When I researched Marysville and some of the activities I was hoping to do while we were in town, I ended up with a bit of a list. Well we have just returned from our trip and I will fill you in on a secret, we only managed to tick off one of those activities and that was to visit the Cathedral Ranges for a walk.

So you might be thinking, well what did you do with your time! As it turned out me (mum) didn’t do her homework too well as it turned out that the Big 4 Taggerty Holiday Park is approximately 18kms on the other side of Marysville! So not exactly where I thought it was. Taggerty is a very small town with a population of around 350. Taggerty consists of a few houses, a general store, a primary school, a town hall, a caravan park and a few Bed & Breakfasts. Its a small & quiet place on the banks of the Acheron River.

Strangely enough despite the size of the town we found there was plenty to do to fill in our days. It takes up the best part of a full day to get there and set up the tent and the mountain of things we take with us. This might be our last trip in the tent though, Craig mentioned that he wants to finally get the long awaited camper trailer this year.  Unfortunately it looks like it might be at the expense of our overseas trip to Singapore (I’m not too keen on the idea of course and will no doubt find a way to do both).

We had possibly the worst site in the caravan park which was a bit of a bummer, we were right out in the middle of the park with no shade after 10am in the morning until about 6pm in the evening. Luckily enough my friend came up to spend a few days with us and she had an awesome site just across from us right on the river. We spent most days when we were around over on her site as it was shady and a little bit protected from the wind. I have completed a review of the Big 4 Holiday Park, outlining what I think they could improve on and, of course, the things I really liked about it.

So, what did we do? We visited the Cathedral Ranges, Taggerty is at the foot of the ranges and when walking up and down to the amenities block you had a perfect view of them, it really is a very pretty area of Victoria. We had decided to walk up the medium graded Ned’s Gully track to Ned’s Peak. We headed off at lunch time and made it up around a third of the way. I spat the dummy first, I don’t mind bushwalking but this was straight up and I don’t do well with steps for nearly a kilometre! Craig and the kids, with April my friend, continued on for about 100m until they came across some other hikers who told them they were only a third of the way up and it gets more challenging and that it would be a bit difficult for the kids. At that stage they decided to turn around as well.

We had lunch sitting by Little River at the foot of the ranges and then decided to do the Little River Trail. We had 2 cars so dropped one at the next campsite about 3 kilometres down the river so that we only had to walk one way. We found a nice little spot on the river along the way where we jumped in for a swim and some rafting over the rocks. The kids enjoyed swimming in the river but struggled a bit with not being able to get around easily due to the flow of the river and the slippery rocks. The water was refreshingly cool and we spent a couple of hours playing in the water.

We continued with our walk through the bush which bought us out to a logging site and then to the camp site where our car was parked. We must have looked a right site walking through the logging site with all our lilo’s and the kids still in their bathers with their runners and socks on! I don’t think I have ever been so happy to see the car and headed back to camp for a well deserved New Year’s Eve cold beer!

New Years Day saw a slow start for all of us, Caelan even slept until 10am (as he did most days while we were away, amazingly as he never sleeps that great here at home). We headed down to an Annual Taggerty Poohstick Race, you can read about it here. The afternoon we spent by the river doing a bit of fishing. Unfortunately we did not catch anything and the kids tired of it after about 30 mins. Both Keira & Caelan decided to head off to the park for a little while, Craig had a sleep by the river, April and Alannah were reading and I was trying to catch up on Facebook and Instagram which was frustrating with very poor reception. Very lazy afternoon had by all.

When Keira and Caelan returned from the park, we decided to get the lilo’s out again and do some tubing down the river. If you walk up to front of the park, there was an area where you could get into the Acheron River and then float down to where our camp was. You could go further down and get out at the rapids but then you would have to walk back down to where we were sitting. We were able to get out right in front of April’s tent which was grassy and easier for the kids to climb out. They had fun doing that a few times. The river was only waist deep which was perfect for the kids and with Craig and April with them, it also meant they didn’t need to wear floatation vests.

My brother has a house at Gough’s Bay, you can read my earlier post about Gough’s Bay here. Gough’s is located on Lake Eildon and was approximately 1.5hrs drive from Taggerty. It suited us to visit that day as wind and rain was forecast and it gave us something to do out of the weather. We dropped round there for a few hours and had some lunch and headed back after the wind had dropped. The tent was fine but the others in the park said it did get a bit hairy during the day so we were happy to have missed that. The view from my brothers house is amazing, I think you will agree, even if the lake was lower than I have seen it in a while.

We visited the towns of Marysville, Alexandra and Eildon just for a sticky beak. There is plenty of rebuilding happening in Marysville and plenty for sale as you would expect. You wouldn’t know the devastation that happened there nearly 6 years ago. Craig wanted to visit Eildon to check out the weir which was built in the 1950’s. Eildon is a lovely town and I wouldn’t mind returning there another time to do some camping.

Due to extreme weather conditions we decided to pack up 2 days early. The area is extremely dry at the moment and the weather was forecast to hit above 40 degrees (110F) for 2 days with strong winds and storms on the second day which is just a recipe for bushfires here. It would also mean we would have to pack everything up wet which is never fun. Coupled with no shade and a stinking night in a tent I was keen to head off early. Its currently 40 degrees in Melbourne and I have managed to get all my camping washing done in one day!

Craig and I were both newbies to this area of Victoria, we are both keen to return at another time. We found a great free camping ground in the Cathedral Ranges that we might return to soon. Whilst we didn’t get to do nearly anything I had hoped, it was still relaxing and fun and the kids had a good time. If you are heading to the Big 4 Taggerty Holiday Park the sites along the river are the best and provide shade, that’s were I would request if we were returning.

Safe travels and happy new year, lets hope we all travel loads in 2015!

Sal.

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