October 29th, 2024
It got quite cool overnight at the rest area on the Princes Highway and the blankets were out in full force. We didn’t dawdle under the cloudy skies and were out of the rest area by 8ish.
We stopped for petrol before heading to the small city of Paynesville. We got parked and then took the five minute ferry ride over to Raymond Island. There are homes on the island but apparently no shops of businesses. There is a conservation park along the eastern side as well.
This is a free ferry for pedestrians and the draw on the island is the koalas. We’ve yet to see one in the wild and there is “trail” you can walk here and they guarantee you’ll see one. Fingers crossed.
The koala, sometimes called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. Its closest living relatives are the wombats. The koala is found in coastal areas of the island’s eastern and southern regions. It is easily recognizable by its stout, tailless body and large head with round, fluffy ears and large, dark nose. The koala has a body length of between 60–85 cm / 24–33” and weighs between 4–15 kg / 8.8–33.1 lbs. Koalas’ fur colour ranges from silver grey to chocolate brown. Koalas from the northern populations are typically smaller and lighter in colour than their counterparts further south.
Koalas typically inhabit open Eucalyptus woodland, as the leaves of these trees make up most of their diet. This eucalypt diet has low nutritional and caloric content and contains toxic compounds that deter most other mammals from feeding on it. Koalas are largely sedentary and sleep up to twenty hours a day. They are asocial, only mothers bond to dependent offspring. Adult males communicate with bellows that intimidate rivals and attract mates. Males mark their presence with secretions from scent glands located on their chests. Like other marsupials, koalas give birth to young known as “joeys” at a very early stage of development. They crawl into their mothers’ pouches, where they live for their first six to seven months. They are fully weaned around a year old.
Because of their distinctive appearance, koalas, along with kangaroos and emus, are recognized worldwide as symbols of Australia. They were hunted by Aboriginals and depicted in their myths and cave art for millennia. Koalas are listed as a vulnerable species internationally and as endangered within Australia. Among the many threats to their existence are habitat destruction caused by agriculture, urbanization, droughts, and associated bush fires, some related to climate change.
We took off following the route map we had; it took about 15 minutes but Doug spotted a sleeping koala high in a tree. It’s hard to image sleeping in this position!
we walked a little further and saw another and a third and then we entered the edge of the Raymond Island Conservation area and spotted two in one tree! One was sound asleep and the other woke up and began moving around.
The second one began to move around:
We then walked into the conservation area but noticed right away that the trees were different here as we approached the sea and there were no koalas. We saw birds and lots and lots of trees so we headed back out.
Before reaching the residential area once again, we met a young couple who said there was one ahead near the houses that was quite low in the trees. We found it and there were a few others watching as well. Here we got some great video and pics.
In a tree a few metres there was another sleeping one up high.
We stayed here a while and then decided we’d been pretty lucky and we’d head back to the ferry.
On the way back we spotted a few more sleeping ones high in trees:
and then one who moved around a bit:
for a total of TEN koalas in about a 90 minute time span. We were happy after the first couple of sightings but now we were so happy!
We returned on the ferry and left Paynesville heading for the coast further south.
For lots and lots more pics of these cutie pies, check this out.
First stop was petrol in Sale and then a quick stop at the hardware store for a new sink plug – we’ve now lost two of these, so we bought a chain and Doug has attached one end into a screw along the outside edge of the sink.
We then bought some bread and milk and made our way to the coast to the “Ninety Mile Beach” which is part of a national marine park. There are 19 free campgrounds here of varying sizes right along the shore line but separated from the sea by a row of sand dunes with trees. We bypassed Camp One as Fran read the reviews and they were not great so we check out two; it was full; three was closed and four, five, six, seven and eight were either full enough or had too much tree cover. Nine was the magic one. Many of these campgrounds have pit toilets and there’s a couple of bars of cell reception but nothing else – not even rubbish bins as it’s “bring in, bring out”. We found a nice large site to ourselves and after a few tries, got parked the way that worked best for some privacy and the solar panels to get good sun. We took a quick walk to the beach and it was very clean, windy of course, and no rubbish or even sea weed on it. The sky was beginning to clear too which was great.
After an hour or so, Fran made oatmeal and then we went and walked on the beach. There was not a soul around and although the wind was cold, Fran went barefoot and enjoyed her “happy place” for over an hour’s stroll.
There was a piece of a shipwreck about 1 click south on the beach:
The remains of the iron barque ship, Trinculo, are lodged within the sand of the 90 Mile Beach. Sadly, the Trinculo met its fate in 1879 when it was run ashore. The Trinculo was an iron barque built in 1758 in Bristol, England. Barque means: “A sailing ship, typically with three masts, in which the foremast and mainmast are square-rigged and the mizzenmast is rigged fore and aft”. At the time of running ashore it had a crew of 9, as well as the Captains wife and child on the journey from Albany, Western Australia to Newcastle, New South Wales.
