Day 3 Tuesday 15/2/22 Kilcunda to Heyfield, pleasant and warm

We had a cooler night with a salty sea breeze. I grab a last look at the ocean and spy a young family just out of their tent. They’ve moved their chairs closer to the cliff, facing out to sea. Dad, Mum, and the little girl just watching the ocean.

We strike quite a bit of traffic through Wonthaggi and Inverloch until we turn north and head for Morwell. After Leongatha we hear a voice on the radio ask, “Can you stop things, I need to go to the toilet?” around a few bends and over a hill and we stop for a section of roadworks. So now we know how they manage the call of nature. We climb through the hills of the Strzelecki Ranges through tall timber and small pretty farms to Mirboo North while Toothless is on the radio telling us about a past visit to a snail farm up here somewhere. We make a mental note to return to this area on a Sunday drive to do a bit of exploring as it is beautiful countryside but there are few places to camp. We leave the forest for spud farms and rich red soil. At Morwell, we pick up the M1 or Princes Highway (not the Princess Highway as the media tends to call it) and follow that to Traralgon before heading north again through more roadworks to Glengarry and Cowarr to Heyfield.

The Heyfield RV Stop is much greener than it was last time we visited in 2019, but then we’ve had a wetter than normal summer. It looks more spacious too, I think they may have made more room for campers.

Toothless minds the vans while we go for a walk around town, each wandering in different directions at a different pace. Woody says he’ll return to camp to get a mask so that he can go shopping and he’ll leave the van keys with Toothless. I get back to camp all hot and bothered and ask Toothless for the keys. “What keys?” he says, I threaten to throw him on the ground and tickle him until he coughs up the keys, but we all know that’s a joke as he’s twice my size. We sit outside and yack for an hour while Toothless and his Missus supply me with water to cool down. Along comes Woody raving about the wetland walk and to our surprise he steps straight into the van. “Why would I lock it when Toothless was here?” He says. That’ll teach me.

We cook and eat outside and reminisce about the 80’s which prompts a rummage in the cellar (the storage under the sofa) for a liqueur, the late-night tipple of the 80’s.

Accom: $4.50

Towing Kms: 174kms

Heyfield RV Stop is an excellent freedom camp. There are toilets, showers, a dump point, and plenty of grassy sites. This donation camp is only two blocks easy stroll from the heart of town. This was once a timber town and is now reenergizing itself. There’s a good butcher, an excellent baker, several coffee shops, a hardware store, a supermarket and of course a pub. For anyone who enjoys an easy walk, two sides of the town are devoted to park and wetland walks.