We even got our old site back, at the end of the fence, in the shade under 2 huge trees. It was really peaceful - until 5.25am.....
Behind the caravan park there is a 'workers compound'. (A hostel for about 40 farm workers, working on veg farms out at Forth. The ground is leased from the caravan park and they use the amenities in the caravan park as well as driving through the park to come in and out). They start work at 6 am every morning and so around 5.00 it starts to get a little noisy, not usually a problem, but this was a rude awakening - one of them cut across the grass, drove over our awning's guy rope, pulling the awning down on one side - the whole van shook!!
We were up and outside in seconds but the car drove off!
Two other cars stayed around but the drivers didn't speak English, we tried to at least get some sort of acknowledgement from them but after 20 minutes we let them go to work and we went back to bed.
We had their number plates and knew where they lived. The awning shock absorbers had done their job and taken up the force so luckily the awning itself and the van body were undamaged.
Later in the morning we changed sites and the following morning when they left for work they were all rather subdued. (no one had come to see us though, despite there being a 'manager/interpreter' on site. the caravan park manager explained that the workers were newly arrived from Korea, only arriving on Sunday, and hadn't been "trained" yet. When we stayed previously the crew had been there for a few months and were used to everything!?).
So we spent some of our last day in Tasmania at the police station making out a report. The officer promised to pay a visit to the camp to check drivers' and vehicle licences, particularly as the vehicles stay the same even if the workers change and they are all licensed in Queensland.
Anyway we left Latrobe and drove the few kms up to Devonport. We parked up on the foreshore and had morning tea then drove back into town for a wander and some final Tasmanian shopping.
Then we drove across the river to East Devonport,
parked up overlooking the ocean and wiled away the hours before driving down to the terminal and boarding the Spirit of Tasmania and our journey back to Australia.
We had a cabin again and had really calm crossing, arriving safe and sound in Melbourne at 6.30am Friday morning. There was no quarantine, no long queues we just drove away, very simple.
We found a spot to park up and have breakfast before heading against the peak hour traffic flow down through Dandenong and towards "The Prom", Wilson's Promontory and Gippsland.
We drove into Prom Country, open roads, rolling hills, grand vistas and dairy cows - lovely!
We zigzagged through to the hamlet of Athlone. Michael's father's family has connections with the town of Athlone in Ireland and also he had heard about the old Gippsland railway - the Strezlecki line that ran through there and wanted to see if the station or any tracks remained.
No one in Athlone knew anything about the railway so we continued on our way.
We went on to Poowong and the little camp area beside the Bass River - the Bass Valley campground. Very peaceful and very popular, by nightfall there were 3 caravans, 1 4WD, 2 small tents, 1 large tent (a family of 5), 1 campervan and 1 motorhome(us).
The next morning the caravans took off early and we went to chat to the young couple in the WA registered campervan. Turns out that they bought it in Sydney, they are from USA and are touring around Oz for a year - way to go!
Then we drove on through quiet roads, over one lane bridges down to the coastal town of Port Albert.
A good decision, it's a lovely little place, one of Victoria's oldest seaports, being established in 1841.
The 24hr RV stop is on bitumen, at the harbour, next to the boat ramp.
It was windy but pleasant, so we strolled around the harbour.
For dinner we had Fish and Chips at what is supposed to be one of Victoria's best Fish and Chip shops - very nice it was too.
The next morning we enjoyed a late start as the East Gippsland maritime museum didn't open until 10.30.
We had a cup of coffee whilst watching the boats at the boat ramp - not nearly as much fun as most boat ramps - all of them were very smooth, think they've done it lots of times before.
The museum was small and quite interesting. We were particularly interested in the story of one of the offshore islands, Clonmel, as this is the name of the town in Ireland that Michael's mother's family come from. Anyway the island was named after a paddle steamer called the Clonmel, which sank in the area on only her second trip, and the survivors camped on the island whilst some of the crew walked for help, which took them weeks.
Then we were back on the side roads, through farm country, winding our way down to the coastal hamlet of Seaspray, at the western end of the Ninety Mile Beach. The roads were so quiet, we only met one other vehicle. Seaspray is a really quiet place, I think the caravan park has more cabins than the town has houses - it must be jumping during school holidays. We stopped for a sandwich at the town's park and then drove along the narrow stretch of land between Lake Reeve and the Tasman Sea. The vegetation along the roadside was too high for us to enjoy any views - pity.
There were camp areas all along the road but we continued on to the end and the campground at Paradise Beach. There were a lot of people there but we found a reasonably flat, large area and settled in.
We went for a walk along the beach - there were lots of shells and puffer fish but the sand was just lovely - a great beach.
The weather was rather humid and there was a lot of mist on the horizon, giving the view a rather greyish hue.
In the afternoon we had a visit from a local man who volunteers to hand out visitor information, he drove up and gave us a bag full of local leaflets, a pen and a local newspaper - we didn't get any of that in Tassie!!
Then a young couple in a rental campervan pulled in next to us - bad move.....the van sank in the sand up to it's axle!! Once Michael had stopped laughing he went to help.
They were a French couple who had to get one of the many 4WDs around to pull them out. We suggested they stay on harder ground behind us, but I think they were embarassed and they drove off. (Actually, thinking about it, as they were French could they have been embarassed??!!)
Anyway we got chatting to some of the other people who came over to help. Matteus is German but living in Melbourne at the moment and is touring around for a few days, in a rental motorhome, with his mum and dad, Jutta and Gustav, who are over for a holiday. We had Happy Hour with them - actually a Happy 4 Hour as it was almost 9.00pm when we went into our vans.
The next morning we were away early, for us, around 9.30am travelling up to the large commercial town of Sale. On the way we stopped to look at the old Swing Bridge.
The bridge was built 1880 -1883 and is the oldest surviving, intact, Swing Bridge in Australia. It is still opened, swung manually every Saturday and Sunday at 3.00 and 4.00pm.
Then it was into Sale itself, some stocking up on groceries - after going to IGA we discovered the Aldi in town!! Then it was out to the Showgrounds to check in for the night.
Have heard good reports about these showgrounds, and so far they bear no resemblance at all to Hobart (the toilets have just been cleaned!)
Tomorrow it's on to Bairnsdale and more fun, playing 'hunt the ancestor' again.
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