NSW/VIC 2025
- Ken Fredric
- Jan 14
- 40 min read
Updated: Mar 21
Day 1 - Scarborough - Texas, QLD 15 January, 2025
Yay, back on the road again after a two-month hiatus!
Having returned earlier from our WA trip than expected, we sponged off family over the Christmas and New Year period, also having to get Mata's timing chain replaced (at no cost to us), which meant we didn't have Mata to stay in for that week.
After an early medical appointment and some shopping, we were on our way not long after nine o'clock.
This trip was supposed to be a long one to South Australia but, finding out that we had to be back in April for the birth of our granddaughter, we decided to modify this trip to take in the southern part of NSW, visit family around Sydney, and to spend some time in Victoria, where we would also visit family and do some touristy stuff while there.
The first part of the journey is always boring, getting away from Brisbane, and travelling the same roads we've been on countless times before.
At Gatton, we turned off the main road and took to the back roads that we love so much.
We zig-zagged through small towns, across the range, stopping only at Allora for lunch, then continuing on to Texas, where we returned to a free camp that we'd stayed at previously, on the banks of the Dumaresq River.
Day 2 - Texas - Copeton Dam, NSW 16 January, 2025
After a quick toilet stop in Texas, we continued our journey south, travelling now in grey nomad mode at 80 km/h.
We kept mainly to the backroads again, avoiding highways as much as possible, apart from the Bruxner Highway which was quite quiet anyway.
The only touristy thing we had planned for the day was to visit Olives of Beaulieu, not far outside Inverell, which we'd visited on a previous trip. Unfortunately, when we got there, a sign on the gate indicated that it was closed and, upon going in and talking to a man who was presumably the owner, he confirmed that it was permanently closed.
Back in Inverell we stopped at a supermarket to get a few things we'd forgotten the day before, then drove out to the Copeton Dam free camp, about 30 km outside Inverell.
Rain started falling just as we arrived, but it didn't come to much and was over by the time we'd had lunch.
With not much else to do we relaxed for the rest of the day.
Day 3 - Copeton Dam - Manilla, NSW 17 January, 2025
We had a relatively short driving day today, stopping briefly at Barraba for a dump point visit, then continuing on to a free camp beside the Gwydir River in Manilla for the night.
When we arrived there and started to setup, I noticed that the left-rear hatch wasn't locked and when I opened it we realised that we'd left one of the levelling ramps at the previous night's camp, meaning we only had one now.
After initially setting up outside, we had to pack up when it started to rain during the afternoon, and we spent the rest of the day inside.
Day 4 - Manilla - Gunnedah, NSW 18 January, 2025
After another shortish driving day of under 70 km, we arrived in Gunnedah late morning and spent the rest of the day with Meg's mum, where we also stayed the night.
Stopping off in the town first, we were lucky to find an auto parts shop that sold levelling ramps, so we were able to replace the one we lost with a pair of new ones, which meant we now had three!
Day 5 - Gunnedah - Goulburn River NP, NSW, 19 January, 2025
Leaving Gunnedah around nine o'clock we drove out through Mullaley, where we stopped to fill up with fresh water, as we'd forgotten to do that before leaving Gunnedah.
We had a brief morning tea stop in Tambar Springs before continuing on to Coolah, which had a bakery, and we hadn't had a pie for a long time, so we took the opportunity to do that.
Getting back into the touristing, our next stop was at The Drip Walking Track, a 2.8 km walk that was listed as grade 4, but we'd read that it wasn't very difficult.
There were quite a few other vehicles in the car park, however we mostly had the walk to ourselves until we arrived at the end of the track. The walk wasn't difficult at all, but we were out of condition not having walked any distance for a couple of months.
The walk took us along the Goulburn River gorge, passing beside, over and under large sandstone rocks that had some interesting markings that had occurred over millions of years.
The Drip itself is a 35-metre high overhanging cliff that has water constantly seeping from the cliff, which feeds grasses and other plants that grow on the cliff face. There were a few other groups of people there, so we didn't linger too long before returning to the car park.
The last drive for the day was over unsealed roads, that were mostly in reasonable condition, to the Big River Campground in the Goulburn River NP.
After a couple of attempts at finding a level site, we settled on a patch beside a picnic table and firepit (but sadly there was a fire ban until March), and beside the river, that wasn't completely level even with the levelling ramps.
Once we were setup and sitting outside, we were visited by some very large, menacing-looking Goannas that prowled around our campsite for the rest of the day, coming really close to where we were sitting.
Day 6 - Goulburn River NP, NSW, 20 January, 2025
We took the opportunity to have a rest day today in the beautiful, tranquil setting of the national park. Well, tranquil apart from the very noisy Cicadas!
In the morning, after two couples travelling together left the camp, there was only one other couple in the whole campground, which is the way we like it to be.
After a leisurely start to the day, partly due to the 10-degree overnight temperature and us not wanting to get out of bed, we went down to the river and had a walk along the riverbank, seeing a few fish jumping out of the water to catch passing insects.
Apart from a couple of minor chores, we mostly relaxed for the rest of the day.
Later in the day, at wine o'clock, we were sitting outside minding our business when a pair of Emus came up from the river and walked past our campsite only a few metres away.
The Big River campsite joined my list of top campgrounds in Australia. The late afternoon was perfect, with only a gentle breeze, a temperature of around 30 degrees, clear blue skies, all in a beautiful and peaceful location.
Day 7 - Goulburn River NP - Mudgee, NSW, 21 January, 2025
Reluctantly leaving our campsite, we drove back out the unsealed road towards the main road slowly, as we only had a very small distance to travel for the day to Cooyal.
We were treated with seeing dozens of Kangaroos on both sides of the road, and on the road itself, and also spotting more Emus as well crossing the road.
Our plan was to drive to the Cooyal Hotel, where they allow camping beside the pub, have lunch in the pub and then have a quiet afternoon.
