Home Sweet Home

“Where we love is home, that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.”

                       (Oliver Wendell Holmes, American poet,1809-1894)

Kiama Blowhole

Tuesday 2oth September.

John and I drove up the NSW south coast slowly, only driving about 100klms a day the last few days. On Tuesday night we were in Kiama, close to Woollongong, we have stayed there a few times before. In the caravan park, when we had the smaller motor home on our first trip away, we couldn’t get the power to work and had to ring the dealer to advice us. Of course it was something simple.

Kiama headland.

Coledale.

Sea Cliff Bridge

Kiama is famous for it’s blowhole, on Tuesday the sea was calm, so it wasn’t blowing very hard. We did a small grocery shop, John took a couple of photos as it was a lovely sunny day, then we settled into the caravan park. The park is right on the water, hardly had we booked in when a big squall come up and everyone was scurrying to put their annexes down. It passed fairly quickly, the sun came out again.

Wednesday 21^st September.

We drove back to Sydney via the coastal road, only 80 klms to John’s sister, who lives with her family in the southern suburbs. Coledale and the Sea Cliff Bridge were stops along the way for photo shoots. We wanted to ease into being in traffic again. John cleared out the storage area underneath when we arrived at his sister’s place, one less thing to do when we get home.

Chris and John.

We enjoyed a fun catch up that evening with Chris and Wayne, then had our last sleep in the motor home.

Thursday 22nd September

Of course we forgot about Sydney’s peak hour traffic, it took us double the time to get home about 10am. Two flat car batteries greeted us, a phone call to the road service got someone out within the hour. We needed the cars to unload clothes, food and equipment into the house from the top of our driveway, then for me to follow John up to where the motor home is kept. We will go back another day to clean.

We were very tired after unpacking but look forward to settling back to our normal routines after our great trip around Australia.
We were away for four months and travelled 18,000klms.

Thank you all for coming along with us!

New South Wales South Coast

Snowy River.

Sunday 18^th September.

Coastal areas are worth seeing, we have seen a lot of our coast these past four months. However we like to be inland for a change, Orbost was a welcome change, it’s on the Snowy River. We had a night in Orbost after Sale.

The Snowy River is a major river in south eastern Australia. It originates on the slopes of Mt. Kosiuszkio, Australia’s highest mainland peak, draining the eastern slopes of \the Snowy Mountains in NSW. Before flowing through the Snowy River NP in Victoria and emptying into Bass Strait at Marlo near Orbost.

John and I did the tourist drive through Marlo from Orbost this morning and followed the Snowy River.

We are in Eden NSW tonight, heading for home.

The mouth of the Snowy River at Marlo, Victoria.

Monday 19^th September

It’s a beautiful warm day. We have had quite a few cold nights. Now we  might be able to put the jackets away. The area around Eden is cattle country, beef and diary. We drove through rolling green hills and the sun sparkling on full dams; to Bateman’s Bay. On the way we stopped at Central Tilba, near Narooma, a quaint little historic village with  tourist shops, including a lolly shop. I got some fresh bread from the bakery to take to my Aunt’s place for lunch. A nice little picnic spot beside Lake Corunna, was our morning cuppa stop. As we drove off, a red bellied black snake slithered across the road in front of us. John missed a photo opportunity, the snake was too quick.

Wisteria at Central Tilba.

 Around 1pm we arrived at my aunt’s place for lunch. Aunty Trisha and Uncle Roy are in their 80’s now and having some health issues, but gave us a warm welcome and were interested in our trip.

John and I drove to Batehaven late this afternoon and booked into the park with a water view in the background.

Tomorrow a short days drive to Kiama, then a night at John's sister's place, before home on Thursday.

Sale, Victoria

Clocktower in Sale.

Friday 16^th September.

John and I are enjoying our last days of the trip. We have been away almost four months."Syd" has taken us to some great spots.

We have stayed in Sale, Victoria for three nights, driving through some of the country areas surrounding this rural town. Sale is the junction of two highways, South Gippsland and the Princes.
We have missed our television in some towns, sometimes having only one channel. In others we had none. Here we have had a good choice of shows, it helped in our decision to stay for longer. The caravan park is nice and quiet; we are close to the amenities and near town. Sale is on the Thomson River, it has a small port and marina.

Port of Sale.

Nice to get back to civilization in some ways, others not. Big towns have roundabouts and traffic lights, lots of cars. But bigger shops and supermarkets. Some outback areas we weren’t  able to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, some items like bananas have been too expensive.

Most towns have bakeries, how nice to buy fresh bread and rolls, along with the slices and tarts!

