Mar 15

Lake Eildon

We arrive in Melbourne before sunrise and the whole deck is still damp and covered in salt crystals. It must have been a rough crossing with lots of salt water spray. When we moor everything is calm though.

After reuniting with the dogs and the bus we are on our way through sleepy Melbourne. We’re just ahead of all the traffic and can see the traffic jams build up the other way. We’re glad to leave the hustle and bustle and go towards Pierre to pick up the trailer.

Before we get to Pierre we stop at BCF where we bought the inflatable kayak to resolve an ill-fitting pump connection. They delivered the wrong pump hose with the boat. While we wait for the shop to open we have breakfast and play with the dogs.
At the shop I have an argument where the lady says they can’t help it if the manufacturer puts the wrong stuff in the box and I counter that I didn’t buy it on eBay just for this reason. A retailer should take responsibility for what they sell. In the end she gives in and contacts the importer who promise to send out a proper hose and if we can come back in a few days. I tell her that we don’t have that option and if they can send it to our home address (at Joran). She sputters that they can’t do that and I reply that I will then have no option to take one of the hoses from a pump that fits. She gives in again and takes our address. Like pulling teeth.

Our next stop is stocking up on fruit and veggies and we stop at the same shop where we went on the first trip to Pierre. There Marjo finds also a delicatessen store with more Dutch food then we saw in the Dutch shop in Melbourne last time. So we stock up on frites sauce, licorice and speculaas. Yumm.

Then we arrive at Pierre’s where his daughter does the honours. We give her the gift we bought at Axeman’s Hall of Fame and hook up the trailer and make our way north, towards the alpine region.

As could be expected the drive is up hill and we see nice forests, hills, lakes and streams.

Then we arrive at a campground close to a river. The bush camp is not very appealing, really a circle road in the dust. The river is a 5 minute walk down hill and (lucky) the shore of the river is about a meter above the water. I say lucky as the water flows so fast that if one of our dogs would have jumped in we would have lost them from view within 10 seconds. It’s not really visible in the picture but I couldn’t run fast enough to keep up with the flow (alright, I might not beat the world record running any day soon, but still can move reasonably fast).

So we decide not to stay and drive on to Lake Eildon.

The lake is another dam where trees have drowned in the water and now we can see where all the water in the fast flowing river comes from.

The lake is about 9 meters under level.

Although we can’t access the water here either and the camp ground is nothing special, we decide to stay for the night. We are supposed to book in by calling or going to the state forest website but they didn’t think that after 6 km of steep dirt road no one in their right mind drives back to see where they can get mobile reception to register for the camp ground.

The flies drive us inside and – with last yesterday’s short night anyway – we sleep like roses. If anything, the campground is quiet and dark.