Wingan Inlet – Bubbles Maiden Voyage Easter 2019

R.I.P

On 11^th April 2018 we lost our beloved beast!! 

We were both shattered beyond belief over a car!!!

GM had generously lent an overseas guest the Beast to use while GM was at work.  Our young guest had never driven on our roads, or probably even on a hill as he was from the Netherlands.  Maybe even had never driven on dirt!!  Might even have been a wee bit jet-lagged as well but took her for a drive down one of our local country roads that had been in poor condition, lost control and rolled the beast.  Never to be driven again. 😭.  Luckily our guest came out of it unhurt.

If you listen carefully, you can hear her pain..

And off she goes 😭😪

A local farmer helped strip the Beast and stored all the goodies like the Engel, the drawer system and the brand new spare tyre.  What a champion!!  People here will help themselves to whatever they can find and then set the cars on fire, so that's why we stayed to see her off.  He's also the one who lent his phone so that I could be contacted to come and get our guest.  GM had gone back to work over in Western Australia a couple of days before.  Our tow truck driver Ernie got lost and took hours to get there, so we waited and waited and got eaten alive by mozzies.  There had been 8 stubbies of beer in the Engel, and only 1 was smashed in the accident.  Luckily there was also bottled water, as it was a warm day and night and I hadn't had a drink since lunch time.

It’s been a long time between adventures as it’s taken over 12 months and close to my yearly income to replace her and bring Bubbles up to our travel standard.

Introducing Bubbles!

Bubbles is a wee bit more luxurious than the Beast.  She has been given the moniker “Bubbles” because of her champagne colour and her luxury fittings and leather seats.  She’s also automatic, so doesn’t require as much personal effort.  We weren’t convinced she’d be as good a workhorse as the Beast, and Wingan Inlet was to be her first test…...albeit an easy one considering where we’ve been before and what we were planning for later in the year.  Bubbles passed with flying colours!!  And I hate to say it, was far more comfortable on the long drives.  The seats are like lounge chairs and there seems to be a bit more room inside.  There’s also the power of the V8 diesel…...wow does she move!!  We were won over for now.

Wingan Inlet

Found in the Croajingalong National Park, 36km from the Highway near the NSW border, 380km from home and a nice leisurely 5 hour drive.  East this time instead of the usual west.

This was just a 3 night break that was well overdue for the pair of us.  It was an easy drive in from the highway through an avenue of tall bloodwood trees that seemed to touch the sky.  The dirt road was well maintained and although it’s recommended for 4WD only, you could bring a normal car in quite easily.  Just a couple of places you’d need to go slow.  There didn’t seem to be too much undergrowth, so there must have been a burn off within the last year or so.  It was quite isolated, so would have been scary in bushfire season if they’d not cleared it. 

I had booked our camp through Parks Victoria which requires a 4 night minimum stay at Easter.  I’d heard it gets quite busy, but we were quite surprised to find a lot of empty camps available.  There was several sites that only stayed a night, so probably hadn’t booked.  Large middle eastern family groups, but they left the place clean and snuck out quietly very early in the morning, and their kids were sweet and friendly.

Cheers!

You weren’t allowed to have your own campfire, but there were communal fire pits in the middle of the campgrounds.  The sites were very private, and I picked well considering we had no idea what we would be getting.  The web site didn’t show pictures of the sites. 

The beach was beautiful and so pristine!  Access was via boat or the Fly Cove Walking Track that started in the campgrounds.  Wingan Inlet is also included in the wilderness coast walk.  I’d really like to do that one day.  Just gotta convince GM that walking is actually good for you 😉

We had a daily visitor to our camp…. Joanna the Goanna…...she’d come and lay in the sun and didn’t seem the least bit bothered with us being there.  She’d move with the sun, and then disappear up a tree late afternoon, only to be seen again the next afternoon when the sun shone down.  The trees and vegetation were so thick that not much sun managed to reach ground level.  This also helped in sheltering us from the cool wind that blew in from the water.

