GOODBYE TORRUMBARRY WEIR, HELLO NURSERY BEND 3 AT PERICOOTA NATIONAL FOREST, VICTORIA

DIARY OF AN AUSSIE WOMBAT - GOODBYE TORRUMBARRY WEIR, HELLO NURSERY BEND 3 AT PERICOOTA NATIONAL FOREST, VICTORIA

Wow folks! Really playing catch up here... gradually getting to it though. The 24th of January arrived and we woke to misty rain! Nice when you can get it, although dad was concerned as we had decided on finding a free camp site in the Gunbower/Pericoota National Park and stay for another five days. I wondered why dad was concerned and mum told me it was because the roads were now very slippery and we would be going off road; as these forests and parks are only accessible in the dry season (November til May) when the parks are open to the public as they are flooded to ensure the Red River Gums survive, the dirt turns into clay with the rain making it very slippery so dad would have to take his time in getting to the new campsite.

Taking our time was right! Dad is a good driver and has done an off road 4WD course so mum and I knew that he knew what he was doing, even so, the car did slip a bit and of course, we had to be extra careful with the Penguin van on the back. If the car slid... so did the van! Funny though, when we waved goodbye and got onto the track that led us to the new campsite, ten minutes later the rain had stopped and the 'boggy and slippery bits' had gone and underneath was hard track. Having said that, there were still slippery bits and massive swerve tracks dug deep into the track where other cars and caravans had 'lost it' as dad says, and we had to be extra careful not to driver through the ruts... whatever they are! It was only 24 kms from the caravan park to the bush camp site we chose the day before at Nursery Bend 3 and it took us a little over two hours!

When we finally arrived, the van was put up and mum and dad did what they always do, dad looked after the awning and mum looked after the inside and me? I supervised like I always do on one of the camp chairs. Dad said a lot of naughty words as there were a lot of March flies that always seem to land on dad and bite the living daylights out of him. He had a dutch background and in Belgium they don't have bees, or wasps, or hornets or nasty march flies and he suffers if they get bite him. I would watch and yell "March fly dad! on your leg!" and he would jump up and down. Mum has a fly swatter that she carried and if one landed on dad she would hit him with it and yell "Swat the fly!" and laugh.... that usually made dad laugh too. I asked why anyone would laugh after being slapped with a fly swatter and dad told me before I came to live with them and when Alexis, Heather, Tammy and Zane were all little, mum and the kids came up with a funny game that he got sucked into... Dad told the rest of the story. The game was called 'swat the fly' and he asked the kids 'how do you play it'... the kids told him he had to flap around and buzz like a fly and they would do the rest. He then told me that mum had given them ALL fly swatters "so when I started to flap and buzz, they all brought out their swatters from behind the backs and slapped me silly with them while laughing and yelling 'SWAT THE FLY'! I was shocked, but started to giggle when I saw mum with tears in her eyes from laughing! Naughty mummy!

After camp was set up mum and dad set off in front of the camp to see if there was a nice swimming hole, dad went in first and thought he found a good place, mum went in and cut her shin on a piece of wood that was under the water. They stayed in the water for a while to cool off, but decided it was too dangerous for a little wombat to swim in.

It was a very pretty place, like every place we have been too and if you haven't gone off road, then I don't think you have really seen Australia! Mum found a tree and considered it to be definitely climbable and quick as a wink, mum climbed up to a large branch. Dad grabbed the camera to take a photo. I will post it on here but I am pretty sure it's her profile pic on her FB account!

Have I mentioned all the bird life that was where we camped? My goodness! Brown Tree Crawlers, Blue wrens, Green Rosellas *cousins of the crimson ones* and Cockatoos? hundreds and hundreds of Cockatoos! I took a video of them flying over the camp, it's not a very good one but I have put it on here anyway.

We all slept very well that day and in the morning another family of Vietnamese origin came to set up camp. The grandfather who spoke a little English with the first words to dad "Hello! do you drink beer?" The grandmother had a beautiful face and huge smile and waved at us... they had their two grandsons with them Kenny and Charlie, they weren't supposed to have dogs but they brought them in a carrier. Sweet little dogs that reminded mum and dad of the dogs they first had when Alexis was a baby. Two little girl puppies, "Pinky" and "Snapper" they were lovely little dogs, but the family hid them when the ranger came to make sure our fire pit was okay and to find out how long we were staying, (dad said you weren't allowed to bring dogs into a National Park). Pinky was a brown puppy but Snapper was beautiful, a kind of beige grey colour with colourings that looked like someone had poured caramel sauce over his ears and top of his head! She was so pretty! She liked to bite dad's feet but was jumpy... when dad was cutting some wood with the log splitter for the camp fire that night she jumped and peed on me! Mum said not to worry as it would come out 'in the wash'... ok mum, whatever but I'm hiding... I do not like being peed on!

