Getting Colder!!

One can see the photos of alll the actors from Seachange on the walls of this lovely cafe beside the inlet at Barwon Heads

Yes, we are both putting extra layers of clothing on down here to keep ourselves warm when out and about with Kay and John today.  Met at Drysdale for a quick bbq at their company's new depot. before John taking us down to Barwon Heads where "Seachange" was filmed.

Ocean Grove headland wih John and Kay Barker

Geelong Foreshore

Meet up with our friends who we worked with up at Coppabella bus driving down the road at a lovely bakery for morning coffees and a catchup then over to their place for dinner tonight to see Kay's beautiful new kitchen and see all John's work on extensions.  Only 23klms from our campsite in Portarlington foreshore we decided to have a look at Geelong foreshore as I had seen on television programs many times the painted poles.  So many of them depicting history events of this area.  The whole foreshore has been revamped since we called 15 years ago and is a lovely place to go.  It appears the locals utilise this on a daily basis as when we were strolling along, heaps of folk of all age groups are strolling with babies, like ourselves - sight seeing, joggers in their lunch hours and friends meeting for coffee or lunches.

The Beachhouse Cafe overlooking child safe swimming pool and then this large sea bath with diving platforms and can you see the swimmer in the water in this cold time of the year?

Our friend tells me the lady who instigated these, patented them and so even though she has since passed on, I guess nobody can copy them?!?!

Look See At Lorne

Wayne and I had passed through Lorne about 15 years ago so decided to trip down there while we are in the area!   Loved the drive down through the countryside with wineries, olive grove farms and dairy/sheep farms before we hit the "Great Ocean Road".

Strolled the frontage at Lorne before we stepped into the Ocean View Hotel for a bistro meal overlooking the great sea vista and back down the main street.  Also cockatoo's flying onto the balcony for any tit-bits on offer.

 On our way home we stopped off at Bells Beach, Torquay and Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove.  What a lovely area on this side of the Peninsular entrance to Port Phillip Bay.

Bells Beach where the famous Surf Champions are held annually

Across to Bellarine Peninsula By Ferry

A very early start to the day for us.  Alarm at 7am!!!!  Caught the Searoadferries from Sorrento to Queenscliff and was just like catching the ferry over to Stradbroke Island back at Cleveland, Brisbane.

















Once at Queenscliff we headed up to Portarlington where we could camp on the foreshore again.  Unfortunately, this is the only one open at this time of the year as we really wanted to stay at St Leonards but it is closed.  Not far away so not a problem to catch up with Kay and John in the next couple of days before we head off to Ballarat.  Once we unhitched and had lunch we headed around the Esplanade and by the time we got back to Queenscliff to stroll the main street and down to the waterfront precinct, the sun was shinning and getting quite hot.  Queenscliff  shoreline overlooks the entrance from Bass Strait so we looked back to Point Nepean and realised our walk yesterday was longer than we realised!!  Wayne says "No wonder my butt muscles are aching!"

Each one of these monuments is in memory of naval and boating happenings of Australian War events throughout the World.

Looking back to Point Nepean where we walked the whole length of the expanse of land.  Five kilometres

Home to bunker down in readiness to watch The State Of Origin.   GO THE MAROONS

Walking Point Nepean National Park

Information centre at the Quarantine Station amongst the old microcapa trees

Thank you Glenda for mentioning going to this National Park.   Even though we called here, or to the entrance last Saturday afternoon, we still had not realised the history out at Fort Nepean.  WOW!!
We parked at the Quarantine Station and started to have a look around there but was cut short as the bus arrived to take us out to the very end where Fort Nepean is just steeped in history.  We did not know that the first shot fired in anger in WWI was here at this place.  Forts, tunnels, gun emplacements, Harold Holt's Monument where he was presumed drowned, Moonah woodland with sweeping views of Bass Strait and Port Phillip. We decided to walk back to the towards Harold Holt's monument and beach before the bus comes by to pick us up.   Well,  we seemed to be at the wrong place each time she came by so we walked all the way back to the Quarantine Station and finished looking around all the buildings there before we travelled over to take a look at London Bridge.

This is the gun emplacement where the first shot was fired in WWI

Tunnels throughout the Point Housing the amunition 

To the left is Port Phillip Bay and to the right is Bass Strait.  This is the narrowest land between the two expanses of water on the Mornington Peninsula.

London Bridge

Mornington

After travelling up the coastline looking at Marthas Cove (reminds us of Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast) and up as far as Mornington where we stopped at Schnapper Point to look over the Bay from the foreshore.  Beautiful day without a cloud (hardly) in the sky.

What a beautiful way to finish our day, on the beach to see the sunset again!

Flinders Hinterland Scenic Drive

Sunday drive for us from our camp at Rosebud on the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay and a country drive over to the foreshores of Western Port Bay to Cape Schanck and on to Flinders for a interesting place to read of all the history along the top reserve and down the stairs to the pier to watch the local fishermen putting in their boats to go fishing and diving around the coastline.  I like to way these townships promote the history with plaques set all along the walk-ways, foreshores and in the main streets.  We find these well worth stopping to read and imagine the hardships the pioneers endured back in the 1800's and later.