You can hear her coming way before you see her.  She's certainly not afraid to make a noise :)

We set up camp and went for a leisurely walk to the coast along the Fly Cove walking track.  A 3km return windy track through the paperbarks, with boardwalks along the edge of the inlet to stop you falling in and getting wet and muddy.  Each time we came to the edge of the inlet, hundreds of tiny crabs would scurry back into their holes.  There were bright orange crabs, electric blue crabs and lots of little black crabs.  By goodness they’re fast little critters! The beach had no rubbish anywhere.  It was so very clean 😊.  This is what happens when people can’t get into places by car!!

There were rocks fairly close to the shore.  These are called the Skerries and are home to Australian and New Zealand Fur Seal colonies.  I zoomed in as far as I could, and it wasn’t until I saw the photo’s that I realised how many there were. 

There was a local fella fishing at the mouth of the inlet, and he seemed to be catching some nice sized mullet for dinner.  There was a cheeky pelican trying to sneak up and pinch the ones he’d caught.  It kept me amused for ages 😉.

Back to camp for a couple of lazy drinks, nibbles and then dinner.  I vaguely remember starting to read a book, but I had my recliner chair and ended up having a quite pleasant nanny nap instead. 😊

Day two saw us hop into Bubbles and go to do the Wingan River Rapids walk.  This was only a 5km return walk and supposed to take 2.5 hours.  We snorted at that, as the track is already cleared by Parks Victoria, so there’s no way it should take that long right??  WRONG!!!!  What the guide didn’t say was it was an almost vertical walk on damp and sometimes slippery ground.  It was hard work just getting down to the river…the walk back out and up, up, up!!!! was far worse than imagined.  It was so hard, and we were so out of condition, but it was very beautiful in there amongst small patches of rain forest.  We sat on the rocks for a little while, had a snack and drink and then made our way back out.  GM slipped and fell hard on the rocks.  Thank goodness he didn’t do any damage.  I’d just told him to be more careful, when I went down, landing on an elbow and head.  A little bit shaken and nothing was broken thank goodness, or I’d have had to be choppered out.  The wet rock was the same colour as the shadows, and deadly.  The ground was very rich with rotted plants and some of the fungi was amazing, their colours incredible.

Day 3 we went for a walk to Elusive Lake.  A 6km return walk that was far easier than the Wingan River Rapids walk.  This walk meandered through the bloodwoods.  It was quite warm, so we welcomed the shade.  Elusive Lake was quite a surprise.  It’s completely hidden from view right up until you break through the trees and there it is right in front of you, surrounded by forest and lined with sandy beach.  The lake is 22m deep in places with no surface water flowing in or out.  All water entering or leaving the lake is through rain or seepage.  It was so peaceful and sheltered here and you couldn’t even hear the ocean, although it wasn’t too far away.  This was a good walk for us as it loosened the old joints and muscles that were painfully paying for the previous days’ efforts!

Wingan Inlet is a lovely place to relax and the facilities were clean.  I would have liked to have taken the kayaks, and if we ever return, that’s just what we’ll do as the inlet was perfect for that.

We went home via the coast, through windy bush tracks to Thurra River campground where we nearly had a quick peak at Point Hicks Lighthouse (closed for Easter!!) and decided a 7km walk uphill in the drizzle and wind wasn’t on the agenda for the day.  Then through the windy bush tracks to Peach Tree Creek which has a fantastic looking camping area, with boat launching, beach and inlet, so that’s been put on the list of quick short weekends…. maybe a boat and tent weekend.  A pity we can’t tow both the boat and Barbara!  

We slowly wound our way through the windy roads and back to Cann River where we stopped for lunch at the bakery.  The place was mobbed!!  Everyone heading home from their Easter break.  I wonder if theirs was as relaxing as ours?

A great place for family groups and far enough away from the main road to be peaceful.  A lovely part of the country!

The only thing I didn't like was the sound of the wild dogs at night.  They're killing an awful lot of the native wildlife, but Parks Victoria are baiting, so hopefully they will be able to eradicate them before too much damage is done.

We made it home in time for dinner and work the next day!

Next stop……Simpson Desert…...can’t wait!!!

So smokey.  Left overs from the summer fires.

 

Our new flat pack fire pit.....it's a beauty!!!!

Cheeky currawongs were trying to get the dripping from the BabyQ while it was still cooking.  These cheeky fella's were super friendly and kept our site so clean, there were no bugs!

Kept my feet quite warm!!