Not too far along the main road we called into the Wollar cemetery, where a few relatives of Meg's were buried.
Close to Cooyal it was way to early to arrive at the pub, so we turned off to the Castle Rocks Walking Track to have a walk and kill some time.
We didn't think we would be able to walk the entire 8 km, being out of condition as we were, so set out to go as far as we could comfortably without overdoing it. We were the only people on the track and enjoyed the 3 km that we managed to walk.
When we got to the Cooyal Hotel we discovered that it didn't open until 4 P.M. on Tuesdays, so we carried on along the road towards Mudgee looking for a winery to have lunch at.
Not finding our first choice winery, not realising it was on a different road, carrying on we spotted a sign for the Robert Stein Winery, which was thankfully open and serving lunch.
We signed up for the wine tasting, that consisted of choosing six wines from their comprehensive list of wines, and also ordered the charcuterie platter to feast on. The wines were great and the food was wonderful, made better knowing that it was all local produce and the meats were produced at the winery.
After lunch it was only another 10 km to Mudgee, where we booked into a campground for the night on an unpowered site and found a shady site to park up. The temperature had risen to 32 degrees so we were thankful for the shade and nice breeze to keep us from overheating.
Day 8 - Mudgee - Dunns Swamp Campground, Nr Kandos, NSW, 22 January, 2025
With another short driving day in front of us, we took our time getting away from the campground, and our first stop was the supermarket to stock up on a few supplies we'd run out of.
Meg had some relatives who lived around the Mudgee area, from the mid-1800s, and she wanted to see their graves. There was a gravestone memorial area in the town where dozens of old gravestones had been located from early cemeteries that had fallen into disrepair and subsequently been closed. No luck there though with the relatives headstones, so we drove out of town to the main cemetery and, aided by the findagrave website, found the graves of Meg's great-great-grandfather Roger and his wife Bridget.
With nothing else to see in Mudgee, we set out for our next destination, Rylstone, where we wanted to take a look around the town, then have lunch in the Globe Hotel.
The drive was pleasant through rolling countryside, and mostly on back roads, so there was very little traffic around.
In Rylstone we parked up in the main street, grabbed a brochure to guide us around the historic walk, and set out to discover what Rylstone had to offer. The old buildings, mostly constructed from around the1860s to the 1890s, were impressive for the fact that they were so old and almost all in very good condition, and still currently in use.
There was a mixture of single level, two-storey, sandstone block walls and timber slab walls.
Having worked up a thirst walking around the town, we went into the Globe Hotel, got a cold beer and ordered lunch. As with most country town pubs, the meals were large and we felt overly full once we'd finished them.
Back on the road it was another short drive to our campground for the next two nights, Dunns Swamp Campground in the Wollemi NP.
That was another pleasant drive through farming country, except for the last three kilometres into the campground that was unsealed and badly corrugated.
Once we got setup and chilled for a while, the temperature had risen to the mid-thirties and we were feeling overheated. Thankfully there was a little beach on the nearby Cudgegong River where we had a dip to cool off. Despite reports that the water was beautiful, we found it really cold and didn't stay in there very long.
Day 9 - Dunns Swamp Campground, Nr Kandos, NSW, 23 January, 2025
The previous day we'd checked out the walks available from the campsite, and we decided to walk as much of the tracks as we could manage comfortably this morning.
Luckily the temperature had dropped considerably overnight, and it was mostly overcast, so we were able to increase our walking distance somewhat.
Setting out around nine o'clock, we started walking alongside the river, on a narrow, sandy track surrounded by thick vegetation, toward the Pagoda Lookout, 2.5 km away. Partway along the track we crossed the river at the Ganguddy (the Aboriginal name for Dunns Swamp) Ford, where it was really narrow and only a couple of steps to get across.
The Pagoda Rock wasn't as impressive as many we'd seen in the past year, but still had an interesting makeup of layered rock. We had views from the rock back across to Kookaburra Beach where we'd swum the day before.
Still feeling good at that stage, we carried on to the next part of the walk to the Cudgegong Picnic Area, another 1.1 km away.
While the picnic area only had a bench seat and no other facilities, it was right on the river with great views of surrounding rock formations, and along the riverbanks completely covered in large reeds.
The next part of the walk took us towards the River Gauging Weir, however when we came to the fork in the track we decided it would be too far for us to walk in one go to the weir and back, so we headed back towards the campground.
Unfortunately, we didn't see any wildlife apart from a few birds, but on that part of the walk a pair of brightly-coloured red and blue Rosellas flew past and landed not too far from where we were.
All tuckered out after the walk, it was relaxation time for the rest of the day.
Day 10 - Dunns Swamp Campground - Acacia Gardens, NSW, 24 January, 2025
We had a long day to fill in today, with around 250 km to drive to Lilli and Andrew's place in Western Sydney, but not wanting to get there until around 5:00 P.M. when they got home from work.
Getting away from the campground by 8:30 A.M. we drove back into Rylstone to use their dump point, then carried on driving through Kandos and Ilford towards Sofala, where we thought we'd drive some of the Bridle Track to kill some time. After that, if we still had time to spare we would go to the Botanic Gardens that we would be passing for a walk around and a cuppa.
Arriving at Sofala, we realised that the Bridle Track ran between Hill End and Bathurst, and not to Sofala, so we drove the 40 km to Hill End and called into the local cafe/bakery for a coffee, pie and some information on the track condition.
The cafe proprietor was a bit of a character who said that the first 8 km of the track were the worst, and that you definitely need a 4-wheel drive to do it.
The Bridle Track was first established as the road between Bathurst and Hill End in the 1800s, earning its name from the narrowest sections where hopeful gold miners and settlers had to lead their horses by the bridle. During the mid-1900s the track was expanded into a scenic tourist route along the Macquarie River.
After morning tea we checked out the small historical museum next door, then set out on the 52 km long Bridle Track.
