Yambuk to Orbost

Our next stop was across the border into Victoria for a couple of nights in a caravan park in Yambuk. We stayed here in 2004 over Christmas when we had our caravan. The facilities had been updated and it was a bit busier but other than that it had not changed much.

Our tent overlooked the Eumeralla River and the dunes behind the long sandy beach.

We spent an afternoon at nearby Port Fairy and in the evening sat on the cliff tops with some fish and chips and watched the surfers.

After Yambuk our next stop was the other side of Melbourne so we coughed up the toll fee and passed straight through Melbourne and on to Moondarra State Park. We had a great camping spot in a small bush camping area with a river running around the outside of it. It was deep enough to swim in which was good as it was quite hot.

We did a walk which took us to some very large granite outcrops almost at the top of Mount Erica.

The trees were magnificent with snow gums, wattles and the occasional mountain ash.

A ranger advised us to be on the lookout for Tiger snakes but we didn't see any but there were lots of other creatures to be seen.

There were a load of ladybirds grouped together but some of them left before I could get the camera out.

These are Trigger Plants which are named because they have a resettable, excitable pollination mechanism! Read all about them here: http://www.triggerplants.org/2.html

After all the exercise we drove up a steep track to the ski resort at the top of Mount Baw Baw (1500mtrs). There wasn't any snow but there was a coffee shop that was open. The view from the top was great.

After all the exercise we drove up a steep track to the ski resort at the top of Mount Baw Baw (1500mtrs). There wasn't any snow but there was a coffee shop that was open. The view from the top was great.

Back at the campsite one of the locals paid us a visit, a very large fat goanna over a metre long.

One of the other campers told us that they had heard that that a bushfire had started about 50km away. Fortunately the wind was blowing it away from us. We stayed the night but packed everything away but the bare essentials in case we had to make a run for it. Currently the fire has burnt 60,000 hectares and the fire front was 200km long at one stage. The smoke has tinted the sky orange as far away as New Zealand!

We took some picture of the fire as we left the next day.

This was the smoke over the highway near Sale

Our next stop was in a caravan park in Orbost (which happened to have two patchwork shops - what a  coincidence!)
Patchwork shop number 4 in Orbost

We had hoped to camp at Cape Conran but it seems you need to put in a bid a year earlier as sites are allocated by ballot. In fact all the parks camp sites between Orbost and Mallacoota were full, something to do with the school holidays I suspect.

We did drive in to the park and could see why the place is so popular with its long stretch of golden sand.

We followed a track into the bush and went for a walk into Yeerung Gorge.

There were a couple of local people looking for orchids and pointed some out to me (I would never have spotted them!)

Hyacynth Orchid