Luvapuzzle

Friends and some touring. 3/10/22

We had a lovely lunch and catch-up with old orienteering friends (Tony and Alison Radford) at their place in Castlemaine.

A little time was spent on basic shopping and on obtaining some more information about walks in the area.

Then we headed off towards home again, detouring to look for bird orchids (no joy) .We doubled back to Malmsbury, where we went in search of the historic viaduct (carrying the railway over the Coliban River) via the small, but pretty Botanic Gardens.

Malmsbury Viaduct. Completed October 1860 it contains nearly 4000 cubic metres of bluestone from a nearby quarry and has 5 spans.

We headed home the back way (avoiding Breakneck Rd) and into Kyneton, where we picked up a delicious pizza for tea.

Friends, Mount Macedon and Forest Glade Gardens 2/10/22

We caught up with our friends Bill and Audrey and their kids Fred and Albert for the first time in a few years. They live in Melbourne, and don’t come back to Adelaide much any more, so it was good to take the time and renew the ties.

They suggested that we meet at the “Top of the Range” – a cafe at the summit of Mount Macedon. Mount Macedon was roughly between our two locations, so worked well, and we managed to get there despite the best efforts of our Garmin car navigator, which offered a “less well used” option. The cafe is obviously feeling the effects of the pandemic, and weren’t offering hot food, actual recyclable crockery or toilets, but we enjoyed our cake and cuppa out of takeaway containers before we went for a stroll to the memorial cross nearby.

The view from up here is pretty amazing and the little lizards were out sunning themselves in the beautiful day.

After having a cuppa and snack together and wandering up here we still hadn’t really had enough of each other, so we agreed to go and have a look at a garden which was open nearby. it took a bit of doing to find a park which wasn’t in a no-standing zone. Lucky we did, as the cops came past and booked them all for $185 each.

The garden covers about 14 acres of land, some of which is steeply sloping down to the creek below. It was a delight to see the different areas of the garden, amazing trees, beautiful flowers ad numerous statues. Even the kids seemed to like it OK.

Here is just a glimpse of the beauty of the place.

Then it was down into Macedon to find a cafe and have a little more to eat and chat some more before reluctantly saying goodbye. Thanks Bill and Aud for suggesting this outing location and for finding the time to catch up.

Australian National Orienteering Carnival, Victoria 24/9/22 – 2/10/22

Well, the carnival is over and we have survived! Trevor and I went into this carnival unsure whether we should even be turning up. At the last nationals we ran in all the events but the relays and Trevor ran a lot of that with an injured Achilles tendon. This meant that it was very very bad by the time the carnival was over, and he suffered for over a year before it started to come good. Since then we’ve been through all sorts of injuries and sicknesses, including an ankle operation for Erica last December and a sprained ankle (the other one) less than a month ago. On top of that we both had COVID in July and have lived with the resulting lack of fitness since then. Trevor was feeling unwell even on the drive over here.

This time we left it pretty late to decide to come and made it a bit easier on ourselves. We decided not to compete in three of the nine events. Erica entered a shorter version of the course for her age group when she could and Trev entered the short version of the long champs. Trevor used his new SI Air timing stick, and loved the smoother and quicker punching process. Results were not displayed at events, but were, instead, uploaded so that people could use their mobile phones to see the live results (updated every 2 minutes). We have had a really good taste of the local maps and some great fun in the last week. What’s more, our bodies are still feeling relatively good.

We even came out with some OK looking results.

We arrived at Campbells Creek Cottage on Friday 23rd after two days of travel and an overnight stop in Bordertown with Paul and Sue. Perfect spot for us with two comfy bedrooms, good heating , a well equipped kitchen and a washing machine.

Saturday 24th Sept am – Victorian Middle Distance Champs, Daylesford

A long walk to the start for Trevor. A different start for Erica. Very little time spent in the assembly area because of this. Trevor 23rd (M60A) of 25, and suffering with visual disturbances in the finish. Erica Mispunched (totally missing one control out of her course). Not a great start to the week.

