MARYBOROUGH & HERVEY BAY

Awoke too another drizzly overcast morning but not to worry we made most of the situation and began some schoolwork for the kids shortly after breakfast for the next few hours .
Us boys were getting a little on the nose so we all jumped in the showers for a scrub.
A quick lunch of toasted chicken and cheese sangas and a little bit of turkish bread and we set off in the cruiser to explore up the road .
I'm guessing the road to Maryborough (Cooloora Rd ) has on recently been asphalted or at least resealed as there were no lines and still in good condition as have most of the Queensland roads we have so far travelled.
Maryborough was our first glimpse of sugar cane in the flesh and its easy to see how this made the town years ago with a train track right into town possibly to the port on the Mary river to be hauled away.
Other than that it was a beautiful old town with many modern supermarkets and amenities .
A call in to a local tyre dealer wasn't particularly helpful in trying to source some decent all terrain or not so aggressive mud terrain tyres before we hit the cape next month.
Judging on recent conditions late rain may prove a little tricky without better tread.
I got a call from the Brisbane R & J store from paul saying they needed a hand for a few weeks while staff are on leave so that will give me a much better price on tyres in town owing to freight and competition .
Only thing now is to find some accommodation close to stapylton that doesn't cost the earth or is too far away from there either.
There is plenty of work up this way especially in harvest work be it cotton or sugar for drivers labourers and certainly plenty of local chef work , i was to do some fencing work for Cliff here in Tin Can Bay on his farm but the ground was soaked and would easily bog the tractor in the lower paddocks so maybe i would come back at a later date for that.
Hervey Bay was a much bigger city than all of us expected wit pretty much a suburb feel to most of it .
The marina was the first port of call , we looked at the breakwater and the many , many boats harboured inside some worth a pretty penny i am sure , with many others catering to dolphin and whale watching along the coast and even more ferry boats to crross to Fraser Island from this side.
The kids especially liked the giant whale out the front and the realistic (very realistic) crocodile on the jetty along with quite a few birds on pontoon towers .
plenty of food choices here but we skipped the coffee and cake and kicked back in the local boat club on the harbour .
They easily took us for southerners as dash was in a tank top and probably our still untanned skin colour ,lol.
A lovely fairly cheap meal with good portion size very friendly staff all round .
The cafe on the other side of the club was our next choice so we had coffee and dessert there while i claimed my massive winnings from the keno games i had put on woohooo 2 X $2 .
it was well after 8 when we left so we decided to walk the 868 metre long pier in the dark , it was well lit up ,but unbelievably long but it needed to be to cover the massive sand bar here and years ago it was actually 246 metres longer with a head to accomodate the trains unloading sugar cane , coal and timber .
We watched the locals bring in some wobbygong shark and school shark in good numbers and heard how one caught a 16 ft tiger shark earlier in the moth which we verified online later on.
The night was getting a little chilly and certainly dark owing to the lack of daylight savings time ( wake up qld and get with the program !) so we took off for home after a short drive along the Esplanade still busy feeding and satisfying the northern thirst .
we got back to our Tin Can Bay site an hour and 30 minutes later driving through some short bursts of torrential rain all buggered and soon were all asleep.

Hobart beach Merimbula

I must admit I really love waking up to most birds in a camp setting ( maybe not cockies in drives however )
There were many birds here in particular currawongs ,swift parrots and superb wrens which we noted with some other species in our bird field book notepad which we hadn't used in nearly a year .
Etienne and I went for a big kayak trip over the lake before lunch which took forever especially the way back into the swell and wind .
The jellyfish were out in there thousands especially on the edges as we entered the waters,a little daunting but well worth it .
Shahla was doing u believable on her new bike so we too the trainers off as for the last few day they had net up and she wasn't using them anyway .
Today there would be a few battle scars of her various come offs ,nothing serious however but we were all very proud of her .
The days were absolutely marvellous here we enjoyed walking around the nature reserves where wallabies ,possums , galore and the abundant birdlife .
We headed into town this afternoon to post of some schoolwork back to distance ed we completed this morning and get some fire wood in the nearby forest then we arrive back to start our campfire so we could do our magnificent beef and cheese kransky casserole with dumplings over the well placed fire pit .
We gorged on the camp oven delight as the possums danced and played in and around our feet then topped off the night with marshmallows around the fire before hitting the sack although the adults sipped a few be vies after the kids were in bed.