Only a short distance along the track we were questioning our decision to embark on this crazy adventure!
The track is an extremely narrow, gravel/rock surface with many potholes and runoffs that meant we could only drive at walking pace, dangerously close to the very steep edges of the track that disappeared hundreds of metres down to the valley floor below.
The track is so narrow that if you meet an oncoming vehicle, one vehicle has to back up to a point that is slightly wider, and only just allows the two vehicles to pass each other. We had to do this several times along the track, with the UHF radio helping us to communicate with other vehicles.
Rather than the first 8 km being the worst, for us it was more like 20 km, and that took us a couple of hours to traverse, before we stopped for lunch and a well-deserved break on the banks of the Macquarie River that we'd been following for some time.
After lunch it was more hard slog for another hour or so, until we passed out of the hills into more open country, and the road condition improved enough to allow us to travel a more speedy 40 km/h. We eventually hit the bitumen and continued on to Bathurst, which we skirted around and headed for the Blue Mountains.
At that point, because the Bridle Track had taken so long to cover, we decided to skip the Botanical Gardens and head straight to Acacia Gardens, which would be slow going as well being the Friday afternoon of a long weekend.
Arriving at our destination around five o'clock, we settled in for the next couple of days.
Day 11-12 - Acacia Gardens, NSW, 25-26 January, 2025
We spent some great family time over these couple of days, including having a great meal out on the Saturday night, at the Dining Collective in Blacktown, for our anniversary.
For my birthday on the Sunday, Andrew cranked up the pizza oven and made a variety of yummy pizzas, followed by cheesecake.
Day 13 - Acacia Gardens - Belanglo State Forest, NSW, 27 January, 2025
Having said our farewells, and after filling up with diesel, we continued our journey southwards, mostly on the M7, to Daly's Clearing in the Belanglo State Forest. Being on the motorway the drive was boring and uneventful.
Daly's Clearing is close to the site of the infamous Ivan Milat murders in the late 1980s/early 1990s, where he killed five women and two men.
We got setup for the night, had lunch and chilled for the rest of the day, keeping one eye each out for crazy looking men.
Later in the afternoon a large storm came through, forcing us to move inside, but thankfully the temperature had dropped a bit by then.
Day 14 - Belanglo State Forest - Gundagai, NSW, 28 January, 2025
Leaving the campground intact this morning, we drove to our first port of call, Goulburn, along the Hume highway.
Because there was nothing to see along the way, we started out driving faster than normal, but before too long we had to slow down because of the disturbing gale-force winds that were blowing us around.
Goulburn was touted as Australia's first inland town, established in1863 by the royal decree of Queen Victoria.
The town is littered with beautiful old 1800s buildings, many of which are included in a heritage building walking tour of the town. However, because of the mid-30s temperature, we chose to skip the walking tour.
Instead, we visited the information centre, St Saviours Cathedral and the Rocky Hill War Memorial and lookout, before doing a spot of shopping to restock supplies.
Carrying on down the highway, we aimed for Yass as a lunch stop, which we did in a park under some trees to attempt to keep cool.
Back on the road we decided that we'd done enough driving for the day, and to stay in Gundagai for the night.
On the way into Gundagai we stopped off at Snake Gully to see the famous Dog on a Tucker Box statue, read the accompanying information boards explaining the story behind it, and to check out some ruins of old buildings from the 1850s.
In Gundagai, we parked up in the free RV camp beside Morleys Creek, got setup, then went for a walk into the town to see what it had to offer.
This was another town with many old 1880s era buildings, but not as impressive as Goulburn. There was quite a lot of information on the various floods that the town had suffered, sitting beside the Murrumbidgee River, and the roles that many local Aboriginal people had played in saving people during those times. Obviously, they got no recognition at the time for their efforts. One bronze statue depicted the Aboriginals' role in the floods.
Another bronze statue depicted the family of Dad and Dave and Ma and Mabel, and had information on how the family came about.
After visiting the information centre, we started to walk back to our campsite, but stopped off at the Criterion Hotel for a welcome cold beer.
Day 15 - Gundagai - Batlow, NSW, 29 January, 2025
Driving out of Gundagai this morning, we called into the lookout just outside town for some great views of the town, the Murrumbidgee River and the surrounding areas.
Our next stop was only a short drive away, at the small town of Tumut, where we visited the information centre, primarily to get a map of the Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail, that Tumut was a part of. The sculptures in Tumut were a bit underwhelming, so not a great start to the trail. There was an interesting exhibition at the information centre though, that was mostly centred around the local Aboriginals' way of life, including examples of spears, boomerangs, handcrafts and even a bark boat. The exhibition also included some impressive photos taken around the Tumut area by a local photographer.
Carrying on to the next sculpture trail town, Adelong, we put shoes and hats on and set out to see as many sculptures as our little legs would allow. These sculptures were better than the Tumut sculptures, but still a bit arty-farty for our liking. The walk was pleasant though, much of it alongside the Adelong Creek, where we could see a lot of evidence of previous flooding. One of these floods carried a large sculpture with a 2-tonne base several hundred metres down the flooded creek.
Our final destination for the day was another small town, Batlow, that was also part of the sculpture trail. We drove around the small town looking at the sculptures but, like Tumut, they were a bit underwhelming.
Parking up in a side street, we walked to the IGA for a few supplies we'd forgotten the day before, got a pie for lunch, then drove to the nearby campground and got setup for the night.
Day 16 - Batlow - O'Hares Campground, Kosciuszko National Park, NSW, 30 January, 2025
Leaving the Batlow campground we continued on with more of the 150 km long Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail.
First up were a couple of sculptures in amongst the Sugar Pine trees at Laurel Hill, which were okay, but not impressive.
Next, it was on to the Pilot Hill Arboretum, for a lovely walk along the 1.5 km Alpine Ash Walk, amongst the native and introduced trees, where there were another 11 sculptures. Some of the sculptures weren't actually wacky modern art, which we appreciated, but most of them were. We had as much enjoyment from the massive trees as we did from the sculptures along the walk, and we also scored a first when we saw a number of Lyre Birds, something we hadn't seen in the wild before.
