Day 1 Sunday 15/12/2024, Home to Vaughan Springs. 27◦ Pleasant to 34◦ Getting warm

Our Xmas tradition is to celebrate early then spend the Xmas break in a Victorian country town.

We take the Monash and Calder highways and have chosen Sunday to get away because there are fewer trucks, but being the festive season it is quite busy.

As always, we breathe a sigh of relief as we leave the suburbs behind and take the long climb up and over the Great Dividing Range which on this road is only 600 metres high anyway.

Looking for places we haven’t camped at before we head for a spot in the hills behind Harcourt called Mt Alexander Leanganook Camp Site. Peeling off the highway we pick up the old road that meanders through Malmsbury and Taradale. Taradale always gives us a giggle as we bought Castlemaine slate from the people at Taradale for our first house back in the ‘70’s. There was no ordering online and having it delivered back then, we had to drive up there in a truck and choose it ourselves. It was beautiful stone though and we must have had a slate fetish because we put Italian slate in the next house and African in the 3^rd. Now, where am I? The road into the campsite is well made and the camp site, although spacious is a little uneven. What worries us more is the chance of getting out quickly if there’s a fire. On the other side of Harcourt, we sneak into a camp we’ve visited before, Oak Forest*, which was planted with oaks back in 1900 to produce tanning bark. Beyond the oaks there is a pine plantation which is a popular spot for mountain bikers. Unfortunately, granite boulders have been installed to mark out the camp sites and 2-man tents are much smaller than us! After almost skewering ourselves on a sharp granite rock whilst attempting a 3-point turn, we decide to get the hell out of there.

It’s only 26kms across to Vaughan Springs but now we have a yellow warning light on the dashboard. As there’s no such thing as a printed manual these days and the online one is 300 pages, I Google the answer, which means very little to me. Apparently, our glow plug is preheating before engine start up. Oh, really? We make a quick decision to spend the night in Castlemaine where we might be able to get advice on Monday, but then the light goes out. We press on to Vaughan Springs.

We’ve stayed here many times before and it is a good one in hot weather. Tucked behind the miner’s shacks and weekenders the Loddon River runs through a steep gully. There are mineral springs with most agreeable water and the area was landscaped by the miners in the gold rush days as a picnic area. Above the shady picnic grounds there’s a small campground and a few campers are already here. We spend the afternoon unwinding by gazing at the bush and listening to the birds quite oblivious to the fact that half the district is below us splashing about in the river and standing up to their waists in cool water chatting. We do little else but talk with our neighbour and relish in the solitude dolce far niente as the Italians say.

Dinner is leftovers from last night’s (early) Xmas dinner.

Accom: $0, Fuel: $37.40, Towing Kms: 220. Flushing toilets accessible from the camp site by a big old metal slide, water available.

*Oak Forest was used as a setting in the movie The White Mouse which documented the work of Australian Nancy Wake who worked with the Resistance during World War 2.