In early September, Mitch called me to say he had a few days off and “Could we do a few days camping?” Being retired, I said sure, I had a few days off as well 😃! Our rough plan was to spend a couple of days down south to photograph Horse Head Rock, and then make our way down the coast road into Victoria, and then somewhere else. Not much of a plan - would depend what was happening with the weather!
Tom & Betty at Mystery Bay
I packed Tom the Cruiser and headed south to Mystery Bay - one of my favourite campgrounds. Nestled in bushland of Spotted Gums and banksia, it’s an unpowered campground, right next to the ocean. Large camp sites, with cold showers, pits toilets and camp fires allowed. After setting up I headed south via the highway to Merimbula - Mitch was flying up to there from Melbourne. We headed back to Mystery Bay via the coast road. A lovely drive that takes you through Tathra, Cuttagee and Bermagui. We stopped on the way at Horse Head Rock to see what the scramble over the rocks would be like - we were planning for a couple sunrise sessions and it had been a few years since we’d both been there. So much sand had been swept away - even more sharp, on edge rocks to scramble over!
Back to camp to finish setting up. Soup and toasted Naan for dinner courtesy of Tom’s new microwave. And a night cap of Brown Brothers Liquor Muscat … courtesy of moi! 😃
A 4:45am start, drive to Horse Head Rock car park. Headlamps on, surf shoes on, pants rolled up …The scramble around the rocks and up over the coves doesn’t get any easier! We didn’t get as wet as we could have. It was a bit of a challenge to get a nice composition with the extra exposed rock, no cloud/sky colour. Still, a great opportunity to be shooting together again! I really like what Mitch came up with this morning - check it out here.
The Old Post Office Building, Central Tilba
A quick breakfast at camp then off to Bermagui café “Boneless” for coffee and sit down for a catch-up! Pastries from Honorbread Bakery are always tasty and help to “tide us over” - the Ginger Scone was a highlight! Back to camp via a wander around Central Tilba - beautiful old town off the main road.
We checked out a couple of local beaches at Mystery Bay.
One had stunning black rocks right at the oceans edge … potential sunrise/sunset next trip! Cautious pademelons kept their distance while foraging for an afternoon snack up on the hills.
A 4:30am start next morning, the sky map was showing potential, so possibly other photographers interested - needed to get their early to set up!
Pinks and blues in the predawn sky, slightly larger swell … just not the “boom” sky that was hinted at earlier!
Breakfasted, packed up and ready for the drive south. We stopped at Eden for a few groceries and a look around, then off to Bittabangee Bay, Green Cape for the night. We were going to head down to Cape Conran, Victoria. A lovely bit of coastline we had camped at in 2016, however gale force winds were expected that night - Green Cape looked a bit more protected. Bittangabee Bay campground is a very remote campground. The road in has several sections of large corrugations and rough patches. But well worth it! Lovely camp ground. Bittangabee Bay itself is small but beautiful.
We spent the afternoon at Green Cape lighthouse, watching dozens of whales doing their thing - so beautiful! Pods of seals frolicking amongst the kelp - I initially thought they were the tops of the kelp! Two very large sea eagles gliding around looking for dinner. The resident wombats looked very healthy, not overly scared of us, though cautious. Several cheerful blue wrens flittering here and there. We checked out a few lookouts on the way back to camp. Disaster Bay flanked by pristine bushland, the aquamarine ocean, creamy white sand and gentle waves rolling in. Stunning!
A mexican cook up for dinner … early! Settled inside Tom the Cruiser when gusts of 50kph winds hit just on sunset. Thought of the large group of young men camped in tents down the end of the ground - hope they’d setup before the drinking started! 😉
Up early, packed, hitched, on the road by 7:30am for the long drive to Yarra Ranges. The corrugations had not got any smaller overnight! The 24km back to the main road took a while!
Home for the next 3 days
Nice drive, heaps of podcasts and music faves, passing through country towns, eventually arriving at Warburton, our home for the next 3 nights. A great base to explore and immerse ourselves in the amazing Yarra Ranges. Warburton is a nice little town and straddles the upper Yarra river - there’s a great town walk that crisscrosses the river using a series of small bridges.
First morning, early, we headed up the mountain for a “scoping” session - little did we know that this morning would become the Photography Highlight of our trip!!
Lots of fog, very little wind, no one else around except the dude in the very lovely Subaru Uncharted EV!! And his mate in another EV that was heavily disguised - the road is a great track for measuring the AWD/4WD capability of a vehicle. Fortunately Betty the blue Kia also measured up!
Alpine Hotel
That afternoon we had a bit of a wander around town and then explored more spots in the ranges, looking for potential sunrise locations. Dinner was a well earned meal at the beautiful Alpine Hotel - it was Parmi Night! Washed down with some mulled cider! Nice!
An early drive back up the mountain next morning, no fog, however some lovely golden light streaming through the forest. Something a bit different to photograph, just perhaps a bit more tricky than yesterday.
A sleep in for our last morning - it was wet and windy outside. A break in the rain allowedor a quick pack up, and we headed back to Melbourne.
It was great catching up with Mitch again! Back in July we spent a week at the very remote Karijini National Park ( Photo Diary Here ) - a fair bit of planning required to connect all the travel, accomodation and maximise our time there.
This was a spontaneous roadtrip without the ‘spreadsheet planning’ - I think I'm getting the hang of this retirement thing! 😉