Exploring West Gippsland......

So after our yummy breakfast on saturday we dragged ourselves away from Springbank's cosy kitchen and hit the road to explore another little corner of Victoria.

We drove through many tiny hamlets most of which we had never heard of but the countryside was lovely.  Rolling hills with mainly cattle, sheep and alpacas grazing peacefully.  Many of the fields have been given over to vines and we passed quite a few small wineries as we drove.  

Our first stop was at Jindivick and here we found a tiny little township with a cute cafe with pretty good vanilla slices - not that we needed them!  The amazing old General Store is a must see and you could lose hours fossicking in there.  Across the road was an interesting little gallery, B'Zarte, a cross between an antique shop and an art gallery.  It was worth a look but we left empty handed though.

We continued on driving through Neerim Junction before stopping to have a wander around Glen Nayook Reserve.  This is a delightful fern glen and a remnant of a mountain ash rainforest. The track follows the Tarago River to a fern gully where the river runs underground for 100 metres.  The recent rains made the track very slippery but it was a lovely walk through the towering mountain ash trees though the seat at the bottom was too wet to sit on so it was about turn and a walk back up the hill.

From there we continued to drive on towards Noojee stopping along the way at the Lions Club lookout for great views across to Mt Baw Baw and the Noojee Trout Farm in the valley below.  Back in the car it only took another 15 mins or so before we had arrived in Noojee's main street and we stopped here for a late lunch at The Red Parrot Cafe.  This was another very quirky country cafe and we spent a happy hour or so there enjoying some real country hospitality.

Lunch over we hopped back into the car again and drove the few minutes out of Noojee until we found the trestle bridge we had come to see.  Just west of the town is an historic trestle bridge which was originally built in 1919 as part of a railway used to freight timber out of the district.  Known only as no 7 as it was the seventh bridge on this route this huge bridge has been restored and is the highest example of its type in Victoria. It is also the only one of the bridges on that route left standing today.  A series of steps leads from the car park at the base of the bridge to the top where a walking and cycling trail has been constructed along the former railway line.  It spans 102 Meters and is 21 meters high with 19 sets of piles.

On the afternoon we were there there were a group of children on bikes having the time of their life riding around all the tracks.  Getting up the stairs proved hard work but they all did it pushing their bikes up in front of them.  It was so good to see kids out in the fresh air having fun and not one electronic gadget in sight.

We spent an hour or so here wandering up and across the old bridge and in general just enjoying the beautiful countryside.  The towering mountain ash forests around the bridge just added to the majesty of it all.  

Leaving Noojee we drove back to Springbank where we had a wander through the lovely garden before settling in by the fire for an hour or so before we headed off to have dinner at the Yarragon Hotel.  Our Lamb Shanks were delicious and left no room for anything else so we just settled on a coffee before we drove back for another excellent nights sleep.

We had to say goodbye to Kaye, Chris and Springbank the next morning to drive home through Yarra Junction.  Our first stop was at Nickleby at Darnum, the home of Nickelby Alpacas.  We saw a few of them in the paddocks and as usual they looked very cute.  The very cold weather had me reaching for my purse and I bought a pair of gloves and a lovely little loop scarf which has been a godsend over the past few freezing weekends in the bush.  

We stopped at Neerim South for lunch a little later on and then had a look at the Tarago Reservoir.  This was a little hard to find the way in and once we did we found what was once a lovely park but it did look like it was in need of some TLC.  Perhaps it had just become overgrown during winter time.  I hope so.  We walked down to find the water but could not get close as the whole area was fenced off.  A shame because there were beautiful views right along the banks of the park.  No point lingering here so we continued on again towards Noojee for our trip home.  

It was here that Bill decided not to follow our fabulously accurate (NOT) GPS or listen to me with the back up iPad maps and strike out on his own for a bit of bush bashing through the State Forest tracks.  All good fun for the first 30 mins or so but as the tracks got rougher, steeper and muddier I must admit I had visions of never seeing civilization again.  I was very pleased when we eventually found our way back out to the same road we had started on.  Looks like the GPS won this one!  It was a bit of fun though, just wish I had known where we were and I could have enjoyed it!

And there ended our adventure.  The rest of the trip home was on highways and freeways and with no further stops along the way we were soon back in the big smoke.  Once again we had enjoyed a fabulous weekend away exploring another little corner of Victoria.  We loved all of what we saw, even the forest tracks, and look forward to more visits to West Gippsland in the future.

So with another weekend over we headed back to work on Monday.  Bill was off to Cairns later that week and I had some stories to write.

Until next time........