It was still too early at that point for our lunch booking at a winery, so we drove into Tumbarumba, where there were even more sculptures, mostly scattered around a nice park near the middle of town.
Our lunch booking was for 12:30 and it was still only 11:30, but we thought what the hell, and drove out to the winery anyway.
We sat on the back deck of the Courabyra Winery, that had stunning views of the vineyard and surrounding hills. With the temperature in the mid-20s, and a gentle breeze, the setting was perfect for our charcuterie board and wine-tasting lunch.
We both had five wines to taste and we had a glass of our favourite wine with lunch. I particularly liked their Meuniere red wine and bought a bottle to take home.
Feeling rather mellow we drove another 55 km over steep hills, on very narrow winding roads, to our campsite for the night at O'Hares Campground on the banks of the Tumut River at the Talbingo Dam.
Later in the afternoon I tried my hand at catching a fish, but with no luck.
This was another beautiful spot to camp at, made even more so because we were the only ones there.
Day 17 - O'Hares Campground - Yarrangobilly, Kosciuszko NP, NSW, 31 January, 2025
This was going to be one of our shorter driving days, but the mountainous, narrow, winding roads meant that the drive would be quite slow.
The initial part of our route took us up and over mountains that would be covered in snow in the winter, and which are used by logging trucks. There were UHF call points at short intervals for the length of the road, which allowed us to call in our position, and to know when other vehicles were close to us when navigating the tight, blind corners.
Yarrangobilly Caves was our first destination, and the information centre was our first port of call there, to get a map of the area, check out which caves we wanted to look at, and to see where our campground for the night was situated in relation of the caves.
We chose to do the self-guided South Glory Cave tour, rather than one of the other guided and more expensive cave tours.
From the carpark it was a 500 metre walk, mostly downhill, to the cave entrance. From previous cave tours, we expected the temperature to be a bit warmer than it was, and we found it quite chilly inside the cave.
Although not the best cave we've been in, it was interesting enough with many stalactites and stalagmites, and a bonus was that we were by ourselves for the entire time we were in the cave.
The cave tour took us a long way through the cave, and up some very steep steps and paths, so at the end of the cave tour we emerged almost back at the car park.
Next up was a visit to the Yarrangobilly Thermal Pool. After a short drive to the car park for the pool, we donned our swimmers and hats, packed towels, and set out on the 700-metre walk to the pool. Turns out the walk was down a very steep road that had us taking short steps to compensate, and left us pondering the return journey.
Down at the pool we were looking forward to the 27-degree water to refresh us after the walk. Turns out it was a bit too refreshing for a start and we didn't believe the claims of 27-degree water. Once in though, we acclimatised and enjoyed the spring water for quite a while, perhaps a little longer than expected as we were avoiding the walk back up the hill.
Hunger drove us to get moving for the return walk and, although it was tough, it didn't seem anywhere near as bad as we'd thought it would be.
Back in the carpark we had lunch before setting out to our campground for the night. The campground we'd booked was heading in the wrong direction for our next lot of travel, so we decided to try another national park camp that was in our direction of travel.
Driving over the more mountainous roads we stopped several times to wait for some very dark coloured Wallabies, with white-tipped tails. Later in the drive, once we got into more open country, we spotted several herds of Brumbies, the local wild horses.
However, when we got to our second choice camp, it seemed quite busy so we got the Starlink out to get some internet and discovered that the campground was fully booked.
Back to plan A, we drove back in the wrong direction to the camp we'd booked at Yarrangobilly Village Campground and setup for the night.
Later in the afternoon a family of mum and dad and three young children set up camp near us. They eventually came over and we chatted for quite some time, enjoying the children being kids and running around completely naked.
There was a large flock of Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos flying around the camping area as we sat outside in the late afternoon.
Day 18 - Yarrangobilly - Jindabyne, Kosciuszko NP, NSW, 01 February, 2025
We woke to a very chilly 12 degrees this morning and, to make matters worse, we'd left the outside stuff outdoors overnight and everything was damp from the condensation.
We had to break out the warm jackets and slippers for the first time in many months, to keep warm until the sun started to do its work.
Setting out towards Jindabyne, our destination for the day, the drive was over good roads but there were still many hilly sections with tight corners to navigate. The traffic was light however, so the drive was an easy one.
Our first stop for the day was at Adaminaby, to check out the big trout and for a toilet stop.
The next part of the drive to Cooma was over more open, rolling hills farmland, so not as interesting as the start of our day's journey.
Cooma is home to the Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre, so that was our first stop in town.
The admission price was great, free, and the information on the building and operation of the hydro scheme was very comprehensive. Luckily, just as we arrived, a 10-minute video was about to start, and that gave us the perfect overview of the scheme before looking at all the other displays.
We treated ourselves to a coffee and muffin in the cafe before heading back into the town to do a spot of shopping.
The last drive for the day was about 60 km to the Jindabyne Holiday Park. We needed showers and to do a load of washing, so didn't mind paying for a campsite for one night.
After attending to lunch and the laundry, we enjoyed sitting outside relaxing with a great view of Lake Jindabyne and a gentle breeze to keep us cool.
Day 19 - Jindabyne - Murray Gorge, Kosciuszko NP, NSW, 02 February, 2025
With a big day ahead of us, having a goal of climbing to the top of Mt Kosciuszko, we were up bright and early and on our way to Thredbo.
The chairlift up to the Eagles Nest, at the base of the mountain climb, started operating at 9:00 A.M. so we wanted to be there as close to that time as possible.
After finding a carpark that was a ten-minute walk from the chairlift, we walked to where you pay, $65 for Meg and $49 for me, climbed on the chairlift and we set out towards the mountain by 9:20 A.M.
