Stats Overview
Km's Travelled: 891
Km's Hiked: 23
No. of Camps: 4
The Adventures
This week we have been able to put a sizeable dent into our travels through Victoria, exploring the Gippsland region. We visited the high country, camped at the beach and made it down to Wilsons Promontory. We were very glad we put in the automatic transmission cooler as the poor BT has certainly had a work out towing our van through the mountains! This week has also been our cheapest week on the road so far as we have been able to stay almost exclusively at free camps. We have been very impressed with the quantity and quality of the free camps throughout our travels in Victoria. We have also had some fun "living off the land" by picking blackberries and eating freshly caught trout that another camper caught in the river at one of our campsites.
We started the week in the high country which was truly breath-taking! The first mountain we explored was Mount Buffalo. We were lucky to get some really lovely weather while we were there, so we were able to enjoy the beautiful views across the mountains and into the valleys below. However, as the weather was warm, it also meant it was the local snake populations day out for exploring as well! We ended up having one of our hikes interrupted when a large black snake decided he was going to use the rocks on the path to sun himself, with no intention of moving for us hikers. So we decided to let him have the path and turned back around! The highlight of Mount Buffalo was climbing "The Horn" which is the summit of the mountain. It was a fairly short, but very steep, walk up through the granite boulders to the top with some incredible views across the high country.
We then headed across to Hotham Heights to complete some more hikes and explore more of the mountains. The drive up to Mount Hotham was a very windy and stressful affair! The road was barely wide enough for two cars and most of the way up there was a sheer drop over the edge with no protection barriers. The craziest part of the drive were the number of cyclists who were climbing the mountain. We were tired just looking at them - they must have been a lot fitter than the both of us! We did make it up Mount Hotham in one piece and completed some hikes to Mount Loch and Derricks Hut. Unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side and the mountains were very overcast, windy and hazy which meant we did not get to enjoy the impressive views of the mountains in the distance. However, we both thoroughly enjoyed this part of the world and are very keen to come back one day to see it covered in snow during the winter.
From the high country we decided to head to the beach as it has been a few weeks since we have seen the ocean. We found a wonderful free camp just outside Golden Beach where we camped in behind the sand dunes. It was very windy during our time there which meant we didn't go for any swims as the ocean looked quite choppy and rough. However, it was nice to fall asleep to the sounds of the waves crashing and go for walks along the beach in the afternoons. The beach also had some of the most impressive and beautiful shells we have ever seen, which made up for the lack of swimming. Where we were camped was along 90 Mile beach which is apparently one of the longest stretches of sand in Australia. However, it certainly does not compare to the beautiful beaches in Queensland!
We have now made it to Wilsons Promontory where we are going to base ourselves for the next couple of days. We are excited to do some of the hikes here, however, the extent of our adventures will depend largely on the weather. It is currently freezing and very wet but we are hoping tomorrow might bring the goods, before we have to vacate for the big crowds who have booked the campgrounds out for the long weekend.
Kodak Moments
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| Will's first campfire of the trip - Porepunkah |
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| View from "The Horn" - Mount Buffalo |
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| Lots of granite rocks on "The Horn" walk - Mount Buffalo |
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| "The Horn" peak |
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| View across the valley - from Mount Buffalo |
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| Will collecting blackberries from our campsite - Porepunkah |
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| Cooling off at our campsite - Buckland River |
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| Hiking around Hotham Heights |
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| Made it to the summit - Mount Loch |
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| View from Mount Loch |
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| Derrick's Hut |
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Having a well deserved break after our hiking - Hotham Heights
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| 90 Mile Beach |
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Trinculo Ship Wreck near our campsite - 90 Mile Beach
 | | The rain closing in - Wilsons Prom |
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