New Zealand: Bay of Islands

Today we awoke to another cloudy wet day.  We enjoyed a tasty breakfast on our balcony with a gaggle of curious onlookers.

New Zealand: Auckland to Waitangi

We arrived in Auckland about 5 in the morning. I didn't think that would be so bad, but I kind of forgot the time difference.  :-/  So in reality we were in the car and off at our body clock time of 3am. So yes, a wee bit tired.

We drove past Auckland city, and the sky tower was glowing a warm red in the early morning darkness.

Up the highway we stopped at a servo to get a toll ticket, and a cappuccino and was asked cinnamon or chocolate. Huh?  Umm, I'm not quite sure about that...

We pulled over at a roadside stop just short of Whengarai (yeah, it aint pronounced the way it is spelt) and had an hours sleep before driving on into town for breakkie at the Essence Cafe.

It was bucketing down rain most of the day.

We arrived at Paihai early afternoon and walked around Waitangi in the short gap between showers.

Si Phan Done

I was up before dawn, and walked out to watch the sun rising over the Mekong. Some monks were walking along the river but I missed a beautiful photo of them with the sunrise as the battery went flat in the camera and I was locked out with Michelle still asleep and couldn't change it.

We are not quite getting what is meant to be happening with our new guide. He said he would pick us up at 8:00, but was at our hotel at 7:00. Questions on whether we were late or he was early or checking the time on our watch didn't really get resolved. I guess this was laid back Laos.

We had a filling breakfast of scrambled eggs and the most beautiful sweet orange juice. We rushed our breakfast, finishing at 7:30 only to not be able to find our guide anywhere. We wandered along the banks waiting; he showed up soon after but then we couldn't find our boat driver. Eventually we were off down the river.

Don Khong Island

Mone picked us up from the hotel and dropped us off at Talat Suo Market. We had a quick wander through and bought a few woven scarves. Then it was to the airport for our Air Laos flight to Pakse.

Inle Lake

A more relaxed start to the day today, though I was awake long before the beautiful sunrise which I watched from the balcony over the water.

After a huge breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs, coleslaw, tomato, toast and bagel with excellent coffee(I’d heard a lot about Laos coffee, but if was going to have to be damn good to be better than the Myanmar coffee I got everyday), Phyo met us at 9:00 for day of touring of Inle Lake by Long Boat.

We cruised up the largest creek feeding the lake which was a beautiful soft blue colour, presumably from the limestone in the surrounding mountains. We passed many people making their way to the markets, leading water buffalo, kids walking to school and monks on the riverbanks.

Pindaya Caves and Inle Lake

Up early again, though getting later each day Mimi met us and took us to the airport. We passed many monks along the way doing their morning alms collection.

The flight to Heho only took 20 minutes, and we were met inside the airport by Meo (though not quite sure if that is her name, let alone spelt correctly!). She helped us collect our bags and took us outside to meet our guide Phyo (pronounced Peo, rhymes with Joe) and our driver Boney. We had an interesting and long drive through the countryside, including a stop in a small village at a roadside café where we had chick pea fritters. A little chicken clucked around under our tables eating up the dropped crumbs.

Mandalay and Mingun

Today we had the luxury of a little sleep-in. We watched the early morning mist blanketing the old palace grounds from our hotel window, which gave us excellent views over Mandalay. We had breakfast at the hotel, which had a huge assortment of food to choose from. I tried a Myanmar pancake which was quite nice. Today we were heading to Mingun, and Mimi met us in the hotel foyer. Mimi told us today that Myanmar is pronounced Mee-ah-mah. Similarly Mandalay is pronounced Man-a-lay.

Mandalay, Amarapura and Ava

It would have been perfect to stay another day or two or three in Bagan. Bagan was beautiful with so much to see and do. Soe told us about Mt Popa; how it was used as a hill station and that it is jungle with many animals including monkeys to be seen. We will have to visit there next time we come to Myanmar.

This morning the sunrise was stunning. We could see the warm crimson glow on the stupas. One large golden stupa was especially magnificent. The fogged car windows didn't faze our driver and we arrived quickly at the airport.

