DIARY OF AN AUSSIE WOMBAT - COTTADIDDA and DOCTOR'S BEND (past Strathmerton Victoria)

 DIARY OF AN AUSSIE WOMBAT – COTTADIDDA NATIONAL PARK NSW & DOCTOR'S BEND BARMAH NATIONAL PARK (ULUPNA ISLAND)

LOOK AT KANGAROO!

MISCHIEF!

COTTADIDDA CAMP SITE

MUM'S NEW FRIEND!

 

PHOTOBOMBING DAD!

Thursday  2/1/2014

Hey guys… ok, ‘huh’??? This was my response when we left Carlye and Rutherglen in Victoria and drove for another hour and a half South and ended up back in NSW. I wondered if dad had taken a wrong turn. Mum said he hadn’t and it was just the way the Murray River twisted and turned. I sat down later and looked at a map as the river is the border of the two states NSW and Victoria. There were lines and dots and squares everywhere and I didn’t know what I was looking at! Dad sat down with me and showed me where the river is and explained it in words that I would understand. “Just look for the blue squiggly thing, that’s the river, anything above the line is NSW, and anything underneath is Victoria”.  That made is easier for a three and a half year old wombat to understand!

We drove past a lot of wineries that are for sale, with huge houses and old homesteads… there was a massive mansion like property with a tower or ‘turret’ and the whole thing was up for sale! Mount Prior wines and the original homestead. Mum reckoned things must have been tough for them with the fires and the past drought. Dad reckoned it was that the overseas owned supermarket chains that sell this stuff have squeezed the small Aussie owned family businesses out. That’s sad!

We drove into Cobram just to get the air conditioner in the van checked before we head off again, and mum was really happy that it was still under warrantee as it didn’t work very well back in Albury! The man said on really hot days, and I mean over 40 all van air conditioners struggle and suggested on those kinds of days and if we are plugged into main power, to set the A/C (how techno savvy am I!?) to 30. Mum and dad said they would take that on board…whatever that means.

After everything was checked and dusted off, we set off to our next destination at McKay’s Beach. We didn’t take the turn that the GPS told us to take, and we think we had taken a turn before we should have, but it turned out to be a lucky mistake! We ended up on a private property called “Ngawe” on Ngawe Road (unsealed, bumpy and a lot of fun when you don’t hang on!).  Mum loved it because we drove past paddocks with about twenty horses and foals, paints, black, dappled greys and bays! One huge black stallion (in a paddock by himself) was obviously the pride and joy of whoever owned him as he had a really nice summer rug but he had got into the oaten chaff rolls!

Dad said this wasn’t good so we turned around and were heading back out but had to reverse as the farmer “Marty” and his son was driving towards us in a big farm truck. They pulled up and dad apologized about taking a wrong turn and driving through his property. Marty was really nice and gave my tummy a rub (I loved Marty!) and asked if there was anything he could do. Dad told him we were trying to find McKay’s beach he pointed across the river and said “There… and you’ll be lucky if you can squeeze into anything there!...  come with me, and I’ll show you a nice place to camp”. We again apologized for the inconvenience, but he just smiled and said “It’s no bother, you don’t look like thieves”.  I told Marty “You should have seen my mum when she saw your horses… She almost had her head out the window drooling!”… Marty said ‘they’re my wife’s, she’s always rescuing and bringing another one or two horses home… I think they’re a nuisance because they keep eating my chaff roles”. I pointed to the stallion and said “Like that one?” Marty groaned; “Not again!” Marty had a son named James he was very tall for a twelve year old who ran over to where the stallion was eating the chaff rolls and ‘shooed’ him away.

Marty then turned to dad and said, “You follow me and I’ll show you a nice place to camp and only the locals know where it is”. We couldn’t believe how nice Marty was to stop working on his big property to just to show some ‘lost souls’ as dad described us as being. Marty just shook his head and waved off the compliment with “If I can’t help someone out when they are a little lost, then that’s not what life is all about!”  (I liked Marty even more for helping mum and dad).

