Day 5 Warnambool to Mt Gambier

David vanished to find a train that was due out of Warnambool Yard. He was gone went I woke up, so I had a lazy morning with a bowl of cereal and a few coffees... Drue stayed in his room twittering. Neither of us are in a rush.

David returned and reminded me to go next door to the bookstore to search for the book I was lusting over. It was closed until 11am so David took us to see the Lady bay lower lighthouse which is tucked away in a tourist village. You can see it from the verandah. I only have a canon shot as it was too far for the iPhone. SO here is the Upper lighthouse
Lady bay upper light house

Due to my interest in Lighthouses David took us to Port Fairy. The Lighthouses website stated a 300m walk.... a short (cough) walk. After 1.9km around Griffith's island, we decided that the 300m info was slightly off. Mind you, we saw wallabies, mutton bird holes and lots of baby birds chirping, a dead pengiun, there were ganets flying close to the coast and I was a little sad that I never got to see a tiger snake. MInd you it was gale force winds and we got sand blasted on the beach. FINALLY we found the elusive lighthouse. (but by this time we had missed am tour at Port Nelson or so we thought)

Griffiths Island Lighthouse

At the Lighthouse, David did a nudie pose before diving for the rocks in the other side of the when, behind Druey and me, some older people had arrived.. HUH?? Where did they come from??
After D had gathered his items, we had a look, there was a short cut, well sort of a short cut but a paved path of 1100m to the car park so we headed back that way. D'oh!

Portland was cold and rain. Rats this beautiful town was draped in cloud. Three ships were in port and one in the bay awaiting a berth. We took photos of all the ships that we could see but one berth is tucked into a corner and very difficult to photograph.
We agree on a lunch location, the General Gordon Hotel on the main road and the dining room was filled with oldies. I mean the very old. The meal was good but the clientelle explained the veggies mushed up with cheese. Easy to chew food for sure.
WW1 memorial portland
A quick stop in the second hand book store with no success and off to do the rest of the Great Ocean Road.
Victorian windmillsWind mills entertained us greatly and we stopped at a wind farm. Greenies tell you that this is a viable alternative to coal, but they only run when there is a gale, and they are very noisy. :-( Not good for the find summer weather when there is no wind.


Cape Nelson Lighthouse
Arranged at cafe to get tour, had to wait 20mins for guy to arrive, as it was arrange as you turn up tour arrangement. The previous tour had been 2 day ago. Hmmm Had the web site said that, we would have not dawdled on the way here. Sigh.
The lighthouse was is great condition, still in operation and had two assistant lighthouse keepers instead of the usual one. They lived in relative luxury of the times and a lighthouse keeper here was paid £150 a week which was a HUGE amount. The wife of the last Assisitant keeper said they thought is was a holiday and they stayed for over 20 years before retiring. Long tour as far as lighthouse tours go. Included a look through one of the cottages, and an intensive talk on the area and its uses. We had a look in the signal hut with the signal flags which was cool

Dreamy Cape Nelson Lighthouse Cape Nelson Lighthouse staircase Plaque at Cape Nelson Lighthouse
Most of the way down the lighthouse, David realised that he had left his glasses at the top of the lighthouse. D'oh!! SO he headed up and when he returned he had his iPhone as well that was next to his glasses in the light room. OOPS!!!!

At Cape Bridgewater there was a blowhole. Alas it was not blowing so we wandered over to the Petrified forrest. Odd rock formations. Certainly better in the sun. (If he had any)
Right next to the blowhole is a wind farm, they like them in victoria, and so we did a video of the noise the damned things make.

Crossed the border at Nelson and so we did the compulsory stop at the signs. I crossed the border by foot to take a mutli exposure with the boys driving to pick me up.

Back in Mt Gambier. The only town in this wretched state that I can tolerate, and David had us at a different hotel. It is basic but rather large and so we were happy with the decision.
A visit to the Valley Lake, saw us underwhelmed as the sun and disappeared again.

Dineer was at a "higher end" establishment, but it was really a confused cafe. It served burgers and lobster tail on the same menu. The service was slow and we almost walked out in the time it took to even take the order. Some garlic bread was placed on the table and a little confused, we nibbled in it as we waited the 30 minutes for the entrees.. Our fried camerbert arrived cold but the brushetta did not. We enquired and the lady said the garlic bread that had arrived 20 minutes earlier was the brushetta. UM.... NO. brushetta had chopped tomato, onion etc not just butter and garlic. You can't call garlic bread brushetta.
Luckily the mains were good, but again it had a sauce so very spicy that you could not taste the subtle flavours of the meat. It could have been beef except for the texture. Stupid cafe aiming above its station.
After dinner, we went down the Big sink hole for time exposures. A family of possums entertained us for a while and when the biys started to be eaten by mossies, we headed for bed.

Comments

Popular Posts