The day was warm, in the late teens, but there was a cooling breeze blowing to help us not get overheated on the 6.2 km walk.
The majority of the track was raised metal grid, so it was easy to walk on, not having to watch each footstep, but we found it quite hard on our feet. There were many uphill sections that saw us taking regular breaks to catch our breath, followed by downhill sections that weren't much easier on the feet.
We took our time to make sure we'd last the distance, not really sure at any point that we'd be able to get to the summit, and reserving the right to not go all the way if we didn't feel up to it.
The first milestone at the 1.5 km mark, the Kosciuszko Lookout, gave us our first look at the the size of the problem. It didn't look all that far really, but it was still over 4.5 km to go at that point.
The uphill sections became more difficult the further we walked, but we took even more regular breaks on those bits to conserve energy. After a lot more uphill trekking we had some great views towards the Victorian Alps, before arriving at the next milestone, this on at the 4.5 km mark, Rawsons Gap, where we had great views to the east and the walking track to Charlottes Gap.
There was a group of volunteers at Rawsons Gap collecting signatures for a petition to protect the national park by getting rid of the resident Brumbies. It seemed a bit weird to have a group of people in what was quite a remote and hard to get to location.
From that point it was a further 1.7 km to the summit, on a gravelled and very steep track, that slowed us down even more with the steepness and having to watch our steps carefully.
Just about at our physical limit, we finally reached the summit after 2 hours and 20 minutes hard slog.
There were a few other group of people up there, most of whom had passed us on the way up. We took the obligatory photos and videos to prove we'd actually made it, then sat on some rocks for a well-deserved break and a lunch of pre-prepared sandwiches and grapes.
We were really surprised at the summit by the presence of flocks of hundreds of Crows, sitting on the rocks then all taking off into the air in an impressive aerial display. It was a bit scary sitting there eating our sandwiches with all those Crows flying around above us, thinking they might come down to steal our food (and we would have happily given them away if that were the case!).
Rested to some degree, we set out on the return journey, making better time for much of the way, as it was more downhill than the walk up to the summit. Walking downhill on the steeper sections was no easier on our aching legs though!
It only took us 1 hour 45 minutes to make it back to the Eagles Nest, where we went to reward ourselves for completing the hike with a nice cold drink.
The chairlift ride back down gave us a great view of the town of Thredbo, then at the bottom we walked back to Mata, only to find something on the windscreen. It was then we found out that our NSW NP pass didn't cover the Kosciuszko NP, and we would have to go to a nearby town to pay up for visiting the park, or face a fine.
We weren't travelling in the direction of any of the towns listed, so we carried on to our destination for the next couple of nights, Tom Groggins Campground on the banks of the Murray River at Murray Gorge.
This was a beautiful spot, right beside the river, in amongst trees and bush, and with a lot of wildlife. There were several mobs of Kangaroos milling around the campground, some coming as close as a few metres from our site.
There was also a lot of birdlife, including Kookaburras, small brightly-coloured birds, Wrens, and a fellow camper said he'd seen Azure Kingfishers. He also said he'd seen a Platypus in the river the previous night, and that Brumbies had been moving around the campground during the night.
All tuckered out after our big day we had an early night and slept like dogs.
Day 20 - Murray Gorge, Kosciuszko NP, NSW, 03 February, 2025
Feeling that we would need a day to recover from our mountain climbing the day before, we planned to have a down day today.
Apart from some minor cleaning we'd been putting off, we mostly chilled for the day.
It was another 35-degree day, so we were thankful that we were camped beside the Murray River.
We made several trips down to the river during the day to cool off in the very refreshing water.
The water was also refreshing in another way - I'd woken up this morning with a very itchy and swollen ankle, obviously from a bite of some kind, probably from an insect, fly or wasp. The cool water helped with the itching and to reduce the swelling somewhat.
Day 21 - Murray Gorge, Kosciuszko NP - Glenbog State Forest, NSW, 04 February, 2025
Maybe still catching up from climbing a mountain a couple of days before, we slept later than normal this morning.
Although tempted to stay longer in this wonderful camping spot, it was time to continue with our adventures.
Setting out on the day's drive, it was back over the mountains again, past Thredbo, then onto Jindabyne where we had to call into the information centre to pay for the day we'd spent parked in Thredbo, that we thought our NSW Parks & Wildlife pass covered and didn't.
There was a supermarket nearby that we visited to replenish supplies, and also a chemist that I visited to get some relief for my swollen, itchy ankle. The pharmacist gave me some antihistamine tablets and some gel that numbs the local area it is applied to, and helps with other symptoms.
Back on the road again, the next stop was another place we'd visited recently, Cooma, to use their dump point and fill up with fresh water.
It was about lunchtime by then, so we drove a little further, to Nimmitabel, where we parked up under some trees and had lunch.
The last drive for the day was only about another 20 km, to the Glenbog State Forest to make use of a free camping area a few kilometres off the main road, along a very rough forestry track.
We sat outside for a long time until eventually the flies and other annoying insects got the better of us and forced us to move inside. Thankfully it was about ten degrees cooler inside than it had been for the previous couple of nights.
Day 22 - Glenbog State Forest - Tathra, NSW, 05 February, 2025
Leaving the state forest free camp this morning, we carried on travelling east towards Bega.
The roads were more of the same steep and winding, with the only exception to the past few days was that we were now going mostly downhill towards the coast.
Not too far from the state forest we stopped briefly at the Fred Piper Memorial Lookout for views across the valley below. Fred Piper had been a bus driver for 28 years, servicing the Bega to Cooma run 6 days a week, and sadly died in 1947 of a heart attack while digging the bus out of snow.
After coming down out of the mountains the terrain changed to rolling hills dairy cattle farmland, with grass that was a bright green colour. The drive from that point was much easier into Bega. We did stop to take a photo of the Shire of Numbugga, which we thought was a funny name.