In an article from 6 September 1879 The Wreck of the Trinculo, describes the amazing efforts of the seamen Thomas Lefevre. Thomas swam ashore, braving the very rough waters, and maintained a line between the ship and the beach. This allowed a guide line for crew and family members to make it to shore. Many people could not swim, and at one stage they thought the Captains 16 month old child had drowned during the rescue. But amazingly everyone survived. According to the article, a cup of tea was all the Captains wife needed to be “brought round” after the harrowing ordeal.
Not only did they brave very rough seas, they were then stuck on the beach for 2 days until assistance arrived.
and a couple of gulls but not much else. The beach sand is golden and there are sections with lots of broken shells but mostly just shoreline for miles.
We spent the rest of the afternoon reading in the sun or in the warmth of the rig and just relaxed. We will stay here two nights as it’s supposed to be in the low to mid 20’s C / 70 to 76 F and sunny for the next two days but cold at night.
We are nearing Melbourne now and wild camping is again becoming difficult. We’ve book a cheap fairly primitive campground for Thursday night at a spot to see the sun set over Wilson’s Promontory that night (and maybe see some wildlife if we’re lucky!) and a proper campground for Friday and Saturday outside the Melbourne city limits – took three tries to get one with availability! We fly to Tasmania on Monday morning quite early and we’ve booked a hotel for the night before and the night we return as the Comfort Inn agreed that we could leave our camper there with those bookings (but not for our next trip). So we’re set till we leave.
Sidebar: Australia has many of the fast food restaurants that we have back in Canada/US like McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut but a noticeable absence is Burger King. However, there is a chain called “Hungry Jacks” whose logo and restaurants look like Burger King’s and we found out it did used to be Burger King but they did not seem to make it here so an Aussie chain stepped in. Probably the most popular fast food we’ve see are pies and sausage rolls. Many of the gas stations sell them and there are chains like “Pie Face” that often reside in them.
Wednesday started overcast and the mozzies were out in full force! Doug encountered lots and lots of no see um’s on his run too. By mid morning it began to clear but we didn’t venture out until the mozzies dissipated. By noon it was blue skies again and we both went for beach walks. It was a very nice afternoon.
It was a bit warmer today and there was a weaker wind which made walking more pleasant. Then we had showers in the rig when we pretty much ran out of water – we obviously don’t have the tank quite figured out in this rig. It was advertised as 103L tank (including the hot water tank) but it’s hard to tell how much is left; the weird gauge tells you how much you’ve used and we don’t think it’s too accurate.
For more 90 mile beach shots, check HERE.
Thursday morning we left by 7:30am as we had an appointment to do a tour at a cidery. We’ve done lots of brewery and winery tours but this was a new one. We had a couple of things we wanted to to before getting there at 11. We had to fill our water tank, dump our cassette, get rid of garbage and needed a bit of air in one tire. We had a place in mind for the first two and found a completely different one by accident that worked out well. Garbage, well, we never found a bin big enough to fit our bag into and air took three or four stations before we found one that would run high enough.
We arrived “Gurneys” Cidery outside the village of Foster about 40 minutes early so we sat in Matilda and did a few things online. We had booked the 11 am tour for $38 each with including a visit to the Underground Cellar and a tasting.
Bill, the owner met us outside the tour building. We were the only guests today so we got a private tour (which we could have paid $289 for!). As this a working cidery, we had to wear bright yellow safety vests.
Bill and his wife moved to Australia from the UK 8 years ago. He was a parks ranger and had done an exchange with a ranger in the nearby Wilson Promontory NP and after returning home, decided that they wanted to live down under and moved their family here. The cider industry here is done through breweries and the quality was not to their liking so as a hobby, they began making cider and have turned it into quite the business. They brew 700,000 litres in a season which includes not only cider, but NA cider, cider champagne, brandies and more.
He showed us the process of making cider in their large “shed”, we saw the cleaning, processing, fermenting, bottling and canning set up and then were taken into their Underground Cellar.
It’s the largest cider cellar in the world!
In the cellar they play Tibetan monk music – it apparently has been proven to aid in the process! There was a gong that Fran got to hit.
There after seeing the tanks, we were sat down at a table and given a tasting. First it was their “Wild Cider” the first product they ever made, then a Blueberry sort of wine cider, following by a pear poireau and an apple brandy. Some we liked, others not so much. It was a very informative tour and we felt that we learned something and felt like our visit was appreciated.
At the end of the tour, we decided to have lunch in the restaurant they have where you can come and just do tastings and have a light meal. We ordered a small sort of pizza each, Fran had a tasting flight and Doug got a beer. It was delicious and filling.
After lunch we bought a few bottles and felt like that had been a great experience. Doug has not converted to cider but did find one or two he could “tolerate”!
Check out more photos from the cidery here.
We then drove to a State parks campground on near the water and this will be the most southern point of mainland Australia we think we’ll ever be at: -38.88º. Here we hope to enjoy a nice sunset and maybe see some wildlife.
