Fraser

[castlemaine]

Pretty much the whole island can be done in 2wd at the moment, even indian head. One or 2 spots in the inland track need 4wd to climb up a few hills thats about it. I have never seen the island in such good nick.

All the lakes are really full, I have never seen them so full. Any tracks that run near lakes are under water, and any creek crossings are deep. The creek crossing on the north road just up from lake allom was too deep for my car (no snorkel).

The caretaker at the pub at happy valley was telling me the road to moon point is shagged, the rain in the swamp has washed the road away. The barge is not running to moon point at the moment and EPA does not have the budget to fix the track. Apparently there is a big log in the middle of the washed out part and people who try to cross it keep getting caught up on the log.

I am here at the moment and running 20psi in my tyres, and the only spot I used 4wd so far is the track that runs inland from happy valley to get up a big drop off, and once going across indian head to test the track conditions. Coming back across indian head I was in 2wd.

Was there week before Christmas. The inland roads as Andy said are quite hard with some low water crossings. Never seen that in the 20 years we've been going there.
First time I went to shoo a dingo out of the campsite and it stood it's ground and growled at me.
A Suzi raced through the cutting at Indian Head, only to find he forgot to lock in his hubs. Held up everyone behind, as he had to be pulled out. My case for being in 4WD all the time.
Have a look at Lake Birrabeen, almost as good as Lake MacKensie at the moment.

[fishfeeder]

Got back Saturday night and it was fantastic, post up a few pictures a bit later on.
But quickly all the tracks were great and we did around 500Km of driving around and saw so much its crazy.

Have the say "The Valley of the Giants" was spectacular !! and I had a VERY close call with a large Dingo at 3.30 one morning camping, he was only about 1.5 metres from my head when I looked up after fixing a flapping tarp, Bugger never made any noise at all and just stood there sizing me up, Needed a beer after that close call !!

Caught a few fish off the Beach mainly Dart biggest around 40cm. Had a fish off the jetty at KFBR and caught a 65cm Jewfish and Bream to 35cm, there were a few Macks caught but I never seen any. The wind and showers made fishing a bit of a challenge but had a great time and planing on going again but taking my boat as well.

Cheers
Brett