This last week has been one of several kilometres. Firstly we left Waratah bay to be back in Moama for a meeting, a visit to the storage facility and catch up with family and friends. We had another overnight stay at lockington at the travellers rest before reaching Moama. This weekend is the annual Sourthern 80 ski boat race so we were really anxious about leaving before the streets once again became grid locked as they do on that weekend.Straight through Bendigo stopping for fuel for the vehicle and ourselves before making the trip through Castlemaine, Daylesford and Ballan to Geelong. Once through Geelong to Portarlington and Bellarine Bayside caravan park. Strange coming to Portarlington and our good friends, Terry and Marg. not being there. We do manage to catch up with them later.

Bellarine bayside controls about 24klms of beach front in the parks they look after. Stretches from portarlington to St.Leonards and parks vary in size, with the largest at their headquarters at PA.Friendly staff, helped us when we needed to re-locate because of a fence and a parked vehicle near our original site but this was no problem to them.Vans our size are in the minority here and we see groups of several members of the one family occupying about 3-4 sites for their annual seaside holidays. Several options are available for long term  (seasonal) site rentals.Some nice photos around the park and the town and a meal at the local Tandoori with friends was great. They invite us back the next day for lunch and the usual mussel feast is difficult to refuse and we look forward to that. Terry loves his cooking and does a great chilli mussels dish.
After two nights we move on to indented Head to stay in another of Bellarine bayside parks. A smaller park but quite friendly. We speak to people who have been coming to that spot for up to 50 years and we learn that there are three generations of the one family there as well. These parks are different from what we are used to. There are more long term camps here than transient campers. We very much categorise ourselves as being in the other group of travellers. Several people take a lot of notice as we negotiate the park for our site and see the big rig coming in. Today, we move again to St.leonards on the beach. Another Bellarine park and a little different again. Not a lot of cars at the camps as we come in and only a few people walking around. Thats ok, it is a working day after all and will see a change at the weekend. Southerly breeze is still around so, after taking some photos of the camp after original set up, we go off to Queenscliff for lunch and a wander around the shops. After lunch and a quick drive down to Barwon Heads for a look at Diver Dans cafe, now At The Heads cafe. Call back through Ocean Grove for a stroll up the shopping strip, a lovely thick shake at a cafe there and on home once again. tonight its a BBQ with Ivan, Margaret and family and tomorrow we are North bound once again. May be overnight at Inglewood, me thinks....

Had a couple of days at Inverloch big4 and caught up with my Mum and one brother. Had another look around now the de-sal work has finished and found many houses for sale. They vary of course, right across the board. Inverloch too, has several nice houses for sale and they also have matching price tags.Just love that coastline. from the first time you catch glimpses of that dramatic vista over the sandhills at Kilcunda and on further to cape patterson and finally to inverloch with the ever decreasing point smythe  on the other side of Andersons Inlet slowly but surely filling the inlet. It's hard to imagine that when my father was a boy, ships used to sail into Inverloch to the original jetty taking Outtrim coal out, from about where the Big4 park is now. He said there was a crane on the end of the jetty and kids would climb it to dive into the deep water there.

On through Meeniyan, Fish Creek to Waratah Bay where the caravan park is located in Freycinet street.We have been going there for many years but we only took a cabin. we had a favourite that you could actually see the condition of the sea from our bed.The crimson Rosellas come to greet you and bags of parrot food can be bought from the small shop.Hand feeding can be done with confidence as the birds are cheeky enough to allow this.Fishing has always enticed me at Waratah and with only 23 steps from the top of the steps to the beach, why would I resist. This time though, fishing was not the drawcard. We went for R & R and that's exactly what we got. Nice to re=kindle the relationships once again with park managers and just chew the fat about the area, industry and future.

We asked my brother in law and wife to come over as they had just purchased a new van. They were planning a shake down trip with friends to Lochsport but all decided that Waratah was a better option. We had a good catch up there as well.
People behind us, German visitors joined us for happy hour and were very interesting to talk to.

Kay and Elke were fascinated to see the Koalas just behind our camp and still within the park.

What a great couple of weeks we have had. Moving quietly through the central goldfields of Victoria after the Portarlington mussel fest, we settled in Maryborough. Had a pleasant stay overnight en-route at Clunes, the booktown.. We have always liked Clunes. Our first venture there was on Anzac day about 1990 and it was a whole lot different then. A piper and tinrattler for the local RSL went from pub to pub ,piping and collecting and you could park anywhere in the main street on THAT Anzac day. Plenty of vacant shops in all states of disrepair and a couple of bric-a-brac shops and not a lot of anything else. Clunes has had a re-vitalisation. Lovely bakery, book shops galore, news, hairdressers a few gift shops have given a re birth to this old goldfields town. Well worth the journey from anywhere to Clunes.

Maryborough seems to be dominated by some lovely elevated architecture. Try and find anything higher than the old schoolhouse, the site of a new retirement village now, or spend some time browsing the antiques at the magnificent railway station before having a snack or perhaps even lunch at the lovely cafe there. A little further on from the railway station is the old mill, now turned into a sewing machine museum, yes ,thats right.  This corrugated clad 4 storey mill once crushed local grain and now houses a great collection of sewing machines and an impressive array of bric-a-brac.
The local highland society have a great club on the main street and serves a mean lunch. The town is also the gold seeker centre for victoria so any tips, or equipment to find that elusive nugget may be found at Coiltek out along the Bendigo road.Quite hot while we stayed in the Maryborough caravan park. We met a few locals and a few visiting fossickers out to find that elusive nugget.
Moving on we went to Inglewood, another old gold town with an amazing history. The great fire of 1862 destroyed most of the main street of Inglewood, so most of the buildings date from then.