Our first two week trip

[mikerezny]

Hi,
well, tomorrow morning we are off on our longest trip with the Penguin, 16 days, arriving back to Melbourne on Easter Sunday. Going up to Pink Lakes, haven't been up there many years.

Here is what we think we are doing, weather and conditions permitting:

Melville Caves: 2 nights
Wooroonook Lake: 2 nights
Manangatang: 1 night
Lake Crosbie, Pink Lakes: 7 nights
Hopetoun, Mallee Bush Retreat: 2 nights
Teddington Reservoir: 2 nights

Won't be taking any iPads, laptops, or checking email. Just a couple of simple mobiles we may switch on occasionally.
This is exactly the type of trip we bought the Penguin for. We are looking forward to it very much.
Only one more sleep to go.

cheers
Mike

 

[Drover]

Sounds great, of course for such a "Getaway from it trip" you would of course be camping opposite The Mallee Bush Resort, it would be a bit too fancy for a getaway trip......of course don't forget the camera...............

 

[bigcol]

you will very quickly realise why so many go from the popup campers to the Expandas @mikerezny

a pain in the proverbial to setup and take down each day (still far better than a tent though)

but I know you already knew that

dont forget the trip reports, and as @Drover said, dont forget that camera, we thrive on Piccies

 

[mikerezny]

Hi All,
here is a brief trip report and some pics of this trip:

First stop was Melville Caves in Kooyoora State Park.
Bit of a drama as soon as we got there since we could not get the fridge or stove to light. But that story is in another thread related to gas regulators. Only thing that went wrong on the entire trip.

Here is our camping spot. Lots of nice shady places until you look at the gum tree branches above you.

View from Melville Caves:

Then onto Wooroonook, with a small unexpected hold up. The farmer said "go on through, take it slowly and they will get out of the way.' It was a large flock, and we were almost through when we took this pic:

Here are pics at Lake Wooroonook. Really clean campsite, powered and unpowered, hot showers, electric BBQs.

This is a fence made from Mallee tree roots in Manangatang:

Continued in the next post.

cheers
Mike

 

[mikerezny]

Hi,
trip report part 2.

After Manangatang, we drove West to Ouyen to sample the Mallee Lamb pies and vanilla slices.

Then on to Pink Lakes for a week: We had a little rain, lots of wind, a dust storm, a couple of days over 30C, and clear beautiful nights when we could sat in our chairs looking at the stars. As a good friend said to me many years ago: "It was enough just to be alive".

If you look carefully you will see the Penguin on the other side of the lake.

Here is a pic of the silo art at Patchewollock:

Then down to Lake Lascelles in Hopetoun for Easter. It was really busy. Over in the powered sites area there was a full on street party. Lots of fun, heaps of laughing, but we were far enough away that it was no bother. You could not believe the mess that was still in the morning. Food, chairs, tables, bottles, bikes, toys all over the road. They are all locals and they sure know how to have a good time.

Then through Donald. There was a Driver Reviver in the Old Police Station Museum. We stayed for an hour but could easily have spent several hours there. Well worth having a look if you are passing nearby.

I knew a furphy was a sort of lie, but never knew where the word came from:

And now I know!

Our last camp was Teddington Reservoir, east of Stuart Mill, South of St. Arnaud:

We had a great time, and are looking forward to a three week trip in the winter school holidays.

cheers
Mike

 

[1DayIll]

What a great trip and photo's!
Did all of these places have toilets and showers? I am not so concerned about power, but for the wife, toilets are required.

 

[mikerezny]

What a great trip and photo's!
Did all of these places have toilets and showers? I am not so concerned about power, but for the wife, toilets are required.

Hi @1DayIll,
I'm happy you enjoyed the photos.

All the sites had toilets. Mostly flushing. Melville caves and Pink lakes had drop toilets.

Lake Wooroonook, Manangatang, Lake Lascelles had hot showers. All kindly requested a small donation.

Lake Wooroonook ($15) and Lake Lascelles ($20) had powered sites.

All were free camping except for Lake Wooroonook which was $5 per night unpowered.

All easily accessible with a 2-wheel drive and touring campervan.

Pink Lakes is accessed via a 13km dirt road which is corrugated in parts. I took it at 30-40km/hr.
Teddington Reservoir was a couple of kms of dirt but a good road.

I hope this helps.

cheers
Mike

 

[Drover]

Great area isn't it, we will be back for sure, and looks like you were parked in my spot..........................

 

[mikerezny]

Great area isn't it, we will be back for sure, and looks like you were parked in my spot..........................

View attachment 48961

Hi @Drover,

just keeping it warm for you!

Boats in Lake Wooroonook were slow trawling for red fin and caught so many on two successive days they were giving them away to campers. Each caught in excess of 20 in a couple of hours.

No good to me since I don't eat fish. Another caravan had two vegetarians. So the third took two largish fish each day.

Apparently, the fish don't often bite that well there.

cheers
Mike

 

[bigcol]

awesome piccies Mike, great story as well