Day 89 - Monday 27 March - Final day in Geelong

Day 89

Monday

27 March 2017

Geelong

Started my new book - Burial Rites by Hannah Kent - From Corrigan to Iceland, this should an interesting read. 

We didn’t have a big touring day planned for today, rather just some bits and pieces to take care of. Surprisingly, the weather was blue and inviting, though we believed it was going to be a rainy day.

Once we were organised we walked up the high street here in search of the library and post office. It was really warm and steamy out and we were sweating by the time we made it to the post office 1.5km up the road. We posted 2 beer bottles to a fan of them in Canberra and then ducked in to the Library next door to see if we could have our parking ticket dealt with. It wasn’t, we could only put in a written statement with a copy of our tickets. Oh well.

We returned to the van, the wind had begun to pick up and we struggled to get down the street at one point.  We jumped in the car and took off to Anaconda for our toilet supplies. The news was telling us that the wind was gusting to 90km in places, taking out power in various suburbs and the storm front was on its way.

We then made our way to the double-header brewery – Little Creatures and White Rabbit.

We checked out the White Rabbit Brewery first of all, wandering the barrel hall and traipsing upstairs to see their open fermentation vats. Paul came down to taste test their beers, being blown away by the limited release Chocolate Stout.

Across the outside walkway, we found Little Creatures, a brewery synonymous with Fremantle, but now owned by one of the large companies. This brewery had a completely different feel to White Rabbit, far more family friendly and fun, where as White Rabbit is quite industrial and adult.

Paul again tried the beers on offer and happily chatted to Andrew the bar man.

Once done, we returned to White Rabbit so Paul could down a couple of pints of the chocolate stout and I was even persuaded to have a Teddywidder, which loosely translates as Fluffy Bunny.  It didn’t really taste beery and was even better with the raspberry syrup added.

We ended up coming home with 2 bottles of stout, Paul enjoyed it that much and says it is the best beer he has had. I made lunch in the van while Paul rang Marty for a chat. We saved the awning before it took flight in the strong wind and shook our head in dismay at those in tents, struggling to secure their things. It was a battle they would not win.

The sky looked grey and heavy with impending rain. We took the car into town for a quick shop before driving along the front, through the suburbs and back to the van where it was dry and warm. While it had been 34 today it was now back to 20. Getting all of the seasons today.

Don’t really know where the afternoon disappeared too. We got busy doing a lot of nothing really. By 5pm I took myself off to the kitchen to watch the news and catch up with what has been happening in the world. I also spent time researching our next moves. School holidays start here on Friday, so we need to be prepared.

We returned to the van and made dinner before we headed off for a walk around the banks of the Barwon River. It was surprisingly calm and the blue skies had returned like the weather front had never come through. 

When we arrived back, we took our washing to the laundry, figuring it was best to get it through now in case the next park doesn’t have the facilities and it will also free up time for exploring tomorrow. While waiting we read in van and uploaded to the blog.  Another day almost done and a new one waiting just around the corner.