Bagan - a city of temples

Today was a very early start, up at 4:00am. We had a quick breakfast at 4:45 then met Tun at 6:15 for the early morning drive to the airport. A bus took us out to our Air Bagan flight, a Fokker 100. We were welcomed on board and were soon in high in the air flying above the clouds.

As we approached Bagan, we could see multitudes of temples from the air scattered around the fields as well as on the mountains across the river. This was the dry season and many of the streams and smaller rivers were dry. The river also was very low with large sand banks exposed.

The plane landed onto a wet tarmac; a light rain had been falling earlier at 6:30am. Our new guide, Soe welcomed us and organised our baggage collection for us and we were soon in our car. After a short drive from the airport we stopped at our first temple. We got our first lesson in Bagan history and temples as we walked around Izza Gona temple. For example you can estimate the era of the Buddha statues: if the ears were touching the shoulders then it was likely built after 1100AD.

Cairns Road Trip Day 3 and the awesomeness of Carnarvon

Morning showed that I had camped in a beautiful campsite under the trees beside the river. I got out and walked around a little then after breakfast I packed up and headed back to the highway.
The drive through the Central Highlands was very scenic. I saw Wedgetailed Eagle soaring over the roadside ,and nearly came to grief with a huge peice of mining equipment or something driving down the highway taking up the whole road.


I arrived at Takarakka around lunch time and setup camp and had lunch. Since I was here so early, I walked up to Bimboola Spur, 7K return. The climb up the gully was very steep, but the views from the lookout were beautiful.


Along the walk I came across some pretty faced white cheeked wallabies; the gorge area and views are very beautiful.



On the way back to camp I stopped off and walked to Baloon Cave, which is an Aboriginal Cultural walk which has signposts along the way explaining various faces of aboriginal life. The walk ended at the cave which had hand stencil aboriginal rock art.
I returned to camp for a much needed wash. The washroom facilities are very clean and sorely needed. I then headed off to the rock pool, spotting an echidna along the way. It was very relaxing sitting here for a while watching the turtles gracefully swim up and down. I waited to see a platypus, but had no luck tonight. I did see a type of honeyeater which dive bombed me, as well as an Azure Kingfisher. I remained watching the bats fly overhead till 5:30, when I gave up on the platypus and headed back to camp for dinner.

A Day trip to the Bunyp State Forest

I had to pick my car up from Ferntree Gully Nissan after having the drive belt replaced, so we took advantage of being down near the Dandenongs and made a day of it.
First stop was Sherbrooke to feed the Crimson Rosellas. They were out in huge numbers, many times we were covered in the bright red friendly critters.


We went for a short walk along a nearby walking track, spotting a wallaby along the way. We were able to get quite close before he decided we had taken enough photos, and he bounced off into the ferny undergrowth.


We walked to nearby Sherbrooke Falls. this an easy walk, less than an hour walking through the tall Mountain Ash and tree ferns.


We stopped in Emerald for lunch were some tribute to Thomas the Tank Engine was going on.


We then drove out through Gembrook, and travelled along Blue Range Road and Bunyip Ridge Track. We travelled down to Fred's Spot, a nice little private spot on the Bunyip River which would make a good little campsite.




We returned back Home via Kirth Kiln Park, which had a huge kiln which was used for making charcoal when fuel was scarce in the 2nd World War, and charcoal was used for running cars.

Lake Cobbler

Another trip into the mountains near Mansfield with a group of work friends from Bangalore. We took a more direct route to Mansfield this time, however had to make a detour around Mill Park due to fatal road accident, however the detour allowed us to travel along the back roads near Whittlesea where we spotted a few kangaroos.
We arrived in Mansfield early morning where we met up with Kim and his family. A quick look around the bush market and a coffee before heading out to the King River.
The river was much lower than the last time we were up this way, and the river crossings posed no problems. Kim had an opportunity to get the wheels on his cruiser a little wet.

We set-up for lunch on the King River near King Hut. It was a warm day, and the flies were out in droves, but the food was fantastic and the chance to stretch the legs welcome. Everybody had brought something different, and it was great to taste different home made Indian dishes.

