Yeerup River just outside


 Marlo on the Gippsland Coast

Yesterday the sun came out and we set off to explore Cape Conron which is approximately 18klms down the coast. We spent a couple of hours rock hopping between rock pools and had a picnic lunch overlooking a wonderful little bay.

On the way home we spotted a sign for a canoe launching spot and decided to investigate and discovered this wonderful river which is totally untouched. All motorised craft are banned and at spots you have to navigate around submerged trees and various other snags but the scenery is absolutely spectacular. Hope you like the pics.

Miss G has her biggest dinner party at Marlo

The lanteens were hung, the xmas balls swung, and the pig was well and truely stuffed, into the BBQ as well LOL. Ron cooked up a storm all afternoon as we were the first contestents in the Marlo BBQ cookoof. The night started off with a game of Boche which was won by the (cheating) combination of Bailey and moi against her parents. While this was happening Ron was using every available pot, pan, knife, spoon in creating his masterpiece. Like all chefs he paid very little attention in how he left the kitchen but the produce was fab.

Entree:

Large green olives with tasty cheese and spicey pear paste

Soft Blue with hand made crackers

HOT pepperoni

Main Course:

Stuffed roll of pork

siverbeet with nutmeg and butter

Whole carrots baked in butter and pepper

Desert:

Mc B's world famous Christmas pudding with brandy custard

What a feast.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh school holidays on the coast

Yesterday we left Warburton for the trek down the coast to Marlo to meet up with Bailey, Scott and Julie. We had an uneventful trip but the traffic was non-stop the entire way, so I assume that Melbourne is empty and everyone is here on the coast LOL. As you can see from above, things are a wee bit busy in the park and today is a major changeover day with lots leaving and lots more arriving. No vacancies everywhere for at least the next week, so it is a grin and bare it week. The weather today is fantastic and we might get D'Luded into the ware and go paddle/peddle up the snowy river to escape the mayhem here in the park.

Happy Birthday Bruce, hope dinner at Vue was up to scratch

Lap 3 commences

Hello from Warburton in the Yarra valley and our starting point for Lap 3.  The Yarra is teaming with trout and platypus as it slowly meanders down to melbourne. The weather here (at the moment) is great, a balmy 28 with a max today of 35.  Miss G hosted DW and Peter to dinner last night under the lighting that would do a chinese bordello proud LOL, Yep the xmas lights are up.

The Big man in red is packing his sleigh and we are saying "Goodbye" to another year

Ron and I would like to extend our good wishes to everyone who has come along with us in 2009 and we hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year

Good morning from post heatwave Melbourne.

We are almost through the dinners, lunches,being total social animals and now we are looking forward to getting back out on the road and loosing some of the kilos that have mysteriously appeared in the last week LOL.

This weekend is all about giving Miss G a good check over and then packing up on Monday and heading down the highway to Warburton on Tuesday. Things have changed a weeeeee bit as it now looks like we can't go to WA straight away as our housesitter has decided that love will rule and is moving to South Africa to be with his partner, so we have to sort out something to do with the house in mid March. Is anyone thinking about coming to Melbourne for a couple of years LOL LOL

Salt Lake at Woomera

whitemandreaming.blogspot.com

This is another last for 2009, the last painting on lap 2. On the way into Woomera we travelled past these huge salt lakes which had the most wonderful colours in the soil, trees, plants and of course the lake itself. I hope you like it.

Melbourne is living up to its name with cold one day and colder the next but we have been warned that 35 plus will return next week. LOL.

Last Map of the year

Yes this is the last one in Black and from the next map we will be off again in Red starting at Warburton (back at the scene of the first departure) heading off to Marlo down on the Gippsland coast.

Our stay in melbourne is turning out to be docs, dentists and dinners LOL. So far we have both done the docs and I have to go back on Monday for a final say about my -------back (cant get into a specialist until the new year). We have both done the dentist and got a pretty clean bill of health, or at least we will have teeth for another lap LOL. The dinners start tonight with Steve at Tea House (Chinese) tomorrow with Tom don't know where yet but will be inner city somewhere, then Monday with Julie and Scott at Ink (seafood), Bruce on wednesday lunch at Clayton and Co, Thursday with Geof and Jenny and we still have to fit in john and Marie, Matt and a couple of other catch ups. We should have put on lots of weight by the time we escape here.

It is great to see that the twins are coming along well and the pics look great. Well done Tim and Bec, hopefully you will get to come home soon.

Back in Melbourne and on our first night we were off to the Peels 21st birthday. It was great to catch up to Tom and Darren and have alook at the new renovations. Great job Tom the place looks fantastic. We managed to catch up with a couple of people from the pub days and on the way home we even called into the Laird for a quick look see. This was Ron's first time back so for him it was a strange experience.

The rumours of it being very quiet were true, when we arrived around midnight the place was very very quiet. Off to the doctors today and dentist tomorrow getting everything prepared for next years trip LOL.

Today we took a trip around the mountains.

We left the boys in Warburton this morning and deicded to take the reefton Spur to Marysville and then back to heathcote via the Black Spur. This is a road that we have travelled many many times and especially back in the bike riding days. This particular lap was a favourite for most bikers and on any weekend you would find (and still do when the law is not around) many bikes cranked over through the corners of the spurs. Unfortunately this was also the area that coped the worst damage during the Feb fires and you can see from the pic that things are still very very grim up there. Marysville hardly exists anymore. Today they opened a supermarket in the old car museum and they also have a cafe and hairdresser back in action but the rest of the town and the wonderful 100 year old resorts are gone. The forests are very spooky and quiet. The tree ferns have come back with a vengeance with all the new light as the canopy is totally gone from massive parts of the area. The fire was so hot that alot of the euclypts will never recover and whole mountain sides are charcoaed tree trunks.

Here's looking at you..............

Yesterday we headed off to the Healesville Sanctuary for our bi annual walk around the aussie bush etc and see things we haven't managed to see on the road LOL. The zoo is getting bigger and better each year and the exhibits really do represent a natural setting. The highlights are always the platypus exhibition and the Birds of prey free flight show. 26 and fine today and off to Warby to say hi to DW and Peter.