Saturday 24th Sept pm – Orienteering Grand Prix, Daylesford

This was a novelty event involving lots of hills (including a big one to the finish) , and a school sprint section after mass start waves. We both ran our age, which meant we were both running on course G. Trev was 10th of 11, Erica was 3rd of 4. Trevor broke his compass, Erica broke her magnifier.

Sunday 25th Sept am – Australian Middle Distance, Blackwood

A killer uphill walk to the start after a bit of quick equipment shopping. Thank heavens it wasn’t raining or it would have been slippery as well as steep and long. An optional river crossing back across to the last control. A long wait for presentations that partially happened. Trevor 19th of 30 (M60A), Erica 1st of 12 (W 55AS) making her the Australian Middle Distance Champion in that class.

Monday 26th Sept – School Sprint Championships and Goldfields 3 day- day 1, Kyneton.

We went along to watch the kids sprint. They started in the Botanic Gardens and ran up to the school, where they completed varying numbers of loops. The others then followed on the same courses. Most had a map flip and a spectator control in the finish chute before peeling off up the hill again. Those who didn’t understand the somewhat confusing map suffered the consequences. We were a bit sad not to be running, but I think our bodies were thankful. We visited friends who were housesharing in Kyneton after the event finished.

27 SA orienteers met up at the Railway Hotel in Castlemaine for a really delicious dinner.

Tuesday 27th Sept- Schools Long Distance Champs and Goldfields 3 day- day 2, Mount Alexander.

There had been a lot of rain in this area over the last few weeks. Because of this, the paddock planned as a parking area was unusable. There was a last minute scramble by organisers to request car pooling and set up shuttle buses from nearby Heathcote. We did our bit by staying away competely, and watched our phones for results while taking a day off. Sadly, a number of our school team had tested positive for COVID and were isolated and unable to compete.

We entertained fellow Tintookies James and Julia to a pulled together tea. I think they supplied more cheese and nibbles than we did stir fry meat and veg, but the company was great.

Wednesday 28th Sept – Schools Relays and Goldfields 3 day- day 3, Chewton.

After two days off, we were raring to go, but first the excitement of the relays. From a spectator point of view the event was disappointing. We could hardly see the orienteers from the start until the finish chute and the change over was also narrow and hard to see.

Early results for some runners looked to be mispunches, but were later checked and fixed in the computing system to show clean runs. With a number of our runners out with COVID we were very happy to see our SA boys come in first Australians and our Senior Girls 3rd Aussies. By the time the results were known were were already out on our own courses and missed the presentations!!

We both chose to run the shortest hard course, and enjoyed it, with Erica particularly enjoying noticing the many native orchids on her route. Trevor was 11th out of 48 starters, and Erica was 15th out of 55 starters.

We were invited to join the local Castlemaine Naturalists on a wildflower walk near Maldon and spent a couple of delightful hours looking for flowers and discussing flowers with some fellow enthusiasts (including our friends and fellow orienteers, the Radfords)

Thursday- Rest Day and Moving Day

We moved across from our very comfortable cottage in Campbells Creek (Castlemaine) to a timeshare unit in Kyneton. We met up with Beri (old family friend of Erica’s family) before we left town, and shared memories and news, while eating more than our fair share of crunchy and delicious Anzac biscuits.

Our new home is not as luxurious as the other, but certainly adequate for our needs and has the added benefits of superb blue wrens outside our lounge room window in the bush and excellent showers.

Friday 30th Sept- Australian Sprint Championship, Salesian College, Sunbury.

Today saw us in the car and heading towards Melbourne on the Calder Freeway. The parking was poorly managed and we had yet another long walk to the assembly area (but not a long walk to the start).

The start was on the oval which was the home of “The Ashes”. This was the place that The Ashes were first presented in their little urn. The final control was decorated with a set of giant stumps and bails as runners entered the finish chute and the courses were tricky among the multi-level buildings and occasional fences and walls which could not be crossed. Club member Rob Kriesl was there for the first time this carnival, as was past member (and friend) Maurice Patten (now an ACT orienteer).

