What a gorgeous morning we woke to after the wild, windy night at Sandy Point in Hay. It was very still and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was a cool 12 degrees and the forecast was for five sunny days in a row.

As we always do at the end of a trip we talked about the things we liked and didn’t like. I have to say I loved the whole trip. Visiting Echuca Historic Wharf is always a treat. Doing the gold mine tour at Central Deborah Mine in Bendigo was a trip highlight. Driving through the lovely Victorian goldfields towns of Castlemaine and Daylesford is always a pleasure.

Our three days in Ballarat were very wet as it rained and rained but we still managed to pack in a few things such as a couple of lovely drives around the city, spent all day at Soveriegn Hill, and we did a visit to the Ballarat Wildlife Park.

A little unexpected delight was our stop at the Cyril Callister Museum in Beaufort. Cyril invented Vegemite and Kraft Cheddar Cheese.

My highlight was our fabulous stay at The Grampians. Our camp at Old Man Emu Camp was perfect. The Grampians are stunning and we were all quite proud of our hiking to The Pinnacle. It was pretty hard going at times but we all made it to the top and back. Mind you, the hips have been protesting ever since!

Another unexpected delight was finding Tchum Lake to camp at. What a gorgeous little spot. I love finding these special places. Pa thought Tchum Lake was one of the best donation camps we’ve found. Green grass, a camp fire, on the edge of a lovely lake. What’s not to love?

Over breakfast I asked the children what they liked and didn’t like. All of them didn’t like the camp at Ballarat in the NRMA Holiday Park. Our site was a grass one and seeing it rained for 3 days it was very muddy. All of them prefer free camping.

Ben’s favourite was The Grampians. He loved it there especially The Pinnacle walk.

Maddie’s favourite was The Grampians, Ballarat and Sovereign Hill.

Riley’s favourite was Sovereign Hill and The Grampians.

Katie’s favourite was panning for gold after our mine tour at Central Deborah Mine in Bendigo. It was exciting finding flecks of gold.

Now to get home, unpack, clean the motorhome and start planning where we are going next.

What a gorgeous camp spot is Tchum Lake. We really enjoyed our camp there. I cooked up a huge breakfast for everyone of eggs (fried or scrambled), bacon, hash browns & toast. It was a feast. We didn’t get going until after 10. It had been a lovely sleep-in camped at the lake.

At Nullawil we stopped to check out the amazing silo art of the farmer and Jimmy the kelpie. Stunning

When we arrived in Swan Hill we went directly to the Showground to use their dump point however we could not find a water tap anywhere. We asked a couple of fellas and they said the only one was the one at the dump point. Not thanks! I’m not putting that hose anywhere near our tanks. They did think there was a tap in town where the parking for caravans is so we thought we’d give that a try.

The parking for caravans in in the same street as the Tourist Centre and next to the railway station. It is conveniently behind the Main Street and opposite an Aldi. There was a big coach parked already so we lined up next to it and quickly got the hose out to fill our tanks. Job quickly done!

We visited the Tourist Centre, went for a walk along the Riverwalk, Ben and Maddie had a play in the playground, Pa even had a jump on a mini tramp, Riley and I climbed down the huge steps used by the Swan Hill Rowing Club to launch their boats, admired the Big Murray Cod and wandered back to our RV’s.

After a quick sandwich we decided to push on and see if we could make it to Hay then we wouldn’t have so far to go the next day.

We passed through the historic town of Moulamein in the middle of the afternoon and I was surprised to see a sign saying Moulamein is the oldest town in the Riverina. When you think of all the big towns there are in the Riverina today and once there was just Moulamein. The little town is situated on the Edward River and as we crossed the bridge we could see the water level was good.

Traveling along in the sunny afternoon and we really had left any mountains way behind us. The countryside around Moulamein is very flat with lots of salt bush in the huge paddocks on either side of the road.

