16th Jan to 28th jan 2010

Sunday 17th January 10

Weather has returned to winter conditions. The rest of the day was spent watching the test match.

Monday 18th January 10

Day of rest due to the wintery weather but in the evening we drove in to Rosebud (I don’t know who dreamt up that name for a town) to go to the cinema to watch ‘Bran nue dae’ which was quite amusing but surprisingly didn’t show aboriginals in a good light but rather truthfully, despite the amount of aboriginal cast and story line

Tuesday19th January 10

Nothing to report other than very cool weather

Wednesday 20th January 10

We shopped in Hastings and then played 9 holes of golf on the HMAS Cerberus golf course which provided a good walk for us and Foxy. In fact both Foxy and Merry were pretty well done for by the time we finished. Our fitness levels have declined somewhat, and having not played golf sine last January last year in Adelaide it was as well we elected to only do the 9 holes. HMAS Cerberus is Australia’s largest naval training facility which also houses the golf course. It only has 9 greens but has 18 distinct Tees so a second 9 holes is different to the first 9 holes. Allowing Foxy to walk round with us is most unusual and is the only course that we are aware of that allow, it but we haven’t actually tried at the outlying country courses before. City and larger town clubs would never entertain the idea. At one point of the course we passed a naval cemetery which has us rather puzzled as to why, surely the training isn’t that rigorous. The down side to the game of golf was that my personal chef was too shattered to cook dinner, and therefore had to suffer fish and chips from the local shop, which left a bit to be desired.

Thursday 21st January 10

Recovery after the golf

Friday 22nd January 10

Merry worked on the SAVE accounts whilst Barry watched the one day cricket match. The park is filling rapidly with make believe fishermen for the long weekend, consequently the noise level has risen exponentially. If it was just fishermen it wouldn’t be so bad but they bring their kids as well, and then forget to use them as bait.

Saturday 23rd January 10

The park is now about to overflow, and despite the size of the bay you can hardly see the water for boats. You could almost use the boats as stepping stones and walk out to fish from anywhere you fancy.

Sunday 24th January 10

The traffic on the water is now worse than on the roads for the journey down here. You don’t need to catch the Ferry as you can walk across the boats to French and/or Philip Islands.
Kev and Christine (fellow travelers) took us into another local village of Bittern to their Sunday market for some genuine fresh vegies

Monday 25th January 10

We drove down to Nepean National Park whilst Foxy was looked after by Kev and Christine, and took the Tourist Transporter Trip around the Park. These are two tractors towing five carriages each that leave the visitor centre every half hour and you can get on or off at any of the 4 major points of interest at will.

We went to stop 4 first

Fort Nepean which was a gun emplacement for protecting the entrance to the bay and therefore, Melbourne.

The entrance is also protected by the natural rip created by the calm water of the bay and Yarra River trying to leave the bay meeting the rough water of Bass Strait trying to enter the bay.

The emplacement allows you to explore the tunnels beneath them leading to the 6 inch shell storage areas, and gun posts, etc.

The guns apparently could fire the shells 9 kilometres.

We then went back to the visitor centre carpark and had our picnic lunch and caught the transporter to Stop 1 The old quarantine station were all migrants entering Melbourne had to spent time until cleared of decease.

We bypassed stop 2 which we visited a while ago and proceeded to Cheviot Hill that overlooks the beach where Prime Minister Harold Holte was drowned .

We climbed Cheviot Hill, walked to the Eagles nest which is a machine gun emplacement and observation post and then to the memorial stone just up the road

We finished the walk back from Holte’s memorial stone with a close view of one of the local metre long tiger snakes.

The effect of the zoom lens makes it look closer than it was but we were about 3 metres away which is quite close enough for one of the worlds most deadly

On the return journey to Stony Point we did a short detour in Portsea to have a look at yet another 'London bridge.'

Tuesday 26th January 10

We celebrated Australia Day with some of our fellow travelers and park management in the campers Kitchen with a BBQ lunch and sharing experiences, jokes, etc and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Later we watched the one day cricket match.
We had a disturbed night due to 3 ignorant female tent camper (baby whales with blubber obviously extending right up to the roots of their hair) who slammed car doors and where prepared noisily chatter all night until Barry used his usual 2.00am charm and tact to shut them up. Apparently they got the message load and clear. They also got a serve from management the next day.

Wednesday 27th January 10

We had to take the car to Mornington for its 80000km service which happens to be a big one costing $1050. This meant an early start to get there for 8 .00am, but as Barry normal wakes at daybreak which is currently at 5.40am (all you need after a disturbed night) he discovered a need to slam some of our car doors and run the diesel engine to warm it up in readiness for a 7.30am departure. He also had to repeat this operation as a precaution at 7.15am to ensure a smooth trip. We watched some of the Aussie open tennis and then took Foxy for a walk via a bush track almost to Crib Point, our nearest village about 2 km away.

