them up from her rain water tank! ! Amazingly friendly people.

We moved on Monday very slowly not before 11.30 am and drove to Berri, camped at Martins Bend campsite which is very close to town and free, no camping right on the river but close enough to be able to see the river. Had a quick trip into town for a look around.

Today, Tuesday we went for a bit longer to town, Brian walked along the walk trail, about 2 ks into town and I drove and we had coffee at a riverside cafe, did a little shopping, drove to the very big Berri winery where all those cheap casks of wine come from, not a very appealing place, masses of big vats. Wine was cheap if you bought in bulk but we just got a couple of litre bottles. 

Tomorrow we are moving again towards Mildura.....

Playtime for Bentley

Cadell club where we enjoyed a drink and some nice meals 

One of the weekend campers brought their Ferrets with them, Angus and Hamish, I was worried Bentley might attack them but seems they would have attacked Bentley first, going for his eyes, so the owner told us....

Our campsite at Berri, can't get to close I have my smalls hanging on the awning.

View from our doorway