James and Marty jumped into the ute and we followed him out through a very bumpy and twisty turny road and saw both banks of the McKay’s beach cram packed with holiday makers… We continued to follow Marty down the dirt track that lead to crowded camping ground, then all of a sudden he slowed right down and turned left. Then it was really 4WD territory and FUN!! I didn’t hang on and bumped all over the back on the Patrol! Mum told me to ‘hang on’… but I pretended not to hear, I was just having too much fun!!! J

We drove past an apiary (a lot of boxes with bees that makes honey) and as all the Yellow Box gum trees were in flower there were bees buzzing everywhere; I told dad to be very careful and to shut his window as he is allergic to bees! We past the apiary and about 200 meters further on Marty pulled up on high ground and we overlooked the Murray River and could see holiday makers’ water skiing, and knee boarding and fishing out of boats, really fast jet boats, skidoos but not much swimming. Marty got out and so did we… Whaddya think? Any good?” Good? I told Marty that it was awesome! Mum and dad said it was perfect. Dad said he would get Marty something for his help, but Marty told us not to bother. Mum told dad there was no way we weren’t going to thank him for his kindness and helpfulness. Dad agreed. We set up camp and were only going to stay for a night before we moved on, so we didn’t put the full annex up, just the awning.

Friday, 3/1/2014

We set off the next morning and went through what we first thought was a tiny town called Barooga, but we were wrong. The main street has a few small shops and a petrol station, but behind this, hidden away is a school, a medical Centre, a golf course, a botanical garden, some pubs and clubs and a 25 meter heated swimming pool! Yippee! Perhaps mum will take me swimming soon? We returned after having our fill of sticky beaking around the local community. Mum and dad had a cuppa and I had a nap.  Later from about three in the afternoon, we heard ‘BANG! BANG!” I jumped, dad said he wasn’t sure what it was coming from but it sounded like a clay pigeon shoot around. Mum said she thought it was timed ‘bangs’ that kept the Cockatoos away from the grapes in the vineyards as cockies do serious damage to crops especially sweet grapes, seeing as we are camped closed to the vineyards, dad said that made more sense than his clay pigeon comment. It’s very nice here… and we decided to do all our laundry in town tomorrow on Saturday as we went through all the camping and outdoor centres and not one of them had a manual camp washing machine (Basically just a fancy name for a large bucket with a plunger that looks like a dunny brush… LOL)… Mum said she didn’t mind and she could build one but dad said no… and we would get one to save all the fiddling around.  We will stay another day and leave on Monday instead of Sunday.

Saturday, 4/1/2014

Mum was up early and made me brekkie, had a smoke and a cuppa by the river with her usual cup held hi ‘thanks mum and dad, and here’s to you Fred!’…  Dad decided to go fishing extra early but so far, only  a tiny Murray Cod and a lot of snags! Still that happens when you’re fishing.

About 9.30am we drove into Cobram and found a Laundromat but all the machines were full. Mum suspected this even though a lot of people had left, there were still a lot of places here with campsites on them and if they’re like us, they will have dirty clothes! Dad went for a walk and I helped mum sort out the ‘whites from the colours’…  I tried to help but I don’t know what sort, white and colours means, so I just sat and watched the clothes go round in a big dryer.  It took a long time and by the time it was finished we had lunch in town at a Patisserie sitting under a big shade umbrella at tables on the footpath (sidewalk) I felt so European!  We stopped off and got a very nice thank you card and some beer for Marty to say thank you. And dropped it off at his farm on the way home to camp.

Sunday 5/1/2014

For some reason I woke up in a very mischievous mood, I didn’t concentrate and when mum and dad wanted to take some photos and videos… well, you’ll understand when you see the pics and video… PHOTOBOMB! And had a ‘kind of cameo’ appearance in one of mum’s videos… that earned me a time out!

Nothing spectacular planned today, just relaxing under the awning. The view is wonderful and dad reckons you couldn’t buy a view like this in Sydney for fewer than 1 million! (How do you buy a view?) Perhaps, if it get hotter we can go to Thompson’s beach Australia’s largest inland beach and go swimming. Mum found a safe beach for me! Yay!

I hope you enjoy the pictures I took of where we are! Until next time… and our next location (I don’t know where that is yet)… Cheers!