The Moulamein/Maude Road eventually met up with the Sturt Highway and we turned eastwards towards Hay. The countryside along that stretch is not only flat but also devoid of trees with the occasional huge turkeys nest dam that would supply irrigation to the paddocks below. A lot of cotton is grown around Hay now and, at harvest time, you can see tufts of cotton along the roadside looking a bit like snow.

We arrived at Hay around 5.15pm and drove directly to Sandy Hollow to find a camp spot. Sandy Hollow is a huge free camp provided by the town of Hay for the travelling community. It is situated on a large bend of the Murrumbidgee River and there are toilets, BBQ’s, picnic shelters and usually a sandy beach. However there was not a lot of beach as the water level was very high. There’s a walking/cycling track to town and near the entrance is the town skate park.

We’ve camped at Sandy Point before a few times and we were surprised to see how many were already camped. Must have been at least 50 RV’s of all types. We found a spot where our two rigs could fit and quickly set up camp. For our last dinner on this trip I cooked up chicken schnitzels, mash, mixed veggies and gravy. Judging by the quiet that set in once people had served themselves I’m pretty sure it was enjoyed by all. Maddie did an excellent job being the wiper upper after dinner.

Katie and the kids retired to their van to play card and us old folk headed to bed.

What a wild old night it was! I was sound asleep at midnight when our fridge started beeping. Oh no! Why does it always run out of gas in the middle of the night? That bloody Murphy! So up to go outside to change the gas bottle over. I noticed then that the wind had really picked up and rushed back to our warm bed.

For the next couple of hours the wind really blew. I thought it sounded like waves crashing on a beach. It was blowing so hard the motorhome shook. Ben said the next morning he thought his swag was going to blow away. It must have died down because we all went back to sleep and woke to a beautiful, still, sunny morning.

It was time for our last breakfast on the road then head for home.

Before saying farewell to the beautiful Grampians we all piled in the Prado and drove to McKenzie Falls Lookout. Wow. It was worth it. They are quite spectacular. I can only imagine what they’d be like after winter with more volume of water flowing over the rocks.

We also stopped off at Reeds Lookout for another wow vista across the mountains. Sadly Boroka Lookout was closed due to controlled burning going on. That burning also contributed to the smoke haze about. Glad it wasn’t there the day before when we climbed The Pinnacle.

We all declared that a couple more days would have been good so we had the time to explore further. Oh well. Another place to come back to one day.

Back at Old Man Emu Camp we very quickly packed up camp and headed towards Stawell. Stawell is famous for its annual running race called the Stawell Gift. There’s even a Stawell Gift Hall of Fame & Musuem. Pretty sure my great-grandfather ran in the Gift.

We stopped off in Stawell to use the dump point and fill up with water. It was the first time we’ve come across a dump point on the side of the main road. Oh well at least they have one AND there was a potable water tap a few metres along.

We had a short stop next to a grassy reserve for lunch. I cooked up toasties for everyone. The kids just hoover a toastie!

Over lunch we decided to push on to Lake Boga however along the way I made a phone call to Lake Boga Caravan Park who now manage the unpowered camping on the other side of the lake as well as the Big4 park. I made the call because I’d read on WikiCamps reviews that the price had gone up significantly. They were correct. It is now $7.50 per person now for a patch of grass to camp on with no facilities at all. What a rip off! Katies would have to pay $30 for her family. All the caravan park do for the area is mow it occasionally.

I started to look for alternatives and found a spot near Birchip that looked and sounded good. It had great reviews too.

We made our way to Tchum Lake which seems to appear in the middle of nowhere and what a lovely spot. There is a small Campgound with power & water sites and an amenities block however you can drive all the way around the lake and find yourself a spot for the fabulous price of $10 per vehicle per night. Perfect! What a credit to the shire. There’s an honesty box to pay your fees and we made sure we did that before we left the next morning.

We set up camp with our two rigs, the boys quickly set up their swags, Pa got a little fire going and we had drinks and nibbles by the side of the lake watching the sun go down. Ahhh the serenity!