Thursday 28th January 10

Collected the car from Mornington, shopped and attended to this blog plus a jigsaw puzzle.

Tues 22nd Dec 09 to Wed 6th Jan 10

Tuesday 22 December 09

In the morning we walked into Loch to get some bread and to take a few photographs. The afternoon we drove to the nearby town of Korumburra to look at the heritage town of Coal Creek. Unfortunately once there we discovered that once again we couldn’t take Foxy with us but as it wasn’t particularly hot we decided to leave her in the car while we looked around.

The town of Coal Creek comprises about 30 old shops and businesses that have been moved here from various places to look something like what an old mining town would have looked like, plus a steam train salvaged from the good old days.

A couple of the shops appeared to be operational under normal conditions but apart from the cafe none was operating on this day. This was because Tuesday is not normally one of their opening days – school holidays being the difference, but lacked the weekend volunteers.

The businesses were all fitted out with whatever they did or sold and the whole village was one of the best examples of an old mining town that we have seen.

There was just about every kind of business that you could imagine operating at the turn of the century and a small train (not the steamer) was operating as well. We didn’t find out where the train went to because it left just as we arrived.

Merry spent about twice as long as Barry looking around taking her usual hundreds of photographs. We spent about an hour in this village and were very impressed. We could have stayed longer but with the dog in the car this was not possible. Even the gardens were lovely with some still having spring flowers in bloom. As with a lot of Victoria the whole place was very English looking and the gardens were mainly English country gardens.

From Coal Creek we went for a drive to the Botanical Park where we had been told there was a nice walk beside the creek to take Foxy for a walk. The actual Botanical Park was very nice with lots of imported and native trees but the actual walk along the creek was a bit ordinary – the walk quite short and not much to see.

From here we decided to take a drive around the countryside as we were very impressed with the scenery in the area. Beautiful rolling green hills with cattle, sheep and horses grazing, and some crops here and there.

Merry programmed the Navman to take us to Strzelecki, Seaview, Drouin and finally back to Loch and so we set off. We spotted a sign that said somebody’s lookout so Merry asked if we could take a look so we turned off down a dirt track with some fairly steep drops on one side or the other. The track was only wide enough for one vehicle with nowhere to go if we met something coming the other way which fortunately we didn’t. After driving for about 5 kms we came to a barn and a farm gate and no lookout in sight so we turned around and went back to the road. At the road we took another look at the sign which said somebody’s outlet not lookout, still we enjoyed the views. On to Strezelecki. We came to a sign that said ‘Welcome To Strzelecki’ but we didn’t see any buildings but we did stop for some photographs as the area was very pretty. Where we stopped there was another sign facing the other way also saying Welcome to Strzelecki so quite what we were being welcomed to we really don’t know. We continued on to Seaview and turned onto a road called Grand Range Road, which took us through some spectacular ranges with scary drops off the side and again quite narrow. This was again a dirt road and I noticed that Barry’s knuckles were often white on the steering wheel. I don’t think he saw much of the lovely scenery. We came to a sign saying Seaview but once again no buildings. Our Navman said we still had 2.5 kilometres to go and told us to turn right, he then told us to turn left which left us a bit confused but as the paper map appeared to be to the right to get to Seaview we turned right. Fred (our Navman) then told us to perform a U turn as soon as possible but this proved impossible so we kept going. After about 5 kilometres we decided that we had made a mistake but we still didn’t see anywhere to turn around on this very beautiful but narrow and twisty road and Fred was still saying perform a U turn when possible so we turned him off. Our only option was to keep going until we saw a sign which gave us some indication of where we were going to and eventually this happened and when we saw a sign for a town which we recognised we headed for it. Drouin didn’t happen and we drove for considerably longer than we intended but I really enjoyed the trip and I think Barry did also when he dared to take his eyes off the road for a fraction of a second.

Wednesday 23 December 09

An early start to go to Packenham where there is a Diesel Gas agent to check the gas system on the car. The gas is once again playing up intermittently, unfortunately. Of course today proved to be one of those days when it was not playing up so the technician could do nothing for us and we had a wasted trip. To make up for it we decided to drive back to Loch via Drouin where we had tried to get to the day before but there was nothing much to see. The trip back through the hills via Poowong was lovely though.

The afternoon we packed up the annex as we were expecting rain the next day. Barry put the awning down on an acute angle to protect the chairs, etc, if it rained during the night.

