One thing I dislike about camping is the
bugs. It’s starting to get a bit much today, I found ticks on
my pants and on the tent, BUGS Ahhhh. I can’t wait to get home
and break out the bug killer, there won’t be a bug safe for at
least one radial kilometre.
Today we planned to go up to Eddystone point
but didn’t quite make it there because we got a bit distracted
and in a way I think we were both happy to take it slow. We
started with the Siamese water race track which was a bit of a
messy track with fallen branches and trees all over the place
with some tight spaces between stumps and trees. The track was
not very scenic or beautiful and it was pretty hard to follow
because the tracks wound around everywhere and were not all
marked on the GPS. We still got to see the water race and even
drove over it but in a different area than shown on the map. On
the way out we found the track which we actually missed but we
were lucky we went the way we did as that track was not so good
for the cars paint work so we gave it a miss.
From there we took the Blue Tier track which
travels through the Blue Tier Mountain Range and also goes up to
the remains of an old tin mine. On the way we stopped at an old
church built in 1874, we had a bit of a wonder around looking at
some old grave stones.
Continuing on we went to Plats lookout which
is actually a fire spotting station, I was getting ready for a
big hike to the top but being summer and with the recent fires
the gate was open and there was a man at the top spotting fires,
thank goodness
J.
We were invited up to have a look, John did
not hesitate and was up in a flash, I on the other hand made my
way up slowly and very carefully. The views were great, you
could see the mountains and could see all the way to St Helens
and Eddystone point on the coast. The tower was 470m above sea
level which was one of 4 in the area used for fire spotting.
You could see the dried out area where the fires went through 2
weeks ago and all the tree plantations in the area.
The guy up the tower seemed like a nice
bloke and happy for the company, I think he likes having
visitors, it must make his day go just that little bit quicker.
He told us all about his job in the tower, and all the other
jobs he has had around Australia, he’s a jack of all trades
really, name a job and he may have given it a go. He was only
in his 30’s with a young family and had been doing this job for
the last 4 years (6 months a year)
We had lunch at the base of the tower and
said our goodbyes and left to look at the Moon Tin Mine, which
was only a short trip up the road, again John opted of the
medium rated track instead of the easy one, which at first he
was regretting as the track was very over grown, at least at the
very start of the track but it did widen out after a short
distance in. As normal the track was pretty easy but
frustratingly bumpy with all these little rocks which like to
shake the dickens out of the car no matter what speed you are
going at.
John was not feeling so well after lunch so
we didn’t really stop for any of the big walks. We got out and
looked at some ruins of miners cottages, the old batteries and a
few other rusted and rotten mining objects on the side of the
road. The area was quite pretty with lots of moss and lichen
with only a handful of trees and ferns, very different from what
we had seen around the place. It was also very wet and with
that came leaches, just starting to get a little sick of those
buggers.
We did a quick forest walk called the Goblin
forest walk which was pretty good giving us an insight to the
old town which is now gone and the people who once lived and
worked here, I don’t think you could pay me to work there.
From there we headed up Anchor road to the
Anchor Stampers, these things were just huge sitting in the
middle of the forest rusting away slowly. The Anchor mine
started in 1880 and was one of the largest mines in the world
but never did very well due to poor management and not enough
water to turn the water wheel to get the Batteries going, so
after about 100 years and many owners later they had given up on
the water and went to diesel power but with poor management went
into receivership and sold off all that they could, the
remaining Batteries stand today because they were to heavy to
move so they just left them there and after a few fires that’s
all that’s left today.
 The last thing we looked at on our trip was
the Halls falls. After a short easy walk we were at the falls,
they had two levels but from the bottom you could only see one,
they were pretty spectacular especially with the recent rain,
John nearly fell in a couple of times trying to take some photos
on some slippery rocks.
John decided that it was time we had a night
indoors which seemed like a good idea. We headed to a place
called the Pub in the Paddock, which is exactly what the name
suggests. They have some nice rooms with shared facilities but
NO HOT WATER! They have recently had some problems with there
hot water service, but at the moment we would take anything even
a cold shower as long as the bed is warm and has no leaky roof,
even the cold shower looked good, which it certainly was as long
as you did not stay under for long.
After our very cold shower we went for a pub
meal which was really good. If you are ever out this way I
would recommend the pub chicken. Fried chicken with a creamy
white wine, bacon, onion and peppercorn sauce Mmmmm. The only
complaint John had was that it was not big enough.
History Camper trailer
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