Brrr it was cold in the morning. I think the temperature was down to 5 overnight. However the sun was out and it looked like it was going to be a lovely day.

We all piled into Katie’s Prado, left camp and headed through Halls Gap and up into the hills to the Wonderland Carpark where we began the hike to The Pinncacle. We started our hike at 10.30 and finally made it back to the car park at 2. We did have a half an hour rest stop at the top and a lunch break. What a fantastic hike! Hard work but the view at the top was worth it.

Back at camp I put a roast lamb in the Weber and spent some time updating this blog. Ben and Maddie played with the kids from the next camp. John dropped up another bag of wood so we could have another great fire.

After three rainy days we were all happy to pack up camp and head out of Ballarat. At least the sun had finally come out and we could pack our mats, awnings and swags away dry.

We all felt good to be leaving the city and city traffic behind and heading out into the countryside. Our first stop was in the village of Beaufort where we stopped for a look at the Cyril Callister Museum. This great little museum is dedicated to Cyril and all things Vegemite as Cyril was the chemist who invented it. Cyril was a bit of a character and during WW1 he made bombs for the British. He was also the inventor of Kraft Cheddar Cheese, you know the one in the blue cardboard box? The little museum is housed in an old service station and manned by volunteers. They have a large collection of Vegemite memorabilia thoughout the years and a smaller collection of merchandise. The famous Vegemite jingle was playing in the background. Kids can try their hand at Vegemite painting. The volunteer on duty was so friendly and shared Cyrils story with us. We all bought a little something to take home with us. All proceeds go back to the museum to keep it going. Worth a look if you are going that way.

Next stop was the Woolies in Ararat to stock up on groceries then we were back on the road again.

Moyston Recreation Area was a good spot for a lunch break. While there I jumped on the Vic Parks website to see if we could book a couple of sites at the Grampians. Bummer…ALL the caravan sites at both Borough Huts and Jimmys Creek Campgrounds were already booked so we needed to look for an alternative. We found one on WikiCamps called Old Man Emu Farm Stay at Pomonal right near the Halls Gap Zoo. It looked like a good spot and was only $20 per night. You do have to be self contained but each site has a fire pit and a table and the sites are huge!

It was a bit sobering driving through Pomonal where the recent bush fires took a huge toll. Some 45 homes were lost in the fires and we could see fire damage on both sided of the road.

At Old Man Emu Farm Stay you drive in to the hosts house, register, pay your money then John gives you directions to the camp site. We also bought a bag of wood from John and he would deliver it to our site later. The campground is a back paddock on their farm with the Grampians in the background. What a spot! This is more our type of camping. Ben and Maddie were very excited after we’d gone through the gate and drove along the road to find a site to see some friends they’d made in Ballarat already camped up. They’d left Ballarat the day before us and here they all were. The nana and pop are in their motorhome and the others are in two campers trailers and a tent.

We set up camp and John duly arrived with our bag of wood for our fire later. After unhitching we all piled into the Prado for a drive into Halls Gap. What a cute little place full of various types of holiday accomodation. It reminded me a bit of driving into Yosemite National Park. Tall mountains on either side and lots and lots of holiday accomodation. The town itself is only quite small but has the basics including a general store for groceries.

We drove into the park and stopped to check out Borough Huts Campground. We were all glad there were no sites left to camp there as the van sites are all quite small and close together. We’d much prefer to be at Old Man Emu. Back in town we stopped off at the Tourist Centre to get maps then it was back to camp.

I’d put a chicken curry in the crockpot and it had been slowly cooking all day. Cooked up some rice, heated up some naan bread and dinner was ready. We ate out of bowls sitting around our awesome fire.

We had an early night as the temperature cooled down very quickly and once our wood was gone it was too cold to sit outside.

Oh dear. No hot water. Had to have a very luke warm shower this morning. Now what’s wrong?

