SORRENTO TO SALE
22nd August, 2011
23rd August, 2011
24th August, 2011
Monday, 22nd August, 2011
Living Room, Seahorse Motel, Phillip Island, Vic
e left Sorrento this morning on another lovely sunny morning. It's rather ironic that the most consistent good weather arrived in Victoria, given the way we all malign the weather here. We passed some lovely seaside areas like Rye, Dromana and Rosebud, then went across the Mornington Peninsula through farmland until we reached the sea again at San Remo.
rossing the bridge to Phillip Island brought us into the town of Newhaven where we called into the Tourist Information Office. The girl there gave us a map with lots of places marked and also a bunch of accommodation leaflets.
e decided to visit Churchill Island, a heritage farm connected by a bridge to the main island with a historic homestead and lots of traditional activities designed for city kids. They had a restaurant where we planned to get lunch. However, there was no menu, we were shown a hand-scrawled scrap of paper with a food list (no prices) and we chose fish and chips, a burger and quiche lorraine. They told us it would be well over $50, not including drinks, so we decided to go somewhere where there was more competition.
On the way back to the main island we spotted a pair of black swans, more irony, they are the only ones we have seen, none in WA where it is the state emblem or in SA. Crazy.
nyway we went into Cowes, the main town and had egg and bacon rolls, Geoff had a hot dog with the works and chips and it came to $27.
Then we went to find somewhere to rest our heads. We decided to try the Seahorse Motel which had family apartments. Two queen bedrooms both with shower and toilet and a full kitchen and lounge for $170 per night. So we took it and booked for two nights. It is a little old fashioned and tired but has everything and more that we need.
Koala at the Conservancy, Phillip Island
e decided to visit the Koala Conservancy and went out to their boardwalk which purports to corral some koalas so they can be seen, but even up on the boardwalk the koalas are much higher up the trees and take quite a bit of spotting. A keeper told us that there were eight in the boardwalked area (not really an enclosure) and we eventually saw all of them. A couple were languidly scratching or pulling at leafy twigs to eat, but the majority were just huddled balls of fur up the trees. They might just as well put stuffed toys up there, they are about as animated. Still, it was nice to see them.
We had afternoon tea here then decided to scope out a restaurant for dinner. We will go to the Penguin Parade tomorrow night and go to the Nobbies tomorrow morning. We have decided on a Thai restaurant tonight.
Later:
The Thai was OK, a little disorganised - looks fairly new. Run by an Aussie guy and presumably his Thai wife. Their little girl was crawling over the floor, all evening.
Tuesday 23rd August, 2011
"The Nobbies", Phillip Island
p lateish this morning and another lovely day. We drove off to the Nobbies, a wildlife area with seal rocks at one and a half kms offshore, so not close enough to view but the scenery was spectacular. There was a really long boardwalk which wound around the top of the cliffs and showed all the vantage points. The silver gulls were very active (thousands of them) making nests, courting and indeed mating right in front of us. Lots of them were already nesting. At one point during the morning something intangible startled them and they all took off and whirled away out to sea. We thought they must have seen a shoal of fish or something but they all came back a few minutes later. It was amazing standing there with these birds all around us.
"The Nobbies", Phillip Island
e had coffee there and bought our tickets for the Penguin Parade tonight, then headed off for the Penguin Beach to see where to park etc. On the way we came across a family of Cape Barren Geese, two adults and several half grown goslings and avoided skittling them on the road.
At the Penguin Parade Visitors Centre we were able to check out the beach and also the exhibits in the centre without hundreds of others milling about and we were able to look into the burrows established on the side of the building. Two of them were occupied by pairs of penguins! That was great to see without hordes breathing down your neck.
We came back to town and had lunch at a cafe, did some shopping and came home to rest. We have to be back at the Penguin Parade by about 5 p.m. so need to feed Geoff a substantial afternoon tea before we leave.
Later:
e set off at about 4:30 for the Penguin Parade, arriving well before 5 p.m. They let us on to the viewing stand at 5:15 and we walked down to the beach, getting seats in the second row. It was a lovely night, cool but not windy. We were all rugged up and I brought a cushion to sit on. At about 6:25 the first penguins started to arrive, first in small groups, then much larger crowds, totally ignoring the crowds of onlookers who were pretty well behaved. I didn't see any camera flashes, like I did 15 years ago.
After about 20 minutes there were still groups coming ashore but it was getting too dark really to see them. So we climbed back up to the boardwalk to see hundreds of them trudging up to their burrows. Some of them have to walk over a kilometre to get home, poor little things. Anyway it was great to see so many.
e left them behind, checking to see if there were any under the car, apparently it happens, and drove back to Cowes where we had dinner at the Panhandle, a Tex-Mex bar and grill. Mac had beef enchiladas, I had beef fajitas with tortillas, lettuce, guacamole, & sour cream and rice (of which I ate very little) and Geoff had an enormous meal of BBQ pork ribs, chicken wings, and sausage with a baked potato. Stuffed to the gills we came home to count pro points and groan.
Wednesday 24th August, 2011
Inverloch Beach
e left Phillip Island this morning, heading for Sale. We took the roads less travelled, going through tiny communities like Tarwin Lower, Fish Creek etc. We stopped at Inverloch for Geoff to get some donuts for morning tea, then went to Inverloch Beach, a lovely spot with a wide sandbar, to eat it. It has been another lovely spring day.
Agnes Falls, near Toora, Vic
e continued on to Foster where we had yet another egg and bacon sandwich in a bakery. After this we turned off at a little town called Toora to go on a scenic drive. This was absolutely lovely, taking in first a scenic lookout which was panoramic and lovely, then an overview of the local wind farm and finally, the piece de resistance, Agnes Falls. Most unusually, the road was paved all the way with just 200 metres of track to the viewing area.
Agnes Falls, near Toora, Vic
he falls were truly spectacular, falling 60 metres down a wonderfully scenic gorge. The river is part of the local water catchment so is well monitored, in fact while we were there a couple of guys from the water authority came to have a look. But they have picnic tables and toilets as well as the view. We really enjoyed the diversion, it was 11 kms there and 11 kms back and worth every metre.
fter this we pushed off along the South Gippsland Highway, aiming for Yarram, but we decided to continue on to Sale, quite a large historic port town. We tried a Budget Motel but the only triple they had was very basic and we all felt very iffy about the proprietor. Not quite Bates Motel but....
e eventually found a room at the Hacienda Motel, a large family room and the motel had a Tapas Bar in house and a complimentary continental breakfast. Good stuff. Don't know about the tapas, seems rather expensive so we will probably opt for something else locally.
Later:
s it happened we decided to go for the tapas and we really enjoyed it. Dishes were small and meant to be shared so we shared bread, gnocchi, meatballs, paella and chicken wingettes. All tasty and in small serves. We also shared two carafes of sangria made with red wine and fruit juice with chopped apple. Have no idea how to apportion the points so we are not bothering.
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