Leaving Tassie on the overnight boat, we had a very smooth sail which was nice. Unfortunately, however, our porthole cabin was next to some outside ladder or boating equipment which rattled during the night and this combined with the very hard mattress didn’t make for a great sleep on the trip back to the mainland.
It’s 7am, it is still dark and is a very dreary, rainy Sunday morning as we drove off the boat in Geelong. We couldn’t check in to our caravan park until after 10am, so we had a couple hours to kill. Not wanting to tow Goldy through the streets of Geelong too much, we googled and read that the closest McDonalds had a large gravel area out the back so that was our destination for a crappy McChucks breakfast and chill. Luckily we were able to entertain ourselves by streaming and watching the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. We also watched the comings and goings of the others who frequented the parking area, of which some were a bit strange..
We pulled into the Geelong Discovery Caravan Park at 11am and were soon setup on our site. This was also our first time splashing out an extra $8/night for an en suite site, meaning we had our own private shower and toilet, right next to the van, which’ll make our stay over the next few days a bit glamorous. After setting up, we did a quick trip to Bunnings for a part to fix our sink drain which I noted had split, and also a quick shop for foodstuff. We then just chilled for the remainder of the day, watching the Dockers and Eagles have a win in the footy.
We’ve booked to stay in Geelong for 5 nights and we’ve got a few things planned before we head out to see my folks.
Unfortunately, our first night in Geelong wasn’t overly restful as our motorhome neighbours decided to do a full spring clean of their rental vehicle and were up until 1am banging around, and then awake and finishing their clean at 6am. I managed to sleep through most of this, but Jules didn’t and was pretty knackered for our first day in Geelong. A silver lining however, was that we were awake, so we got up and going early, as we had a 400km loop drive to do today.
First cab off the rank is to redo the Great Ocean Road which Jules and I last drove on our honeymoon, 30years ago. So we thought it was time to reacquaint ourselves with this iconic drive and part of Australia.
Following the coastal drive from Torquay, we made our way down the coast, stopping at the various lookouts, admiring the views and enjoying the fun drive that is the Gt Ocean Rd. We dropped down to Cape Otway Lightstation where we intended to have lunch but upon arriving we discovered it was $22 each to get into the area beyond the car park so we decided to keep driving. This eventually led us down to the 12 Apostles, where we had a late lunch, and tried to dodge the crowds and tourists, all vying for a selfie in front of the amazing limestone stacks.
Talking about tourists and selfies, we were amazed at the number of people all wanting a selfie under the Memorial Arch, which is just a big log arch / thin bridge construction, with a sign stating “Great Ocean Road” hanging on it, spanning the road. The arch wasn’t pretty, historic or in anyway memorable, but we assumed that everyone wanted a picture of themselves under a sign that read “Great Ocean Road”, so we quickly passed through to avoid the crowds.
It was then back to Geelong via the more direct inland route which took us through some lovely rolling farmland.
It’s Tuesday the 19th May and today I got a new wife. Or, at least, I got the same wife but with a spiffy new haircut, which is kinda the same thing as Jules has been hating on her hair, which she’d been experimenting with growing out, for a couple of weeks now and couldn’t wait to get it cut and styled shorter again. Exiting the Geelong hairdressers sporting her stylish new haircut, Jules said “I feel like a million bucks“, but this wasn’t true, as when I tried to hock her at the local pawn shop afterwards, they wouldn’t give me anything at all for her. Oh well, guess I’m stuck with Jules for a bit longer then – sucks to be me.
Whilst Jules was getting her hair done, I ran a few errands and then we did a short wander through the Geelong CBD, before dropping into the visitors centre. My mum had told me earlier in the year that Mrs Negri is working, or used to work, at the Geelong visitors centre and “Mrs Negz” as I knew her, is the mum of my teenage best mate, Tony (aka “Negz”). Anyway, we walked into the visitors centre and I dropped my random question, “Hi, could you please tell me if a Mrs Negri works here“. After a confused look and some further explanation, the visitor centre lady searched the system and advised that Mrs Negz was in the computer, but worked at the Queenscliff Maritime Visitors Centre, which is about 30kms away. She made a quick call for us and it turned out that she was actually working today, so Jules and I headed down to Queenscliff, grabbing a great coffee from Juan, on recommendation of the lady in the visitor centre, on the way back to the car.