Like always, when something goes wrong on the motorhome it’s a process of elimination. Is it a power issue? Nope. Hot Water System (HWS) is plugged in and turned on. Is it the power point? No. Tried plugging in the battery charger and it worked.

Is it something to do with the town water? Unplugged the hose from the motorhome and turned the 12V pump on. Still no hot water.

It was working for the first couple of days when we were free camping so I turned the gas on to see if that worked. Waited 10 minutes and still no hot water. Weird!

Found the Truma HWS Manual to read the troubleshooting and couldn’t find anything at all helpful there.

Nothing for it but to resort to the professionals. A quick Google search found Ballarat City Caravans. I called them and the service manager was busy but would call me back. True to his word Rob called back and after I explained the problem he said the only way they can diagnose was to bring it in. So we packed up camp and drove the short distance to Ballarat City Caravans. Rob had told us to park around the back and we drove in the back entrance to their service area.

Rob introduced us to their ‘guru’ Grant and he quickly set about diagnosing the problem. About 10 minutes later he had determined it was our tempering valve that was faulty. The tempering valve is important in an RV as it adjusts the temperature coming from the HWS and mixes it with cold water so that the water that goes through the pipes and out the taps is not boiling. Luckily he could replace it straight away. Excellent!

Once that was done he asked if our water pump always sounded loud like that. When I responded yes, he then asked if I wanted it fixed. Yes, please! So now we have a new tempering Valve and the water pump is so quiet! $280 later and we were driving back to the NRMA Holiday Park.

Back at camp we tossed about what we would do that afternoon and it was decided to give the Wildlife Park a visit. Rob at Ballarat City Caravans had recommended it. What a lovely little park it is. Definitely recommend a visit if you are in Ballarat with children. Our three loved it.

We timed it right for the keeper talk at the Tasmanian Devils, tried to spot the two tigers hiding in their enclosure, patted kangaroos and emus, laughed at the antics of the koalas as the keepers gave them new leaves to eat, admired the huge Wedge-tail Eagle, watched the dingos, and marvelled at the huge tortoises. A favourite with the kids was the Reptile House with its snakes, lizards, alligators and crocodiles.

Crunch the 65 year old saltwater crocodile is a star of the park and he has his own habitat that he shares with his mate Bella. She is tiny compared to Crunch. They recently had two babies and they were also on display in their own aquarium.

It was a great couple of hours that the kids really enjoyed. We followed that up with a visit to an awesome adventure playground located near the Botanic Gardens and Lake Wendouree. What a great playground! Kids enjoyed running around their testing their skills and hiding.

It rained again when we arrived back at camp and was quite cold. We were all starting to get a bit sick of the rain and our mats were becoming very muddy. Oh well at least we know the boys swags are watertight!

Rich discovered he’d left his thermals at home so we borrowed Katie’s car and did a quick drive to Anaconda to buy Rich another one. We arrived back to the RV’s to find he’d left his favourite cap behind in the fitting room. Bummer! He called them and it was found. They’ll hang on to it until he can pick it up.

We all packed our lunch and with our backpacks on headed off on foot to visit Sovereign Hill. As I said earlier Sovereign Hill is just around the corner from the NRMA Park. There’s even a back gate from the park to shorten the walk.

It is very easy to spend the day at Sovereign Hill and we managed to fit in quite a lot. Throughout the day there are various demonstrations with people dressed in period costume to add a little bit of theatre to the demonstrations.

We watched a Musket firing demonstration by a man dressed as an 1850’s mounted policeman.

We also watched a Blacksmith demonstration where the blacksmith made a metal shepherds crook.

Katie and the children tried Gold panning (didn’t find anything)

We explored the various shops full of goods for sale such as lollies. We checked out the houses full of interesting furniture and household goods. Ben pointed to a guzunder and said ‘Ooh it’s full of wee”

We ate our packed lunch near the children’s playground while watching a group of badly behaved school children.

Later we watched a fascinating Gold pouring where we were shown how gold is super heated in a crucible and then poured carefully into a mould to take out the impurities. The resulting ingot weighed 3kg and is worth around $60,000.