We had been promised that the long awaited presentations from last weekend would be done today, so waited around and eventually were rewarded with the certificates we had earned, but not before yet another long winded and protracted wait. By the time it happened most had gone home…. and we still had to walk all the way back to the car, patiently waiting all alone back by the entrance gate. We were exhausted by the time we reached home. Erica and fellow club member (and place getter from last weekend) Clive made the most of the opportunity by taking a photo together on the podium despite the fact that we didn’t run in the same course.

Trevor 20th of 31 (M60A), Erica 14th of 23 (W55A).

A second dinner for SA orienteers was held in Kyneton. The number of those falling with COVID had continued to rise and we ended up with 22 for dinner instead of the expected 35. The Albion in Kyneton were very understanding and once again we enjoyed a good chance to chat about the orienteering and enjoy each others company.

Saturday 1st October – Australian Long Distance Championships, Maldon

After a couple of sunnier days, the organisers encouraged car-pooling, but allowed parking in a paddock adjoining the assembly area. We had another long walk to the start after a wait for the toilets. We were both doing short versions of our courses today. For the first time this carnival our start times were quite a long way apart.

The mixture of tricky rocky hills (for Trevor), spur/gully and complex Gold mining terrain made the courses challenging and those who didn’t get it right suffered for their mistakes with time losses. Trevor got it right, and came out a winner by one second (M55AS) in a field of 11 making him the Australian Long Distance champion in this age class.

Erica missed the podium by one place, with one costly error and two smaller ones. She was 4th of 16 in W55AS.

As we went to leave, the Tasmanian School team bus came past us in the paddock and sank down in the soft ground. Diments to the rescue with shovel and Max Trax. Sadly the old shovel came out second best with them using the handle-less blade to do most of the digging, and in the end a snatch was required to get them out. This made us just late enough to pick up fellow club member Vanessa and give her a lift into Castlemaine on our way back to Kyneton.

And that’s it for another year. One win each and our bodies still able to walk. Lots of fun and lots of good company with like minded people. It leaves us feeling keen to do more of it soon.

Wildflower walk near Maldon 28/9/22

We were lucky to be invited along by our friends the Radfords to a walk with the Castlemaine Field Naturalists. We met in Castlemaine and travelled in convoy to an area of bushland near Maldon, where the locals knew of some interesting flowers in bloom.

This is just a little summary of what we saw in the hour or two that we were walking and driving around the area.

Dusky Caladenia. There were lots of different shades of this.

side view showing the pointy extensions that make the difference between this and pink fingers.

some nice little patches of dwarf greenhoods

We had to go for an extra little drive to find the Gnat orchids below. Once we found them we had a heap of them together. Well spotted Trev.

and then another drive to find the rare swan greenhood (of which I didnt manage to get a decent photo). Apparently the tiny dark spot on the protruding head makes it a swan orchid (Pterostylis Cycnocaphala). This is tiny (only about 10cm above the ground)

Just moving away from the orchids, there was a special little grevillea which is apparently quite unusual that was in flower, so we admired this too. It is called the small flowered grevillea for obvious reasons. You can see from the photo with my shoe how tiny the plant and flowers are.

Thanks Alison and Tony for the invitation and to the naturalists of Castlemaine for welcoming us along.

Bordertown to Campbell Creek

We started the day with a 6 km walk around the Bordertown lake with Sue. We checked out the local RV parks (the one near the lake looks great) and a couple of sculptures and got in another hour of chatting as we walked. I have limited the pictures here , as the internet is poor and takes forever to load.

After breakfast, cuppas and more chatting we finally left Bordertown at 10:42. We took the back roads to the North Serviceton road, and then cut back out to the main highway. There were some excellent-looking canola crops with thick bright yellow flowering tops.

I missed taking a photo of the numerous coloured sheep and dog statues in the centre of Kaniva as we drove through.

Glancing out to the left a little later Trev noticed the two turbines of the Diapur wind farm a little way out on our left. Apparently, these two turbines are linked to the grid and supply enough power for 6000 households!

We decided not to visit the pinball museum in Nhill.

