Gipsy Point Day One

Our first day at Gipsy Point was full of activity. As I woke I could sense that Big Mitch had an itching desire to dissemble all that we brought with us, to re-define things, drill and attach, modify and tweak. I felt like a little like Santa but I'd brought only contraband into the house of Mitchell.

We had arrived at the Lodge with a Nissan Patrol (not a Landcruiser), a Goldstream camper (not a Jayco), a Stessl Tinny (not a Quintrex) with a Yamaha motor (not a Mercury)......

These items needed to be thoroughly tested before poor Mitch could get a solid nights sleep. So that is what we did.

By the end of the day we had assessed, reviewed, scrutinised and hypothesized. The boat had hit the water, had been thoroughly scratched up (to look authentic), GPS tested and the motor and prop height adjusted for optimum thrust. The issue of the vibrating straps had been attended to, the winch arm for the van had been extended and welded, high lift jack was fitted, shackle holes drilled and shaped.

By nightfall I felt Mitch was at peace. 

Chatting about your rig is an Australian past time and we learned this pretty quickly. As an inexperienced looking couple in our late 20's we tended to draw every grey nomad out of their camp chair to offer advice about all the things we were doing wrong for our entire journey.

I quite enjoyed their company and soon learned to take it all with a grain of salt. I also quickly grew a beard to make myself look older :)

During the day we also found time to take a drive down to Mallacoota for a swim and to test Em's boogie board and in the evening we went out on a diesel boat with another couple who were staying at the lodge. We had a great dinner and a few drinks.

Bush fires were burning in Gippsland and as the weather remained hot, we heard news that fires were getting bad around Omeo. They hadn't pushed this far north yet.