Have been back in Australia for the last 2 months. Family duties mostly but with an intention to do an Ask The Leyland Brothers kinda grande tour of Oz. The Leyland Brothers is an old 1970s Aussie TV programme so don’t feel bad if that swooping sound you hear is my arcane reference swooping at Mach 1 straight over your head. The plan was to start on the Great Ocean Road near Geelong then progress from the other end, following a brief stay with an old flame, to Kangaroo Island (near Adelaide) up through the centre, stopping all points (Coober Pedy, Uluru, The Alice) et al. on our way to either Croc-Central aka Darwin, or my brother in Mt Burrell.
As the Great Ocean Road was either on fire, or camper vans being washed out to see, our plans changed. We have instead been following the Aussie gold rush trail – into legendary Kelly Country.
Robyn refers to Ned Kelly, somewhat disrespectfully, as “Bucket Head” – I’ve tried, tried, tried & failed to make her appreciate his cultural import – but, that aside, the gold towns have proved fascinating. We started our trek in Ballarat but while I rewind and get my photos together I thought I would post from where we are tonight; Mt Beauty. This town is well named, and we are camping 20 minutes outta town in the Alpine National Forest. It’s a free (i.e. totally gratis) camping ground – complete with dunnies, wild swimming, gorgeous walks hacked through the forest, and the campsite luxuriates in the delightful name of Mountain Creek.
