26 Mar 2017 - Traralgon, GMES and Home

Today we are visiting the Gippsland Model Engineering Society public running day at Traralgon Miniature Railway.

Starting to steam up at 10AM for paid rides from midday. So out of Big4 at 9:45 and back track the 7km to Newman Park. Introduced ourselves, but Graeme had forewarned them. 

Signed in as visitors, given the brief, invited to help ourselves to refreshments in the Club Rooms and off. A couple of gorgeous coal steamers warming up and a new conversion to diesel.

We had a delightful few hours with a most welcoming bunch of new friends. Thanks guys!

Then 1PM, heading west again. We will keep going it's only 420km home via Pakenham, Healsville, Yea, Bonnie Doon, Benalla...

Home at 7:15PM after 23 days, 2184 km, 398 litres of diesel ($503), 20 nights accomodation ($721 including the motel) and of course the clutch booster - $471. So $1700 plus food and drink for 3 weeks holiday...

24 Mar 2017 - Repairs

Claimed Roadside assist for the extra accomodation. Ken Tame, excellent, no drama whatsoever! Thanks, pressure off.

The more or less correct part arrived this afternoon. Needed to exchange a few parts - the air attachment, wrong thread, but it's on!

Then bleeding the air out of the 6m line. needed a suction device, but finally have pedal. The rod to the thrust lever need to be a bit scarily tight to engage first and reverse. Hopefully is not holding the thrust bearing on, or working the clutch springs. It is where is used to be on removal so we will watch it. Any way mobile.

When I went to get the Rhhino out of the workshop it needs another third of a turn to disengage. But its out! Paid the bill. 1.5 hours labour, very fair, part and freight and a bit of brake fluid (I didn't have enough) $471 - plus the first two nights accomodation $220, does bust out budget a bit...

We will leave in the morning!

25 Mar 2017 - Mallacoota to Traralgon...

We have moved so much stuff from the bus to the motel over the four days and nights, that it is easiest to bring the bus around. Leonie at the Silver Bream is fine with parking in the wide driveway.

We have decided that we have bent the budget about as far as we should. And Maz has had enough of the winding climbing roads - and so have I. It makes for hard driving with eight tons (tonnes?) to manage. 

We had intended to go north up the coast and stop in at Millingandi, but somewhere we need to cross the Great Dividing Range - Brown Mountain, Cooma etc; Batemans Bay, Canberra; Kangaroo Valley, Mossvale; too far, too hard for now...  So it will be west and home - and not over Mount Hotham!

About 9:30 we are breakfasted, packed up, car hooked up, and away. Coffee at Cann River, again, then on via the Princes Highway. We have not actually spent much time on this Highway with all the detours to the coast.

Modest aim for the day is Traralgon, vis Bairnsdale, Sale etc. As it happens the Gippsland Model Engineering Society (at Traralgon) has a run day on their miniature railway tomorrow.

Into Traralgon about 3PM and find the track. One of the members is there, Graeme, so we have a look around, then find a CP - Big4 for the night, getting our discount... Dine on what we have and eventually retire. It is noisy, 100m from the highway, 200 the real railway track and on the airport boundary. All in spitting distance!

23 Mar 2017 - Silver Bream, Mallacoota

Yesterday was 100% waiting, walking, eating, reading...

This morning's news  - disappointing. Wrong part delivered to supplier... another sourced in Melbourne should make Bairnsdale this afternoon, should be here tomorrow. Noel is going to Sydney tomorrow... So Joel and I might have a job to do.

In hindsight, I should have taken a punt on part number 15770.001 from Bretts Truck Parts on Monday afternoon!

Meanwhile with accomodation starting to get expensive I have contacted the Ken Tame Roadside Assist. Policy covers up to $150 pn for up to 10 nights in the event of breakdown... Done, starting tonight! We have been at the Silver Bream motel 2 nights already. 

21 Mar 2017 - Mallacoota, Day four...

Well today is the day. Now agreed that we (Noel and I) are getting nowhere seeking part numbers. It is time to put the bus in the workshop. More than happy for Noel to move it!

Access is, well awkward, so I have moved the mattress into the corridor, removed the cover from the through bin, and opened the floor hatch over the gearbox. Voila the clutch booster is accessible from the top. The airline is tight as... but while I slowly bleed the air from up top, Joel puts a jack under the tow bar and Noel starts to unbolt the booster.

