Day 4 Wednesday 18/10/2023 Heyfield, clear 2 – 23

We wake to a chilly morning and the diesel heater quickly warms the van like a sauna. How different from Monday when we were swinging off the awning in driving rain! Being a bit of a lazybones, I lie in bed reading for far too long and I’ve barely finished breakfast when Toothless suggests a drive up into the hills to check out a campground called Paradise Valley, and off we go.

We’ve heard a lot of good things about this place, and it is only a short distance beyond Glenmaggie. Ridge after ridge of hills march into the distance, each a progressively paler blue. We turn off the Licola Road onto a private narrow ridge road with gobsmacking views of the camps on the river below. We wind down to a farmhouse and office (just beyond the shearing shed and chooks) to be greeted by the managers and their dog Scooter. They’re happy for us to have a look around and already we can picture our lot enjoying the beauty of this patch of heaven.

The Macalister River sweeps around a wide bend of sheep-mown grass at the base of the Great Dividing Range. Green grassy sites have access to the river and fire pits. There are 12 powered sites, water is available, there are 3 cabins, an amenities block, laundry, and an outdoor but covered camp kitchen under the shade of old oaks. The unpowered camp sites beside the gurgling river are particularly stunning.

Back on the Licola Road, we drive on a little further to Montana on Macalister, which could also be filed under ‘G for Gobsmackingly Gorgeous’ but the single-lane road in is better suited to smaller vans and camper trailers. Toothless reckons he’d never get their rather longish van around the last hairpin bend!

We have a lazy afternoon reading in the sun. Happy Hour is fun as there are now 15 of us and Woody has organised Pizza for dinner from the place we ordered from last time. Their pizzas are delicious and made more so because they deliver. We sit outside yacking until it gets cool.

I guess we’ve found yet another paradise.

Accom: $10.00