Flinders Monument in the foreground and WWI stone cenotaph behind overlooking the Flinders clifftop

Flinders pier and foreshore

After lunch we marvelled at the trees along the roadside looking like our trees of New Zealand and paddocks with sheep.  Red Hill Road back towards Arthurs Seat is doted with wineries with loads of people visiting them for tasting and or lunch.  Spectacular views up at the summit of Arthurs Seat.  Looking out to Port Phillip Bay does not seem so clear today as being cold weather, plenty of wood fires in the homes has left a smoke haze across the bay.

We strolled through the Seawinds Nature Reserve before descending down from Arthurs Seat back to our home and sat on the beach as the sun set once again.  No wind over the bay so very still and breathtaking.

Farewell Phillip Island and Hello Mornington Peninsula

Not too far to travel today so put the coffee mugs in so we can stop around the Western Port shores at a place called Tooradin where I read on "Wiki Camps" there is places to camp down by the boat ramp.  Very well planned for the overnight campers for only $10 with toilets and showers as well as a coffee shop right there.

A small boardwalk to look over the mangroves back towards our rig in the boat park.

So, here we are nestled beside the beach at Rosebud along with the famous and iconic "Bathing Boxes" some dating back to the 19th century.

They line the scenic 55km route from Frankston to Portsea white beaches - huts for beach toys and barbecues

This is my favourite one with seagulls decorating the front.

Drove on to Portsea and stopped at Sorrento where we are going to catch the ferry over to Queenscliff on Wednesday morning.  Found out the timetables and prices in readiness for that journey.  Like taking a trip over to Stradbroke Island - about 40 minutes.

Wow, we have just seen Portsea's clifftop mansions which is one of Australia's most expensive postcodes.  Many of these mansions worth millions of dollars and the large hotel which sits right on the beach at Sorrento have the enchanting old limestone buildings all around the area.  Talk about Millionaires Row!!

Sunset from our little corner of the world on this grey old day!

Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit

We called here once again as we both like our V8 car racing.  We found out that there is to be the Porsche series and four other classification car series all racing this weekend.  As we have already extended our stay we couldn't justify another two days so here we are watching for five hours the Friday practice day from outside the track along with dozens of other cars, trucks etc.  I packed our coffee, morning tea and lunch so that we could do this.  The wind was extremely cold so stayed inside the truck.  Great view of three quarters of the track, hence the day was great.

The Delights of Phillip Island

We have visited most of the island and here are some of the pictures we have captured.  As I saw the penguins last time we visited, and Wayne is not interested in seeing them, we only looked down on the area that all the visitors flock to each night to view the penguins come ashore.  I would say that is the largest tourist attraction on the island.

Looking down on the viewing platforms and elevated boardwalks were the nightly penguin parade is given with the rangers informing us about the  life and habitat of these little penguins.

Enjoying the sunshine while it lasted - been overcast and raining for days now

We have plenty of these pukeko's and rabbits feeding all around us at the camp.  Even the black rabbit that lives under one of the cabins along from us

A drive to Cowes we loved coming down the main street under a canopy of these microcarpa trees giving shade to the streets.  A busy ambiance here and notice that the island's populace must have grown heaps since last time we were here.

Decided to take a look at Rhyll on our way home and found that it was HIGH tide on the foreshore!

Oops  -  Don't Get Washed Out to Sea Mate

They say Things Happen In Three's!!

Since setting up at Newhaven caravan Big 4, we have been having trouble with the hot water system???  Wayne replaced the release valve but no, the water poured out even more!?  Called a gas plumber and he told us to contact the maker of our hot water system.  Phoned them in Melbourne and were told to go see the caravan shop at Wonthaggi so back we go to be told to go see Reece plumbering.  That is where we bought the replacement release valve the day before, so between Wayne and the guys there we realised that the water pressure on Phillip Island is too high for the hot water system so all we could do was put our old valve back in and only use the water from the water holding tank and not directly from the mains water at the camp.  That sorted, I decided to make a pumpkin soup for dinner along with a bread and butter pudding for desert.   Well, all was going fine until I decided to put the soup through the nutribullet.  Pow,  it exploded everywhere!  Scolding hot soup throughout the kitchen, all over me, and all over the carpet in every direction.  Thankfully, I only burnt my left hand and wrist so got that under cold water while my darling Wayne set about retrieving the soup for dinner and cleaning up the mess.     I had plenty of washing to be done after that so set about getting on with it the next morning after Wayne had set up the washing machine in readiness.   I carried on with some online work while Wayne went out to tinker with the truck - I looked up and saw water flowing down the stairs from the bathroom/bedroom area all over the carpet.   Oh shit!  The hose had flicked out of the sink and fallen onto the floor so that is where the water pumped during the wash cycle.  We are still frantically trying to dry out the carpets.  We have always said to each other - double check everything!!!!  Don't know what happened to the "Double Check" Plan?

Wonthaggi

What cramped conditions the miners had to work in back in those days

When travelling through Wonthaggi on our way to Phillip Island we decided to come back and visit this township and the Victoria State Coal Mine Museum.  The local folk can be very proud of their time and effort in presenting the history of this large mine.  The buildings and exhibits are very informative to a journey back to mining days past and makes this place worth a stop and visit.  We did not go  on the underground tour as we have been underground at Broken Hill Coal Mine.

This shows only half of the area exhibited at the State Coal Mine

Locomotive used to move the coal

The carraiges coming up from the underground tour