Road Trip 2017 – Day 19 – Tuross Heads

Our penultimate day found us packed and heading out of Eden soon after 8:30am. We stopped briefly in Narooma for a coffee and to buy some bread rolls for lunch, but it was a fairly short trip to Tuross Heads. 

We arrived a little bit early and our cabin wasn't ready so Gaz and I found a nice spot overlooking the ocean where we set up, read our books, and made our picnic. Marion and Kevin were off on their bikes exploring. This is one of the few places I had stayed before so I didn’t feel the need to explore and was content to just relax.

By about 1pm our cabin was ready and, after unpacking, I was onto the sand and into the water. It was glorious! Our cabin, located right next to Kevin and Marion’s caravan site, is right on the beach. As Gaz said when sitting on the lounge in the cabin, you just feel like you're on a ship – all you see is water.

I was quite happy to spend the afternoon swimming, reading, swimming, reading…and so on. It was a great way to spend our last day. Gary's back was playing up a bit today so we gave the planned golf game a miss. I think everyone was pretty happy to just take in the view. Kevin and Marion did go for a walk as well as their bike ride, but they also enjoyed some relaxation time.

They had some special visitors too who were extraordinarily tame and came down for a feed.

Then it was time to feed ourselves and we decided what better way to end our journey than with fish and chips overlooking the ocean – and it was fantastic. Last night tonight and then the last leg of the journey tomorrow. It's been a great trip – agreed by all.

 

Road Trip 2017 – Day 18 – Lakes Entrance to Eden

The sun was out, the birds were singing, no clouds in sight, and so it was that we waved goodbye to Lakes Entrance and Victoria and set off northwards. We stopped briefly at Cann River for morning tea and then pushed on to Eden where we arrived at the same time as Kevin and Marion. What a great place! We have a fabulous cabin, (maybe the best yet), and we are right across a small road to the beach. 

After unpacking, Gaz & I took a little walk around a lake and up to the beach. It looked fabulous and I couldn't wait to get in there for a swim…which I did…it was beautiful!

It was then onto Gerry and off for a ride alongside the beach and up to a cliff top for some awesome scenery back over the bay. (I was pretty impressed with Gerry – we went up some pretty steep hills!)

I couldn't wait to get back and go for another swim. This time I took my book down as well and spent a lovely hour or so at the beach. Ahhhhh. Maz and Kevin came down too, as well as Gaz for a quick paddle. It was such a beautiful day – no breeze, mid 20s, blue sky…perfect.

Kevin & Maz had been secretively planning dinner all afternoon, and it was sure worth waiting for! A veritable feast of seafood, salad, and Moroccan potatoes, followed by a medley of yummy dessert! We ate at the outside BBQ area and had a lovely evening. Only one more stop before we head home!

 

Road Trip 2017 – Day 17 – Neyerimilang, Metung and Golf

The few spots of rain this morning were not enough to deter the four hardy individuals who set off at 9am for a round of golf. We had the usual ups and downs, good shots and bad, but all agreed it was a pretty good way to spend the morning. The course was quite scenic with views to the lake and Bass Straight – very nice. 

Marion and Kevin decided to take a ride on their bikes into town and explore a bit while Gary and I, after a quick bite to eat, set off to Neyerimilang. This is a heritage park and homestead not far out of Lakes Entrance. There are also numerous picnic spots and walks you can take. We limited ourselves to the homestead, gardens and gift shop where we acquired some exotic soap – goats milk with charcoal and red clay – goodness knows what colour we will be after trying that! The homestead, built in 1884 is magnificent with many original fixtures, and the gardens were amazing. Much of this work is now carried out by volunteers.

After spending some time at Neyerimilang, we headed off to Metung, a village that we passed while cruising yesterday. We had seen the Metung Hotel from the water and thought it would be a nice place for a meal or drink so thought we would check it out. Ironically, while we were sitting there having our drink, looking over the fabulous vista, the Lonsdale sailed past, so we got to view our cruise boat from the shore.

Back at the caravan park and Gaz decided to watch a couple of races, (it was Saturday afternoon after all), while I rode my bike into town, locked her up, and then walked across the footbridge to the Main Beach. It had really warmed up by this time and was a very pleasant outing. 

It was then time for some R&R, reading our books, before we prepared dinner as it was our turn to cook. Another yummy BBQ followed by apple pie and custard. Mmmm. After such a scrumptious repast, we settled down to the decider of the Euchre Championship. It was close, so close, but I must advise that Kevin and Marion came out the winners by a whisker. 

