As we entered town we saw a sign for a Motor Museum. The Gippsland Vehicle Collection. It was open so we pulled in...
It was another lovely surprise. A well laid out museum with interesting exhibits.
There was also a museum within a museum - a display of hundreds of model cars. These models have never been touched by hand - the owner / exhibitor always wore gloves!
As we were leaving, chatting to the man on the desk I noticed a leaflet about RV overnight stays. Self contained vehicles were allowed to park overnight. There was also a dump point close by. There was an RV overnight spot in the centre of town but the museum lawns were wide and lush.
We settled down but drove into town later on for fish and chips for dinner.
Rhonda had told us that she had read recently that the 'best fish and chips ' were in Maffra. We never worked out if it was the best in Australia, best in Victoria or just the best in Maffra. Well.the fish was actually very nice, the calamari lovely but the chips were mediocre.
That night the rain returned and we had a couple of heavy, windy showers but the morning was much clearer.
We drove on to the little town of Stratford. No prizes for guessing what the river in the town is called - yes, the Avon.
We were hoping to meet up with a friend that we hadn't seen for ages is usually in this area but she was stuck on the other side of Melbourne with a broken motorhome.
It was still early in the day and still raining so we carried on along the highway to the lovely town of Bairnsdale. We checked with the information centre and the caravan park that we remembered from our trip around Aus. was still there. We headed there and checked in for two nights.
The weather seemed to be improving, the clouds drifted by and the next day dawned fine and clear. A good day to do the washing and go shopping. We checked with our friend on the progress of her motorhome thinking that we would back track and meet her, maybe back in Maffra but the stormy weather west of Melbourne had her staying right where she was - we'll try to meet up in Northern Victoria on our way back home.
Before leaving Bairnsdale we paid a visit to the EGFHG - East Gippsland Family History Group. We met some wonderful, enthusiastic people who managed to find some more info on a friend's ancestors, who came from Bairnsdale.
Ancestry is fascinating; they confirmed our beliefs - always get proof, take nothing for granted, check out the documentation yourself.
One lady told us that she had an ancestor who died in Tasmania when it was called Van Diemans Land. The "Ancestry.com" records have her buried in Turkey!?! She had eventually worked out why - A computer had seen the word Van and had connected this to the city of Van in Turkey. And that's now on the record and family tree!!
After all that research we were in need of coffee so we had morning tea at a bakery cafe in town before continuing East.
We drove along to the spectacular entrance to Lakes Entrance. Arriving from the West does give a great view of the 'lakes entrance'. When we were here before it was peak holiday season and we had to inch our way along the main street, today was much quieter.
We called into the info centre, and asked about caravan parks; we wanted one within walking distance of the town. "There are 20 of them" the lady replied.
Two were with the group we are members but there was a Kui Park which offers a quiet retreat for the nomad...That's were we checked in.
We got a discount for CMCA motorhome membership and parked in a nice quiet corner.
The park certainly lived up to it's reputation for quiet and cleanliness - probably the cleanest we've been in yet.
We had a very quiet afternoon and the next day walked into town. It was lovely, the sun was out but the wind was rather cool. We decided to spend another night in this delightful spot.
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