Ben was dying to go on the Underground Mine tour so once the gold pouring finished we had to move very quickly to the mine for book in offer the next tour which started in 10 minutes. It was a fun tour going underground on a tram then walking through the mine before riding the tram back to the surface. It was so dark going down and back up on the tram that you couldn’t see your own hand in front of your face.

By the time we’d done the mine tour we were all ready to head for home. It had been a long day. We’d mostly been on our feet all day so, after a quick stop in the gift shop on the way out, 6 tired people walked slowly back to our caravan park.

Katie and I did a little washing, the kids played on the jumping pillow, Ben found the games room, Pa and I went for a walk around the park and Katie cooked our dinner. It started raining about 6 and looked like it was going to settle in. Riley and Maddie played games while Pa surfed the net.

The rain really settled in so everyone called it an early night and headed to their bed to read or play games. We moved the boys swags so they were under the motorhome awning as it’s bigger than the one on the van.

After our long day yesterday we all enjoyed a late start with pancakes and bacon & eggs for breakfast.

By the time we left Happy Jacks Reserve at 11am the road was very busy with trucks going by. We headed southwards to Castlemaine and Daylesford.

Daylesford is such a lovely little town we decided to find a park for our RV’s and set off to explore the Main Street. First stop was the visitors centre then we wandered along one side of the street and down the other. What an eclectic lot of shops. We found a fabulous bookshop and a shop full of all sorts of memorabilia. Daylesford Bakery smelt good so we chose there for some lunch. I had a pie and it was really good. I can’t remember the last time I had a pie!

Continuing our journey and we arrived in Ballarat around 2.30pm and checked in to the NRMA park. It’s just around the corner from Sovereign Hill. As we were staying for 3 days we fully set up camp. Awning out and tied down, mat out, chairs and table out etc.

Riley and Ben stayed at camp while the rest of us went for a drive around the city to orient ourselves. We drove all the way around Lake Wendouree and discovered prime real estate with expensive houses overlooking the lake. We did have to stop at one point to let a pair of black swans cross the road. We called at Bakers Delight and Woolies for some groceries then drove back to camp where we found the boys.

The kids spent a good hour jumping on the huge jumping pillow which is located directly behind our camp. At dusk a staff member came around to ask the children to get off as it was closing. There are no lights around the pillow so it would be quite dangerous for the kids to use it after dusk.

We had a BBQ with sausages and rissoles for dinner cooked on Katie’s Weber accompanied by potato bake and salad.

It started to rain after dinner so we moved the boys swags under our awning to keep them dry. Everyone retired pretty early as it was very chilly outside. What happened to Autumn? It was full on Winter in Ballarat!

Departing Conargo early for us, we were on the road by 8am, heading towards Echuca.

Before we left Katie discovered that the water pump in her van had stopped working. She’d had a shower but when she went to clean her teeth…no water. The pump wasn’t making any noise at all! Bummer! We’d have to try and get it looked at in Bendigo.

After saying a farewell to the kids new friend, Skye, the German Shepherd, we set off. We were both very impressed with how the children helped with the setting up and packing up of the camp. They all know what has to be done and they just get in and do it. Awesome little campers!

Next stop was Echuca, across the Murray River, in Victoria. Echuca is a fascinating town and we could have spent a lot longer there however we were on a deadline. We had to be in Bendigo for our pre-booked tour at the Central Deborah Gold Mine.

After spending an hour exploring the historic wharf district and the fabulous museum we had to sadly leave Echuca. The historic wharf museum has free entry. Isn’t that great? The young ones were excited to see paddle steamers in the river and one even cruised past taking tourists on a tour. Ben and Maddie particularly enjoyed the steam engine display where they got to turn handles to pump water and make bells ring.

Echuca was once one of the busiest inland ports in Australia and the paddle boats carried huge cargo along the river to South Australia. From here the cargo was loaded onto ships and transported all around the world.

