Woodside Beach to Camp 6 Golden Beach

 
Woodside Beach to Camp 6 Golden Beach = 76km
Cummulative total = 413 / 14011

Kouta decided to wake us up early this morning as he wanted to play with the rabbits - there were heaps around the campground. So we got up and neither of us looked to see what the actual time was ... it wasn’t until we were about to leave and we saw that it was only 8.30ish!!! So we stopped off to fill up with water as this campground has bore water and the drinking water is from a tank so I suggested that Seaspray (our last place before we could collect water before bush camping) might also have Bore water so we should full up here - we carried around 10liters of drinking water with us - more than enough for us. The 10km ride into Woodside was into a headwind (we knew this) although the wind wasn’t as strong as what it has been the past 2 days. At Woodside we turned east on to the main highway and it had a nice shoulder for us - this is the highway that goes to Sale. We turn off at 8km along and at that point Sale is about 45km away but we have chosen the back roads so it is for us about 100km!!! Here is the photo of the road when we turned off
     
I tell you it was an extremely quiet road and between here and our break at Giffard we saw one farm ute and a motorbike all going the opposite way to us. It was sensational riding along there past sheep and cattle pastures and flat! At Giffard we had our coffee break and the weather was decidedly dicey at this point - the clouds are grey and thick so we weren’t sure if it was going to rain or not. But lucky for us there wasn’t one shower for us today! This is riding along this Giffard road
 
Throughout today we would see these lovely little white flowers growing alongside the road
 
and once at Seaspray and along the coast there was lots of these lovely pink pigface type flowers
 
At Seaspray we had our nutella sandwich break. Seaspray is a small coastal town made up of predominantly holiday homes (it is only 30km from Sale - at this point Sale is about 60km for us!). The holiday homes are nice but the Caravan Park is full of summer vans and annexes that are really packed in tight and close together and Neil said that it lowers the tone of Seaspray - he wasn’t impressed with the place at all! Me? Well my first impressions was that it is a very exposed and windy place to be especially outside summer time and when in summer time this place would be packed just like Woodside Beach. Probably not the sought of place I would like (too many people!) It is nice now when empty but not in summer! At the corner store we picked up a loaf of bread to add to the one we already have - just in case we get hungry and as Mum would always say ‘there’s bread’!
From here we join the road that goes through Gippsland Lakes coastal park
 
 
This road runs between the ocean and the start of the huge Gippsland Lakes area. It looks great on the map and there are a few houses dotted along the way. Now our information from the Bush Camps 5 book states that we can camp with dogs at Flamingo Beach but at the start of the road the signs say that you can only camp with a dog at camps 1-6 and Paradise Beach, so we think Flamingo Beach must be number 6 as the camps start at number 20 ... so now we start the ‘camp countdowns’ so numbers 20-16 came and went very quickly then there was bit of a break before camp 15 and another long break before camp 14 then a HUGE gap before camp 13 which believe it or not was Flamingo Beach. So obviously we couldn’t camp here with Kouta. It would have been nice as it had a good view.
 
By now it was 68km and I was beginning to tire so slowly we continued. Along the way we spotted an Echidna (I never get tired of stopping and taking a photograph of one of these!) We have seen a few so far and I forgot to mention that we saw 6 kangaroos in a field yesterday - they were definitely shocked to see us and immediately got up and bounded away!
 
Finally 8km later we reached camp 6 and funny enough we are only 2 km from the end of this road until we hit Golden Beach. Relieved to be here at last!
 
The first thing we noticed that there was no one here (and not likely to be) but there was a huge population of mossies (and big ones too!) So we set up camp in the sun as there seemed to be less of them compared to being close to the trees. Not knowing how long we could last before a real onslaught of mossies we decided to have a quick wash and then a cuppa and proceed with cooking our meal. Now knowing it was going to be a bush camp with limited water we decided to have poached eggs on toast with cheese, salami and tomato sandwiches to follow and to have this early. Oh those poached egg silicone cups you gave us Dad were fabulous!
 
 
After dinner we got attacked by mossies so we went down on the beach
 
 
At least it wasn’t like last night freezing and instead we didn’t have to put the gortex’s on so just the thermals and sleeveless jackets was enough! After we just sat and watched the waves and ocean - ahhhhh lovely not a soul around. Off course we did the obligatory family photo off which Kouta refused to cooperate with. I think he may be a little sick - he gulped down his meal with a few slices of Salami, trottle away and then proceeded to throw it all up ... and for those with dogs we all know what he does next!
 

Tomorrow is a short day to Sale - around 40km.