Genoa to Hobart Beach via Eden and merimbula

The morning was as fresh as a mother in laws kiss so we were quick to eat and pack the camper up ,with us gone a little before 1030.
There was a bit of a climb to leave the state before we climbed along a few ridge lines up and down some windy roads that did not do our fuel economy any favours . The exhaust helped obviously but I'm thinking a chip to maximise the setup would be a big benefit .
At Eden we took the time to visit the local killer whale museum mostly depicting old Tom a local favourite that was found dead years later in a nearby harbour and today his Skelton is on display from the rafters of the museum.
The kids enjoyed the museum especially the Skeleton and close second the way tuna is caught on lines by the tonne .
A few bargains at the local Coles specifically 5 kebabs for our lunch for $2.47 and a whole chook for $3.40 which was to be our tea for the night .
We took a short drive through the Ben Boyd national park then into Merimbula where no cheap accomodation was to be had , either powered on unpowered certainly not any free camps here on the south coast of nsw .
We did some geocaches and admired this bustling but small tourist town.
There was a nice tidal lake nearby at lake Wallagoot in the Bournda national park.
Hot showers but unpowered sites in a quiet environment sounded good for us to stay for a few days it had been a fair drive today.
Below is the picture of the nsw parks and wildlife park entry meter
I can see why everyone hates the user pay style of national parks here
While I have no problem with camping fees I think it's ridiculous to pay via our tax the. Daily entries then camping fees but in this part of the south nsw coast this was seriously our cheapest option without heading many Kms inland out of our way.

We ended our day with a beautiful roast chicken (cheap) corn and veg .

Mallacoota

The gift only produced a little rain so the kids were still dry inside the tent and I'm guessing they talked themselves to sleep as we heard them for awhile as we drifted off and Shahla enjoyed her night with the bed to herself for a nice change .
Crumpets with lemon butter was Ej's and I choice of breakfast and we packed some bread and salad for lunch .
We had a quick scout around the river and campsite and over the old transport bridge just after brekky then dash and I rounded up some stray cattle that were in the campsite that might make their way to the highway not far off so we opened a gate back to the paddock with the other beasts ( hopefully the right one lol ) . Then we shut the gate even though I could see some fences in need of repair where they probably got though .
Gipsy point was the first stop before Mallacoota 'twas a nice little corner with little access for tourist activities except if you rented a b&b or lodge as there was only a wharf toilets and a small Carpark here any way ,quaint small a little smelly from the river but no fish for the hour or so we were here , just enough time for the geocache and some soft plastics to be thrown around .
Mallacoota was a big surprise for Corinna and I as we had never been there , the sheer number of houses and area in this end of Victorian wilderness .
We explored the top and bottom lake area before doing yet another cache ( a multi this one ).
The caravan park was monstrous to obviously cater for the summer and Easter crowds .
We lunched at a park playground under the BBQ area salad sangas with a warm cuppa for the adults as it wasn't overly warm.
Then onto the wharf for me for some fishing for me while the others called in to the bakery for some sweets .
The abalone trade was doing well here we seen three dive boats return with around four crates each quickly weighed papers signed and stacked into a waiting fridge van .
No bites even so we drove down to Bastion Point to see the abalone boats come in to the escape the bar which restricted the access to the sea from the lakes as the mouth was too shallow .
Dolphins abounded here playing around the arriving dive boats and the the inlet before the man made slipway .
I chatted with a older abalone diver here about Tasmanian abalone divers and the money they made , he agreed with quite a nice parcel he and his boys had made since 1964 when he started.
The npws jet boat arrived amid a pod of dolphins then we made our way back to the top lake to try fishing with some prawns and lures to no avail , pretty much the same as the bottom lake soon after and finally the wharf just before a tea of local pizza , some of the tourists fishing here were pretty amusing with local baits of all sorts being used ( chicken fillets for dusky flathead ???) not this black duck today .
It was well after 8 pm and time to make our way back to genoa and the camper .
It had been a fantastic day but I was disappointed we had fished for well over 5 hours different techniques and styles of bait and lines with hardly a bite .
The lady at the servo had also said no one was catching anything , I'm not sure but the full moon had only ended 2 days before maybe that meant something .
The night was freezing now I fired up the heater in the goldstream to take the chill off but Ej and Shahla were undaunted opting for the tent so dash had the bed to himself tonight .

