Well, the last day was a much more exciting adventure, but before I tell you how it ended, I had better start with how it started…

…….wet!

That’s right, as I previously mentioned it was super wet over night and we awoke to very wet swags. It was still raining when I got up, and I wrote the last two posts drinking my coffee under the car tent Mark erected at the back of his car (thanks Mark!).

After finishing my posts, I took a few photos of the hut and heard Mark beginning to stir… wasn’t long before he popped up followed shortly afterwards by Mattie who couldn’t fight the call of nature any longer.

We cooked up some pancakes for Mattie, followed by an awesome Canadian breakfast of Bacon, Eggs and pancakes for Mark and I. Was just after eating that I decided to rattle Zac’s swag and get him up. I wanted to cook and pack, as by that time I was over everything being damp.

Lucky fo us everything dried up as we were packing camp, although the swags were so wet that even as the last thing packed down, they still went away very damp.

We were just about to hit the road when the lady from the next camp over wandered over… “got any jumper leads?” she asked. I had to chuckle as it wasn’t all that long ago I was stuck in a Ballarat caravan park with the same problem!!

We were the last people in the camp, and lucky for them as their battery was completely drained and there was no way they were going anywhere! Mark had his jump pack, so we thought this will be easy, but unfortunately he had run the Engle fridge over night and there wasn’t enough juice to start the car.

I jumped in the car with the guy and we shot over to the next campsite about 1km down the road, pulling up to about 4 different camps before some old guy (who was moments from leaving as well) had jumper leads. We shot back, started their car and I ran the jumper leads back up the road. Good deed for the day and it had barely started!!!

Finally ready to head off, Mark noticed a rattle under my car, and upon investigation I discovered that the back bash plate had lost a bolt. Must have rattled off on the boring dirt roads the day before. This was also the last bolt we tightened when fitting the bash plates, so there is every chance we were over it by then and simply didn’t tighten it enough! Lucky that was the one bolt that shared a bolt with the fuel tank plate, but unlucky that I left that bolt at home!! With our nothin’s a problem attitude, I crawled under the car and rigged up an occy strap to hold the plate in place and stop the rattle. Worked a treat, although I think it got a few more scrapes then it should have!

Anyway, finally on the road (about 11:30am) we were determined to find some decent tracks, and only a few kms up the road turned left up Red Hill. We were not disappointed as we climbed some very steep hills, travelled the ridge line with amazing views, then descended into Dungeon Gully down even steeper hills.

Was great fun, and with my iPhone mounted on the window got some awesome footage following Mark along the tracks. Finally we felt the tracks were a challenge, although they were well within the capabilities of our cars… even with my bash plate held on by an occy strap!

Must try to figure out how to get these videos up here, although I think a few are a little large… see how I go…

That path took a good couple of hours, and our stomaches were rumbling as we got to the end, so we headed to the Howqua river to have lunch.

Was there we discovered even more fun… a river crossing!!

While the boys stripped off their shoes and socks to start building a rock wall dam, I simply couldn’t resist and had to drive across the river, up the back a little then drove straight down the river in front of where the boys were playing. With crystal clear water and a rocky bottom was very easy to see where you were going, and the water wasn’t that deep if you stuck to the shallow side.

As soon as I was back, Mark bolted back to his car and had to have a go as well.

Now it is lucky we did head across before lunch, as we discovered a great camp site just on the other side, so it was back across again to set up the BBQ for lunch.

By now the sun was out and the afternoon was feeling warm, so Mark and I stripped off… well Mark had his bathers, but I had forgotten and so went in my undies… (lucky no one was around as it would have been a terrible sight) and we joined the boys in the river to help build the rock dam. Was very brisk as you first entered the water, but as we hadn’t showered in days, it wasn’t too long before we all dipped under to wash the road dirt away. Very invigorating 🙂

The boys found frogs around the river, so spent the good part of an hour hunting them down as temporary pets (at least I hope none came home!!).

We dammed the river before lunch, then broke it after lunch so we had good water to drive back through. I took the opportunity to walk the deeper parts of the river, and comfortable it wasn’t too bad, drove through it as we were leaving… got the water almost to the top of the bullbar… lucky I have that snorkel!!

The river was an awesome find, and we made note of its location as it would be a great place to bring the girls back to for a day trip picnic. Would be very easy to spend a day there… in the warmer weather anyway! Lets just not mention to Tara we have a short 4WD trip to get there!!

As it was we spent way too long at the river, so by the time we packed up ready to leave, we pretty much had to find out way out and head home. Now we thought that the road out was at the back of the camping spot were we stopped for lunch, but that was a dead end, so it was back across the river (what a shame) and back up the road to the Howqua historical area camp.

Problem was, the road again ended in a dead end looking at the river!! No issue this time though as I noticed an open gate just down the river and realised the river was the road!! We drove down the river and out the track into the camping ground. Another note this would be a great place to come back with the caravans (on the camp side of the river that is… not sure the vans would make it across the river!).

From here it was an easy drive out along a dirt road that dropped us back into Howqua. Hitting the bitumen again felt a bit weird at first on the softer tyres, so we headed to the first servo along the way in Mansfield to pump the tyres back up again.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful, arriving home just before 7pm after a quick pit stop at Maccas (the boys wanted “real” food after camp food for days).

We all had an awesome time, found some great new areas to explore and had quite an adventure. Both Zac and Mattie had a ball and are already keen for the next outing… guess we will have to plan it soon Mark!

Photo post to follow…