 

Road Trip 2017 – Day 16 – Lakes Entrance Cruise

Plans to play golf this morning were quashed when we awoke to a grey day with light rain. There must have been a bit of rain overnight and no one was keen to get too wet. Instead we planned a somewhat later start and thought we would go on a lunchtime cruise of the lakes. Gaz and I took a stroll along the Esplanade before our designated meeting time of 10:30am to get to the wharf for the 11am departure. Unfortunately not a single other soul had the same idea as us and the cruise was cancelled as there were no other passengers.

Ok – plan B. We checked out another cruise company (who I had secretly preferred the sound of anyway), and found they had an afternoon cruise leaving at 1pm for a 3 hour cruise…and it was definitely going. Yay! Cruise sorted. Maz and I wandered the shops together to fill in the time and grabbed a quick shared lunch of calamari, chips and salad while Gaz and Kevin did whatever blokes do around shops…not sure…think they got a coffee.

So, at the designated time we arrived and set off on our cruise…a 3 hour cruise. No, it wasn’t reminiscent of Gilligan’s Island, it was a lovely, peaceful cruise around the lakes. We did go near the entrance where we saw some fur seals and it was pretty choppy there but Gaz handled the swell with ease. The couple who own the boat are very friendly and a wealth of information on the area. They cook and serve scones on board for afternoon tea – very impressive – this had Kevin and Gaz swapping scone baking tips with Mel, the lady who cooked them.

After our 3 hours, we had seen quite a lot, I had taken about a thousand photos, and we were happy to head back to the caravan park. Kevin and Gaz took the cars off to wash them, and Maz and I went in search of the laundry to do the washing. Really? Is this the 1950s?

The best was saved for last. We had decided to head out for dinner to a floating Chinese restaurant and it was yum! (It was No 1 on Trip Advisor). Great food though it was taking a while at first and we tried to recall idioms that demonstrated you were hungry – a definite winner was Kevin with “I’m so hungry I’d eat a horse and chase the rider”. I hadn’t heard that one before.

It was then a re-match in the Euchre grudge match and Gaz and I came to the fore with a resounding win. Looks like the decider is tomorrow night! Fingers crossed for good weather to allow golfing and fishing tomorrow.

Road Trip 2017 – Day 15 – Warragul to Lake Entrance

Ok, so the trains that kept flying past the back of our cabin last night made us wonder if we had been too hasty in crediting this cabin as the best so far. Luckily they seemed to stop by 11pm, or we were so tired we didn’t hear them any more. Anyway, when we woke up it was another travel day beckoning, so it was pack up again. We are getting very good at packing up! Gaz does one side of the car, I do the other – everything has a place…it’s a bit like Tetris. 

Once on the road we were discussing how my knowledge, and I guess Gary’s too, of country towns in Australia is closely related to towns that have race meetings. As we see each sign we inevitably say, ‘Yep, they have races there.’ We started another audio book and the time seems to pass so much faster. We stopped at Sale for morning tea and then arrived here at Lakes Entrance at 1pm and were lucky enough to be able to get in a bit early. As good as last night’s cabin was, this one may have beaten it. It’s big, cheap, and well located. Not quite enough wine glasses for everyone, but, hey, as I was reminded today, I only need one for me!

After unpacking we did a bit of a drive around, a walk around, I rode Gerry around and took a couple of snaps, and Gaz threw in a brief line…until he realised he was fishing illegally as he had failed to get a Vic Fishing License. 

It was Kevin and Marion’s turn to cook dinner and it was a beauty – fresh fish, shallowed fried, a medley of vegetables, and then for dessert some yummy slice, yoghurt and a crushed Tim Tam – we get very creative at times! To top off a great meal, Gaz and I got whipped at Euchre by Kev and Maz…just like they whipped us at Backgammon the other night. We seriously need to find a game WE are good at!

It looks really great around this area – we are thinking golf and a lakes cruise tomorrow – here’s hoping the weather plays nice.

Road Trip 2017 – Day 14 – The Great Ocean Road

It was still very dark as the alarm beckoned us to get up and get at ‘em. Yet, get up we did, and, in lightly falling misty rain we packed the car and set off. It was to be a day of on and off again showers as we headed onto The Great Ocean Road to check out the awesome coastal scenery.

Family members will understand when I say that I was determined this was not to be a Dubbo Zoo experience and made this clear to Gaz. He agreed, but also said he would not necessarily get out of the car every time. No worries, I said. So, we stopped here…

And here…

And here…

Amazingly, (and this really is amazing!), we missed the turn off to the Twelve Apostles, the major attraction. In our defence, Marion and Kevin also missed it and had to turn back. Turns out there is no obvious sign to tell you when to turn. So, yes, it turns out we have pretty much done a “Dubbo Zoo” and based a 20 day road trip around visiting the Twelve Apostles…and failed to do so. (Marion says they chucked a u-turn, under dangerous circumstances with their caravan in tow – got tooted and all – and can share a photo with us.)