Swifts Creek to Genoa rest area campsite via Lakes Entrance

Up at a decent hour for breakfast with packing up a quick straight forward affair as the annexe had not been setup during our stay here.
Retracing our steps back towards Tambo Crossing we soon past some beautiful little towns like Bruthen and Swan Reach a couple more geocaches under our belts we arrived at Lakes Entrance which was still fairly busy for this time of year .
The town had grown quite a bit since we were last here when Ej was just over 1 year old ,with a woolworths nearby we stocked up on some meat and groceries then fuel to top the tanks up.
We continued after a stop at the bookshop to satisfy Ejs insatiable thirst for books , with a lunchtime stop at a beautiful historic old train trestle bridge at Nowa Nowa where we had been twice before but now there was no pedestrian access allowed across the bridge now as it had deteriorated a fair bit but was still a stop on the Old railway walk back to Bairnsdale .
Geocache and Munzee done here we avoided the muggled and headed back to the highway and past Orbost and the silted up Snowy River then Cann River before arriving g a few hours later at Genoa rest area campground which looks like and old caravan park site but the hot water and power Sites are long gone but its free and the weatheris cold and drizzly so we setup a tent for the boys which is what they wanted and the annexe ( not too sure why though :().
I was happy with our annexe floor made of shade cloth and our battery system working well we even used the heater a bit here tonight to take the chill off .
We got less then 5 mm of rain overnight and the kids remained dry .
Looking at the map below its seems we covered a bit of ground today .

Haunted stream track

Having read up on the haunted stream a few years back I forgot it was even in this area but looking at nearby geocaches I soon had the track in my sights.
Early brekky of pancakes with maple syrup done on the BBQ hot plate with our trusty silicone BBQ sheet for easy cleaning and we packed ready to go with a BBQ lunch on board .
Stopped at the Swift Creek supermarket for some water and bread then up Brookville rd past the quarry then past the local tip where the sealed petered out to a well formed dirt track onwards up to Mt Baldhead where we decided on a retrace back a few hundred metres so avoiding the widy summit rd then headed into the bush tracks towards Dawson city before taking a supposedly closed track down the steep heavily treed track to the beginning or end (depends on which way you started from ) of the Haunted Stream Track .
I hadn't aired down at this stage until it was wet I certainly would but low range 1stand 2nd gears copped a workout in the downhills here , it was a little weird as I hadn't really had much experience in low range work in auto's but it was fairly easy with the diesel.
At the Track head we had a quick stop to have a look around before tackling the first of 54 crossings in the next 24 Kms , nine of them were very deep most never even got over centre of wheel height but there was a few slippery exits and entries and several steeper tracks on both sides .
About half way we stopped for our lunch of ham cheese and pineapple wraps done over the hot plate with a cuppa .
There was a geocache a little further up the track , I let Shahla steer the car through the next creek crossing while the boys walked over some rocks to the other side .
We only passed a number two other groups on the track which was good as there wasn't much room for manoeuvring around on some cliff side tracks .
The geocache was located in the old town ( long since gone ) of dog town and there was a bit of rock scrambling and river crossing to get to it as the road was shut and overgrown Corinna drove around and met dash and I a little up the track past two more crossings.
It was getting well into mid afternoon and because we were low in a valley there wasn't much sunlight and the sky above was turning an ominous shade of black so I wanted to keep it moving as we were only 3/4 of the way along with 12 or so more crossings .
A steep rocky exit and we were near a large firebreak where the track splits a little before heading back to the alpine way near Tambo Crossing , I must say this area is well sign posted and if you had no maps the drives could still be fairly confidently done .
We exited on a corner inlet near the Tambo river and back to camp having spent the last 5 hours with stops on the track but if you were in a rush it could be done in just over three hours .
Other campers had set up back at swifts creek we had a quick chat about road conditions before doing tea and a video before bed .