The only plan we had in Bega was to visit the Bega Cheese Heritage Centre. The heritage centre wasn't big, but it had a lot of interesting memorabilia, photos and stories from when Bega Cheese first started operating in the late 1800s. We also visited the adjacent Spotted Cow gift shop that showcased local crafts and artistry.
Our final destination for the day was the coastal town of Tathra, where we booked into the NRMA Tathra Holiday Park for two nights.
It was too early to go to our campsite at that point, so we went for a drive to the historic wharf and museum area.
Unfortunately, the museum was only open on the weekend, but the wharf area was quite interesting, and mostly populated with many local fisherpeople, one of whom had just landed a good size fish as we arrived.
Up above the wharf there is a memorial park with lookouts and great views of the ocean to the south and east, and the local beaches. We wandered around there for a while, until it was closer to lunchtime.
It was only short drive from there to the Tathra Hotel, where we sat out on the back deck, with more great ocean views, and had a lovely lunch accompanied by a couple of drinks.
Back at the holiday park, we set up for the next couple of nights on a powered site, as there were no unpowered sites.
The wind was quite strong by then so we decided not to check out the beach until the next day, and spent the rest of the day relaxing.
Day 23 - Tathra, NSW, 06 February, 2025
We treated ourselves to a rest day today, and it was a treat at $45 per night for our campsite!
I was keen to check out the beach, and hoped to have a swim in the ocean, so after brekky we walked the short distance to the beach and down to the water.
As soon as our feet hit the water we knew that there wouldn't be any swimming in the ocean anytime soon. It was freezing and people who were staying in the water, like some surfers, were wearing wetsuits.
We had a pleasant walk along the beach anyway, as far as the surf lifesaving club, then returned back along the road to the campground, with a stop at the local pharmacy for a couple of things.
Going into the campground we were passing the swimming pool and thought that the water would be just as cold as the ocean, but we were pleasantly surprised to find it was a really nice temperature. We already had our swimmers on, so we got into the pool for a while to cool down from the walk.
The rest of the day was mostly spent relaxing and doing a couple of minor chores, as well as returning to the pool after lunch when the temperature was almost into the 30s.
Day 24 - Tathra - Loggers Free Camp, Greigs Flat, NSW, 07 February, 2025
After a relaxing day yesterday, we got back into the touristing with a vengeance today.
First up was a stop at Kianinny Bay, on the way out of Tathra, where you can quite often see Manta Rays cruising around the boat ramp area. We didn't see any unfortunately but another couple there at the same time spotted one.
Next up was our first walk of the day, along the boardwalk at Merimbula. It as an easy walk, but quite narrow and with no guardrails, so we had to pay attention to our walking. Scattered around the lake area there were huge numbers of farmed oysters growing on structures that were above the water level when we walked past.
Driving out of Merimbula, we stopped for photo of some silo art on a water tank, then carried on to the Panboola Wetlands in Pambula.
There were a number of walks we could have done and we chose the easier walk on a thick grass track around the billabong. There were large numbers of Purple Swamp Hens and a few Black Swans, but not much else to see apart from some metal sculptures, wildflowers and nice views. We did hear a lot of Bellbirds right around the walk.
In the township of Pambula we called into the Wild Rye's Baking Company bakery for a coffee and a sticky bun each.
For our next adventure, we drove into the Goodenia Rainforest to do the forest walk. What we didn't realise was, that the access road was a very rough, poorly maintained forestry road, with regular washouts, rock, branches and corrugations to navigate. We met a crew of men who were doing some maintenance on the track, and we had to pass a bulldozer on the way up and on the way down, in very narrow areas. Luckily we had the UHF radio to communicate with them.
At the car park we decided that, because it was only a grade 3 moderate1.2 km walk, we wouldn't bother with shoes. Perhaps in hindsight that was not such a good choice. The walk was very steep in many places, going down for the first half towards the Goodenia Creek, at the bottom of the track. Then it was a very hard slog to get back up to the top, that saw us having regular stops to catch our breath. We heard many Bellbirds, as well as some Whip Birds, and saw some other birds we couldn't identify.
Back at the carpark we were too exhausted to have our planned lunch and just grabbed a light snack to keep us going, before heading back down the horrible road to the highway.
Our next stop was at the Pinnacles Loop walking track near Pambula. We'd mostly recovered from the previous hard slog walk, and this one was a much easier 1 km walk around the coast. The sound of waves crashing on the beach below us accompanied us as we followed the coastline to the Pinnacles Lookout, where we stopped for a rest and to take some photos. The Pinnacles were interesting, but a bit underwhelming after the many rock formations we'd seen in the last year.
Our last drive of the day was to the Loggers Free Camp in the Broadwater State Forest between Pambula and Eden.
After the busy campground we'd stayed in the previous two nights in Tathra, this camp was the exact opposite - we were the only ones there!
Day 25 - Loggers Free Camp - Genoa, VIC, 08 February, 2025
After a night of thunder, lightning and a lot of rain, we left the state forest free camp and drove into the nearby town of Eden.
Around the town area we stopped for photos of a ship's mast in the middle of a roundabout, a metal sculpture and some wall art that depicted a 29 metre (97 ft) blue whale being hunted by a pack of Orcas and local whalers. The Orcas and whalers used to work together to catch the whales.
Our next stop was the Our Lady Star of the Sea museum and church. The museum was dedicated to Sister Mary McKillop, who later became a saint. Her mother, who was travelling by boat from Melbourne to Sydney in 1888 to help Mary with her charity work, lost her life when the boat foundered on rocks at Green Cape. Mary established the order of St Joseph's that was focused on helping people in need. The church next to the museum had a beautiful location overlooking Eden Bay, and obviously had a connection with the local water-based trade, as the bottom of the pulpit was in the shape of a boat.
Our next stop was the port of Eden to look at the port area and to take some photos of some weird metal sculptures nearby.
