Well the day has arrived, “We’re Home”! So our Lap of mainland Australia is completed and what a year its been. We’ve managed to get into every state and go to every town we wanted too. When I think back to March, we looked like coming home because of COVID but we persisted, we managed to stay safe and still get around. Some disappointments with places and attractions closed but on the whole it was probably the best year to do the trip when we consider what happened to everyone in Melbourne.

For those interested, for the trip around mainland Australia, we covered 31,262 K’s, using 6165 litres and when we add Tasmania in our whole trip of Australia it was 34,618 K’s using 6803 litres of fuel.

To everyone that followed us via the blog, I really hoped you enjoyed travelling with us on the trip. I know there were many posts (this by the way is post number 200!) but hopefully you got a feel of the country.

So all that leaves me to say is to all our family and friends around Australia and the world, Susan and I wish you a fantastic Christmas and New Year and let’s all hope the craziness of 2020 can become the normality of 2021.

Until next time!!!!!!!! Farewell from Be Brave On Tour!

Today is our last day of Be Brave on Tour. It’s hard to imagine that after 4 years of planning and then 12 months of travelling around Australia its all over. We have a short 50 minute drive tomorrow to finish in Yellingbo, were it all started back in January in pre COVID times. What a year it has been!

Yesterday we left Paynesville and travelled to Noojee, about 240 k’s. We stopped off in Rosedale for lunch and also Yarragon for some window shopping. Neerim South for afternoon tea, where the Cafe was so over the top re COVID it was amazing. In all of Australia we have not experienced the “paranoia” there. Hopefully we don’t have any of that when we get home. We’re staying with my brother Rick for a few days, so we’ll finish the tour in a normal bed and not the caravan! We haven’t seen Rick for nearly 12 months and its good to catch up with him, as it will be with our kids and friends over the next few days/weeks.

Today we had lunch at the Noojee Pub and we met Sandi and Mark our neighbours from Kallista there. It was great to see them and many laughs were had as the photo below shows!

So tomorrow when we drive into Nathan & Emily’s place in Yellingbo. It will be sad that this part of our life is over but then a new challenge awaits as we begin the renovations our new house in Emerald.

Today is really our last full day in a caravan park, tomorrow we’re off to Rick’s place in Noojee for a couple of days before we get home on Wednesday. So I get to enjoy a van park shower for the last time, for sometime to come I would suggest. Susan uses the shower in the van, whilst I’ve been the adventurous one, risking all sorts of diseases but so far all good. One day to go.

We did a bit of touring around today, enjoying the warm and sunny weather (at last). We headed off to Bruthen, then Upper Tambo, Metung and Lakes Entrance before back to Bairnsdale and finally back to the park here in Paynesville.

Bruthen is a great little town, somewhere that Susan and I could live. Morning tea there and the visiting the obligatory Antique shops, this time Susan purchased something but fortunately only material for her patchwork and not old “crap”. Then on to Upper Tambo before we headed off to Metung via Swan reach.

We love Metung, we looked at buying land here many years ago but it was expensive then and even more so now. It would be great to have a yacht on the Lakes here, maybe something to aim for. Once again you have to have a drink at the Metung pub, not to many better outlooks from a pub in country Victoria. A quick drive thru Nungurner followed. We were looking for a art gallery that we visited back in the early 2000’s but unfortunately its no longer operating.

Then into Lakes Entrance were we had lunch. There was only one place open for lunch at 2pm. We hear that regional Victoria wants support, as does the rest of Australia but the hospitality industry has to also come to the party as well! Don’t close your kitchens at 2 or close completely at 3pm. There are thousands of Aussies willing to spend money in regional towns but if your not open you miss out! I’ve had my rant, pity my blog wasn’t read by the “industry”.

I played my last round of golf on this trip, so this is my last CRAPP! Based on the feedback I’ve be getting, most of you (all non golfers) say my CRAPP is nothing but “shit” and have “dumped” reading the blogs. Your loss I say.

Anyway, for those interested, today I played the Bairnsdale Golf Club. It’s a “nice” parkland course, maybe a bit on the boring side but certainly worth playing. The club has a very good membership base, which also highlights the number of retirees in the region. All 3 players I played with came to Bairnsdale from Melbourne for work and then retirement.

We were lucky as the wind was very mild when we hit off but really intensified over the last 6 holes. I’m sure the afternoon groups would have been battling as it was gusting well over 50 Kph.