Along the way I put in a call to Bendigo Caravan & RV to see if they could have a look at the broken water pump. The friendly staff member said they could and quite by fluke their business happened to be in the next block away from the Central Deborah Gold Mine where we were to do the tour.

Arriving in Bendigo we drove directly to the Caravan & RV place and booked the van in. Katie had to park and unhook the van then park her car around the corner. They were to investigate and let her know what they find while we all go off to do our tour.

There is parking for long vehicles right behind the Central Deborah Gold Mine so Pa parked the motorhome there and we all walked around there to have lunch before we headed to our booked tour. We had to arrive 15 minutes before our tour and we were a little early. We were given wristbands to wear and had to be at the meeting point at 1.55pm.

Our tour guide was a bright and bubbly lady named Sarah-Jane or SJ. We spent the next hour with her as she guided us down 22 stories underground. Everyone’s footwear was checked to ensure we were all wearing closed shoes. If not, no tour for you! Another safety feature is the hard hat. First stop underground is to collect your hard hat. Each hard hat has a headlight torch and are adjustable to fit each head.

Once everyone had their hard hats on we could all enter the lift and go below. The lift jolted a little on take off and a few people let out little squeals! We very quickly arrived at Level Two 61 metres underground. Level 5 through to 17 are now fully flooded so they are not accessible anymore. We spent the next 45 minutes following SJ as she explained the history of Bendigo, gold mining, the Central Deborah Mine, the miners and their lives and the tools and equipment they used, until our tour ended back at the lift. What a fabulous tour. We all enjoyed it very much.

Once back on the surface the kids wanted to have a go a gold panning. That was a bit of fun. They were excited to find little sparkly pieces of stones in the bottom of the pan but I really don’t think anyone found any real gold. Ben m aye found $1 worth. Just a little flake. They had fun trying though!

Whilst on the tour Katie had been called by the RV place to let her know that the water pump needed replacing and they could do it while we were on the tour so once our tour ended we headed back around there to collect the van with it’s new water pump installed. Yay!

We left Bendigo and headed out of town to a spot Rich and I had found on a previous visit. Happy Jacks Reserve is a free camp spot right alongside a little creek and there is plenty of room for lots of RV’s. I think everyone was a little tired afterlour long day and it did take longer than usual to decide on a camp site. Eventually we settled on a spot and set up camp with our little fire pit burning merrily.

The long-awaited April School holidays finally arrived. It felt like we’d been planning the trip for ages! We headed off towards Victoria with a general plan to visit Echuca, Bendigo, Ballarat and The Grampians.

After a late start, due to car problems with our daughter’s Prado, we finally got away around 2.30pm. A quick stop to fill up with fuel and put air in the tyres and we were away.

By the time we arrived at the tiny village of Conargo the sun was going down so that was as far as we went that first day. We pulled in for the night at Conargo Recreation Ground free camp. There was one van already in a spot so we set our RV’s up at 90 degrees to each other so our doors faced inwards. The boys quickly set up their swags on their large mat and Pa quickly got the fire pit out and alight.

As we were setting up another van arrived and set up next to the other one.

What great little campers the kids are now. No arguing, just helping each other get the camp setup so we could settle around the fire and watch the sunset.

I’d put a beef stew in my little crockpot and it had been cooking away all day. I served it up with crunchy bread. Yum. The kids hoovered it.

Our new neighbour in the second van invited the kids to come and meet their big German Shepherd. Kids jumped at the chance to do that.

Conargo Pub, which famously burnt down and was rebuilt, now offers meals but only from Thursday to Sunday. As it was only Monday not a lot was happening at the pub. The Recreation Ground is a great spot. There are clean and tidy toilets, tennis courts, an oval, and free camping is available. We think they should have a donation box at the front gate as we would be happy to donate to this great little camp. If all campers donated $10 that would really help the little community to maintain the area and most campers would be happy to donate $10.