The next day was much the same as the first with us fishing and playing with the dogs. The Vietnamese family went out all night on the boat and asked us if we wouldn't mind keeping the dogs with us. Both dad and I didn't mind but mum put her foot down and said 'only for tonight, as if the ranger caught us with dogs, we would get into trouble', but dad said it was fine. So they went off in the boat to fish all night and we all went to bed as well. About two in the morning we were woken by the puppies cry. Dad got up and let them out (we had the annex on by then to stop the flies getting into the van) and both of the puppies ran straight to the end of the carpet floor and pooped and peed. Dad said that was ok, as they didn't go in their crate and they didn't go on mum's picnic rug that covered the rubber matting in the annex. The puppies played and bit dad's feet for about half an hour after that, mum had long since gone back to sleep and dad and I put the puppies back in their crate. Dad said 'goodnight' to them and covered them back up as it was a fairly cold night. We ignored the puppy that continued to cry "Snapper" with dad saying in a stern voice "Enough!" but the puppy continued and five minutes later Pinky must have had enough as we heard a yap yap snap and then a yelp and then all quiet. They didn't wake up for the rest of the night and we quite comfortable. So comfortable in fact dad had to wake them up when the boys came for thier puppies, but the two pups would come over and visit us occasionally during the day. They all went fishing again that night only this time they took the puppies with them.

Dad found a fantastic swimming hole, but it was clay mud so we had to be careful not to slip getting in or out but it was really nice! Cool and clean and just behind the camp. We were extra careful because it was starting to get really hot now so snakes were an issue.

Dad went fishing and caught 5 Silver Perch the next day but as these are protected we put them back. One of the fish had sores on his fins and dad told me that they are not very 'hardy' that's why it's so important to look after the native fish. Mum caught a carp the day before and dad killed it and buried it. Mum said "that's one less feral fish that can breed and eat all the native fish habitat!" so she was happy.

The next day we all went for a drive as the temperature was starting to soar and we found out that it was a total fire ban, so dad covered up the fire pit and poured four buckets of river water on it to make sure it was totally out... did you know that if a fire is just covered with dirt it stays hot for hours? and if there is a breeze it can blow the dirt off and still spark a forest fire? but if you 'drown' the fire with water, it's out totally within ten minutes! Putting the fire out kind of made me sad as mum had bought a little campfire grill and hotplate which worked really well, I had a salad for my dinners but the food dad cooked on the open fire for him and mum smelled delicious!

We drove for about an hour through the Pericoota National Park and the Gunbower State Forest and arrived at a town on an anabranch of the Murray River - Gunbower Creek called "Cohuna" the locals pronounce it 'cue-ena', it is Cohuna but that's the strine language for ya! We went into the information centre where we met a lovely lady who showed us where the tap and hose were for caravans and travellers to fill up their tanks with drinking water. Dad told her where we were camped and spoke about the mess and the rubbish that seems to be everywhere. She nodded and said they won't put big skip bins near the entrances of the campsites and tracks, and people are lazy. I nodded because I had seen how lazy people are at two other campsites! She gave mum and dad a lot of stuff about things to do in Cohuna. Then she said something that really made me sit up! "Have you tried the swimming hole?" She told mum and dad it was part of Gunbower Creek still near the park, but the town had heaps of sand trucked in so it's kind of like a beach. We thanked her for her help and the water and headed straight for the 'beach'. It was wonderful! There was a pretty strong current so I stayed and just paddled, dad and mum went in dad came out a bit, but mum being the strong swimmer that she is swam all the way out to the middle! "It's lovely and cold out here!" Dad called back "That's nice"... but he didn't go any further.

We have one more night at the Pericoota campsite, but the temperatures are going to go up over 40 all next week (not good for a wombat covered in fur!) so after the swim we went across the bridge to Gunbower Island and to the Cohuna Waterfront Caravan Park and booked a whole week there!

Not very interesting blog I know but we did like the free bush camping, but when everything is just so dry and there is only one way out and it would only take a lazy person to throw a cigarette butt out the window and the whole forest would burn! I thought how sad this would be for all the animals like the wallabies, kangaroos, koalas and emus that would die in a fire. So it's best for all concerned for us to move as planned but this time to the caravan park and wait until the heat wave has past.

A Brown Tree Crawler, they climb up the trees and defy gravity catching

all the bugs, insects and rip open spiders nests and eat them! yuck...

The campsite before mum cleared all the leaf litter away

and dad dug the fire pit

Go away Snapper!

Yummy!

Really sticky clay mud everywhere! On and under

the car and the van....

Tiny Snapper pays a visit... those are mum's sandals

she is standing next too... I hope she's come to apologise

for peeing on me!

Setting up at Pericoota after cleaning the campsite

and yes, that's me in the chair supervising dad.

 Typical mum... straight up a tree!

 



 The Campfire site, cleaned of all litter for three meters,

fire pit one meter deep by one meter wide and long, with built up soil

all around the sides and back.. that's one regulation firepit!

 

Until next time? Have a wombatty day! Cheers!

Tahune xxxxx