Journey of Exploration 2014

The year of 2014 has started off well for Bruce & Marg with New years at Waranga Basin. Catching up with all the family over the Christmas period, North of the divide.We then moved back to Macedon for a few days, Echuca via Lockington and then found Werribee South. This park is council owned and is situated right at the mouth of the Werribee river.Our site was against the brush of the native plants put up against the front fence that offers some protection from the prevailing Southerlys. But why Werribee South? Well for a while now, we have known other Scenic Vega owners, Cal and Jean who sold up at Werribee and moved into their van and move around a fair bit as well. Without talking to them about our destinations or parks we were going to stay in, we would go our seperate ways, perhaps a week or so apart and end up in the SAME park. They have used Werribee South as a base for a while now and return there for family reasons, so we thought why not? we will go and see why Cal & Jean stay here. Well, it was a great little park. A fairly high turnover of people who were going to or returning from Tassie as well as your casual travellers looking for a nice place to prop. We travelled into the city by train from Werribee station, we went to the cinema when it was forecast to be 43C, we shopped we caught up with friends, we toured around. All in all, a good little park, well maintained and a park we will no doubt return to.

Werribee South to Port Fairy. Port Fairy was previously called Belfast, is a historic 1840's fishing village that is full of bluestone buildings including quaint little fishermans cottages. Port Fairy also has a historic connection with our family as my great great grandparents landed there on 25th January 1857 after leaving Plymouth, England about six weeks earlier aboard the sailing vessel "William." They brought with them their first born child Frederick Lucius Brien who would have been crawling around the decks of the boat. Mary Jane was born in Belfast (Port Fairy) and died from diarrhoea within 12 months of her birth. They then walked from Port Fairy to Creswick in the Ballarat area for gold. and that is where their next child Henry Matthew Brien was born in 1859. The railway didn't get to Port Fairy until 1890, so there was no public transport and Port Fairy was a busy bustling port.Nothing much has changed there except the buildings have been now restored and look smart with their shining white paint and the real estate prices have reflected the renewed  popularity of the place. I worked there in the early 1970's for a relief in the National bank and stayed in the Victoria Hotel, now restored and re-vamped by the people that built the Dunkeld Hotel precinct. Nearby, the extinct huge volcano crater of Tower Hill is a wildlife reserve, Koroit is the potato capital of Victoria and Warrnambool, the closest large shopping centre. The rich volcanic soils of the area make it great for not only potatoes but also fat cattle. They look pretty healthy after seeing the drought effected cattle of western Queensland last year. Port Fairy has a lot to offer and earlier in our married life we considered spending the best six months of the year there and the other six months travelling.You would have to pick the RIGHT six months because of the chill winds there. Sounds pretty good still.

Port Fairy to Portland. Just a short hop really from what we would normally do, but Portland has attractions for us as well. We return to Henty Bay caravan park that is under new management and seem to be doing a good job. We stayed here about twenty five years ago, purely by accident. We had arranged a holiday with my sister and brother in law and his two girls and our kids in onsite vans for two weeks at another park in town. Upon our arrival after driving through what I remember a very hot January day, we were told that there was no record of deposits paid, no reservations as the previous managers had "skipped" with everything. These managers were really helpful in ringing around the other parks to find TWO onsite vans for us, and Henty Beach were able to help us.  What started out as a disaster, finished up really well with a great holiday, so why wouldn't we return? The park is a little out of town, only has bore water and the amenities do need doing up but the new team are slowly getting things done. The view out of our door of the sea and the waiting ships was fantastic and so we settled in for a few extra nights. Luckily we did as the Easterly winds came up and blew up to 28knots, so we were glad we had stayed the extra time. We ate out, we explored, we visited friends old places, they have all moved on now and I fished for a day.. Great.

Portland to Beachport. Yesterday, we packed up nice and early and were on the road by 9.30am.Portland to Nelson along the coast road is an interesting drive through grazing land and then acres and acres of pine forests. We cross over the Glenelg River at Nelson and cross the border into South Australia. Following the coast further we turn towards Port Macdonnell and hit there about lunch time. Visitor Information centre is a newish building that also houses the community library, meeting room, bank, museum and gallery.A great spot. The information we were after was about crayfish processing and that was no longer happening but a seafood shop was still open there and so a couple of freshly cooked crays are on the menu for dinner tonight. We are heading to Beachport and decide to shop in Mount Gambier before once again head to the coast. the drive through Millicent to Beachport was different again. Several road warning signs of rough road abound and we have already noticed the change in road conditions from state to state. The speed limit is still 110 on these roads, but remember that is the MAXIMUM.Once again, we have a magnificent view between the norfolk pines dotted along the shore, of the bay and the sound of the waves gently breaking on the shore can be heard as we settle down for the night..........