Tahune the Aussie Wombat xxxx

 

Monday 6/1/2014 GOOD BYE COTTADIDDA NATIONAL PARK NSW, HELLO DOCTOR’S BEND BEACH BARMAH NATIONAL PARK VICTORIA

Packing up again! Mind you, mum and dad are getting pretty savvy… dad does the outside, and mum does the inside. Mum always gets her job done first. She packs everything away that has to go in the van and makes sure it doesn’t slip or bump while we are all off road.  Dad’s job is to take the rope and pegs out, turn the gas off and turn it over to battery, pack the car and take the awning and the annex down and make sure everything that has to be in the car is in the car… Although it does seem just recently that dad is finding more and more things that can go in the van so mum can pack them. This doesn’t concern mum though, and she’s still finished before dad is! Then they roll up and secure the awning together. Once that’s down dad winds the top down on Penguin and we hook up and set off! Bit of a hiccup this time! The stabilizer bars hadn’t been removed and that caused mum to yell ‘STOP!’ and dad to yell…. Umm, best not to tell you what dad yelled, but we were all good I was scared because if the cable had broken we would have had to go home, and no one wanted that! We called in to say good bye to Marty on the way out but he had gone to help a mate with a tractor and harvester so mum sent him a message. Mum took some photos of the horses… mum said they were well looked after. One of the horses had a sore eye, but you could see it had been to the vets as it had a special bandage on it and had a shady paddock all to himself… and Marty had even given him a full bale of hay to have as a treat. There were big wells of fresh water everywhere and I saw a big square-ish thing in an empty four litre ice cream container. Mum told me that was a molasses and salt lick and was a treat for the horses. I snuck a lick while mum was talking to the brown and white horse (paint) and I didn’t think it was a treat at all!

There was the stallion that had its mane beaded; he was in another paddock by himself. Mum took an instant liking to a horse with a white blaze down his nose and a little welsh pony and a palomino (mum’s favourites) she talked to the palomino, scratched its nose and he really liked that and kept putting his nose through the fence for another scratch. The flies were pretty bad so mum scratched him where he couldn’t quite reach and then he just followed her!  It was nice to see, mum put her head down, and he lipped her and then she asked for a kiss… and he gave her one! That seemed to make mum’s day!

We got back into the car where dad was waiting (he’s not a horsey person), and we drove to Barmah National Forest to one of the camping areas. Dad and mum ‘finally’ chose a spot… honestly! They take ages and argue about the good and bad things about each and every spot!… I kept on calling ‘look! There’s a good one!’…. and … ‘but there was a good one back there!’ … ‘But the one back at the entrance of the park was great!’ They wouldn’t listen… Finally, we were on our way back out and mum had pretty much lost her temper and just wanted to set up, so dad said… “fine! Next place you spot is where we stop!” This suited me too as I was getting a bit car sick. Mum said “There! Right there! At the river’s edge!” dad looked and said “Perfect!” I yelled at both of them… “THAT’S WHAT I SAID!” Dad looked at me and said, ‘why didn’t you say something?’ I tell ya people… If there was a brick in the car, he would have worn it!

Then dad started again which makes me glad there wasn’t a brick in the car, coz you should have seen mum’s face! “But there’s a tree there and we’ll be fairly close to a large limb and if that falls, that’ll be the end of all of us, but at least we won’t know about I”’.  I thought mum was going to rip her hair out… ‘IAN! THIS IS A NATIONAL PARK… THE FIRST THING YOU’LL NOTICE ABOUT ALL NATIONAL PARKS IS THAT THEY HAVE BLOODY BIG TREES!’ dad just nodded and said “I suppose so”… Nothing else was said, we just set up… and when things cooled down (temper wise) dad and mum set about putting the annex up, then mum had an idea and seeing as we were so close to the river’s edge it would be a shame to block out the view. So, we just put the end walls up for a bit of privacy and had something like a camp balcony. It’s awesome!  Mum made dinner and then helped me clean my teeth and tucked me in, she kissed my nose and mum and dad said sweet dreams. As I drifted off to sleep, I heard mum and dad laughing. When it’s hot and tempers are frayed things can get a bit uncomfortable… I smiled, even so, I wouldn’t trade places with any other wombat. Tomorrow is another day, full of fishing and we are going swimming, if we can find a safe swimming hole! Whoohoo!

Until then, Cheers. 