So for my last CRAPP, here are the ratings for Bairnsdale:

Design – 15 out of 20 (It wasn’t too bad a layout although its basically flat ground and not much scope to undertake anything major. Way to many dog-legs for my liking, basically 11 holes were doglegs)

Condition – 18 out of 20 (I thought the course as in good nick, although it was starting to look dry and the tee boxes were hard. The greens were firm and true and the club is doing some good work on the green surrounds)

Cost – 16 out of 20 (At $39 for 18 holes, it was reasonable. Club membership for 7 days is $900 pa, which I think is very good value, particularly if your playing more than once a week)

Visual Appeal – 16 out of 20 (As I stated above it was a nice course but nothing really stands out, like a signature hole or some other memorable part of the course. My rating of 16 maybe a bit generous with hindsight)

Facilities – 8 out of 10 (The clubhouse was well appointed but what surprised me, with a large membership base and a fine clubhouse there was no Bistro or meals available. I would certainly be looking at that area as a business opportunity)

Ambience – 7 out 10 (It was enjoyable to play but there was just something there that didn’t lift my enthusiasm, might be a COVID issue)

So that ends up with a rating of 80. Not a bad rating with average or just above average on all six KPI’s.

For those interested, on the lap of mainland Australia, I played 30 different courses and I’m sure you’d like to know the number 1 course. It was Blackheath Golf Club in the Blue Mountains, with a rating of 94 (the only one in the 90’s). Even though it had work underway on 3 holes I thought it to be a great course and I would be very pleased to be a member there. Two clubs came in equal second on 89, City Golf Club in Toowoomba and Narooma Golf Club. Both are highly rating clubs and in the best 100 lists of most Australian Golf magazines. Third on 88 was Sawtell Golf Club, which is just south of Coffs Harbour.

Of the others I played, I really enjoyed, Half Moon Bay in Cairns, Cooktown Golf Club (very relaxed there), Esperance Golf Club (treated me like a member, fond memories of Esperance as we were locked down there for 8 weeks) and Robe Golf Club in SA, (The 6 new holes at Robe were fantastic. If the ratings were on 6 holes, Robe would have won in a canter).

So there you have it, that’s all the CRAPP I have on this trip, who know’s I might have enough CRAPP in me for futures travels. Hope you golfers enjoyed it!

Well we’re at our last caravan park stop on our BBOT lap of Oz here in Paynesville. Paynesville is on the Great Lakes in central Gippsland and about 15 k’s south Bairnsdale and just over 300 k’s east of Melbourne. Unfortunately its been blowing a gale since we got here and with temperatures around 20/21 it hasn’t been all that pleasant.

The drive from Mallacoota to Paynesville was rather depressing, as nearly all the forest region in East Gippsland has been destroyed by the fires early in the year. In places it was horrific and must have been horrendous to have been anywhere nearby. I know everything heals with time but these forests which gave the drive thru East Gippsland its own special ambience will take a very long time to come back. In fact a lot of clearing along the roadside has been done, so the drive will never be the same.

We stopped off in Orbost for a light lunch and its the first time I had been there as in all other trips I had by-passed the town. It was a very pleasant little town with its claim to fame being the “Snowy River”. From Orbost in was into Paynesville, after a quick stop in Bairnsdale to pick up a drawer catch from the JAYCO dealer in town. “Be Brave” is starting to show a bit of wear and tear from our trip, so a bit of maintenance and TLC will be due when we get home.

Our last full day in Mallacoota before we leave for Bairnsdale tomorrow. Unfortunately our stay in Mallacoota has been disappointing because of the ordinary weather we’ve experienced even for December. The warmest day was yesterday at 21 but its been around 17 with rain and cloud for the majority of our stay here which is not what we expected or hoped for.

We were hoping for good weather to enable Susan to catch us dinner during our time here but that didn’t happen either. Today we had a walk along the beach at Bastion Point over to the actual Mallacoota Inlet. Then we finished off the day at the Golf Club for dinner. Mallacoota has a lot going for it but if the weather is crap then your choices are limited. We’ll come back sometime but later in summer when the weather is more consistent and above all, much better.

It’s CRAPP time again, as I played the Mallacoota Golf Course today. I have to say I did so knowing I would have to do my review and as I’ve said all thru my CRAPP reports I can only rate the course on what was offered to me on the day. It was very hard to rate the course objectionably, as most of you would know Mallacoota was wiped out by bushfires in January this year.

