5 - Mitchell River National Park Victoria

Entry 5 – Mitchell River National Park Victoria – Continuing exploring the Gippsland Region – “3/4/18 – 9/4/18” 

After 10 nights at McGauran’s Beach we headed to the town of Sale where our water tanks and pantry obtained a refill. We located a laundry and caught up on a large wash including a quantity of bedding. We decided it was time to head inland to explore some of the hills areas, travelling to Mitchell River National Park, Angusvale campground. It had been a long day with the attention to chores, including a drive of about 175 kilometres for the day. The last 16 kilometres along a dirt road sapped what energy we had in reserve with its surface camouflaged by the late afternoon tree shadows making it almost impossible to spot corrugated sections and pot holes, most being located by impact.

The campground consisted of a large open area with the Mitchell River flowing around the outer edge with a few camps close to the river. There were about half a dozen camps set and we were too tired to follow our normal procedure of exploring the campground on foot prior to setting camp. We found a camp site a bit out of the way that looked positive. It was a steep descent, possibly the steepest we had ever been game to travel down and included some tight turns. It was a great setting in a private location and we went to sleep with all the curtains open enjoying the surrounding views.

Camp ground from a distance

We were woken early morning to a chorus of laughter from kookaburras with a grey overcast sky. We had neglected to check the weather forecast prior to our arrival and there was no phone reception with the outside world to check the weather forecast. Our thoughts turned to other considerations – if it rained our chances of driving out up a steep clay river bank would be significantly diminished. We walked around the camp ground and found another nice location, minus the privacy and decided to err on the side of caution and relocate camp. Steve reduced the pressure of the tow tugs tyres to increase its footprint for the steep climb out. With low range and the power switch activated, airbags disengaged (could activate when the vehicle is tilting at an abnormal angle) we got out easily with the use of some good grunt from the twin turbo, V8 motor. Once the new camp had been set we relaxed, soaking in the beautiful scenery all around us with any anxiety & concerns gone.

Evening two was spent sitting contently under our awning watching a couple of dozen kangaroos feeding in our front yard. Once the sun had settled we spent a couple of hours sitting at a neighbour’s camp fire chattering the evening away.

When Steve stepped out from under the awning for the below photo shot about ¾ of the kangaroos hopped away before he had made position for the picture. It had been awesome viewing.

We spent time walking along the Rocky Creek and Hortons tracks, at one stage removing our boots for the water crossing. It always pays to carry a hand towel in the backpack – to dry the feet off.

It was good to be in a bush setting again, spending our time over the day observing the scenery around us, watching and listening to the sounds of the bush and its occupants.

Crimson Rosellas

Currawong

Australian King Parrot

many wombat holes

walking tracks along the edge of the river

swamp wallaby

We had pencilled in some further locations we would have liked to experience in this region of Victoria. For us Mitchell River National Park, Angusvale campground was an awesome location with day time temperatures around the mid 20’s creating perfect weather conditions all aiding to that all-round well-being feeling for your body and soul. Even with morning temperatures below 10 C which required the use of our diesel heater to instigate body movement.

An initial thought for a couple of days eventuated to a stay of 6 nights which could have lasted even longer if we didn’t have the need to be back in Adelaide within two weeks. Even then we had to strategize our moving day by packing up the caravan awning the previous evening to counter another beautiful morning instigating; “maybe another day!” The Victorian Gippsland Area would be added to that growing list of Australian locations for further perusing another time. It was time to resume driving towards Adelaide and we still had a couple of locations we wished to experience whilst in the south east region of Victoria.

Our emotions were still affected with conflict on moving day with another beautiful sunny morning, the air full of many different types of bird chatter and a great previous evening. The below photo’s the best way to show our feelings.