Thursday 24 December 09

Finished the packing up and took the caravan back to Carrum Downs to the caravan park where we stayed before Loch to store it while we spent Christmas with Garon and Sue. We stopped for fish and chips in Carrum Downs and by the time we arrived in Beaumaris Garon was home. We dashed up to Southland for a bit of last minute shopping. I spent the evening watching Carols from the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne. It was raining so the attendance was down a bit.

Friday 25 December 09

After a lazy morning, Sue cooked a beautiful pork roast for lunch followed by Christmas pudding and brandy cream or custard. The meal was delicious and as usual beautifully cooked. Tea was ham, cold pork, cheeses, prawns and salad. Barry actually made an attempt to eat a prawn but only managed about half before it was rejected as poo.

Saturday 26 December 09

We left home with Garon and Sue at 8.30am to get the train into Melbourne to go to the Boxing Day Test (cricket). Colin the MD of Garon’s firm is a member of the MCC and he invited us to lunch in the Harrison Room in the Ponsford Stand. This lunch is put on by the ”29 club” which is a group of older members who only admit to being 29 and therefore, can continue to play cricket for as long as they like. We arrived at the ground at 9.30 and as we had general admission tickets as well we watched the practice of both teams and the start of the first session from about 6 rows back in the general admission section of the ground. When Colin arrived he took us through to the members stand and on to the Harrison Room where we started with champagne. This of course went straight to my head so I took the opportunity to find a seat in the Ponsford Stand (where padded seats had been reserved for us). The seats were on the second level where you get a superb view of the wicket but are still close enough to see the play properly. I had my binoculars with me to see the faces but I didn’t use them much.

Lunch was Tasmanian Trout served on a bed of potato salad with tomato and avocado, followed by medallion of beef with zucchini, potatoes and beetroot relish. A side of sour dough rolls.
Afternoon tea was party pies and sausage rolls.
Drinks were free between 12.00 and 4.00 pm and wine was served with lunch. I mainly stuck with water after my scare with the champagne.

The cricket was excellent with Watson run out on 93 and Katich caught on 98. Ponting was caught on 57 and Mike Hussey and Hauritz (sent in as night watchman) still there at close of play.
We missed about half of the second session with lunch which included an interview with Brad Hodge which was interesting n some respects but he should have kept his bitterness with the selectors to himself, but we saw all of the rest. It was a very special day and one we will probably never repeat. Our next trip to the cricket will be sitting with the riff raff again.

27, 28 and 29 December 09

We spent these days watching the cricket at home on Garon’s big LED screen TV. Pakistan put up enough of a fight to take the test match to a fifth day which was good.

However, we did drive down to Frankston to take a look at the sand sculptures display on 27th. This display was quite something, featuring moments in history. They use builders sand which apparently is square rather than beach sand which is round, to keep the sand together.

When the sculpture is finished it is sprayed with something which helps to stop it deteriorating. The display is on until 26 April so they obviously expect it to last until then.

Garon said that he went once before fairly late in the piece and the sculptures were pretty degraded when he went so it pays to go early.

We called into Dick Smith’s on the way home to try to get the software that I need to get my computer to recognise my Garmin GPS but it has to come from Garmin.

Wednesday 30th December 09

Leisure day

Thursday 31st December 09

We had a cold Turkey dinner (cooked by Merry in Garon/Sue’s oven once the method of turning it on was overcome), to celebrate the coming New Year but none of us stayed up until midnight, but some of us heard its arrival.

Friday 1st January 10

Leisure day

Saturday 2nd January 10

Barry helped Garon prune next doors jungle and to install a new fence post to get the fence upright again. This both removed creepers from the lattice on top of the fence and stopped next doors lemon tree rattling on the cat run roof.
In the evening, due to the lack of anything intelligent on TV, we watched ‘Wolfe Creek’ at Barry’s request as he had never seen it but has wanted to ever since spending two magical nights there, with two great friends and their dog. The film didn’t bother him and he would still go again if the chance comes his way.

Sunday 3rd January 10

Merry packed most of our gear ready for leaving tomorrow. Barry helped Garon finish off the fence now that the cement is thoroughly set and then modified the front gate slightly to stop it sticking during hot weather.
In the evening, for the same reason as yesterday, we watched ‘Slumdog Millianaire’.

Monday 4th January 10

Finalised packing at Garon/Sue’s and headed for Carrum Downs to do some shopping and retrieve the caravan from storage. We then drove down to Stony Point and set up the van and annexe.

Tuesday 5th January 10

Day of leisure watching the test match.

Wednesday 6th January 10

Another day of leisure watching the test match. Merry has befriended the lady next door and gone fishing with her. She has also arranged for her to look after Foxy next Monday whilst we go to Philip Island for the Penguin Parade.