Bye Bye Victoria, Hello New South Wales

The showgrounds at Sale were a lot better than Hobart showgrounds, the amenities were clean and plentiful, the weather wasn't too great though, and the grass was getting quite soft by the next morning. We had a quick stop in Sale for a last minute look around before heading out along Princes Highway to Bairnsdale.
We decided against taking a scenic route through farm country as the weather was quite wet and misty. First port of call in Bairnsdale was the Family History Group and the ladies there were gems, extremely helpful and after a short while we had nearly all of them scouring their books, papers and computer records for anything to help us. We came away with a few pages of relevant stuff.
Then we went into Bairnsdale for some lunch, a good pie and great coffee at Jarrods Cafe, before checking into the caravan park.
Bairnsdale is a very nice town, preferable, we think, to Sale, maybe that's because the town was walking distance from the caravan park in Bairnsdale, and there was a Chinese and an Indian restaurant very close by.
The caravan park is between the river and the highway but not too noisy with traffic noise.
The next day the sun was shining and we enjoyed a stroll into town, checked out the amazing St Mary's church and its' murals,

 before lunch - another great pie at Jarrods and then onto the Historical Society museum.
 A very sweet, well displayed museum with very helpful staff.
They even came up with some old photos in our ancestry search.
The next day was really sunny and so I decided to adapt the saying 'make hay whilst the sun shines,' to
do some washing whilst the sun shines'!! then I had a walk into town, ending up finding an op shop so came home with 2 more books.
It was really hot and almost midday when I got back so I tested the park's swimming pool - cold but beautiful!! After lunch we just sat in the shade and read.
 That night we are sure that we saw fruit bats flying overhead.

Next day it was time to move on, but first we drove out to the cemetery for some photos of headstones - those ancestors again.
We drove east again, stopping in Lakes Entrance for lunch. The views entering Lakes Entrance are stunning and the town is very pretty. The peak season is very definitely over here - it's really quiet.
We had lunch at a cafe,  it was quite ordinary really, miss those pies already!
 When we first drove into Victoria we remarked on the cypress pine carvings at Dartmoor - there have been several other towns around with these pine carvings and there are some on the foreshore at Lakes Entrance:-

Then it was time to continue East to Orbost. We were in Orbost about 8 years ago and liked the town then, it's still a nice little town. We checked into the caravan park and set up in the shade, after a couple of hours relaxing we decided to have 2 nights in the park.

The next day we walked into town early and had a bit of retail therapy before returning to the park and sitting in the shade - moving around as the sun moved!

A motorhome pulled in alongside and the couple from Canberra joined us chasing the shade, this led into Happy Hour and then it was time to head in for dinner, at least by then it had cooled down somewhat - temp inside the van had been around 30 degrees so must have been around 35 outside. We went to sleep with the air conditioner on it was still very warm.
We had another 5am rude awakening but this time we were safe and sound, we awoke to the sound of a helicopter landing on the playing fields, the other side of the fence to us. Apparently it was a medical emergency, but all we know is that it was really, really loud and there were bright lights - UFO theory anyone?

The next morning we left Orbost and went down to Marlo at the mouth of the Snowy River - we went to look at the old paddle steamer, the Curlip, but were amazed that it's next excursion is March 9th!
 As I said "peak season is over".

We followed the coast for a little, around to Cape Conrad and then returned to the Princes Highway on to Cann River (the cheapest fuel prices around - same price as metropolitan Melbourne) and up the Monaro Highway into New South Wales High Country and on to Bombala - Platypus Country.
Before going into the town of Bombala we went out to the Platypus Reserve, and sure enough, just like 8 years ago - in the middle of the day we saw platypus. Feeling rather smug we drove on into town and booked in at one of the cheapest (but nicest) caravan parks around. We squeezed the van into a site next to the river (so we can sit out and watch for platypus - we may see them!)

There was a bit of fiddling around because the squeeze was to get under the tree branches - we managed it but had to be extremely careful with the tv aerial. Anyway had  just set up when the couple from last night pulled in - next to us again!
The weather is ideal platypus watching weather, overcast and an attempt at rain so we put the awning out to sit under and are studying the river!! No photos yet!!
We are going to dawdle around the area going down to the  coast at Eden and then back up to Cooma and the mountains before going into Canberra in about 2 weeks time.