45mins later we walked into the Queenscliff Maritime Centre and surprised Mrs Negz with our visit. We’d last seen her on our honeymoon, 30years ago. Mrs Negz looked great, though obviously some 30years older, and it was lovely to catch up again with her. To our surprise, she advised that Tony (aka Negz), my teenage best mate, was now also living in Geelong having moved down from Queensland some years ago. So, after another quick phone call, we dropped into the workplace of Tony where, luckily, it was a very quiet afternoon, and we spent the next 90mins reacquainting ourselves and catching up after what has been more than 35years. All in all a lovely day, catching up with Negz and Mrs Negz.
Wednesday, 20th May and the friend catchups just keep coming, although these two were less random and more planned.
With a lunchtime date with an ex-Kinetic IT mate JJ planned, Jules and I drove around the heads of Port Phillip Bay to kick off our morning. Starting at Barwon Heads, we then looped up through to Lonsdale, checking out the Point Lonsdale Lighthouse, then through to Indented Head and finally on to Port Arlington for our lunch date at the Port Arlington Pub with JJ. It was great catching up again with JJ, and seeing how he’s transitioning into early retirement – the lucky bastard.
Following lunch, we then drove up into Melbourne, parking just behind Lygon St in Carlton, for our planned dinner catch up with my apprenticeship best mate, Veggie Rod, who I’d last spoken with about 25years ago. We’d drifted apart after our wedding, where Veggie Rod was my groomsman, as we were living on opposite sides of the country and each were starting our own families.
As we’d arrived in Melbourne early, Jules and I walked down into the city, sneaking in a quick drink at the Cookie Bar, one of our favourites, before walking back up to Lygon St for our dinner date with Rod and his family.
Again, it was fantastic catching up with Veggie Rod after so long, and meeting his lovely wife Lisa and daughter Natasha. Unfortunately we didn’t have too much time to really catch up as Jules and I still needed to drive the 90mins back to Geelong.
Given our full day and late night yesterday, Thursday started pretty slow, kicking off with another fantastic coffee by Juan, the South American coffee dude in Geelong. We then wandered the Geelong CBD a bit more, having a lovely brunch brekky at Paper Cup & Co cafe in the Westfield centre, before doing a little drive along the coast.
Whilst driving out to Point Henry we noted the many ponds in the bay and after some googling I learnt that they are from the old Cheetham Saltworks which was decommissioned in 2007. After some further double-checking, I determined that I was allowed to fly my drone over them, so we parked up at Moolap Beach and I sent the drone up for a bit. I ended up taking a bunch of drone pics and upon review I edited and kept most of them as I simply love these abstract type shots and whilst they’re all pretty similar, I find them all subtly different, highlighting different shapes, tones or textures.
Friday 22nd May. Leaving Geelong we headed towards my folks place in Wonthaggi, but first we had to detour to BCF in Hoppers Crossing to pick up a new fridge for the caravan. Our fridge is the original unit that came with the van, so is 11years old now. It’s done us well, but we’ve noticed the compressor keeps kicking in which is a sign of a faulty thermistor and/or compressor. I’d already replaced the original thermistor a couple of years ago and that cost around $300 at the time so we decided to swap out the fridge for a new unit, rather than try and repair again.
With the new fridge dumped in the van for now, it was off to mum and dads for a couple of days to catch up, do some running repairs, including installing the new fridge, and just chill.
Max popped down on Saturday arvo and it was nice to get us all together for a couple of hours, the first time in many years. Unfortunately Jade was crook so Scott and Jade weren’t able to come down.
Deciding to have a quick break between family visits – as there’s only so much family you can take in one hit – we popped up to Heyfield for a couple of nights, having visited and really enjoyed Heyfield on our trip a couple of years ago.
After dog sitting for mum and dad in the morning, we left Wonthaggi mid-morning and made our way through the smaller roads to Heyfield, the weather increasingly closing in with heavy clouds and persistent rain. Luckily we got a 5min break between the rain after pulling into Heyfield and we quickly got the van setup, then set off to the butcher and IGA for supplies.
Steady rain overnight lessoned gradually as the morning dawned and by the time we’d had brekky, we had windows of blue sky opening up through the clouds. With no specific plans, I plotted a roundabout trip through the farmland, ending at Maffra, a small town that we’d not visited when we were here with BJ a couple of years ago. A lovely drive through the rolling hills, providing a couple of camera and drone photo opportunities.
