We made a short side-trip to the coast to warm up. To escape the crowds of tourists and exaggerated prices in places like Lake Entrance, we chose smaller campground near Paynesville. We read about the good chances to spot koalas at Raymond Island – and indeed, after 5min on the ferry and some steps on the island we saw the first ones. We discovered lots of these mostly sleeping furballs on the 1,5 hour round walk which were worth the visit.

We continued again towards the Victorian high-country (Buffalo National Park) via Dargo with one night of camping at the Two Mile Creek. This region is – especially during holidays periods – crowded by 4 WD-enthusiasts. The low fuel-level on the one hand and Danielas fear of sliding down a hill with the fully-loaded car and to end the holidays here stopped us to try the steep tracks. After a short hike in the lower section of the Mount Buffalo park in between huge crowds of tourists we drove to the „Nug Nug-reserve“ a chap campsite which was pretty ok apart from the the fact, that there a only cold showers and that some campers cut down the trees for firewood.
On New Year’s eve we „climbed up“ Mount Buffalo (only 15 min from the parking lot) and searched for climbing routes suitable for the kids (it is a well-known climbing region). This was pretty difficult because the routes did not have any bolts and the access was difficult. And at the rock with an easy access, the two complaints about ants and pricky (??) grass so that we stopped the attempts, went hiking for a little while and had a swim in a lake. New Years eve at Nug Nug was relatively calm, the children went to bed after some kids’ sparkling wine at 10 pm and we endured till midnight to open a „real“ sparkling wine.

The next day we first went to Lake William Hovell for a swim on minor roads and then via tHE Buckland Spur Track (steep and washed out at the beginning, easy on the top) towards Mount Buller to the „Sawmill Settlement“ campsite. The following day we went to the ski resort at Mount Buller and climbed up to the summit, we returned just before the rain started.

We escaped te rain at Lake Eildon where we spent the night directly at the lake. From there, we went – mostly through rain and thick fog – on narrow roads towards the „Baw Baw National Park“. We spent the night on Merringtons Campground outside the park. The next day, we went back to the coast – because the campsite „Tidal River“ at Wilsons Promontory was booked out and very expensive, we spent the night at Yanakie-caravan park close to the park were we went to see some Wombats in dawn.

We had planned an overnight-hike to „Sealers Cove“ for the next two days. Our backpacks (too small for such a trip) were filled with a tent, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, cooking utensils and food. The kids had to carry their own peluche animals, jackets and some light things. Luckily, the weather improved and we stayed dry on the hike trough very nice scenery which was not tooling for the children (9.5 km each way).

To see penguins, we went to Philipp Island. Unfortunately, the natural happening (arrival of the penguins from the ocean to the beach and walking to their sleeping spots) is overcrowded and money is made out of: you pay an entrance fee and have to share the wooden planks with hundreds of people.

Lacking a campsite with an acceptable price we spent the night afterwards behind a petrol station and went on to Melbourne the next morning (Sundowner Caravan Park): There we visited Queen Victoria Market and the city centre, bought a bigger hiking pack for following trips, visited the Sciencework-museum (science explained for children) and planetarium, the beach of St Kilda and – as a special event – the musical „Cats“.

Furthermore, we had figured out that Aldi Australia is selling imported Swiss Gruyère cheese – and because Nora and Markus were missing this cheese, we stocked up.

On the 11th of January, we got up before 5 am to be in time at the ferry for Tasmania – thanks to Markus swiss perfectionsnismwith a freshly cleaned car (the import of soil and plants is prohibited). On the 11-hour ride, the children were kept happy by a playground, childrens’ movies and face painting (their faces were painted like those of cats – see photos).