Day 66 - Saturday 4 March - Portland, Port Fairy and Warnambool

DAY 66

SATURDAY

4 March 2017 –  Completed the novel Don’t You Cry by Mary Kubica, I really enjoyed this psychological thriller and was a welcome change from the novels I have read of late.

Portland – Port Fairy – Warrnambool

It was still cool and grey when we woke today, I wanted to stay snuggled in bed, but there was no time to waste, we were up and ready to get going. I rang a Top Tourist park in Warrnambool to book in for a couple of days and by 9.30am we were pulling out of Portland and heading on to Port Fairy.

The Port is an hour from Portland and is a place we pulled into 13 years ago remembering how pretty it was then so we were looking forward to returning and spending more than a fleeting glance.

We followed the caravan parking symbol. Locating somewhere to park our long vehicle and then gathered our things ready to explore. The local Honda Goldwing club were in town for the AGM and were parked up together at the local market. Paul spotted an old Triumph that he much preferred.

We wandered through the market admiring the various produce and arts on show and for sale. I picked up a gift for mum before we finished wandering through. We continued to meander up the main street, stopping for a pie before continuing up the road admiring the old architecture, a mix of stone and weatherboard but all very quaint.

The weather here was surprisingly warm and sunny. I needed to return to the car and change out of my jeans. We stopped in at the info centre first, collecting some info and then dumping our unwanted things and continuing our journey across the River Moyne and towards the wharf, where lovely homes backed onto the river.

We managed to walk all the way to Griffith Island, stopping where the River finally empties out into Port Fairy Bay, before turning back and wandering back into the town. The place has a very Irish feel to it, once being named Belfast. Many of the buildings still bare the name or some other town of Ireland.

We did a quick bakery stop and then returned to the van to make our lunch that was well needed. The GPS was then set and we continued the 30min down the A1 to Warrnambool.

The caravan park was easy enough to locate in the centre of town. With our instructions in tow we found our quiet little bay and pulled up. After the set up routine we enjoyed some quiet time before packing up the car and heading into the shopping precinct for groceries.

When the mundane was completed we made our way to the Flying Horse Brewery, which turned out to be a tavern in the burbs.  They did have their own beers on tap, though nothing is made at the premises. Paul was a little disappointed, but tried a paddle anyway.

With the drinks consumed we made our way to the coast, passing over Hopkins River on our way to Point Ritchie. We checked out the view from both sides of the river, which wound its way to the Southern Ocean. It was so lovely in the sun.

Now 5.30pm we needed to head back to the van to drop off the cold things and organise our dinner, Paul’s snapper and oysters, dinner for kings.  Yum!

After dinner I went through today’s pics and attempted to load some, it was a slow process. We did a walk of the park checking out the facilities, this is one the better equipped places we have been in.

We made sure the TV was working ready for tomorrow’s basketball match. SBS was working perfectly and we noticed that Borat was showing, so we decided to bring our drinks back and watch the movie.  We didn’t stay for the whole show returning to the van at 10 ready for bed.