After pulling into Maffra, we did a short walk through town where I happened to spy a note on the Visitor Centre’s sign saying “Gem and Mineral Display” which had me hooked, so in we went. WOW.. It is the best gem and mineral display either of us has ever seen and it’s totally free!
Pino Deriu emigrated from Sardinia, Italy to Australia in 1952 aged 27 and did various jobs. But it was his love of Australia’s outback and the ‘thrill of the hunt and find’ that had him travelling across our great land collecting gem and mineral specimens. His collection soon gathered international interest and he continued to build his collection, swapping samples with international contacts. Upon his death in 2001, Pino bequeathed his collection to the local community where it is now beautifully displayed for everyone to enjoy!
The following photos don’t do the display justice, but they hopefully provide a sense of the collection.
Following our exploration of Pino’s collection, we had a great coffee, pie and cake at the Maffra Bakery, before making our way back to the van for the arvo and evening.
For our last day in Heyfield we did another drive loop, this time south to the coast to view the street art murals in Yarram and Loch Sport. In 2020 the town of Yarram commissioned Melbourne street artist Heesco Khosnaran to paint a series of murals throughout the town. The street murals have won multiple awards over the years and most of the shops in town provide a free map on where to find them all. As we walked around to explore the murals, Jules grabbed pics with her phone, ticking them off her mural list as she went. Whilst, I used my mobile phone for a change, to grab shots of the town, mostly doorways, which I have a thing for photographing.
We then drove down to the coast, the famous “90 mile beach”, which is actually 94 miles long and stretches between Port Albert and Lakes Entrance. We followed the beach East through to Loch Sport, a surprisingly large town which sits on a narrow band of land, in between Lake Victoria and the Bass Straight.
On the road again, this time back across Victoria to my sisters place in Ferny Creek for a few days.
Arriving on Friday the 29th May, we setup and sat down to chill and catchup for a couple of hours, before jumping on the train into Melb for our ticketed viewing of Enlightenment. Turning the old Immigration Museum building into a visual art piece, Enlightenment consisted of a laser light show, choreographed to the music of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Whilst we enjoyed it, we all agreed we wouldn’t rush back to do it again. Following Enlightenment it was off to Max’s in Hardware Lane for dinner, after which Ella and Jade left us to head home whilst Max, Scott, Jules and I checked out a couple of cocktail bars, before Ubering home.
After a slow start to Saturday morning due to the late night yesterday, Scott drove us out to the Warburton Redwood Forest of Californian Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), the worlds tallest trees. Planted in the 1930’s as part of a hydrology experiment, this small stand of trees is now a major tourist attraction, with heaps of people out there to view and take photos amongst the trees.
Sunday, the last day of Autumn and we visited Abby, my niece, and Alec’s, my nephew in law to be, new house in Cockatoo which was lovely. They’re understandably very house proud, as they should be. Then it was off to the party of the century, or at least the party of our Sunday arvo – Mel’s “A tini bit older” birthday bash. Lots of Espresso Martinis, laughs, some tears from Phil, great chats and unbelievably good food made for a great celebration.
Monday and Tuesday morning were spent taking it easy at Max & Scotts. Max, Jules and I went for a walk around Sherbrooke Forest and then Alfred Nicholas Gardens. Unfortunately we didn’t spot a Lyrebird but we did witness the natural falling of a huge tree, which made an awesome crash as it hit the ground. As we’d walked up a hunger, we dropped into the Proserpina Bakehouse for brunch on the way back from our walk.
And to finish this leg of our trip, we met up again with Phil and Mel for dinner on the Tuesday night, although Mel could still hardly talk as her voice hadn’t recovered from Sunday’s party.
Phew, this was a long post for which there are two reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, we wanted to surprise/crash Mel’s major – a lady never reveals her age – (60th) Birthday celebrations, so we didn’t want to post any social media or new blog posts when we got back to the mainland. And secondly, these last few weeks have seen me catch up with a lot of friends and family. So much so, Jules even started saying it felt like “Budgie’s Farewell Tour”.. I hope that’s not the case however, as we enjoyed catching up with Mrs Negz, Negz (Tony), JJ, Veggie Rod, my parents, my sister and her family and Mel & Phil, and I hope we have the opportunity to do so again in the future. Love you all long time guys!