The Prom Country in South Gippsland
Alpaca, Sarah & the chook, Sarah & the tractor, the milking carousel
Wow, we managed to get through Melbourne easily and were so relieved to leave the highway. Heading south-east to 'Prom country' we passed a sign for a working dairy farm and stopped for a look. Sarah was happy: animals to look at and pat. She chased a rabbit in the calves barn and picked up chooks. Outside we looked at the alpacas, goats, horses and ducks. A red tractor was the other highlight. And after a very sweet and highly flavoured milk shake we headed off again towards our next free camp.
In Korumburra we stopped at the tourist information centre and had a look at the historic village display. It's one of the best displays we've ever seen. There's about 20 houses, e.g. bookmaker, store, doctor & pharmacy, bank and print office, a cafe and the old train station. All houses are fitted with - as it looks - the original furniture and day to day living items. Certain times during the week the houses are opened for a tour but we already enjoyed just looking through the windows. What a great place!
Tarra Bulga National Park
We spend another night on a free camp close to Yarram before heading into the Tarra Bulga Nationalpark. A narrow, winding, green road led us into an ancient rainforest valley with ferns and a small stream, carved deep into the rocks. It looked just as if the dinosaurs would walk out of the woods the next minute... a beautiful park that we explored a bit further on our hikes.
We drove further on the Grand Ridge Road along the national park to Traralgon and were amazed by the beauty of the landscape and lookouts. Coming closer to Traralgon the picture on the mine lookout changed dramatically: the Loy Yang open cut mine with an adjacent brown coal-fired thermal power station. Each year approximately 30 million tonnes of coal are extracted from the open pit. The mine pit is about 200 metres deep, 3 km by 2 km wide at its widest. The power station is the largest in Australia and produces around one third of Victorias electricity requirements. At least the coal doesn't need to be transported over thousands of kilometres.