Casterton - Easter 2015

We took a leisurely scenic journey inland to Casterton through tiny towns, including the cutely named Bessiebella and the larger more known town of Heywood on the Fitzroy River. Ate lunch at a park in Heywood – complete with nice new playground. 

Encountered a couple of other nice little rural locales, namely Digby and Merino. At Merino we paused at a disused servo and read about the heroic drovers who drove stock across these dry and distant plains.

Set ourselves at the small but adequate caravan park in Casterton which was not even half full – a good escape from the busy-ness of Easter. Casterton claims itself as the ‘birthplace of the kelpie’ and is an attractive town in a valley with the Glenelg River snaking its way through. The view from Mickle Lookout laid the town out before us!

We enjoyed several walks around Casterton, finding the few sculptures that celebrate the famous kelpie dog.  We also rode our bikes along the ‘Kelpie Trail’ while camped there.

During our 5 days in Casterton we partook in the family’s latest hobby of Geocaching. We drove for several km’s in each direction from the town and located many!

On one particular day trip out of town, we explored Bailey’s Rocks, in the Dergholm State Park. Bailey’s Rocks are a series of granite boulders spread randomly in a small valley. Some balance precariously and some we could scramble upon and explore.  They were like a mossy version of the ‘Devil’s Marbles’!

We drove out to see the ‘Bilston Tree’ – thought to have been a wee sapling back in about the year 1200, it’s a River Red Gum with a girth of over 7 metres and a height of around 40  meters. Some large limbs fell off a few years ago and have been carved quite creatively by an artist.

Warrock Homestead is where the sheep station where the kelpie was first bred. We visited the homestead which is still privately owned. We got a personalised tour from the lady owner.  It was an interesting old homestead. We also took a walk around the property checking out some of the out buildings, all built in the same Gothic Revival style of the homestead. 

Warrnambool

After a night at Lake Colac - a peaceful free camp a few km's out of Colac we made our way to Warrnambool where we checked into Surfside Holiday Park in the Lake Pertobe area. Our spot is just a few metres from the steps over the dunes to the beach of Lady Bay. Across the road from the caravan park is the Adventure Playground that the kids have had fun on, from the giant slides, swings, maze and flying fox...

We spent most of Monday at Flagstaff Hill historic area - a lovely little 'village' and Maritime Museum. The kids enjoyed the 'Treasure Chest' hunt where they had to solve puzzles and riddles all the way around, putting the information in their 'passports'. They solved all mysteries! The local ducks were obviously used to the tourists feeding them, and feed them we did as they virtually chased us up the main street, ironically from the Steam Packet Inn... what had those ducks been drinking?

Here are the kids searching some barrels for the next clue in their quest...

We returned to Flagstaff Hill for the night laser and light show 'Shipwrecked' - based on the historical ship wreck of the Loch Ard. The museum part of Flagstaff Hill has many of the items salvaged from the wreck including the remarkable statue of a peacock. The museum bought this a number of years ago for around $4000 and now it is estimated to worth around $4 million! It was on the Loch Ard en route to the Exhibition Buildings but never made it - but survived the shipwreck with just a small bit of damage to its beak. 

The light and laser show was very good - gave us all a scare a couple of times, like when our seats all started moving to emulate being on the ship! Then the music began quite loudly a couple of times. Ethan spent some of the show with his beanie over his eyes! 

Here's our caravan site...

Also at Lake Pertobe we enjoyed a go in one of the noisy motorboats - Zac & Jet in one, with Daz and the other two in another...

The weather was great for an afternoon of boogie boarding - the water was cold but with wet suits, the kids stayed in for a while.

We were treated to a colourful sunset after being awoken early by a group of German tourists trying, unsuccessfully to fold up their motor-home awning in the dark. They had someone on the roof, some muttering all sorts of profanities in German... so Daz set off to look at the sunrise!

Back at the Adventure playground...

There is a terrific bike / walking trail that goes for about 7 km's along the foreshore, from the Breakwater to the mouth of the Hopkins River. We rode it several times, and stopped and found a number of geocaches along the way. Daz also rode from Port Fairy back to Warrnambool (41 km's) while Jet and the kids walked around Griffiths Island.

Tomorrow we leave Warrnambool and head about 165 km's to Casterton - just as the crowds descend on Warrnambool for the Easter break. We have 4 days there too.

Phillip Island

 

5 days on Phillip Island was a pleasant way to begin the latest school holidays. We booked and stayed at 'Jerebeth Cottage' in Cowes which was a great base for touring around the island. Clean, modern and comfortable... we were even welcomed by a basket of home grown eggs and a block of chocolate! The complimentary coffee was also a lot better than the average instant you get in such establishments!

Over the course of the 5 days we got and discovered as much as we could. We'd pre-purchased the Phillip Island Nature Parks 3 parks pass, which got us to Churchill Island, the Koala Conservation Centre and the famous Penguin Parade.

 

There is a little used - perhaps not widely known - dirt road linking the Nobbies and the Penguin Parade. Along this road is some of the most spectacular coastal scenery you could find anywhere!

 

 

 

 

These geese have the best views!

 

 

Cape Barren Geese have been listed as endangered, and a breeding program has been instigated on Phillip Island which appears quite successful as we saw them everywhere! There were also quite a new chicks of various ages... these young ones were on Churchill Island.

 

Also on Churchill Island we loved seeing the herd of Scottish Highland Cows! They are very cute indeed, especially the calves.

 

At the Koala Conservation Centre we saw lots of koalas high up in the trees, but were fortunate with one which was down low and was wide awake and on the move - unusual as they sleep for 20 hours a day.

 

Not far from The Nobbies is Flynns Beach which features the remnants of an old jetty which looked spectacular in the late afternoon sunshine.

 

The kids had a lovely afternoon on Flynns Beach, playing in the sand, making sand castles and playing a bit of beach cricket. 

 

We hung around for a nice sunset at Flynns Beach...

 

 

 

As well as general admission to the Penguin Parade, we joined a family tour with a ranger which took us behind the scenes a little and find out more about the penguins and their lives! The kids loved this, asked lots of questions and learnt a lot leading up to the evenings parade. It also meant we were able to get excellent seats for the parade. The night before, over 1000 penguins came ashore. We rugged up and enjoyed the waddling spectacle, then spent some time around the boardwalks watching them go by - listening to the various noises they made - including the cries of the hungry chicks in their burrows. Unfortunately no photos are allowed of the penguins... so this one is from their website.

 

 

In Cowes we enjoyed a couple of walks out on the jetty including one evening after fish n chips.

 

Of course, Geocaching featured on this trip - here we found our 200th cache which was marked with much celebration! We found most of the 'Not Road Kill' series which consisted of various types of rubber / plastic animals hidden around the island.

On the boardwalk at Ventnor we found another cache and left a couple of 'travel bugs' to continue their journey around the world.

 

On the way home we had lunch in San Remo and then a round of mini golf at Pirate Pete's at Grantville.