Gippsland: Tree Ferns, Scenery and Giant Earth worms!

Gippsland is the area east of Melbourne and is by far the most scenic, lovely countryside we have been in so far. The whole area was originally covered by Temperate Rain forest, and the hills and mountains had towering Mountain Ash, Myrtle Beech and tall tree ferns. The early settlers cleared a lot of the land for farming, and the area now looks like driving through Scotland with green hills, tree lined valleys, and fertile farms. The National Parks have preserved the original Forests which have rare and endangered species dating back to the Gondwanaland era. Every drive and corner is prettier than the last, and the weather cool and moist the way we love it. We stayed at a lovely campsite in Korumburra where we got a spot under two huge Oak Trees which must have been at least 100 years old. We were almost the only people in this delightful park which backed onto an arboretum, and little brook with nature walk. There were wombats in the park, and possums in the trees. We did some scenic drives along the Grand Ridge Road, and went to some galleries where the artist’s studio looked out onto the mountain ranges for inspiration! (lucky things..they had peacocks strutting around the lush gardens, huge trees..what a place.)An interesting fact about this area is that it is the only place in the world that you find Giant Earth Worms. These worms live in the boggy ground near river banks and grow from 80 cms to 2 meters and are about 2 cm wide..otherwise the same as other earth worms ( David Attenborough had a programme on them, and Bill Bryson mentions them in the Down Under ).Of course we did not see any ( but then do you see ordinary earth worms just lying around on the surface?) But the blurb said you would k know they were around by the slurping sound, like water going down a plug...So of course we walked around listening for the slurping sound!
After 4 days we tore ourselves away and drove down the coast towards Yarram where we came to the Tarra Bulga National Park which is my little bit of heaven. Huge trees, 1000 yr old Myrtle Beech, Towering Tree Ferns, birds everywhere..a precious remnant of the Temperate Rain forests that only exist now here, NZ and a bit in S. America. We could not believe that the campsite was on the bubbling Tarra River, and we were the only campers there! Every corner has moss, ferns and streams. There are colourful parrots in the trees and even the lyrebird ( heard but not seen).We could stay here for ages, but need to keep moving and find a spot for Christmas as we have not booked in anywhere and all the popular places will be booked out for the Christmas holiday period. We were originally hoping to make Sydney to be with our family Hanneke and Steve for Christmas, but that will be rushing too much.