FriendlyBrooks

Best backyard pool  anywhere

Lance Brooks, gotta swim everyday,  January 2026

Our pack up from Howqua Hills took a little over an hour.  We wanted to be wheels up between  9 and 9.30am, it was 9.30ish when we left. Then, of course, we had to have the obligatory last swim.

We headed up the  16km Howqua Track at about 10am- destination Craig’s Hut. Visiting here was my friend Sue’s suggestion. We were to stay with her and her family in Melbourne that night. 

It was a 14km steep drive with our camper to Mt Stirling Alpine park on a good quality dirt road. We stopped in the large carpark thinking that was where the walk started. Apparently not- we had to negotiate another 21km on a smaller, windier, steeper, dirt mountain road. By the time we reached picnic area where the walk began it was after 12pm. The information board described the walk as 45 minutes up a steep path. That’s not usually a problem for us but that meant it would be after 1.30pm before we got back to the car  and Lance had a work meeting to log onto. The other option was to drive the  4WD track up the last part. I was not keen to do this as we had the trailer and track was steep and remote. 

So off we walked along a beautiful mountain track, which was totally worth it.  The views were spectacular. Craig’s Hut was built for the movie “The Man from  Snowy River“. It is an iconic building set in an iconic scene.

We made it back down by 1.25pm (it was not a 45 minute  one way walk at all), set up Starlink and Lance attended his meeting. By 2.30 we were heading back down Mt Stirling Rd. Lance had never seen Mt Buller so instead of heading straight to Melbourne and arrive at our friend’s house at a reasonable hour, we drove up 13% gradient road with its multiple hairpin bends, trailerin tow. It was worth the drive, and being a little late for Sue. We will definitely go back and ski there one day. It looks an  amazing skifield and that’s coming from rusted on Thredbo snobs.

Because of the fires we had to drive a longer  way into Melbourne.  I had my first drive of the trip. It was a bit freaky having to pass all the trucks on the  Hume Highway and we are pretty sure Google took us the longer way into Melbourne but we finally made it to Sue and Greg’s house a little after 7.30pm. They were extremely understanding.  Sue had prepared a delicious meal and we had a great evening catching up. We also watched the tennis and it was pretty late by the time we went to bed. Fine for us but I felt a little guilty as Sue and Greg had to  work the next day. 

We had a lovely morning at Sue and  Greg’s,  interrupting their work day.  They were so hospitable, allowing us to use all their amenities- hot shower,  washing machine, garbage bins and filling up our water tanks. Lance of course had a swim in their truly magnificent pool.

We had a wonderful time seeing them and we look forward to spending another night when we next pass through Melbourne. 

We set off around midday but had a brief false start when I had forgotten my headphones, a treasured item that we had to go back for. No matter  as we hadn’t got far and it gave us a chance to say hello and goodbye all over again. Also had a chance to take more photos and ensure that  Sue definitely  “made it into the blog”. 🥰

Althogh we were heading for Geelong to catch the  Spirit of  Tasmania the next day, our first stop was Packenham ( the complete opposite direction) to visit the Ultimate Camper  service centre.  Scott was very helpful, interupting his current job to fix our broken  pole and check a few other things were working properly.  While we were there I received the check in information for the next day’s ferry trip. It reminded us that we could not take any fresh  fruit or vegetables, fish or honey.  Damn! We had to unpack  everything clean out the fridge. It was a bit of a shame because in the end we threw away quite a bit. Such a waste! But we do understand the need to keep Tasmania clean and pure.  We also had to make sure that the car and camper were perfectly clear of any dirt which required a trip to a car wash.

We eventually got on our way and headed to Geelong in the now peak hour traffic. We found our motel where I had hoped we could  easily park. The owner was very nice and moved his car so we could  take the one longer spot available. It didn’t stop us being nervous about reversing in and out though and  Lance did a number of practices in the street before we attempted the  park.

We had a wander around  Geelong and ate dinner on the waterfront in a pub. I found  Geelong to be a  very nice city.

We had our second night’s sleep in a row in a real bed. Lance slept like a log but I kept waking up every hour or so worrying that we would miss the alarm. Checkin for the  Spirit of Tasmania was between  6am and 7.45am. I had been warned not go too early because there is a lot of sitting around, but I like to be early for things. Lance likes to be late and we agreed to aim to get there at 6.50am.

We had to stop to look at the sunrise and negotiate traffic diversions and we arrived at 7am. Having said that we waited a good  20 minutes in queue for  checkin and the quarantine and  security line took easily another  20 minutes so our timing ended up being perfect. It also gave us the opportunity call our Mums and Michelle and the  kids.

I had been told by Jack and others that the day trip was long and  boring, so I was not expecting that we would be looking at the scenery of Port Philip  Bay for near 3 hours.  It was way better than I expected. 

We also brought lots of things to read and watch. By the time we ate lunch, napped wrote and read the time has passed pretty quickly. There’s also  a guitar player on board who is pretty good.  Actually there’s a lot of entertainment such as games movie eating drinking, face painting and play  equipment for the kids. I have enjoyed the crossing.

It won’t be long before we hit the shores of  Tasmania and meet up with  Jack and Cassie. Can’t wait!