Mainland Holiday Part 1 (Ournie Reserve)

As this is a reasonably big trip with lots of stuff I will break this up into 4 parts so it isn’t massively long and boring.

So on the 28 of Feb we where hanging out for work to finish so we could jump on the boat have a few beers and start our holiday.  As usual the wait for the boat was painful so the beers tasted extra nice once we were aboard The Sunset was also FantasticSo it was Cheers to Tassie for a couple of weeks and onto the mainland.  The Trip was relatively smooth sailing with a gentle roll as we got closer to Melbourne but this still didn’t help us get any sleep.

So after a long night we were finally in Melbourne departing the boat and high tailing it out of the city as quickly as we could I’m still hoping that the hundreds of revenue raising speed cameras along the Hume were turned off. So after a couple of hours of driving and many liters of diesel we got to Wodonga and then to the Hume Dam. The last time I was hear I think it was at 20 or 30% capacity and I didn’t think I would ever see it full but it was Outlet to the Hume dam that Forms the Murray as everyone knows it.Dam Wall at 100%

From Here we followed the Dam for about 60 or 70 km until it was back to a more recognizable river that was also very swollen to Jingellic which has a great little pub that you can camp out the back off for free but this spot as you would expect was full. Our camping spot was a further 20km east on a little reserve called Ournie Reserve which is located on the upper reaches of the Murray  and at the Base of Pine Mountain (More on this Later). Here we met up with my Mum and Dad (Linda & David) and my Sister and Fiancé (Ewen and Megan) and set up camp whilst some people just relaxed

So After we finished setting up it was time to sit back relax catch up and enjoy a few beers for the rest of the afternoon and play with me drone a bit more.

You Can get some great shots from the drone its a fantastic little toy

 

After a bit of a slow start the next morning we drove into Walwa a small little town in the area and had one of the very many coffees of the trip and then went for a bit of a drive around the surrounding area.

Lookout over Valley. As you can see they have had a very wet winter here also, its not just Tassie. The valley was in full flood only a couple of weeks before so a lot the the little camping spots here along the Murray where still closed.

So after a bit of a look around we went back to camp for lunch and met up with Ewens brother Andrew and Partner Philippa who live not far from the area.  So after lunch we hit Andrew up to show us a few places in the area and he said he knew of an old Tin mine in the area that had been abandon and still had a bit of stuff there. (Unfortunately a USB stick that had Photos on it decided not to work so I have lost most of my photos of this day. The USB stick has since been smashed with a hammer and burned with a butane torch) We didn’t end up finding the mine but had a great day exploring around the Woomargama State Forest. We ended up trying to find other mines (with no luck) and 4wding down  some great little tracks. We followed one track for quite some time and it had a number to little obstacles to get through and a couple of bog holes and steepish descents and the only photo that was salvaged was one of a Blackboy bushAnyway at the end of the track was a gate (I Hate them) and we all looked at each other as it was getting late and said we are not going back as we where only 2km away from Jingellic at this point so we decided to go through and thankfully no one seemed to be around to yell at us or shoot us or whatever. We did see at the other end that access is allowed but the owner should be notified so that put us all at ease. So from here Andrew and Philippa where heading home and we were heading to the Pub so we said our good buys and thanked them for a great day and went and had a gut full of beers and a pretty good meal.

The Next day we went into Burrowa Pine Mountain National Park. I wasn’t aware of this but Pine Mountain is argued to be the largest monolith in Australia coming in at a whopping 1.5 times bigger than Uluru ( Talk About Hidden Secrets) but we were there to check out Cudgewa Falls which was a great little spot and also had a couple of walks.

This is what happens when you let inexperience low GPS coverage and wind get in the way of your brain….. A Crash but I couldn’t let it get the better of me so I got my footage of the falls. The falls where also the base to one of the walks to a lookout here and I don’t know how but I was talked into doing it, although only 700m most of it was straight up and bloody painful but it was a good walkIt was that steep they even included a LadderFalls above the main fallsCreek along the walk with crystal clear water something you don’t get very often on the NW coast of Tassie as all the Button Grass Leaches Tannin into the water.Finally made it to the Lookout and it wasn’t bad either other than the freshly logged coupe on top of the range there After Grinding the rest of the cartilage out of my knees on this walk we decided to try and check a few 4wd tracks out in the Park.

The 76 got owned by the 80 Series but I did have and excuse the tow hitch was still in and I got caught up on it so once we removed it  it was easy again. Unfortunately there was a tree over the track just up from here so we didn’t get much further.  So we headed back to camp nice and early and got the fire going had a few beers and a play on the drone and Mum, Megan and Jacinta Cooked up a roast Pork and Chicken for tea.

I Couldn’t help myself I just had to see how the cows reacted to the drone and they didn’t like it.  Also tried it with the ducks in the Billabong but the didn’t take any notice of it whatsoever.

Sunset from the perspective of the drone. I will get better at using this eventually.

This was our last night at the camp and Mum and Dad where heading back home from here the next day and back to work HAHA and me Jacinta, Ewen and Megan are continuing the adventure over the Snowy’s and to Deua National Park the next day, which will be continued in Part 2.