THE MORNINGTON PENNINSULA

We booked into a council park on the Mornington Peninsular at Rosebud for a week and tripped around from there. We are right on the beach in the shade under the trees with a 20 mitre walk down to the waters of Port Phillip Bay.  From here we could see the big container ships coming on a zig-zag course into the bay we are imagining to avoid either rocks or shallows on their way to Melbourne from destinations I probably haven't even heard of.

A highlight of one day was a drive right up to the point past Portsea which those of us over 40 will remember is the place where former Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared in December 1967 while swimming off the coast here.  The official cause of death was drowning but the rumours of the day were that either he was taken by the Russians because of his opposition to some of their policies or taken by aliens or more plausible that the Americans got him because of his opposition to the newly established Pine Gap, which from my perspective was Australia's answer to 007 in the '60's.

Either way he was never seen again.  We visited Cheviot Beach where he disappeared and saw real estate valued at over $2 mil and this was Holt's holiday home?????

After we came back down to earth and travelled back to our little caravan we realised that we would sooner be living in the present than in the sixty's anyway.

The Mornington Peninsular, though quite small is a lovely part of Australia.

There are some lovely beaches which are both on the ocean side and also inside Port Phillip Bay.

With glass of wine in hand one evening .....

On the shore of Port Phillip Bay when a Dutch couple came along and offered to take our picture.
Yes - we told them about our Dutch friends but no - they didn't know you....lol

 ..... we strolled down to the shore to watch dozens of black swans feeding on the weed just below the surface of the water and watch huge freighter ships after entering the narrow entrance of the port make their way in a zig zag manner up to Melbourne, I would assume to avoid shallow water.



The graves of 2 of the convicts that came ashore with the first landing in Port Phillip Bay.
 

Apparently, an early Governor King took a ship of convicts to Port Phillip in 1803 to establish a colony there and in the course of time many escaped including a man by the name of William Buckley who escaped numerous times and the last time succeeded by living amongst the natives for many years and so they say came the saying "Buckley's Chance" as they said he had "Buckley's Chance" of surviving - but he did and ended up in Tasmania.

An interesting Quoit game at a park we went to

Yes! I did find my way out as I had remembered to take bread crumbs to find my way out

In the hills in the middle of the Mornington Peninsula is a little district called Arthur's Seat, apparently named an early explorer for an apparent resemblance to the hill of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh Scotland.  Captain Matthew Flinders climbed Arthur's Seat on 27 April 1802.^[4]

 

We went to strawberry farms that had strawberry's that barely fitted in the palm of my hand they were so big and as sweet and juicy as I have ever tasted. Also cherry's that were just bursting with flavour the like of which hasn't been seen in Qld.

We left the Peninsula early as the weather was so cold and travelled back up to a little town called Koo-Wee-Rup where we caught up with friends Lindsay and Judith Black.

Lindsay took us for a drive around the area he has called home since he was born and showed us all the little channels that were built to stop the run off from the Dandanongs down to the bay from flooding the whole area.  An engineering feat from the early 1900's.  we also saw Western Port Bay with French island taking up more than 2/3 of the bay.  A beautiful piece of paradise.

After meeting their daughter Kylie and her family who are all into the Rural Fire Service we were allowed to stay on rural fire service property for a couple of nights.

The next night we meandered south to Wilson's Promontory and went down to the beach.  The tide was out but we saw South East Cape which is the most southerly point in the Australian Mainland.  This place is all National Park and there are a lot of people who know about it.  There are all stages of camp life and lots of it.  Just a short walk to the beach but I must say, not a patch on Queensland beaches.

The beach at Tidal River

This parrot came right up to under the van looking for water

While sitting out in the shade of the caravan, Stuart saw a wombat meander across the back of the park - how good is that.  He grabbed his camera but couldn't see it.  There are a lot of them around here apparently as we have seen a few dead on the side of the road.  Apparently there was a mother and young as well as the lone one that night.


Tidal River is a tourist spot in the National Park where there is a Ranger Station, Shop, takeaway and accomodation from cabins through to tent sites and all in between with very good amenities.

ANDREW'S 30th

Andrews 30^th Birthday Party went off as only Andrew would have planned.  Lovely Venus, spectacular food, great conversation and lovely people.

Andrew and Tom

Andrew's brother James

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walked into mine."
quote (Humphrey Bogart - Casablance)

Lyn and I and our friend at the wine bar

Andrew with Mum and Dad

On our walk Saturday morning Stuart honed in on a cake shop

Yes - that one

 

We got to Laverton and left our van at the caravan park there and travelled into Melbourne by train on Saturday morning meeting up with Peter and Sandy at their hotel room.  Enjoyed a few tram rides around Melbourne and saw some of the sights.

We got to the restaurant in time for dinner and the dishes just kept coming.  After that we went to a nice wine bar for a few hours but by 10.30 us oldies were ready for bed.  That is when the evening went pear shaped.

We got to Russell Street Station with no rail person in sight to tell us where to go and found a police officer who showed us which platform to go to for our train.  Found that and heard the announcement that the train to Laverton would arrive in about 35 minutes.  5 minutes out another announcement that that train had been cancelled.  Others waiting for the same train suggested we go with them and catch another train part of the way and then we could share a cab.  Time line 11.30pm

We followed our good Samaritans and eventually got on the other train which thankfully was going to Laverton to our relief.  Arrival at Laverton – time line about 12.45am. 

