We managed to get away from work early on the Thursday so hit the road mid-afternoon. We avoided the worst of the traffic, but still took over four hours to get to our campsite for the next few days. Stonehenge Farm Stay is a lovely property in Buchan South where we’ve spent the past three Easters, and we always get a warm welcome from Jamie and Bec, the owners. It was nice to bring our 4WD Club here for an Easter trip. There’s not many places you can go for Easter and have space for your group to spread out and not have your neighbour’s guy ropes crossing yours or a bunch of ferals next door.
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| Campsite at Stonehenge |
Dean arrived not too long after us, which was great timing, because fetching a load of firewood was made a lot easier by loading up the back of his tray. It was a quiet night round the fire with just Dean and us, with the occasional message from Patrick. He was on his way, but he didn’t seem to be making quick progress. Eventually we all went off to bed as we couldn’t wait for Patrick any longer. Looking out the camper window in the morning confirmed that he must have arrived safely and was very good at putting up his tent quietly. We never heard a thing.
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| Warm tonight! |
Good Friday morning was fine and sunny and it was great to take in the peaceful surroundings over a good coffee while we waited for more of our group to arrive. There were a few early birds who must have left at “sparrows” from Melbourne. While camps were set up, some of us decided to head into town to visit the café, get fuel/ice and anything else that had been left at home. When we got back to camp, more people had arrived, and after lunch a few of us set off on a bit of a drive to take in some of the tracks south of Buchan.
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| Early morning sunshine |
We had a route planned out but the DSE had other ideas with a few planned burns happening in the areas we wanted to visit, so a bit of adaptation was necessary. It wasn’t too hard to find another way round driving through still-smouldering bushland. Our first stop was at a Telstra tower near the top of Mt Tara. It would have been a good view if it hadn’t been for the trees, so we didn’t spend too much time there. We drove through the forest, passing the only stand of naturally occurring Spotted Gums in Victoria, and on to the Stringer Knob Fire Tower. This fabulous experimental single pole fire tower was built in 1941 after disastrous bushfires of 1939. The fire spotter sits in a cabin perched on top of a 28 metre pole. The pole is made of two massive logs spliced together lengthways. Afternoon tea was called, but as it turned out, no one had brought anything for afternoon tea, so we just sat and enjoyed the surroundings and shared Karen’s water bottle!!!
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| Stringer's Knob Fire Tower |
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| Great view from up here! |
When we got back to camp after collecting some more firewood and a few more cars had rolled up and they were busy setting up camp while the fire was lit and the first bottles of the day were cracked. It was a great night round the fire as usual and Dean and Pete were scoping out the moon for the following night’s expected eclipse, trying to find the best possible location for their cameras.
Saturday morning was another slow start and another great day. Slow breakfasts were enjoyed and some disappeared into town to visit the very popular café again. There were two more vehicles still to arrive. After they arrived and set up, they and everyone else was ready to take off for a drive to Jackson’s Crossing.
We called in briefly to town to pick up the café crowd and then headed up the road towards Gelantipy. It was a bit of surprise to pass a koala taking a walk down the side of the road as we travelled north. We turned off the main road and pulled into a clearing to let the tyres down a bit and Robyn called for a group photo. Not a bad looking bunch!
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| All of us. |
It took about an hour to wind our way down some reasonable tracks to get to the Snowy River. We came out on the river bank and almost missed the entrance to the crossing. A quick back track brought us out into the river. It wasn’t deep at this time of year and we crossed without trouble and all pulled up on the island in the middle for lunch.
After lunch we completed the crossing and took a quick drive for a kilometre or so further up the riverbank. With road closures further up in the national park, we couldn’t really go very far after crossing the river, but it was good to get across.
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| Driving the Snowy |
On the way back out we passed a track that headed up a pretty steep hill that just begged for a couple of our group to go and play on. We all stopped to watch the fun as a few took their turn at the hill. Only Michael in his Landcruiser was successful at getting to the top, only to have to turn around and come back down again. We all started heading off again as “Fred the Farmer” came across to express his displeasure at us using his track. Time to leave.
We drove back through farm land towards Buchan and paid a visit to the fire tower and hut at the top of Mt McLeod. This tower was a bit more modern than the one we had visited the day before, but the hut had seen better days. Especially the out-house. It was a quick trip via the road back into Buchan and then on to camp. As well as the Rodeo every Easter, there’s a gymkhana held in Buchan and the local showground was packed with every form of horse float, caravan, tent etc. It was a great sight as we drove through - like a little city, full of activity.
We got back to camp in time for happy hour and in time for the drizzle to start. Not to be deterred, we were a very enterprising lot, using Michael’s impressive Foxwing awning as a base, then bringing across other vehicles and joining awnings up to make a bigger space. A little bit of rain didn’t stop us. And it soon cleared up and the fire was lit and another fun night followed round a huge fire. Unfortunately there was a bit of cloud cover on Saturday night which meant we didn’t get the best view of the eclipse, but Pete and Dean still managed to get some shots.
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| Lunar eclipse |
Sunday morning arrived and the weather continued to be fair. There was lots happening today and people were up and around early…. well early-ish. Some of us were heading off to do the tour of the Buchan Caves and others were heading to the Rodeo, while others planned a relaxing morning in the sun. Doug and I were going to the rodeo first up, but the morning wouldn’t be right without a quick visit to the café in town for another great latte!
After that we joined the crowds that were filing in to the rodeo. It is one of the main annual events for the community and it seemed like the whole town had turned out. It’s always a great opportunity for a bit of people-watching at the rodeo. It’s a whole different culture and fascinating to watch for an outsider. And that’s just the people. The events happening in the ring were just as exciting. We had a great time sitting in the sun. After their tour of the caves the others arrived to join in.
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| Buchan Rodeo |
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| Fit right in with the locals in these babies!!! |
In the afternoon another drive had been planned to head up into the hills above the Timbarra River. We gathered back at camp before heading off and spent a great afternoon tackling Running Creek Track and Ah Chow Track. Although steep with a few washouts and the like, we didn’t find it too hard to travel, but all agreed it would be a different story if it was wet. We stopped for afternoon tea half way up a steep hill, and got a bit of exercise chasing a frisbie around while we did. It was the end of daylight savings on Sunday so it meant that night was falling an hour earlier, so it we decided to head back for camp before it got too late.
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| Running Creek Track |
By the time we got back to camp the others were just arriving back from their afternoon at the rodeo. More firewood was collected in preparation for another huge fire for our last night in camp and it was another good night.
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| Sunset on Stonehenge |
We had a fair bit of rain overnight and early Monday morning, but it had cleared by the time people were starting to get up and after breakfast there was a lot of activity as packing up was done. We were on the road by 10.30 heading for home and hoping that the Easter Monday traffic wasn’t going to be too bad. Well hoping didn’t do too much good, as we started hitting queues before we hit Bruthen. We were travelling alright but hit more queues heading into Stratford so decided to take the back roads across through Maffra, stopping for lunch at the pub there. After refuelling on a good lunch we were on the way home again.
It was a great weekend spent with a great group of people and in a beautiful area - and all just three hours from Melbourne.
