And we're off..... Take II

Our car is fixed (yeah) and we are back on our way… woo hoo!! We ended up staying in Balnarring with Dave’s brother for about 3 weeks (thank you Michael!!!) After being on the Gold Coast for 2 ½ years, it took us a while to get used to the Victorian summer i.e.  Bloody Freezing!!! We did have one or two hot days whilst we were there and we did go swimming at Balnarring Beach, which was beautiful……..for all of the 5 minutes we were in the water because it was sooooo cold! Ha ha ha ha ha. The up side of that is there is hardly anyone down there and you only have to share the beach with a handful of people, pure bliss.

King Neptune came out of the water at Balnarring Beach!!

On Thursday, 25^th Feb, we packed up and took our camper trailer to Campbellfield (near Melbourne) to have some things checked on it, so we thought we’d stay in Melbourne that night.

We ended up staying in the Carlton area, not far from Lygon Street and we had a delicious late Italian lunch there. Wondering what to do that night, we looked online and found that Dawn French was playing at the Comedy Theatre that night….bonus…. so we booked tickets and off we toddled. It was a great show, very funny (as you would expect) but also very positive and uplifting.

We walked back to our accommodation looking for some dessert and we found a Turkish restaurant where we bought some baklava, Turkish delight and some sort of cherry, coconut, chocolate log thingy. YUM!

Friday morning we’re up early and off to the Queen Victoria Market for breakfast, joy oh joy! We used to visit this market every Saturday morning to buy our fruit & veg and delicatessen items and we love it. It’s been about 4 years since our last visit and we were as giddy as a hipster in a beard-trimming establishment.

Delicious breakfast and heart starter coffee and we’re set for the day. We pick up our camper trailer and head off to Port Fairy, with a stop off at Colac for some lunch.

Port Fairy is a gorgeous coastal town filled with heritage buildings and stone cottages from the early 1800’s. Some of these lovely old buildings now contain cafes, restaurants, specialty shops or galleries and it makes for a delightful weekend away.

 

Last night we went out onto Griffiths Island, walking distance from the town centre of Port Fairy. At this time of year the ‘ol mutton birds (Shearwaters) come in at dusk every night from being out at sea all day to feed their young and have a well deserved kip.  We saw 100’s of them flying in over our heads and it is a spectacular sight, as they seem to just emerge from the clouds over the water.

Wallaby on the island

Lighthouse at dusk

in this photo, there are actually Shearwater birds flying
 in from their day at sea (truly, they are!)

 Once the birds identify where their nesting sites are and land on the ground, they are that knackered they can barely scramble into their nesting holes. We could certainly see why they were nearly eaten to extinction; they would be so easy to catch! Walking back along the track we saw a few of them and also heard the young ones call out to them for some reconstituted fishy dinner.

one knackered Shearwater

This morning we went back to Griffiths Island and walked the other way around it and got a much better view in the daylight of the surrounds.

 

We then went for a drive through the country and ended up at Mt Eccles National Park, where we went for a walk around Lake Surprise.

Lake Surprise

 

After all the walking we needed to re-energise with some food and took the scenic inland route to Warrnambool and had a late lunch at the surf club restaurant “Simons”, it was YUM! (I think there’s a theme here with us and food and YUM!)

Tomorrow we are leaving for Mt Gambier and we’ll be in a new state, South Australia… how exciting….oooh, and wineries, here we come!!!