I played the course about 15 years ago and it was a average country course then but even I can see the fire has ravaged the course tremendously. The golf club has 20 female members and 30 male members and its a totally volunteer club, so the fire has really hit them hard. Golf clubs around Australia have donated money to the club and they are working hard to bring it back. Fortunately the greens were not scorched but the trees encompassing course were completely burnt and I’m sure the costs to clean up this has swallowed up much of the donated money.

Surprisingly the fire has now created areas were you can see the ocean whereas previously the trees inhibited the view but its turned what was a parkland course into a links course and it does remind me very much of Port Fairy. Unfortunately the population and $’s are not there to turn what’s a solid foundation into a good links style course. Most of its revenue comes from the tourists and its good to know that the town is booked out for the Christmas holidays, so hopefully all the visitors will play golf.

So here are my ratings for Mallcoota:

Design – 17 out of 20 (I really liked the design, they have used the land to make some unique holes and the walk between holes is quite acceptable, not long like other courses I’ve played. It will be interesting in the coming years as to the changes, with a lot of dead trees having to be cleared. I really think the foundation is there for a really good links course on the water, unfortunately the money is not there for it to be brought to fruition)

Condition – 10 out of 20 (Whilst the greens were in reasonable nick, although the slowest I’ve encountered on my trip (ironic after Narooma last week being the quickest) The rest of the course was pretty average but then you have volunteers doing all the work)

Cost – 18 out of 20 (whilst the course condition was not good, I thought $25 for 18 holes was very good value, in fact I think they charged too low, more like $35 to $40 would have been fairer)

Visual Appeal – 8 out of 20 (Unfortunately a burnt out golf course does not give you good vibes when you come to the course and it continues whilst your playing it. The photos below do show foliage on the trees but its a bit fake. All those trees are basically dead and the new growth is taking all the water leaving the tree itself nothing , which will result in the roots dying and the tree falling. As I said earlier there is a lot of work to be done and unfortunately there is not the money to do it.)

Facilities – 5 out 10 (There was not much in the way of facilities at the course prior to the fires so this rating is pretty fair I would say)

Ambience – 8 out of 10 (Despite the the negatives, I really enjoyed the course and the 3 ladies I played with today made it even more enjoyable. The club has battled for years and will do so for many years to come but it has a community feel about in and it gives you a good feeling.

So after all that the score comes in at 66, not a bad score and maybe a few points higher than it should be but the members are working hard to lift it up. There is something to say about country courses operated by volunteers, the atmosphere is different, you can feel the care and passion the locals have for their golf club and I think it would be good to be part of that “clan”.

With one week to go before we are home, I have one more course to play, being Bairnsdale this Saturday. I’m sure you’re all looking forward to my final CRAPP report, for various reasons!

After nearly 11 months we have finally arrived back in our home state. It’s certainly different to when we left all those months ago. The drive down from Eden to Mallacoota was rather solemn, basically the whole area had been burnt in the fires in that ravaged this part of Australia in December/January.

We’d seen the remnants of the fires coming down the south coast of NSW but this was different, so much forest was devastated by the fires. Coming into Mallacoota, it was easy to see why the town was cut off for so long and how lucky everyone was that the firefighters managed to save the town. Although many houses were raised and there are new houses being built now. We have 4 days here, hopefully Susan can get some fishing in despite the weather forecast looking a bit bleak for the next few days.

We spent our last full day in NSW looking further around Eden and a visit to Eden’s famous Killer Whale Museum, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Eden is situated on Twofold Bay, one of the deepest ports in the world and one of the reasons whaling was big here in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. An amazing fact re the whaling here in Eden was the fact the Killer Whales worked with the Whalers. The Killers only wanted the tongues and lips of the whales nothing else and they corralled the whales into Twofold Bay into the waiting arms of the Whalers. This went on for decades and “Old Tom” was the most famous leader of the Killer Whale Packs and when he died in 1930 the following season none of the Killers returned and basically whaling finished after that in Eden. There are too many stories to tell about the Killer Whales in Eden on this blog but if your interested I suggest you visit the museum’s website.

Eden has some great coastline and beaches and the fresh seafood was great as well. We only wished the weather was a bit warmer so we could go swimming, 22/23 is to cool for me to swim, although we did enjoy our beach walks despite the wind. We really enjoyed Eden and look forward to coming back again sometime.