Wednesday 18th February 2015.
A REAL chill morning – no alarm and a morning doing washing, sorting and diary. We had coffee and Weetbix for breakfast and weren’t in any rush at all – bliss. I managed to upload a few more days of diary to the blog and had a bit of a sort in my suitcase – Sue did another clothes wash and got stuff loaded in the tumble drier – the lady at reception said it would be okay to leave them, as most of the guests are out at work all day.
It was almost noon by the time we finally got on the road.The plan is to see the sights and do some walking. First stop was the huge sea wall / breakwater at the end of Viaduct Road – we parked up and had a walk on the rocks and then along the huge structure that helps form a perfectly flat and calm harbour area – it is a great feat of engineering – we could see the beaches on the other side of Lady Bay. We also watched huge shoals of fish moving like balls in the water, which is very clear.
Back in the car we drove across to Thunder Point, as had a walk in the nature reserve – great photo ops of the sea and and the rocks. Back in the car we were ready for some lunch, so we drove past the quaint Warrnambool railway station and into the town centre, parking up close to where we parked last night. We walked up Liebig Street and found Mack’s Snacks which is Warrnambool’s oldest cafe – established in 1948.
They have lots of lovely food on display and after some debate, we both had the same thing – stuffed jacket potatoes, with cheese, ham, spring onion, corn and other nice flavours, served with soured cream and coleslaw. With a coffee it really hit the spot. After we had eaten we walked along the shopping street and then back to the car.
Next stop was the Flume car park where we intended to have a walk on the beach – the car park is for the surf beach and the swimming, beach – there is a really good path all the way along the beach edge – clearly marked into two lanes – walk on the left! The sun was trying to break through. Off to the left is Granny’s Grave, 1300 metres away, so we made that our goal – part of the way along the path there was a beach entrance. We walked onto the unbelievably soft sand and had a walk along the beach, but it was like walking in treacle, so we went back to the path and carried on to Granny’s Grave – it is the grave of Mrs James Raddlestone, the first white lady to be buried in Warrnambool in 1848, when the settlement was less than a year old.
The sun is now out and is blazing down on a lovely afternoon. We walked back along the path and back to the car. A brief stop at the tourist office to use the facilities and thank the ladies for their recommendation, then on to Logan’s Beach which is the site of a really good whale watching platform. The whales come to the waters off Warrnambool between October and December to breed and are easily visible from the shore. There are some really nice houses in this area and some still being built – seems an ideal place to live. We then walked to the mouth of the Hopkin’s River just round the corner.
As we were taking a photo, a chap walking his dog offered to take a photo and we got talking, he asked how long we were in Warrnambool for and suggested we go to a local wildlife centre and described how emus walk round the car park and said there were free BBQ’s in the picnic area – he sold it to us but couldn’t remember its name. We said thank you and came back to the unit to sort the clothes in the tumble drier – a little internet research identified the place he described as Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve, which is just west of Warrnambool along the A1.
After Sue had sorted the clothes, we went to Coles and bought salad, bread and some lovely meat – some fillet of port and some nice beef steak. the park was easy to find and a real experience. We drove into what is in effect a volcanic crater and saw some wonderful rock strata. Before we parked up se saw some Emus in the car park. We also saw some people looking up into trees and saw a couple of Koalas.
There are various walks in the park and we did the Wagon Bay Loop – just under 2km – we enjoyed the walk and saw more koalas and some rabbits, as well as several birds and more emus. We then set up camp at one of the picnic tables and fired up an electric BBQ – very, very impressive and all free. We had a lovely meal despite the attempts of the emus to pinch the food and to peck at the scraps on the hot BBQ until I shooed them off. It was an interesting experience to say the least. After we had eaten I did my good deed by pointing out a couple of koalas to some German tourists, who were blissfully ignorant of what was above them.
A slow drive out of the park and a call at Dennington Woolworths for a sweet and milk before getting back to the unit for sweet, ironing, diary and sorting.
Trip – 575km
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