Mar 18

Black man’s creek (1880)

You can imagine that we didn’t like to stay another day at Lake Eildon. I’m sure that after enough rain the location can be really nice when the ground is covered with some growth and the lake full with water. But like its now there’s not much attraction.

So we say goodbye to the lake with its house boats.

And drive along winding roads further up the mountains. There is an abundance of manna gums (or white gum or eucalyptus viminalis) and many signs to be aware of koala’s who feed of the leaves of these trees.

Then the wind picks up and clouds move in and we have a southerly upon us.

We follow the navigator over the roads towards James Reserve but decide to ignore it when it suggests to take 12 km of bad dirt road. Instead we circumvent and cut it down to 5 km reasonable dirt road (and 12 km bitumen). When we arrive at Black Man’s Creek we can see it was worth it.

The large, well maintained, bush camp is nicely located next to a small creek.

The weather is interesting, first clouds and fierce winds but no rain.

Then sunny with cloudless skies. Still a cold wind but with the campground located in a valley surrounded by tall gums, we are spared from most of the wind that blows over our heads. We have a choice between the warm sun or the fresh shade and adopt a bit of an hot/cold pattern; warm up in the sun and cool down in the windy shade. Not a bad lifestyle if those are your only concerns.

The area is nice.

And we all settle down to stay a few days.

The creek is great for washing some of our pans and of course ourselves. After the first shock it’s nice and refreshing.

And apart form the occasional local family that comes here for a picnic we have the place to ourself. With blue skies every day and the fresh wind to keep the temperature at a pleasant 25 degrees there’s not much we miss (apart from kiting of course, but I’m sure that once we get closer to the coast that will be solved too).

Now we don’t have to pack up and drive every day, we have time for other things. We first re-pack the bus and trailer so that we can travel without loading our bed with dog beds, chairs and kites every day we travel. Marjo must have spotted some free space and soon after we finished repacking she goes on the hunt for a burl. Inspired at Axeman’s Hall of Fame, she has seen the nice things people make from burls (the stress warts you can see on the trunk of some trees). When you see them they don’t look like much, apart from the interesting shape of the wood grain.

But properly carved (or turned if you have the equipment) and polished they make for fabulous bowls. We already have one from my dad and Karin when they visited us the first time and Marjo got me one for my birthday in Tasmania. But now it’s time for Marjo to show her craftwomanship.