 

Tuesday, 7/1/2014 – Thursday, 9/1/2014

Hello everyone! Sorry about the delay in posting the updates and all other goings on here with us… but there is one slight issue… NO INTERNET SIGNAL! Dad said I would just have to wait until we got to a big town to let people know what I have been doing. So, I decided to write down my blog and save it as a word document and then paste it when I could. It’s so easy for things to get dirty when you’re free camping so mum did some hand washing in a bucket using river water and rinsing it out in same. Dad rigged up a ‘you beaut’ washing line, but we have to remember to take it down if we go for a drive as it comprises of a long rope attached to one side of the van, threaded through the back roof rack of the Patrol, and then attached to the other side of the van! Pretty spiffy and works a treat! Mum took a photo! Yes, I know we don’t have a life… (ha ha!)

The rest of the day was spent with a trip to Tocumwal in NSW… (I am feeling like a yo-yo. One day Victoria, the next NSW). We did a biggish shop to last us about ten days and took some photos; Then we just took our time and walked around all the little shops there. On the return tripWe stopped off at a little village called “Koonoomoo” and walked around a place called “The Big Strawberry” (Hi Aunty Beverley and Belinda!) We all had a giggle as we put our heads through a big hole and had our picture taken. Photos provided here too.  We walked around and decided to return to pick our own kilo of strawberries, as the sign said “Pick your own, one kilogram for $10… yum!

The rest of the day was spent putting things away from shopping and fishing. I had a wombat nap.

 

Wednesday 8/1/2014

In a nutshell! Fishing and swimming… Mum was up first and caught two fish, dad got up and mum told him the score was two nil… dad immediately set up his fishing rod and line, and even set me up with a nice little yellow ‘paw line’. Dad and I didn’t catch any fish so mum won that day with the final score Mum 3, dad 0 and me 0 L

It is muggy today, so we went for a swim and our swimming hole is wonderful! (I like Police Paddocks better though)… The river is so much wider here so I am a little nervous about getting my paws in too deep. Mum is a better swimmer than dad and I are, and backstroked really quickly out far but not too far to get into the current. She said it was really deep… Even where dad wasn’t big enough to touch bottom! Mum swam back again to the shore, a quick dip was all we needed to cool down. The water was much warmer that at the other places too. Dad told me that was due to all the sand banks across the river, and this camping ground was only accessible in the dryer months as the river can come up quickly and people get bogged and flooded in during the ‘rainy’ season or the colder months.

That night, we all heard a growling sound, and I wasn’t sure what it was… Dad teased and said it was a “Big Yowie coming to get me from the billabong”. Mum told him to cut it out and told me it was a Koala. They make an awful noise for something so cute and cuddly (like me). Mum and dad told me not to think they are like that ‘they are wild animals and can bite hard and scratch deeply’. Mum took me for a waddle and found two Koalas high in the tree. I took photos! Then back to the van for dinner, clean teeth and bed for me. Mum and dad stayed up and did some evening fishing. I heard mum say “It’s hard work but someone’s gotta do it”… I wondered what she meant because I looked out the window and neither of them were doing anything! Just sitting there!, but dad agreed and laughed when mum stretched and yawned and added ‘another hard day at the office’. I don’t have any idea what they’re talking about, it must be a grown up thing. Dad and mum stayed up and took a couple of photographs of the sunset. It doesn’t set here until after 9pm!

Thursday 9/1/2014

Our plans have changed again as we were only going to stay two days here, but it is nice so we will leave on Sunday 12^th January to travel deeper into the Barmah National Park. Dad is happy about this, as he doesn’t have to dig any deep holes for our… (well, you know) as many of the National Parks in Victoria have pit toilets.

GRUMPY MR. KOALA

MY YELLOW FISHING REEL

SUNSET DOCTOR'S BEND

 

 We will be travelling back to Cobram on Saturday as that is a really good town to get all the things we have discovered we need for a trip like this. Mum is saving up for a generator before we head across the Nullabor and dad is getting another two big jerry cans for drinking water as we have met people who have told us that water is like gold and you just can’t fill up from a tap. Dad said that wasn’t sensible or fair, as you really can’t refuse people water!, but the extra jerry cans will put our mind at rest.

Mum had two fish on this morning and the way her line took off we are pretty sure they were fair sized Murray Cod!  But they ‘spat the hook’ when mum was reeling them in. Dad says if they’re on that counts; it’s two nil already and dad hadn’t even woken up! When mum told him, he said “What have I created!”

Off today and heading towards Mills Gate… and to The Gulf camping area. Mum showed me on the map so it’s diddly squat for a while! So until then cya!