Day Trip - Erskine Falls

Not a trip as such but as winter approaches we have decided to try and get out more on day/weekend trips rather than our normal weeks long trips.

Today we packed up the Colorado and headed on down to Lorne and the Erskine Falls. We picked a great day for it with the sun shining most of the day and the weather being mostly warm.

 

We headed out from Melbourne to Lorne first, via the start of the Great Ocean Road, stopping on the beach. As soon as we approached the water line, looking for shells, we started noticing common sea glass, ie beer bottles :). I mentioned to the kids to start looking for Blue sea glass to see how they might go and after some searching they found some. We also found clear, green and some ceramics. We didn't collect much in the way of quantity but we all had fun looking.

After this we made our way into Lorne and onto the road heading up into the Otways to Erskine Falls. A quick stop at the Blanket Leaf picnic area showed us where we would be returning for lunch, but first the falls.

 

I selected this destination as it was identified as being close to the carpark. I really did not waht to be walking through the hills for an hour looking for the waterfall. The falls in this case were, with the upper falls lookout being only meters from the carpark. The lower falls viewing platform, however, was quite a descent down many stairs. The stairs were well maintained and there were rails all the way to the bottom. The lookout, and the falls were magnificent and we spent quite a bit of time down here taking photos and looking around. I think we were also delaying the ascent back up the stairs :)

 

 

 

The climb back up only served to highlight how unfit we all are :(

 

After the falls we returned to the picnic grounds where we had a BBQ lunch, with Bianca manning the tongs. The park was nice and quiet, and i could see it being very popular in the summer.

 

After the falls and lunch, we returned to Lorne, where we took a walk down the main street and the foreshore, which was packed with people having the same idea, making the most of a great day.

 

Overall the kids loved the day out and we will be planning many more daytrips in the near future.

Canberra–Instagram and the Colorado Fuel Economy figures

 

Hi All, As i did at the end of the Perth Trip i thought i would add a copy of all the instagram photos i took whilst on this trip. In addition to that, now that i have my own tow vehicle i thought i would document its fuel economy on trips.

Instagram

 

Fuel Economy Figures

These figures were collected using GasCuby for the Iphone. I have been using this for all of the cars i have had since getting the iphone and will be able to continue posting this data on future trips.

At the moment i am attributing the high figures on the first day of the trip to incorrect Tyre air pressure and driving style. On the trip home i adjusted the air pressures away from dealer recommendation and more in line with the car placard. I also modified my driving style. Future trips will show is this helps

L/100km	Date	Vehicle	Odometer	Filled Up	Cost/Liter	Liters	Total Cost	Octane
9.3	25/12/2011	Colorado	3,176.00	Full	$1.44	32.77	$47.16	Diesel
13.7	30/12/2011	Colorado	3,317.00	Full	$1.44	13.07	$18.81	Diesel
12.6	1/01/2012	Colorado	3,579.00	Full	$1.52	35.78	$54.35	Diesel
12.4	2/01/2012	Colorado	3,760.00	Full	$1.53	22.89	$35.00	Diesel
12.2	5/01/2012	Colorado	4,166.00	Full	$1.46	50.39	$73.52	Diesel
11	7/01/2012	Colorado	4,307.00	Full	$1.56	17.26	$26.91	Diesel
12.4	7/01/2012	Colorado	4,692.00	Full	$1.51	42.51	$64.15	Diesel
	8/01/2012	Colorado	4,958.00	Full	$1.42	32.95	$46.75	Diesel

Canberra - Canberra Motor Village

I though I should post some photos of the caravan park we are staying at. As you can see it is quite dense in the caravan section and the site we have is far from level. Many of the other sites are no better. In the background of one of the photos you can see Sara's mum and dads van as well.

Eldorado and Canberra

I can't believe it's 2012. Last year just seemed to of went so fast.

Well, January 1st found us crawling out of bed, after a long night of seeing in the new year and watching all the fireworks our various neighbors felt the need to let off.  With a single stop for fuel and food we arrived at the Gemstone caravan park in Eldorado. The park was deserted, hitch I found strange for the Christmas period, but the owner informed me that the park had only just emptied that morning. For us this meant the choice of sites and drive through to boot. 

I have been to this park twice now and it really is a great little, quiet park, just off the highway near Wangaratta. Behind the park is a creek that contains both gemstones, including Smokey and Citrine Quartz, and Gold. As we were only passing through we used the creek as a swimming hole this time and only did some specking for any gems lying on the surface. LasT time, when we came up with the Essendon Lapidary club, we brought the sieves and gold pans allowing us to find both gems and some small specks of gold.

The kids loved playing in the creek and we found ourselves a shady spot to sit in the water and cool off. We we glad we only stopped here for one nit though as the temperature for 2 days later was predicted to be 45degC.

The next day saw us up and gone by 7 am due to Caitlyn getting quite a bad blood nose during her sleep and us all all finding ourselves awake at 6am. With a promise of a McDonalds breakfast, that did not actually eventuate, everyone agreed to hook up the van and get going. 

We eventually stopped at Holbrook, which seems to be a common theme when we travel this way, but with a new bypass being built, not for much longer.

After Holbrook we caught up with Sara's parents in Gundagai before making our way on to Canberra. We arrived at the Canberra motor village around 1pm to about 35 degrees, so shot welcome. After setting up the van we went out in search of a shopping center for some cool air and supplies. We found both ;)

The Colorado is handling the caravan and trips great with an average of about 13.5l per 100km so far. That included a lot of hills and the car has only just gone over 4000km. I expect this va.ue to improve over time.

Our next day will see us visiting the Australian War Memorial, which will be very interesting and a first for the kids.

Our new tow vehicle–A 4WD Holden Colorado

Well, we finally done it. After many years of talking about it and making do with our various lease cars, we finally went out and purchased our own tow vehicle.

We can now begin the slow exercise of setting this car up for towing and the many trips we want to do in the future. As always, if you have any suggestions, please add them to the comments.

So far we have only added the Tinting, a Tow bar with our old electric break controller (Tekonsha Prodigy) and its booked in for a tub liner with ARB. We also plan to fit a UHF radio, an upgrade from our current hand held unit and i am looking at either the GME TX 3340 or the TX3540 with the decision mainly based on price. Without a Bulbar, or plans to get one in the near future, it looks like the antenna will be mounted off of the sports bars.