Thomson River

We saw a couple of towns out from Sale today, John had a look through a car museum in Maffra.

Old Holden at Maffra Motor Museum.

Morris Cooper.

Today we came back to the park to find a caravan all set up on our site. The mix up was sorted out and we moved to another spot, easier for us. We have to leave a chair sometimes on our site when we go out, most parks have us on computer so don’t give the site to someone else, mistakes do happen though. The manager came over later to apologise.

On historic swing bridge in Sale.

Tomorrow we head out on the Princes Highway,towards the New South Wales border.  We will be in Victoria for another day or so.

Thanks to modern technology we have been able to keep in touch with family and friends, in fact most have been along with us, sharing our adventures.

Victorian Towns

Lorne

Monday 12^th September.

 We left Lorne after breakfast and drove to Queenscliff to get the car ferry over to Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula. The trip is 40 mins and saves the long drive through Geelong and Melbourne. We made the 11am ferry and were in Sorrento before 12.pm

Rosebud was our stop for one night, we booked into the Foreshore camp ground after doing some grocery shopping. Some people in a large tent across from us started playing loud music and John complained to the Ranger’s office twice. Luckily the music stopped before dark and we didn’t hear it again. Thank goodness, because the ranger goes home at 4pm.

Unusual house.

I rang Peter and Lyn, a couple we met on a previous trip to Queensland. We arranged to meet up with them the following day. We have all kept in touch and we were looking forward to catching up with them at Dromana, a short drive from Rosebud.

Beach huts at Rosebud.

Peter, Lyn and John at Arthur's Seat Lookout.

Tuesday 13^th September.

Arthur’s Seat was the lookout at Dromana where we arranged to meet up with Peter and Lyn. They live close by and know the area. We spent a lovely few hours with them around the small towns on Westernport Bay and had lunch at the Hastings hotel. We said goodbye about 3pm and continued on our way until 4pm, stopping at Korumburra for the night. We had a good catch up and talked of having another holiday together.

Wednesday 14^th September.

The drive on the South Gippsland Highway took us through rural grazing land, we headed towards Sale. 175 klms away, stopping in Foster for a take away coffee and buying bread rolls for lunch. We were in Sale about 1pm and had lunch by the lake after we booked in the caravan park for two nights. The info centre in town gave us a few brochures of places of interest to keep us busy for a day or so. John went for a walk around the lake after lunch while I caught up on my reading.

We came back to the park and settled in for the afternoon. The caravan parks have been quiet, although Sale is a junction for a couple of highways, we noticed a few caravans have booked in here. It’s also the gateway to the Gippsland Lakes, a popular holiday area in the warm weather.

When we leave Sale, we will be on the Princes Highway heading into the NSW south coast.

The Great Ocean Road

Bay of Islands

Friday 9^th September

We left Port Fairy after breakfast. The wind had died down some, we headed towards Warrnambool via Koroit and Woodford although couldn’t find the original schoolhouse we were looking for. Raining off and on.

We didn’t stop in Warrnambool this trip, when we joined the Great Ocean Road, we stopped at Cheeseworld for coffee.

Loch Ard Gorge

Stunning limestone cliffs started appearing, the first lookout we stopped at was Bay of Islands. It was hard to leave the warmth of the truck. John and I rugged up in our scarves and coats.

The day was half over before we booked into Port Campbell caravan park. The wind was blowing a gale, very chilly.

Twelve Apostles, or what is left of them, a few have fallen into the sea.

Saturday 10^th September.

John lost his glasses at the twelve apostles lookout. After losing them and again finding them a few times this trip, they are gone this time. Of course the other pair are at home. They were in his pocket so goodness knows where they are.

Gellibrand River Pub.

John at the bar.

Continuing along the Great Ocean we detoured off at Laver’s Hill and went inland to Gellibrand River. And booked into the park for one night. We had lunch at the pub in front of the log fire and settled in for the afternoon. No television or internet, but will watch dvds.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

John was up at 4am, he had gone to bed at 7pm, he read his book then needed a bit of a nap before we packed up. John went on the Otway Tree top walk while I decided it was too cold and had a Devonshire tea.

Tree Top Walk.

John climbed 100 steps to the top of this tower.

Looking down.

We were back on the Great Ocean Road before lunch and stopped at a couple of lookouts for photo shoots. We decided to drive through to Lorne as we got to Apollo Bay a bit too early to settle in there. Before then we saw people out of their car on a section of road that is a koala colony. We had seen a few there on a previous trip and today found one curled up in his tree.

Koala.