I tried a little trout fishing but caught nothing. We could see the trout; they just weren't interested in getting caught today. A quick group photo and we were back in the car heading up to Mt Cobbler.

We made our way up the Staircase easy enough, though I did touch bottom on a few of the rougher places. Kim had no troubles either in the stock standard Cruiser.

Up on the Cobbler Plateau the wildflowers were spectacular; with everlasting daisies lining the track side.

The plan was to drive to Camp Creek and then walk up to Mt Speculation. We tagged along behind the Park Ranger, who graciously cleared a fallen tree from the track, however by the time we reached Camp Creek there wasn't enough time to make the return walk to Mt Speculation, so we returned along the track and made our way straight to Lake Cobbler.

Lake Cobbler was as beautiful as ever, and we enjoyed an afternoon tea before heading off on a walk to the Dandongadale Falls


The first falls we came to had only a small trickle of water falling over some cascades before the sheer drop into the valley. The view across the ranges was magnificent.


We continued along another track to Dandongadale Falls proper, which had a reasonable amount of water falling over the falls edge.

The rocky escarpment with the sheer drop of 250 metres plus was spectacular. The rock shelf hanging suspended with vast views off over the high country.



We returned back to the lake, where a lot of campers were setting up for the night, and after a cuppa headed down the other side of Mt Cobbler. We could see the falls from the roadside as we climbed down into the valley and slowly made our way through Whitfield and back to Mansfield.


We stopped in a park near Mansfield for dinner, finishing off what was left over from lunch, before returning to Melbourne.
 

Track Summary & Travel Times

Track Name	Surface	Travel Time	Total Distance	Avg Speed	Min Alt	Max Alt
King Hut to Speculation Road (The Staircase)	4WD, rock steps	36 minutes	10.3 km	17km/h	794 metres	1272 metres
Speculation Rd to Camp Creek	4WD, last portion overgrown	22 minutes	8 km	21km/h	1348 metres	1502 metres
Lake Cobbler Track	4WD Easy	13 minutes	6 km	28km/h	1106 metres	1362 metres
Lake Cobbler to Mansfield via Whitfield	2WD Gravel/Highway	Approx 2 hours 45 minutes	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded

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Mt Terrible and Enoch Point

Michelle's Mum had a High School friend visiting from England who she wanted to show a bit of mountain Victoria to. The tracks to Craig's Hut were still closed off for the winter, so we decided to head up to Mt Terrible as it is an easy 4WD Trip from Melbourne, and the views are most spectacular.

We dropped into Burnt Bridge Camp Ground on Big River and did a quick bit of fishing. I "caught" a nice sized brown trout after only a few casts with a lure. I say "caught", as he managed to escape just as I was landing him. I would have released him anyway, so he saved me the trouble of getting the hook out I suppose.

We tried some fishing further upstream without success, so next stop was Enoch Point. We had lunch at the day visitors site by the river, and were visited by a Satin Blue Bowerbird. After lunch we walked upstream to Enoch Falls, a small cascade but worth the walk. Even though we had to cut through a few blackberries to get there. I cut through all of these blackberry bushes with the machette so Liam could get through without getting torn to pieces; but he tripped over and fell on all the cut blackberries anyway!

After lunch we went looking for the cemetary, but it wasn't easily visible from the road so it is left for another trip. We climbed Dane Spur Track, and were soon at the summit of Mt Terrible.

Liam, Arthur and I went off searching for a geocache that we knew was up here, finding it easily on the the side of the mountain. Liam scored a wibbly wobbly bouncy ball, and we dropped off Myrtle the Dancing Turtle Travel Bug.

We returned to the hut and enjoyed the views to Buller which was still covered with snow.

It was time to start heading home, so we returned down the mountain via Newmans Track. There were some spectacular views over Lake Eildon to the north as the track steadily descended back down to the Eildon-Jamieson Road.

We dropped into Snobs Creek Falls on our return journey. The falls were in very good flow due to recent rains and snow melt, and well worth the short detour to visit them.