Warrnambool to Port Fairy

We spent 3 nights in Warrnambool, however we spent quite a bit of time recovering from the last few days.  I even played some WOW (World of Warcraft) rather than just looking at things which were WOW.  

Well we sadly said goodbye to the Great Ocean Road as we reached Allansford.  We celebrated by visiting the Allansford Cheese Factory for lunch.  I didn't think you could have too much cheese in a toastie but you can!  It was scrummy though.  To drink David chose another local product - Shipwreck Coast - Raspberry soda.  Again delicious but not for sale in retailers sadly.

Warrnambool is quit a large town with Australian historical significance.  I don't want to go into all the history but it is part of the Shipwreck Coast and was a huge whaling town in its day.  It also has 2 lighthouses.  It was, we found, very quiet.  They like other towns have a lot of painted walls but we only sought after one of them.

Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village

The not to miss tourist attraction here is the above.  We were quite chuffed with ourselves when we could work out what the flags on the flagpole was saying,  

The next picture is for all we teachers - it made us chuckle - how things have changed!

Your ticket gives you access for 2 days and like other historical town tourist attractions they have different shops open on different days.  Tuesday was the turn of the wood turning and spinners.  I love watching people spin wool - they make it look so easy.  The highlight is their evening show.  We did not know what to expect - we were told it was a journey back through time and doesn't start until after dusk.  That is all I will say too.  It was brilliant both David and I thought it was excellent.  If you ever come and don't have a lot of time do the evening rather than the day - it is a must.  (Superb use of technology to make history come alive). 

There are some lovely walks along the coast of Lady Bay as well as out to Shelley Beach, which give great views out into the ocean and you can certainly see why it is known as the Shipwreck Coast - great for bird watching and whales in season.  Also there are the Merri and Hopkins rivers.  The latter gave us a lovely surprise of a mum practicing her bagpipes one morning while her four children played in the sand.  Of course the dog wanted to join in too.

Thunder Point Coastal Reserve

As we walked along the boardwalks near Shelly Bay we had great fun watching a hawk out hunting.

In the evening we chilled out by going to what we thought were thermal cave pools.  They were the former but not the latter,  They have naturally occurring thermal water from a bore hole but the caves have sadly been man-made.  It was still very relaxing and our bodies were grateful for the slow-down but the ambience wasn't there.  I went in all pools and even managed up to my neck in the plunge pool (12 degrees C some 28 degrees cooler that others).  I didn't stay in - straight in and out but David only managed 3 of the steps in! (I felt the air temperature at 16 degrees was cool enough)

Volcanic Lakes and Plains

As Port Fairy is only a 45 minute drive from Warrnambool, we decided to drive inland and visit some of the lakes, mountains and plains.  David had planned out a route.

Mt Leura

So nice when you can drive up to the top and just have a little walk out to lookouts, especially when the weather isn't all that great.  As usual I don't think the pictures will look as amazing as the views were.  If we ever do something like this again I am buying a proper camera again AND one that doesn't do selfies.  The amount of times I have gone to take a picture and have as I picked it up switched to selfie mode just isn't funny - has driven me nuts !!

As I was sat taking my panorama shot, I could hear David behind me.  He had forgotten his age!  He wanted to get a particularly good shot so had climbed up, next thing I knew he had kissed the dirt and his cream shorts were now brick red.  He was ok but had banged up his knee again which was just healing nicely from his hugging the barnacle rocks in Yeppoon all those weeks ago.  I guess I better post his shot so it was at least worth the effort,

When he saw it afterwards it was a little underwhelming unlike the colour of his knee!

Lake Tooliorock

When driving to the lake you can see Mt Elephant in the distance and also understand why it was so aptly named.  David was a bit upset when we got to the lake because the photograph on all the "Volcanic Lakes & Plains" literature has a boardwalk into the lake which a girl is walking onto with Mt Elephant in the background.  We get there and the boardwalk is shut - not impressed.  There is another tiny boat jetty the other side but nowhere near as impressive.  As with Mt Leura we were the only people here.  Again a lovely place for bird watching.

Mount Elephant

We were quite looking forward to seeing this mountain up close but sadly not to be as it was shut which was a little annoying as we had driven lots of unsealed roads to get there.

Plains and Towns

After two things being shut we decided to make a move back to Port Fairy as we had a heap load of washing to do and rain was forecast for the next two days - have to be practical sometimes.  However not before we had stopped in Mortlake at Clarke's bakery for lunch - David had researched again.

David's research is always good 😀