It was a long day, but we did finish the e-book, and then moved on to me making Gary guess the song name and artist of my 60s playlist on Spotify. He was pretty good…most of the time. 

We finally arrived in Warragul about 6pm after battling through the edge of Melbourne peak hour traffic and the infamous Monash Freeway that is currently under roadworks. We have voted this accommodation as our best cabin yet – criteria: lots of wine glasses, shower screen instead of shower curtain, comfy bed, right shaped bowls that fit weet bix in nicely, lots of wine glasses, wifi that works (admittedly you have to stand outside near the car), TV that works, table that doesn’t wobble and 4 chairs so we can have visitors! Oh, and a beautiful rose bush out the front! Did I mention the wine glasses?

Road Trip 2017 – Day 13 – Port Fairy Surrounds

Well, it had to catch up with us, and today it certainly did! It seemed like the middle of the night when I woke up just before 7am as it was raining pretty hard…and it just got harder as the day went on. We decided to try out the café at the beach for breakfast and that was a very successful outing  – yummy food – though we did get soaked getting to and from the car. This was the view from our table.

After touching base with the Tourist Info place after breakfast, Gaz and I chose to take a drive to Warrnambool while Kevin and Marion headed off to Koroit, a small nearby town for some sightseeing. Did I mention it was raining? It was pouring and there was a lot of surface water on the road making driving a bit tricky. Gaz and I drove around Warrnambool and found it to be a really nice place, if a bit soggy. We stopped into Kmart to buy a DVD – The Book Thief – as we knew we could only drive around in the rain for so many hours. We did find some nice beaches and scenery though.

Kevin and Marion had some success on their drive and saw some Emus as well as learning about a local attraction called The Towers, some basalt rock in water filled craters from an old volcano. They got soaked too…

Coming back into Port Fairy, we needed to gather some supplies for dinner, (my turn to cook tonight), and called into town. Did I mention it was raining? The gutters were overflowing with water and we had to wade ankle deep through water to get to the shop! By the time we were back in the cabin we were cold, wet, and over the rain – and we’d only had it half a day!

After lunch Kevin, Gaz and I watched the movie, (Maz had seen it before), and then I whipped up a pasta dish for dinner, followed by some dessert purchased from the bakery. This was topped off by a vigorous game of backgammon, a bit of tidying up, and then planning our trip tomorrow along the Great Ocean Road. It’s still raining this evening but fingers crossed we get a bit of a break tomorrow.

Road Trip 2017 – Day 12 – Port Fairy

We awoke this morning not to the dulcet tones of raindrops on the roof as we anticipated, but instead to blue skies with some scattered clouds. The rain gods were smiling on us yet again. After breakfast Marion and I headed off on a cycle ride while Gaz and Kevin took off for a round of golf. Apparently, (we heard later), the golf course was very nice, with some beach views, and the boys played quite well…better without the girls to slow them down it seems.

Marion and I enjoyed about three hours of cycling around town, to Griffiths Island, up the coast a bit, and through a few parks as well as taking in the sights of noted buildings. I initially felt a bit guilty that I had dumped Betty, my bike, in favour of Gary’s bike, Gerry. This did not last long! OMG – it is so much easier to ride! All this time I thought I was old, unfit, un-coordinated, and just basically a crap rider…and it turns out it was the bike, not me. Don't get me wrong, I love Betty, but definitely only on the flat. Gerry is a Giant, a lot more expensive, and now I know why. (Gary says I named the bike Gerry for geriatric ‘cause it’s his bike, but that is clearly not the case. Gerry just goes with Giant!)

Anyway, we really enjoyed our ride and at least felt we were burning some calories. After lunch Gaz and I then took a walk to the beach and into town…more calories…yes! Port Fairy is a VERY pretty place. All the houses are very well kept, the gardens are lovely. Gary was here for 10 minutes yesterday when he announced that he would like to live here! I can see the attraction.

I spent an hour or so catching up with the laundry this afternoon before we were joined by Kevin and Marion who had whipped up a scrumptious dinner. Roast lamb, gravy, mash, and vegies. Yum yum. This was topped off with some warmed up home made fruit cake, (purchased yesterday in Meningie), and custard. Who said you couldn’t eat well when caravanning/cabinning? It has just started raining lightly but the TV news has warned us of torrential downpours tomorrow. We’ll have to wait and see.