We’re pausing now for a quick commercial break…ah, no, just a pause in The Places We Love series, while we catch up on a recent getaway. My apologies to friends Notta and Scribbles who are the recipients of this list of great places to visit with a caravan, but they really are like a pair of peripatetic ants at the moment. And good on ’em, as our mate Mrs. Doubtfire says, “While you can, do.”

Mansfield, Vic

Day 1, Monday 10/2/2025, Home to Mansfield, grey and breezy 20

We had hoped to get away on Sunday (less traffic) but the weather forecast was worrying. We’ll give up the idea of free camping at Skipworth Reserve and head straight for the High Country Holiday Park at Mansfield.

The roads are quiet and we’re soon on the Melba Highway in the Yarra Valley. The grape vines are under netting as they are approaching harvest. Crossing the Kinglake section of the (Great Dividing) Range tree fern fronds sway in the light breeze. Now we’re in the yellowed rolling hills of the Murrundindi Shire, and a drier climate zone. Sheep, goats and cypress windbreaks march down the hills. The trees are showing the first yellow leaves of autumn, it’s been a good summer, long and hot.

We’re in no hurry so we stop in Yea for lunch and a stroll. Marmalade café is a favourite probably because it is in an interesting old timber store with a very high ceiling and an intriguing cellar below. There’s a quiet courtyard out the back with shady trees that’s perfect for lunch. We munch on Lamb and Rosemary pies. The founders of this town had the forethought to divide the main street with a grove of trees and pleasant lawns, which makes it safer and more inviting. Yea is the junction of the Melba Highway and the Midland Highway (B300) and because of this it is always busy and supports 4 pubs.

Off again on the Midland this time and passing through the hamlet of Molesworth, Woody pipes up with “I wonder how much she charged?”

It’s 28 degrees as we reach Bonnie Doon on Lake Eildon. This manmade lake was built in the 1950’s and is six times the size of Sydney Harbour (a Sydharb is a valid measurement by the way). Oh, and Eildon has 515kms of shoreline some of which we’ll skirt on this trip.

This drive always reminds us of our misspent youth, skiing on Lake Eildon, the Glenburn pub now a patch of bare earth, it burnt down in the 2009 bushfires. And the Bridge Inn at Maindample, another of the boys’ favourites, burnt down in 2010. Apparently 45 firefighters fought in vain to save her. At least there’s still a boat hanging in the tree.

We arrive at Mansfield trying to remember when we were last here, so many times. It’s a town of 10,500 and because of its location is always busy. The gateway to Victoria’s High Country, the main focus here is on grazing and equine establishments (horsing around). In winter Mansfield is the last stop before Mt Buller’s ski fields. In summer, there’s the Jamieson and Goulburn rivers for fishing and of course water sports on the lake. For the rest of the year there’s hiking, 4-wheel driving and cycling on the Great Victorian Rail Trail that passes through here on its 134km length. You could say that Mansfield is an outdoorsy kind of town.

Accom: $40.00, Fuel: $28.50, Towing kms: 200Kms