Once out, the hydraulic cylinder is dismantled and an obvious groove where the piston travels is revealed. Maybe a hone and new rubbers will fix... but where to get them!

Meanwhile Joel thinks it is the same as one he removed from a Nissan, and tracks it down under the bench. Twins, but with different suppliers labels and numbers. The Rhhino's is not a Hino part. And the old Nissan one is not usable...

Encouraged, both Noel and I are on the hunt now, confident it is a generic part. I find one I am confident will do the job - at Brett's Trucks, (from whom I got the water pump four odd years ago), but Noel has one ready to ship from someone else in Sydney. Probably miss todays courier... but should be here Thursday...

With the bus in the workshop and Noel naturally wanting to lock it up, we have taken a room around the corner at the Silver Bream Motel. Oh well, we have had four nights for nothing...

20 Mar 2017 - hunting for numbers and parts from Mallacoota

Today was mostly spent emailing and phoning, seeking part numbers and parts. Interspersed with long relaxing walks... 

But just to show we are not suffering is a photo of our evening meal. Yes I did brown the Salmon a bit much... And I will never do this on Facebook!

And at or local public toilet and insect pretending to be a leaf - growing out of a stained timber wall - fail!

19 Mar 2017 - a brighter day in Mallacoota

Emptied the toilet - always a handy chore. Both had showers! Dressed up to join the Webbs at the local radio studio, then for lunch. I ate slowly, or talked too much, maybe both. Mike and Maree then had to head off to prepare for their next social engagement... Busy place!



So we went for a drive. The much signed WW2 Bunker Museum... is only open at 2:30 PM Tuesdays... so we followed the water, around the lakes towards the Webb's, corner then to the ocean beaches. From Bastion Point the vis was good enough to to see Gabo Island Light house!

Bastion the point near bottom left and Gabo bottom right.

The Olympus tough on full zoom again - the lighthouse in the centre of the pic.

Looks just like it!

A mob of Eastern Greys 50m from the shops late afternoon

18 Mar 2017 - marking time in Mallacoota

Limit of digital zoom with iPhone...

Whilst waiting for Monday, we have had a quiet day, very quiet. Walked all over, bought brunch, missed Maree's morning radio spot... Weather was drizzly on and off, all together a gloomy day.

But here are a few pix go the ocean side and the ocean end of the lakes. We will catch up with the Webbs tomorrow.

17 Mar 2017 - St Patricks Day - Lake Entrance to Mallacoota and that's it.

Marlo Jetty

Todays Plan is to find Marlo follow the coast to Cape Conran then to Mallacoota. Marlo was nice, Cape Conran very pretty. Then and hour or so later when cruising around Mallacoota the clutch slowly ceased to de-clutch. 

Snowy River mouth top left (we think)

Cape Conran

Headed into the only workshop I 
could see and that was that. Quick examination determined no fluid in the reservoir, was okay yesterday... so now has air in the 6m line. The slave cylinder, which is air assisted, bellows were full of fluid, and signs of fluid all around. Has been no sigh of a leak - 'til now. Damn. 

one beach at Cape Conran

So its mid-Friday afternoon, the business has jobs to get out... the boss is kind enough to lets us move up in the corner out of the way AND give us power. Then they are closed for the weekend! I am on the job seeking part numbers and parts... but run out of business hours.

Here we are UFN

Emailed a couple of contacts seeking part numbers. But really nothing to be done but wait for Monday...

But meanwhile caught up with old work colleague Mike and Maree Webb, who have been here twenty one years! 

16 Mar 2017 - Boat Tour of the Lakes

We are going on the big one...

Another leisurely morning pottering and a bit of reading, and organised for a boat tour this afternoon. Peel family has been operating on the lakes since 1920. They run a few different cruise boats and various tours, including a much cruise to the Metung Hotel... 

The Entrance looking east along 90 mile beach

Shaving Point, Metung from the water this time

We are for the big tour, 70KM and 2.5 hours - Reeves Channel, Bancroft Bay, around Metung, Sperm Whale Head, Lake Victoria, around Raymond Island, into a couple of the Paynesville Canals, Chinaman's Creek and back. 

We are going in the big boat, 190 person capacity, aluminium catamaran. 