Just up the road from there was the Rotary Park where we checked out the lookout, that gave us great views around the bay and across to Boydtown. Also in the park there's a sailor's memorial honouring all the men who've lost their lives while fishing in the area.
On our way out of town we stopped at a park that had a memorial to timber workers who'd lost their lives since the start of the timber trade in the 1800s, one of whom was a 14-year old boy who died in 1927.
Our last adventure for the day was to visit Green Cape Lighthouse, where Mary McKillop's mother had drowned nearby in 1888. As it turned out, it was a real adventure as the 21 km of road to the lighthouse was unsealed and badly corrugated. We were forced to travel around 20 km/h, and less, for long periods of the drive, so it took nearly an hour to get there.
A little treat along the way was a stop at the Disaster Bay Lookout, that looked out over a beautiful horseshoe-shaped bay.
The lighthouse isn't used anymore, but it and all the surrounding buildings are kept in perfect order, and it is possible to stay in the buildings. We admired the great ocean views and read the information boards before returning to the carpark to have lunch. Walking out to the end of the path and back, we saw a lot of Wombat scat and saw quite a few different-coloured lizards.
After lunch we walked the short distance to the cemetery that honoured all those lives lost on the Ly-ee-moon, 77 in total.
Back on the road out we endured more bone-shaking for another 20 km, but the journey didn't take as long as driving in.
Another 50 km along the Princes Highway, after crossing the NSW-Victoria border, we stopped at a free camp in the small town of Genoa.
Luckily we got set up before the forecast storms hit us. This was one of the very few nights we haven't been able to sit outside at all.
Day 26 - Genoa - Cann River, VIC, 09 February, 2025
Another night of constant rain!
We were heading to Cann River today, but had some jobs to do first, which meant a 25 km drive over winding, hilly roads to the seaside town of Mallacoota.
In Mallacoota we visited one of their dump points, replenished the comestibles at a supermarket and filled up with diesel.
There wasn't any other good option to get to Cann River from Mallacoota, so we had to drive almost all the way back to Genoa, to get to the Princes Highway and head west from there.
It was only about a 70 km drive, and that was as far as we were going for the day, so we pottered along at a leisurely 70 km/h to conserve fuel, and there was quite heavy rain for most of that drive.
Our plan was to have lunch at the Cann River Hotel, but it was still only 11:00 A.M. when we got there. We drove around a bit to see if there was anything to do in town, and there wasn't, so we eventually parked up in a side street to wait for the pub to open.
Around 11:30 A.M. we went back to the pub that was now open, grabbed a drink and checked out the menu.
A couple of drinks and a good meal later, we left the hotel and drove a short way to a free camp beside the Cann River, and setup as best we could in the pouring rain.
The rain kept us inside so we had no choice but to chill for the rest of the day.
Day 27 - Cann River - Lakes Entrance, VIC, 10 February, 2025
There was more rain overnight, and we woke to more rain this morning, so we didn't feel inspired to get moving for a while.
Also, we didn't very far to travel for the day to our planned destination of the Wyanga Park Winery at Lakes Entrance, where we had a lunch reservation for 12:30 P.M.
Heading west again on the Princes Highway, we drove as slow as we could without upsetting vehicles behind us, and by doing so we had to pull off the road frequently to let traffic pass us.
At Orbost we parked up in the main street to go to the pharmacy and get some medications that were running low before heading back out onto the highway.
Because it was still way too early for lunch, we stopped off in Nowa Nowa to check out some metal sculptures that were located around a small lake. The track around the lake was covered by water in places and, after seeing only two sculptures, we came to a road closed sign that ended that little detour.
We carried on driving slowly to the Wyanga Park Winery, checked in with them about camping for the night on a grassy area near the winery, got setup, then went in for wine tasting and lunch.
Being a Monday we expected it to be quiet, however there was a busload of old farts already there, and quite a few other groups there as well, so it was quite noisy.
We chose four wines each for the tasting and ordered lunch at the same time. The wines were nice, but not spectacular. We both chose a glass of our favourite wine from the tasting to have with lunch.
Suitably fortified, we braved the rain to return to Mata and relax for the rest of the day.
Day 28 - Lakes Entrance - Stratford, VIC, 11 February, 2025
After another rainy night, the sun started to poke out from behind the clouds this morning, giving us hope that the wet weather was behind us for now.
It was only a short drive into Lakes Entrance, where we checked out the boat harbour, and some chainsaw art next to the harbour.
On the way out of town there was a lookout that gave us great views of the Lakes Entrance area.
We continued on our coastal journey to Bairnsdale, another seaside town.
We popped into BCF for a couple of items we were running out of, then went across the road to the information centre, to see what was to do in town. Apart from the church next door to the information centre, there wasn't much we wanted to see in Bairnsdale, but the young lady working in the centre told us about the Koala Trail, in nearby Paynesville.
Next door, in St Mary's Catholic Church, we were impressed by the over-the-top murals adorning the ceiling and walls. Although it was impressive, it seem a bit too much for a place of religion.
From Bairnsdale, it was a short drive to Paynesville, where you can catch a ferry across to nearby Raymond Island, where the Koala Trail is located.
First up though, we were hungry, so we found a cafe that had great pies and both had seafood pies, Meg a scallop mornay pie and me a prawn pie with a pasta sauce - yum!
By the time we scoffed our pies the ferry was loading up for the 5-minute trip over to Raymond Island, so we jumped aboard.
The Koala Trail is an easy 2-km walk around suburban streets and parkland, lined with hundreds of Gum Trees, were you get to see Koalas in their natural environment.
Within 100 metres of starting the trail Meg had spotted our first Koala of the day. As we progressed further around the trail we saw more and more Koalas, one in particular pointed out by a local householder, that was sitting in a tree at just above head height and feeding, so we got some good closeups of that one.
There were many Koalas higher up in trees that were hard to see, but a few others that were also lower in trees feeding. The walk ended up by taking us along a boardwalk, back towards the ferry, past many waterbirds including a variety of Swamphen, Black Swans and Pelicans.