Now booked in the van park at Lorne for one night. We are getting closer to Melbourne, but won’t be going into the city. Before then, we will catch the car ferry from Queenscliff near Geelong for a 40 minutes trip to Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula.

Port Fairy

Talara.

Tuesday 7^th September.

After breakfast we set out from Mt. Gambier for Port Fairy.  We enjoyed our time in the crater lakes area, so glad we decided to come home this way. It meant seeing the Great Ocean Road.
for the third time, but who’s counting? It’s a lovely part of Victoria. We drove into Portland to have a look at this shipping port. Again, lovely old heritage buildings are preserved.

Portland dock area.

There is a little part of the world that means a lot to my family. My mother’s ancestors came out from Ireland in the mid 1800’s to settle in what was then known as Belfast. We now know it as Port Fairy.

My mother’s great grandfather, Dilmond Howes, became the shire engineer and lived in the area. He came here in his 20’s married and had two children. One was Robert Henry, my great grandfather. Dilmond was a colourful character, he made enemies and at one time was jailed for setting fire to the shire offices, later released. But that another story. Before this happened, he had designed several bridges, roads and his own house, which luckily for us, still stands.

Braim House

“Talara” meaning softly falling rain, is on the Princes Highway
as you come into Port Fairy from Portland. It’s a Gothic Revival design, Dilmond and his family lived in the house for over twenty years. His first wife died in childbirth having their third child. Dilmond remarried Mary Quinn, the daughter of Dr John Singleton, well known in Melbourne in his day. His first wife was the sister of Dr John. Dilmond and Mary Quinn went on to have about thirteen children. I guess he needed a big house, it also had servant quarters.

Side view of "Talara"

Shopping precint.

                                        Lighthouse on Griffiths Island.

John and I visited the church where most of the children were christened, St John’s Anglican. It was locked so I didn’t get to see the organ gallery that Dilmond had designed. We took photos outside Talara and Braim House, where Dilmond’s father had been the principal of the school there.

Swans and cygnants.

Wednesday 8^th September.

John and I went for a walk to Griffiths Islands over a causeway. Port Fairy lies on the Moyne River, it has the Southern Ocean on it’s doorstep. I only went a short way, John walked 3.6 klms to the lighthouse and back. We met a man on the track who is a journalist for a nearby town’s newspaper; told us the lifestyle here is so good that there are seven doctors in town, unusual in a regional town. The small hospital would benefit as well. This guy said he moved here and does his work from home or café on his IPad.

Near Griffiths Island.

The Rivermouth.

St. John's.

James St.

little heritage cottage.

We drove into town after driving along the headland overlooking the ocean. Newer estates are all along the coast with great views out to see. The older heritage cottages are closer in town, there are 50 heritage listed including “Talara.”

I enjoyed taking photos of these small cottages and historical buildings.

We had a coffee in Rebecca’s Café.

The Marina.

Rebecca's Cafe.

Mt. Gambier

Blue Lake.

Monday 5^th September

Mt Gambier has some interesting attractions, crater lakes and sinkholes. Blue Lake is the city’s water supply, we took the 3 klm drive around the lake and stopped at the stunning lookouts for some good photos. The surrounding landscape has tall pine trees, while I’m not sure what is the height above sea level the city is, it reminds me of a high mountainous climate. There are a good number of walking trails all around the lake area, besides Blue Lake there is Valley Lake and a dry lake named Leg of Mutton.

Pumping Station

The sinkholes are caves that have subsided in years gone by and left deep holes. Beautiful gardens have been set out in these formations, we saw Umpherston Sinkhole and Englebrecht Cave today and have left the city one, Cave Gardens until tomorrow, this one is in the middle of the shopping precinct; off the main drag, but just around the corner from a coffee shop!

Umpherston Sinkhole

                                                          John at bottowm of sinkhole.

After our coffee we did some shopping and came back to the caravan park. We had a quiet afternoon and I did some washing.

Tuesday 6^th September.

Rain greeted us this morning when we woke.  The city shops are a short walk away, we decided to see the Cave Garden and go to the movies. Lucky both are in the same area. It rained off and on all morning, in between the sun came out. There was a hailstorm in the afternoon.

Cave Garden.

                                                                         At the lookout.

The Cave Garden in surrounded by businesses, something new for us to see. Colourful spring flowers are already budding in the park. John walked down into the garden, a few too many steps for me, I walked to the lookout.

John at the bottom lookout.

Flower beds.

“Red Dog” was a good Australian movie, set in Dampier WA. Afterwards we walked back to the caravan park and spent the afternoon relaxing.

Tomorrow we go into Victoria and start our drive on the Great Ocean Road.
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