We really enjoyed our stay at Victoria Falls Campground but after two nights we were ready to continue on.

It was a great drive down the mountain. It was very pretty scenery with rugged alpine bush and tumbling rivers down in the valley below.
The cattle on Cobungra Station were very fat and glossy as we drove through that valley. The green grass was so tall we wondered what happened to summer. By February our countryside is usually browned right off with no green grass left. Not this year!

There was a lookout that we stopped at that gave a fabulous view towards the main range with Mt Kosciusko and Mt Townsend in the far distance.

We arrived in the historic gold mining town of Omeo and paid a visit to the Tourist Centre. Sadly the Historical Museum was closed undergoing renovations so we couldn’t do that and Livingstone Park which runs alongside the river had suffered a lot of damage due to recent floods. The walk to Oriental Claims was also closed because of flood damage. The dump point was also out of action as it went under water too. So not a lot for us to do in Omeo then.

We did need gas though and we were told to try the hardware store. Richard went into the hardware store and while he organised two new swap & go gas bottles I wandered around and got some pics of the historic buildings.

We continued on down the winding road to Bruthen. The scenery was very picturesque with the road following alongside the Tambo River. We chatted with Kevin & Sally using the UHF and we all thought the scenery reminded us of Canada except the vegetation was all wrong. I think it was the river below us. It would tumble over rapids and then there’d be a large pool then more rapids. We would get glimpses of the river from the road as it wound it’s way down the mountain. It was very scenic.

We stopped in Bruthen for a toilet stop and found part of the East Gippsland Rail Trail behind the Tourist Centre. There was an original Fettlers Hut and a Police Lockup. Fettlers were the workers on the railway line who did all the maintenance of the line. The hut is one that would have accommodated Fettlers. The railway came to Bruthen in 1916 but the line has now been converted into the East Gippsland Rail Trail.

We left the Great Alpine Road at Bruthen as it headed to Bairnsdale and we wanted to head east to Nowa Nowa and on to Lakes Entrance.
What an experience the Great Alpine Road was. Rich and I put it up there with one of Australia’s best road trips. It was truly epic!

At Nowa Nowa we turned south to the popular holiday destination of Lakes Entrance. I’d been to Lakes Entrance as a child but couldn’t really remember it. I was keen to see what it was like.

As we drove along the Main Street we kept our eyes peeled for a seafood restaurant and, sure enough, there was one right near all the fishing boats. After finding parking spots for our RV’s we wandered back along the Esplanade to the Soda Fish restaurant. We all had the fish and chips with a greens & grains salad that we all shared. Wow…real fish with superb, thin, crunchy batter washed down with an icy cold beer. Soda Fish wasn’t very busy so we had our pick of the tables and ended up on a balcony overlooking the marina under the shade of a shade sail. Perfect.

Some campers we met at Victoria Falls came from Lakes Entrance and they recommended we stay at the Lakes Entrance Recreation Reserve Campgound as it is right in town and walking distance to everywhere. Sounded good to us so we called them from the restaurant to book in for 3 nights. Unfortunately they don’t have two waterfront sites for 3 nights. We could only get one for 3 nights and the other for 2 nights. Oh well.

We found the campground and checked in. The site for 3 days was long enough for the motorhome so Sal & Kev had to take the one for 2 nights. We were hopeful they’d be able to add on another night later. We quickly set up camp and were delighted to have a waterfront site. We had the caretakers on one side of us with their motorhome and a caravan on the other side. We felt very squeezed in but at least the site was large enough that we could have our slide-out out on one side and our awning out on the other. As we were staying for three nights I set up our awning with the legs down, pegged and roped down with our anti flappers on. It made for a lovely spot for happy hour when Kev & Sal came to join us.