On the way here we saw this wildlife sign. It reminded Fran of the old Sesame Street song: one of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn’t belong….. LOL.
If you recall a couple of weeks ago we replaced the radio so we could have one with a USB. Well it’s been giving us problems and we figured out that the RANDOM button doesn’t do what is supposed to; it just stays on the same song. After reconfiguring the USB, it worked for a bit and we only used the FF or RW buttons but today we accidentally hit the RANDOM and the FF and it hung and then stopped working. We think we’ll take it back.
We had booked a campsite here at Bear Gully ahead of time as there is no one here to manning the place to do that. We arrived at site 23 around 2 and were the only ones in the park! Later a few others pulled in. One of the reasons to come to this side of the bay is to witness the sunset over the Wilson Promontory across the bay. We had decided not to go to the park over there but this was a good stop for the night and not too expensive; as we approach Melbourne, wild camping is getting harder to find as usual near large cities.
We walked over to see the beach and the promontory before the sun went down. It wasn’t very warm with the wind off the southern ocean, so we didn’t hang around long.
We sat outside readin in the shelter of Matilda until it started to rain and went inside for the rest of the afternoon. Around 7:45 pm we went out to watch the sunset – but it really never reached the promontory.
When we turned to walk back, Fran spotted what she thought was a kangaroo munching grass in the corner ofhe picnic area. Upon observing it and slowly trying to get closer but not too close, she realized it must be a wallaby as it was smaller and much darker.
A wallaby is a small or middle-sized macro-pod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, and other countries. They belong to the same family as kangaroos. The term “wallaby” is an informal designation generally used for any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or a wallaroo that has not been designated otherwise.
Their head and body length is 45 to 105 cm / 18 to 41” and the tail is 33 to 75 cm /13 to 30” long. Wallabies are hunted for meat and fur. They can live for up to twenty years. Wallabies have acutes senses of smell and hearing. Their large ears are capable of moving 180 degrees independently, allowing them to remain alert for potential predators.
Then Doug spotted a wombat come out of the brush on the other side and we watched him for a while.
There are supposed to be kangaroos in the this park as well as koalas, but we saw neither ourselves (not that we didn’t check the tree tops…!)
As we left the picnic area another wombat ran across the area but we got no photos of that one.
We had a good sleep hearing the waves crash on shore behind us and it stayed dry overnight. Leaving the park we spotted two wombats on the road; one scurried away quickly and the other sauntered but by the tie we were close enough, it had also gone into the brush. Then we saw one Kangaroo run down a fence line beside the road only to hide behind some trees from us.
Check out more wallaby and wombat photos here.
We also saw SO many rabbits which is bad for the wombat population as the rabbits eat all the more nutritious food first!
European rabbits were first introduced to the country in the 18th century, and later became widespread, because of a man named Thomas Austin for hunting purposes. Such wild rabbit populations are a serious mammalian pest and invasive species in Australia causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage to crops. Their spread may have been enhanced through the emergence of strong crossbreeds.
Various methods in the 20th century have been attempted to control the rabbit population. Conventional methods include shooting rabbits and destroying their warrens, but these had only limited success. From 1901 to 1907, a rabbit-proof fence was built in Western Australia in an unsuccessful attempt to contain them. A virus was introduced into the rabbit population in the 1950s and had the effect of severely reducing the rabbit population. However, the survivors have since adapted and partially recovered their previous numbers. Domesticated rabbits are banned as pets in the state of Queensland.
We were not in a hurry next morning went to the store to swap the radio for a different one. Doug removed it and they took the Pioneer one back no problem and we bought the slightly more expensive Sony one. Doug installed the new one right away in the parking lot and so far so good….
We arrived at Pakenham Caravan park around noon and got parked. It’s not that warm again today, barely 20C / 70F and of course, windy and again it’s a cold wind. This park seems to have permanent caravans, rentals and camping spots. We saw no tents; they offer power and water, dump station, Wi-Fi, bathroom blocks and there is a laundry and a BBQ area. Weird thing was we need a Wi-Fi user name/password for EACH device!
Doug worked on a couple of cracks in the shower floor and spent time trying to figure out what our fresh water tank size actually is. We know from the manual what size the hot water tank is but there is NO way that combined, they make 103L – false advertising. It’s more like a total of 75L.
It got quite cold over night – down to 5C / 41F and Doug had a cold morning for his long run. It was nice to have power so we could run the heater to take the chill out of the area. Fran did a load of laundry after she exercised and did her morning routine. We did chores, Fran went for a walk to get a couple of things we needed for our trip on Monday and generally just chilled otherwise.
Sunday the weather really changed; it started overcast, then got mostly sunny, then partly sunny but it warmed up to 26C / 78 F and that night the low was 19c / 66F! No blankets needed! We awoke to partly cloudy skies, wind that came and went, some thunder and a few sprinkles on and off before getting up at 7:30.