Small rail station, away from anywhere, cold, tired, sore footed we rang for a cab – 4 times in fact to be told it would arrive shortly.  Yes one did and yes we eventually got into bed – time line 3.00am.......

Sunday we caught the train back into Melbourne to book into the same hotel this time for 3 days, had a lovely time with Peter and Sandy before they left to go back to Canberra where we will join them again for Christmas.

Andrew had booked us on the Melbourne Restaurant Tram for Dinner that night and we enjoyed a 4 course spectacular dinner while riding round Melbourne in an old tram with drinks all inclusive from champagne on arrival through to cognac or liquors at the end.

Back at Laverton we met up with John and Jenny again.  They stayed with us for 3 days and on the Saturday we went to the largest market I have ever been to with thousands of stalls inside and out.  Said good bye to the Varadys Sunday and we left about Wednesday to head east for a few weeks along the Mornington Peninsular and then north towards Canberra , detouring over to Koo-wee-rup and take a trip over to Phillip Island – next time.

At the moment we are at a council caravan park on Mornington about 50 mtrs from Port Phillip Bay.

INTO VICTORIA

Leaving Parkes behind knowing we would be back in a couple of months for the Elvis festival, we made our way to Darlington point where we camped right on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River.

Along the road we saw hundreds of very mature cactus fully laden with fruit.  What happened to the Cactoblastus Moth and why isn't he doing his job

Our rig on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River

Note the yabbie pot in place under the white float (just as well I didn't have the pan on ready

 

Not a sound could be heard well into the night except a few lonely birds and the yabbies scurrying away from our pot that we put in.  Still, it was great sitting out under the trees watching the river flow past at quite a reasonable pace winding its way into the mighty Murray and eventually out to sea.

Our next stop was West Wylong where we met up with John and Jenny Varady from Mackay for a quick cuppa, a catch up and then on our way again hoping to catch up further south before Christmas.

After getting a really great Port in the Territory called F(&a;?G GOOD PORT we tracked down where it was made and went to the winery to get more - which we did.  This was at Yarren Wines at Yenda.

Our little camp site in amongst the other vans and mainly tents at Maldon

Our next major event was the Maldon Folk Festival (are you keeping up Shel, Pat will be onto you again). Maldon is a very small old country town between Ballarat and Bendigo where a lot of very alternative people get together every year for their music festival.  Not really our thing but we can now cross it off the list (not that it was on it). We walked up the street following someone in a lovely A line skirt, blouse and shoulder bag - along with bare feet and a beard!!!  Another was dressed as Robin Hood, another in a full kilt regalier.  We went to a bush and old time dance there though which was a lot of fun.

We also did a market there which topped up the coffers a little bit.  We went up the street next day to sit outside a lovely old pub and watched and listened to about 21 people play Irish music with flutes, accordions, violins, a harp and a Bodhran (Irish Drum)
We left Maldon for Ballarat where we stayed for about 5 days and boy was it cold (about 6') we spent one day at Sovereign Hill which is a replica of the early Gold Rush Days and it was very interesting.

The local butcher 1850's style got the meat in and got rid of it quickly to those who could pay for it before it went off with the offal being fought over by the town dogs and those who couldn't afford to buy good mutton 



Digging for gold in the replica boom town






In the gold smelting room a worker poured a 1kg bar of solid gold worth $250,000.00

 

which cooled solid very quidkly but was still glowing red and hot enough to ignite a wooden stick but after dropping in water cooled to touch by hand in  seconds

This was very quickly put into the safe before anyone could get their hands onto it

The British soldiers marching through the village keeping the peace

The town even had a bowling allly.  Stuart tried his had at bowling 1850's style where the bowl is held so and rolled down a slightly curved ally to the pins at the other end.

 

 

Ballarat is a very old city with buildings dating back to about 1853 - less than 80 years after the landing of the First Fleet in 1788.



An example of some of the old buildings right through Ballarat

This beautiful old church was built in 1840

 

but the church was actually established in 1847

We spied this beautiful rose bush growing through the roof of a house in the little old town of Buninyong

I am pretty sure this is a Warratah flower but couldn't find someone to verify it and I haven't seen one up close before.

At the Botanical Gardens in Ballarat is the home of Adam Lindsay Gordon, poet who lived in the area.  Who had a sad life and ended up committing suicide before all of his work was published

The cottage now houses craft items made by people in the community for sale

More of the beautiful churches in the Ballarat area

Just out of Ballarat is a castle called Kryal Castle which is a replica of a medieval castle complete with drawbridge and moat

It is currently under renovation and so we couldn't go in but could see medieval knights etc inside the doorway

 

From Ballarat we made our way closer to Melbourne to Werribee where we stayed for 2 nights on the shore of Port Phillip Bay at a caravan Park.  We went to the open range zoo there but I was a bit disappointed with the lack of animals we could see and was exhausted by the time we got back.

 

 

Love the Meekats, there were 5 and they were full of antics always with 1 on guard duty though

 

 

 

We are surrounded by large market gardens with rows and rows of leaf vegetables like lettuce, cabbage cauli's etc. with big semi's loading it all up by the huge box full early in the mornings to head to the market.

We went another 30 odd kilometres into Melbourne where we are staying at a park at Laverton and once again I fly home for the boarders Christmas Party getting back on Friday night in time for Andrew's 30th birthday Party which we will hear about next time.