Bushwalkers: Darlene, Gavin, Merry, Andrew and Jarrod.
It was a very wet Saturday morning when Darlene met me at my place around 8am to load the camping gear into the car. On the way to Merry’s house we were wondering whether it was worth going due to the temperamental weather. We met up with Merry, Gavin and Jarrod. Jarrod was keen to do some camping with Star wars figurines and psp for company if it rained. Gavin provided transport for Merry and Jarrod and we made sure that we were all contactable by our mobile phones in case of an emergency. We discussed other options and left Barnsdall between 8:30 and 9 o’clock braving the elements.
Between Sale and Bairnsdale the rain bucketed down ferociously and I thought we were going to turn around and go back but Darlene’s perseverance kept us going. We all met at Yarram at around 10-10:30am for a morning tea stop at a Café to get a coffee and wait until the storm passed. Jarrod was playing hide and seek we were enjoying the sweet cakes, the jazzy sounds of buskers playing out in the street and cappuccinos as well as deciding that our trip to Tarra Bulga would be too good to miss and that Fernholme caravan park would be an ideal environment for our camp.
We then left Yarram about 10:30-11:00 to head to Tarra Valley taking in some very enjoyable scenery all the way along Tarra Valley road. We all arrived at Fernholme caravan park where we were greeted by a very friendly lady who must have been a local who knew a fair bit about the history and local events of Tarra Bulga and gave us a good description of where to set up camp and the facilities available. Rain started to set in again so we set up our tents on higher ground due to muddy conditions at the lower site close to the creek. Once we set up camp I went for a walk, took some photos and decided I had better catch up with the others who were sheltering in the meals and entertainment cabin. We were in this log cabin for a while so we decided to bring all our food and utensils there and wait out the rain. There where photos and memorabilia of previous campers on the walls that we had fun looking at.
Jarrod was amusing himself with the toys provided while Gavin, Darlene, Merry and I had lunch and did some reading.
The rain finally eased and we decided to carry out some short walks and piled into Gavins car. Our first stop was Tarra falls where I took some shots and unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries – never trust batteries that come with a new product. Jarrod was curious as to why they were called Tarra’s Falls and thought they belonged to us. Our next stop was Cynthea Falls where we walked through this exotic park full of Ferns and rainforest foliage, mossy trunks, tracks, plentiful seats and tables and facilities that took us across the bridge to some amazing ferns and spring falls which were very rewarding for braving wet and cold conditions.
We then moved on to the other section of Tarra Bulga National Park. It was a very windy as we headed towards the Grand Ridge Road Junction, past the Bed and breakfast and arriving at the Tarra bulga visitor center. On the way we spotted a couple of bush wallabies and a lyrebird. We then waited out the rain and Darlene looked into the best tracks to follow and we all agreed that the Corrigon supension bridge would be a lot of fun and would give us some good views of the fern gullies. When we arrived at the suspension bridge Jarrod couldn’t wait to race across it and make it wobble so I joined in the fun taking care at the same time.
Merry wasn’t stupid, she decided to wait until we were all over the other side before calmly walking over the bridge. After reading the information boards we continued on to where the track separated into two. Merri and Gavin took one track and Darlene, Jarrod and I took another. Gavin and Merry beat us back to the car. After a good walk on the picturesque fern walks we decided to head back to camp and have dinner at the log cabin.
While cooking and sitting down to dinner we decided to entertain ourselves with conversations about movies, music, royal auto magazines, and Gavin, Merry and I were participating in this quiz game that was in the Herald Sun newspaper about famous people.
Jarrod also entertained us with his reader book showing us how well he is doing in the reading classes at school in which we were pretty amazed by his excellent reading.
There was also a very funny picture book left by other campers that gave us all a laugh and a cheeky possum who invited him self in through the roof.
Darlene and Jarrod decided it had been a big day of walks and entertainment and hit the sack around 8pm and the rest of us went to bed around 9:30 or 10:00 pm.
We all rose about 7am the following morning ready for another fine adventure back to the two main parks we went to yesterday. We decided to break camp and pack up all our gear around 8 am and head up towards the first national park at the Tarra Valley rainforest walk. When I was packing at the log cabin I got talking to other campers from Melbourne introducing myself and saying how much of a wonderful place this is. Both Darlene and Gavin took their cars and parked near the entrance. We left Merri and Jarred with Darlenes car and went up in Gavins car to start a walk from the Tarra Bulga information center near Balook. This walk was on a fairly long ridge track branching off from the old Balook- Yarram road . This track is known as the Diaper track consisting of Pine plantations, fern gullies, thick mountain ash and blue gum forests, cool springs flowing from the rainforest walls and very slippery fallen bark. The three of us were enjoying the scenery and conversations as we were doing this walk that took us about 1.5 hours and was about 4kms leading us to Tarra Valley Rd. We stopped for a few moments where there were springs and Darlene loaned her camera to me to take some photos. We came to the Tarra Valley road and walked back towards the car park at Cynthaea falls where we met Jarred and Merry.
We stopped for a snack lunch and a cuppa under the shelter where Gavin demonstrated his pepsi burner and its powerful flame. After lunch Darlene drove Gavin up towards the information center near Balook and Merry and I kept Jarred entertained while we waited with fun and games.
After their return we all decided it was time to head back to Barnsdall and headed in the South Traralgon direction. Sale ended up being our cuppa break stop so we ended up checking out the shopping centre. We all dropped into Coles to buy a cold drink because no Cafes were open, but Gavin and I checked out Sanity music store and Jarred was lucky when we discovered that Target was open and was shouted a toy.
It was a long trip back to Bairndale so we left Sale and said goodbye to Merry, Jarred and Gavin and thanked them for joining us. Darlene dropped me off at my house around 4-5pm and thanked each other for a wonderful trip never to forgotten.
Thankyou Darlene for organizing this trip once again it was the great escape I was looking for.
Andrew.