As with most waterside towns, the property is focused on the water, so you need to get on the water to check it out properly.

Took some video with the Olympus TG. Here is a couple of them; manoeuvring in the Paynesville Canals, and cheating using the stern control station to reverse into the mooring on return...




Tomorrow we are out of here heading east to Marlo and Cape Conron. Unfortunately the stormy weather in NSW is coming down the coast to meet us. So we will likely bail out in the next few days...

15 Mar 2017 - Paynesville, via Metung to Lakes Entrance

Another leisurely day is planned to Metung, and maybe Lakes Entrance, 80km.

Metung is everything I have heard, a beautiful corner. We cruised through to the end - Shaving Point (?). There is a free overnighter, but we couldn't find it, and was early in the day, so onwards...

Lakes Entrance is a serious town two or three or four of everything. except houses - hundreds, boats maybe thousands! 

We explored and enquired at length at the Visitors Info Centre, which was very helpful. Checked in at the LE Rec and Camping Reserve, Community run, $25 per night powered AND right on the water of the North Arm!


A little shopping. Sick of leaks connecting the water - which is through a dual filter. No water gets into the bus-house except through a sediment and carbon filter. So bought a few more NETA brass connectors so that they are all the same make. 

Oh and more beer and a bit of food!

Retired to the lakeside to change the hose fittings. Solved! 

Read a bit, and gosh it's beer o'clock already... Tomorrow we are going on a 3 hour cruise of the lakes!

14 Mar 2017 - Raymond Island

Rough map of the route...

There is not a lot to do around here but fishing and of course boating. There are thousands of boats of all sizes! Would you believe there are NO skippered tours of the lakes from here! Boats for hire - but no cruises or tours... 

On the ferry

At the South West corner

We decided to get the ferry ( $12 round trip for non-residents of the island) and explore Raymond Island, which is fairly big! About five or six KM long by one and a half.


There are lots of houses on ordinary blocks - with jetties or mooring across the road, on the Western shore. Lots of big inland lots - a hectare to two, I reckon, along the middle and northern end.

At the South East corner

At the North East corner

Coming back to the ferry crossing with Paynesville across the water

13 Mar 2017 - a few pictures around Paynesville...

Western side from town of Paynesville 

Also from a bit west of town

Looking south from Paynesville

One of many collections of boats...

A paddle wheeler waiting for work... a lot of work!

Eagle Point, north of Paynesville.

13 Mar 2017, Labour Day... Avon Riverside to Paynesville

We set out in a lesiurely fashion for Paynesville, for a look at least. 

Not far along is Hollands Landing so we detoured 20km out and back. 

Hollands Landing has a bunch of older houses, a defunct store and a fantastic waterside, Ramp, jetties and lot of fisher folk... 

A very pretty diversion, but on to Paynesville. I think I have been there before? 

I have heard that Paynesville is a serious holiday and retirement corner, and it looks it. Busy as (on this Public Holiday Monday), and we think it might warrant a bit of exploration. 

As the 'long weekend' is officially over, we can afford a caravan park for a night or two - Resthaven CP!

12 Mar 17 - Seaspray to Avon River Streamside Reserve!

12 March travels

We set out in the drizzle for Golden Beach. There is a listed RV overnight stopover. There were a couple of empty spots at 10AM. But the weather was dismal, so we kept going. 

Aldi shopping and Fuel at Sale, and we headed around Lake Wellington for Perry Bridge, or more precisely, the north east side of the Clydebank Morass Conservation and Game Reserve. 

Have stopped early for the night on the side of the Avon River with several other free campers - and some local fishermen...

11 Mar 17 - Seaspray, Golden Beach, Paradise Beach

Above is yesterdays map, more or less... Today a sort of a day off planned. Clothes to wash, a few chores, long showers... And a reconnoitre east along this peninsula.

Below is the Seaspray Surf Life Saving Club, the only restaurant in town - and a serious one too; and booked out early sitting tonight!

Here is me for a change with my back to the Western end of the 90 mile beach

 










Tomorrow east to Golden Beach RV overnighter (which we checked out today). Too expensive here at Seaspray. 

There are many Parks Vic campsites along the back of the dunes - but few where the bus would fit between and under the trees, and much is sand. Seven tons of bus would be hard to dig out!