For The Love of Travel

First stop, Bells Beach. The beach gained its international fame as the location of the annual Rip Curl Pro event. The event is nearly sixty years old.  High cliffs provide a dramatic backdrop to the natural amphitheatre of the beach and large swells from the Southern Ocean, which slow down and steepen over the reef-strewn shallows, create the outstanding surf. Yep, well no surf….just a man and his dog when we arrived 🙂

Next to Airey’s Inlet, the Split Point Lighthouse, which stands as a stunning sentinel to the Shipwreck coast. It is still a vital working lighthouse for vessels navigating the treacherous waters of Bass Strait and still operates every night by an automated system.

Loved the adjacent Lighthouse Tearooms…..a limited but delicious brunch menu.

The 1976 Pole house at Fairhaven is still as I remember….iconic and eye catching as ever – a stilt home which maximises the coastal view….an architectural landmark!

Kennett River our stop for 2 days…..what a sunrise the next morning!

The photogenic and active koala posing for the paparazzi was no longer in evidence (but to be fair, that was about 10 years ago), now just a lazy one lurking in the caravan park precinct.

We were brave and did the Otway flyer walk. The ancient Otways rise away from the Great Southern Ocean and provide sheltered gullies of cool rainforest from which flow rivers and streams surrounded by wet sclerophyll forest with canopies of giant Myrtle Beech and Blackwood. We panicked a bit on the cantilever bridge when other’s footsteps would rock it from side to side (quite a bit!!)…but survived the experience to marvel at the engineering feat and beautiful walk above the canopy.

Lavers Hill for a coffee and a beautiful and naff photo! haha!

Well look at you Port Campbell National Park! A visitor information centre! That wasn’t there in 2009, the last time I visited. Gorgeous views as always…and plans for further enhancing.

Loch Ard Gorge was a delight and London Bridge too, but the latter a windy location.

Worm Bay provided our wonder dog Mitzy with a much needed energy expenditure outlet.

Bay of Islands, stretching out across 32 kms along the coast between Peterborough and Warrnambool, offers astounding ocean views and a collection of geological features (rock stacks, sheer cliffs). Black faced cormorants have a colony here.

Next to Port Fairy, a coastal town, inhabited initially by the indigenous Pyipkil Gunditj clan. Early 19thC brought sealers and whalers to the region. Swamps were drained, land was subdivided and sold. In the 1840’s, significant conflict occurred between pastoral squatters and Aboriginal people (the Eumeralla wars). Its current main industries are fishing and tourism. What a fabulous morning’s walk to the inlet and then to the Griffiths Island Lighthouse…and then dinner at the Merrijig Inn.

The sedimentary rocks that comprise the Grampians were deposited over a period of 50 million years, now a landscape of jagged sandstone ridges. The indigenous name for the range is “Gariwerd”.

When we reached Halls Gap in the Grampians, we saw some very timid kangas lounging and basking in the sun, on the oval. Off to Boroka Lookout and Broken Falls.

Yay! We have a visitor from England and we are very pleased to have developed an itinerary to show off a little slice of Victoria. Firstly off to Bendigo, founded in 1851, originally a gold rush town with a history of Chinese heritage. Now home to the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, a Mahayana Buddhist temple with a surrounding Peace Park. The temple contains a priceless 2.5 metre high carved jade buddha, weighing about 4 tonne. We visited and were blown away by the scale of the development and vision of the project designers and fund raisers.

Next to Rupunyap, Sheep Hills, St Arnaud, Brim, Beulah, Patchewollock, Nullawil and Lascelles to see the large outdoor gallery – a trail of artwork that celebrates the Wimmera Mallee region through a series of large scale mural portraits, by renowned Australian artists, that have given new life to 90 yr old grain silos – each one telling a unique story about the host town.

Sea Lake, the heart of the vast cereal growing food bowl of Victoria and home to the tough and unforgiving but at times beautiful, Lake Tyrell landscape (the elevated salt levels in soil and water limit the types of plants and creatures that survive here). A 1.6kms walk out from the carpark to the observation platform to greet the sunrise.

Off to Mildura for our 3 day houseboat extravaganza. Always getting our priorities straight, its a fenced doggie park first for Mitzy the wonder pooch; she does love exercising and walking us 🙂

Onto Kerang on the Loddon River, home to the largest solar and battery farm in Australia, and the commercial centre of the irrigation district based on livestock, horticulture, lucerne and grain. Had to make way for some seriously large truckloads of machinery on the way…..

Then onto Robinvale, known for its production of grapes, olives, carrots and almonds with a large itinerant and multicultural heritage and labor force (Italian, Pacific Islander, and Asian).

Stopped at Echuca for coffee, discovering the town was celebrating the “Winter Blues Festival”. Lots of live music, food stalls and main street pumping with tourists exploring the very picturesque boutique shops’ offerings.

On the way back to Melbourne, visited 2 more silos – one at Rochester, and at Colbinabbin – a greyish sort of day but it didn’t take away from the artwork which we loved.

Our last 2 days on holiday…..and we had a long way to traverse over the next couple of days.

We headed for the free Ferry which took us across the Murray River @ Wellington, cutting an hour off our journey and we drove along the Coorong for about 5 hours, allowing for Mitzy stops:).

On the approach to Kingston SE, Larry the spiny LOBSTER loomed…built in 1979, this 17 metre fibreglass and steel sculpture, weighing 7 tonnes is a popular spot for pics. And that’s about it. Nothing more to see, we travelled onto Beachport.

We discovered the Bowman Scenic Drive which started in town opposite the boat ramp. The winding sealed road ensures many viewing surprises along the way – with names like Salmon Hole, Post Office Rock and the Pool of Siloam – lookouts offer views of secluded beaches, fishing spots, the salt lake and Lake George. We had windy weather, and the crashing waves were awesome.

I got a rather rude “are you coming or not” message from the B&B we had booked in Southend ….and sent back a very polite, ‘yes, we’ll be there around 7pm’. Didn’t augur well though.

We ordered takeaway at the Bompas Restaurant, thinking this was our best chance of getting reasonable nosh, before we set off for the B&B.

We were greeted sternly by mine host as we pulled into the driveway at the side of the house “don’t park there, park over there”. This B&B had great reviews on Booking.com.

The lounge room faced west and was really hot on entry so we turned on the aircon – which after half an hour started dripping water, which developed into a little waterfall – hastily gathering towels to put on the floor, I contacted the owners who lived upstairs….who both came down glaring at us and in an accusatory tone said, “well clearly you’ve had the aircon on for some time”, mumble, mumble, mumble. They sorted it out, and we were glad to be rid of them for the evening. We were AMAZED to read the guest books..”owners are friendly, generous, genuine people’; ‘they couldn’t have been more helpful’ – its like the review comments were about completely different people.

We were dreading next morning’s breakfast interaction, but it actually ended up being okay – the cooked breakfast was delish and the conversation reasonable. We were glad to leave though. But even on departing, Lynne had to bolt to the local ATM to get cash, as they didn’t accept card.

So then a 7 hour trip back to Sunbury, with regular stops along the way for coffee and Mitzy leg stretches….a great holiday catching up with friends, food and wine indulgences, and breathtaking landscapes – memories that will last!

And as this had been Mitzy’s first ever long holiday trip …she had really been such a delightfully obliging and good doggie!