A FEW DAYS AWAY - march 2015
hampton - lorne - apollo bay - warrnambool
port fairy - dunkeld - hall’s gap - ararat
maryborough - castlemaine - maldon
creswick - ballarat - hampton
Having decided on the need for a few days away we headed off in bright sunshine heading
to Apollo Bay where we had booked for the night. With the sunshine turning into rain
shortly before we reached Geelong we were unsure as to what we faced weather
wise, however to our surprise the weather changed back to bright and sunny
and remained that way for the remainder of the day.
Lorne as always was a nice drive with the scenery and
ocean views as good as we last remembered them.
ocean views as good as we last remembered them.
Erskine Falls-Lorne
While we were surprised at the number of people in Lorne at this time of the year,
particularly for a Monday. We were more surprised when we reached Apollo Bay
as there appeared to be visitors everywhere. Lucky that we had booked
our accommodation online before we left as there was not a lot available
when we arrived as evidenced by the abundance of "No Vacancy" signs.
Spent the latter part of the afternoon looking around Apollo Bay.
Feasted on beach side chips/fed the seagulls, and as there was little of interest on TV,
settled on a relatively early night. Tuesday brought dark skies and quite
heavy rain which fortunately cleared early in the morning as we left
Apollo Bay and headed towards Warrnambool, where we planned
to stay the night en route to Port Fairy.
Spectacular scenery all the way commencing just out of Apollo Bay
when we took a walk through the rain forest at Mait's Rest.
when we took a walk through the rain forest at Mait's Rest.
Cape Otway was our next stop with a visit to the
lighthouse which commenced operations in 1848.
lighthouse which commenced operations in 1848.
The telegraph Station was built in 1859 to house Australia's first
submarine telegraph cable linking Tasmania to the mainland.
Spotted a local on the way back
Continuing on through Port Campbell National Park
culminating in the very special coastal views featuring the
Twelve Apostles of which only seven remain standing today
The Arch
The
always nice coastal town of Port Campbell
Bay of Martyr's out of Peterborough
Then to Warrnambool where we arrived mid-late afternoon, secured our accommodation
and discussed what we would do for dinner, with Thai being the culinary choice,
followed by some must view cricket, New Zealand vs South Africa.
Put the TV on in the belief that Australia would find New Zealand a more formidable
opponent than South Africa in the World Cup Final next Sunday,
assuming firstly that we first get past India on Thursday.
We were pleased to see New Zealand were facing a pretty large score [298],
which might prove to be just beyond them.
What an exciting game it turned out to be with New Zealand winning on the penultimate
ball, to carry them through to Sunday's final between the
winner of Thursday's game between Australia and India.
As we will still be on the road when the game commences
we will be listening to the match on ABC-774
with the intention of being home in time to watch the evening session.
Spent the early part of Wednesday morning looking around Warrnambool
which we had not visited for a few years. before moving on to Port Fairy
where we had also visited on previous occasions.
Decided then to head north in nice sunshine to Dunkeld where, just as we turned
on to the Hall's Gap Road, a mob of kangaroos numbering in excess of 50-60
decided to take their time to cross the road directly in front of us, causing us to
come to a complete stop while they did so, really nice for us and a group
of Japanese tourists who were treated to an unexpected viewing.
On through Moyston where Thomas Wills the
founder of our great game was born in 1835
founder of our great game was born in 1835
Pinkey Point in the Shire of Ararat where gold was first found in the
Ararat district in 1854, by Joseph Pollard.
On to Maryborough, size of which came as a bit of a surprise to us,
and finally Castlemaine where we decided to stay the night.
Thursday took us to Maldon for breakfast before deciding to continue
on to Creswick via Broomfield, where Lyn's mother was born.
Unfortunately Broomfield today is just a faded
shadow of it's former self from the time when gold was
the order of the day, and the Creswick museum
disappointingly for us, was closed for renovations.
Home in time to watch the second half of the World Cup Vs India
and very pleased with the win. Bring on Sunday Vs New Zealand.
Not so pleased however to wake up on Friday morning to
discover a flat tire, but pleased that it didn't cause any
problems while on the road. Must get the tyres checked
as that is a puncture on each of our last two trips.
all in all
a nice few days away from the city
a nice few days away from the city
