Jo’s First Drone Flight
Jo officially made her debut as an aerial cinematographer this week! Armed with a brand-new DJI Neo 2 drone—a clever little gadget that is famously supposed to fly itself—she set out to conquer the local sights of Victoria’s Goulburn Valley. What followed was a classic three-act travel story of triumph, total cinematic disaster, and a very happy ending.
🛑 Act I: Beginners Luck at Kirwans Bridge 🌉
Our first stop of the day was the iconic Kirwans Bridge, a magnificent historic timber structure stretching over 310 metres across the water—making it the longest timber bridge in Victoria! But if you look closely as you trace it across the Goulburn, you’ll notice something a bit peculiar: it has a massive, distinct bend right in the middle.
Now, if you ask the locals or dive into regional folklore, the rumor goes that the engineers from the two opposing Councils (Waranga on the west and Goulburn on the east) couldn’t agree on a single thing. The story goes that they started building from opposite riverbanks, utterly refused to talk to one another, and by the time they reached the middle, they realized they were completely misaligned! To avoid a total disaster, they supposedly had to panic-steer the construction to make the ends meet, creating the famous crooked bend.
Of course, the story isn’t actually true but, as Peter says, why let the truth get in the way of a good story? Plus, this yarn does hold more than a seed of truth about the general stupidity of Councils and the petty ways they fight—something Peter and Jo happen to know only too much about!!!
Finally, we came to the moment of truth… Jo placed the ultra-light DJI Neo 2 on her palm, picked a smart preset setting, and let it rip! Now, this drone comes packed with automated flight modes and a lot of AI features, but Jo was taking a massive gamble. AI is famously still not that great over still water; drones often cannot tell what is a landscape and what is just a reflection, causing them to dive straight into the drink!
We waited and… it worked beautifully! It hovered, it tracked, it circled, and it captured some absolutely breathtaking, seamless footage of the historic timber beams slicing across the water. Jo looked like a total tech wizard, and Peter was breathing a massive sigh of relief that Jo had not lost the drone in the first minute (which is exactly what she did when she bought Harley a drone for Christmas a few years ago). Total success!
🛑 Act II: The Goulburn Weir Blooper Reel 🌊 🫣
Riding high on her Kirwans Bridge victory, Jo packed up the gear, and we headed down the river to the mighty Goulburn Weir, a spectacular and deeply historic structure. The water was rushing, the sun was hitting the structures, and the stage was supposed to be set for an epic cinematic masterpiece.
…Key word there being supposed to be. (If you actually want to see images of what the magnificent weir looks like, you should probably just click on the link above, because our footage won’t help you!)
Let’s be entirely fair to the DJI Neo 2: the drone did exactly what it was programmed to do. The issue here was entirely pilot error. Did Jo actually understand the setting she had put the drone on before launch? Nope. Did she bother to check her live view screen or preview the footage on-site to make sure it looked good? Absolutely not! She just let it fly and assumed all was well.
Instead of a sweeping, majestic pan of the historic water infrastructure, the drone decided to play SpaceX. The moment it left Jo’s palm, it shot straight up into the sky like a literal rocket, hovered directly over their heads for a hot second, and came straight back down.
When they later sat down to review the “epic footage” of the Goulburn Weir, there was absolutely zero evidence of a weir to be found. Instead, the camera captured a flawless, crystal-clear, bird’s-eye view of Jo and Peter’s grey and balding heads peering up into the sky in complete and utter confusion. Hey, who needs historic engineering when you can get a high-definition audit of your hair part?
But before we even got the drone in the air, Peter found his absolute favorite part of this stop: the historical information signs. He was completely captivated by the archival photos showing the blokes who restored the bridge back to its original glory while making it functional. Their official work uniform? Classic, ultra-short stubby shorts, with an actual stubby of beer held firmly in their hands while on the job! Talk about a bygone Aussie era.
🛑 Act III: Salvation at Tahbilk Winery 🍷✨
To recover from the Goulburn Weir footage disaster, there was only one logical destination to wrap up the day: the historic Tahbilk Winery.
Nestled among beautiful wetlands and towering gums, Tahbilk was the absolute perfect finale. It is a winery with a phenomenal amount of history and culture. Jo and Peter immediately started by taking the wetlands walk, winding along the 11+ kilometres of stunning river frontage belonging to the winery. The walk brilliantly documented the different local plants and how the local Taungurung people traditionally used them.
Jo had reviewed the vertical rocket-launch footage of Goulburn Weir on the way over, and she was fiercely determined not to end the day on a drone failure. She started up the little DJI Neo 2 again and successfully captured the footage of the two of them walking across the wetlands bridge perfectly!
…And then, freshly confident in her skills, she tried to capture a sweeping drone shot of the amazing, iconic Tahbilk tower… only to completely cut the top of the tower out of the frame. Oh well! Progress, not perfection, right?
🚐 The Caravan Verdict
After all of the day’s antics, we have officially decided that a drone fits our lifestyle perfectly. Jo is all about using smart tech and AI tools to streamline her life and business, and we have found that a drone is the ultimate tool for helping us take shots of the two of us together when no one else is around (which is exactly how we like it).
And just to clear things up: we are not using it to spy on other campers, as some of our friends have so rudely suggested! We are just loving that it captures amazing scenery and unique location shots.
Even with the hilarious bloopers at the weir and the decapitated winery tower, the DJI Neo 2 proved it’s going to be an awesome addition to the caravan toolkit.
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