Back at the ferry terminal we just missed a ferry, so had to wait a short time for the next one.
We'd decided that we should have showers today, as it had been quite a few days since our last one, which meant staying in a caravan park for the night.
We chose Stratford as our final destination for the day, about another 70 km away, on the banks of the Avon River.
After setting up on an unpowered site with river views, we had lunch, organised a load of laundry, then caught up with all our usual bits and pieces.
Day 29 - Stratford - Wilsons Promontory, VIC, 12 February, 2025
After waking to a very foggy morning, we set out to look at some of the Stratford Sculpture Trail sculptures, all of which had a loose Shakespeare theme.
The first few we saw didn't really grab us and we didn't even bother taking photos of them. A couple weren't too bad, including on that represented the three witches of Macbeth fame ("bubble, bubble, toil and trouble....").
With nothing else to see in Stratford, we drove back out onto our favourite (not) Princes Highway, heading towards Wilsons Promontory, as we had a day to fill in with nothing else planned.
Making an on-the-spot decision, we decided to stop in Yarram for morning tea, and to check out their water tower and wall art. We were pleased we made this decision because the artwork was amazing, all painted by an artist called Heesco, which is the first name of the artist who originally came from Mongolia.
Morning tea at the bakery on the main street was great, then we carried on checking out more artwork on our way out of town. After leaving Yarram we read that there we loads more examples of wall art that we missed.
We then carried on the drive to Wilsons Promontory, stopping at a couple of lookouts on the way. At that point, although we'd tried to book a campsite at the Prom the day before and found it fully booked out (despite there being nearly 500 sites!), we were still hopeful that we would find a site there.
Driving into Tidal River, where most of the campsites are, and a ranger station and shop, we were appalled at the masses of people there - thousands of them. Not our sort of place!
We went to the ranger station first to see if indeed all the campsites were booked out, only to find that the station was unmanned at the time, and we would have to go back at 2:00 P.M. if we wanted to talk to them.
While having lunch we phoned a campground 30 km back along the Promontory Road and booked in there for one night.
A half hour drive later we were at the Wilsons Prom Holiday Park, where we got setup and had a walk along a very windy beach, before settling in for the rest of the day.
Day 30 - Wilsons Promontory - Macalister River Free Camp, VIC, 13 February, 2025
We had two objectives for the day - go to Mirboo North to meet up with an old work colleague of Meg's, Heather, then to drive as far as we could towards Goornong (Bendigo), our destination for the following day.
With only 75 km to drive to Mirboo North, we had to take our time so as not to arrive there too early.
Our first stop for the day was the small town of Meeniyan, where we stopped to empty the toilet cassette and to fill up with fresh water.
From there we really hit the back roads to get to Heather's place, which was on a 65-acre farm. After spending some time catching up over a cuppa we were back on the road again, stopping at the nearby town of Mirboo North for lunch.
Then, heading north-west towards Bendigo, we wanted to avoid going anywhere near Melbourne traffic, so we took to even more remote roads that took us over more of the narrow, winding hilly roads that we'd experienced a lot of lately.
Because those roads were slower going than the highway would have been, we didn't get as far as we hoped for the day, when we pulled into a free camp on the Macalister River.
Unfortunately, the free camp was populated by a few groups of rednecks, most of whom had noisy dogs, but we were too tired to drive any further, so we got setup for the night.
Day 31 - Macalister River Free Camp - Goornong, VIC, 14 February, 2025
Our mission for the day was to drive over 300 km to Zac & Hana's place in Goornong, outside Bendigo.
Because of our aversion to cities and heavy traffic, we decided to stay as far away from Melbourne as possible, which meant taking to the mountains to get there.
The first part of the drive was on narrow, steep, winding mountain roads, but the road was sealed and in good condition. However, that changed with 80 km still to go on the mountain roads when the seal changed to gravel.
At the same time, we'd climbed high enough to be in the thick of the clouds on what was a very overcast day, which reduced visibility to less than ten metres, and in some places about five metres.
That combination of factors reduced our speed to 20 km/h or less, which was actually good several times when we suddenly came upon herds of cows wandering on the road. So the day turned out to be a very long one, with the prospect of covering over 70 km at 20 km/h.
The cloud persisted for the next couple of hours, so there was no chance of going any faster for that period of time.
To add to the complexity of the journey, at one point we came across a tree that had fallen completely across the road. I thought it would be too big to remove a section with our small chainsaw, so our only option was get around it somehow. We managed to do this by going as far over to the cliff edge as possible to get one wheel past the tree, and the other wheel going over the tree, in low-range 4WD. That was a bit scary!
We did stop briefly at a couple of lookouts, but they were overgrown and with the cloud cover you couldn't see anything anyway.
After four hours of hard slog we arrived in the small town of Jamieson, where we had a brief lunch break, before continuing on to Mansfield for a fill of fresh water and to empty the toilet cassette.
As we were going past, we stopped of at Bonnie Doon to see the Serenity house made famous by The Castle movie.
Our second-last stop for the day was at Colbinabbin to check out their silo art, which was very impressive.
It was only about 20 km from there to Zac and Hana's place at Goornong, which was a welcome relief after a very long day of driving.
We parked up in their front yard, made ourselves at home and settled in for some family time with them and Bern and Helen for the evening.
Day 32-40 - Goornong, VIC, 15-23 February, 2025
These few days were all about spending time with family and helping Zac and Hana as much as possible with their new house, which needed a lot of work.
On the first Monday after arriving we took Mata into Bendigo Toyota for the 80,000 km service, which cost $1,000!
While there, we also visited the Sandhurst Ridge Winery for a tasting session, and enjoyed lunch at the Omari Cafe, at the Bendigo Botanic Gardens, followed by a nice walk through the gardens.
Go here for part 2 of this blog.
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