We stopped at Dimboola for lunch, in the spot we know as the “Driver Reviver Stop” , but today there was no free cup of tea, and no sign of the local Lions club who usually serve it (despite the fact that it was a pubic holiday and also school holidays).

We were (of course) taking the back roads on the most direct route, which was lovely. The sun was shining and there was a lot of water next to the road and in the paddocks. As we drew closer to our destination we started to see the scraggy gums and uneven soil areas of the goldfield areas…. a warning of what is to come in the next week or so. Where else in the world can you travel on a backroad for 54 km without a turn and only see a handful of other drivers?

Just before Kiata there were a series of posts decorated in blue and yellow. This is a sign of the times, showing support for Ukraine against the Soviet invasion. Someone near here must be particularly invested.

We came upon the Murra Warra Windfarm when we were about 25km north of Horsham. There were 99 towers in this one! Apparently this is enough to power 420,000 average homes. The road actually went between the huge towers. Apparenty the long term plan is for a solar array and also a battery on adjoining land.

Since Trevor had not been feeling great, we had swapped drivers at Dimboola, and Erica ended up driving the rest of the way to give him a break.

We arrived at our home away from home, on the outskirts of Castlemaine, just before 4pm (perfect time for a cuppa). It has everything we need and a little bit more, which will be perfect for a home base for the next few days.

Tomorrow we start the competition, with two events near Daylesford. One is late morning and the other from about 4pm. If you are looking for results you should be able to find them here but please don’t get too excited. We have no expectations of any success. Trevor is competing in the M60 and Erica in the W55AS.

Orchids on the way to Bordertown 22/9/22

As is the way, we weren’t really super organised with the holiday planning, so it was just after 11am before we were on our way. We have a place to stay once we get to our destination, but decided to take the Prado and swags. That way we can stop and camp on the way there and back and we have the 4WD for any tricky tracks or muddy parking situations.

We pulled in to the Kelvin Powrie conservation park just before Keith to have some lunch and stretch our legs. We disposed of the last of the cold pasties from the fridge and some sweet potato fritters (made to use up what we had at home) and then went for a stroll to the top of the nearby low hill.

It was only a few steps before we spotted the first orchid and then the hunt was on. We found 8 different kinds in the length of the short track. A delightful side excursion. Sadly the lemon sun orchids were closed on the gloomy day. We were particularly happy to find some fire orchids flowers among the many leaves and some lovely spiders.

We filled up with slightly less expensive fuel on the outskirts of Bordertown and visited Sue and Paul (Trev’s cousin) for a cuppa. Both were home as it was a public holiday to recognise the death of Queen Elizabeth 11.

Afternoon tea stretched into Thursday steak dinner at the footy club before more catching up and an overnight stay. Wonderful cousin hospitality.

Portland to Home 6/8/22

Our last day of holiday took us the remaining 550km or so to home.

The day was cold as we walked over to the pub for our continental breakfast included in the cost of the room. As we left the motel we spotted some chicks and mother in the car park – Masked Lapwings! Renowned for choosing crazy places to make a nest and then protecting it viciously, this seemed to be no exception. We kept our distance as we checked out the cute chicks.

A nice walk at the Livingstone Island Nature Trail ,near Nelson, gave us some practice spotting birds and an enjoyable stretch of the legs as well. The little gray Fantail didn’t want us to miss out on enjoying his song and gave us quite a performance. There were heaps of wrens too.

As we drove toward Mount Gambier from here we had to deal with some fairly thick Fog in places.

In Mount Gambier we did a little tour of our own, checking out the house that our niece, Annie, will be moving to and also the dental practice where she will be working,

before also stopping for a cuppa with Dave, a workmate of Trev’s from back in the day. The cafe where we stopped for lunch had an interesting bit of artwork. The display above the counter was from the parts of an old japanese motor car engine. The wall art was from the assorted wires and mesh also found in the car. Very creative!

Since we were passing through the Coonawarra, we took the opportunity to stop in at Wynns to do a tasting. Although we have enjoyed their wine for years, we have never visited the cellar door before. We enjoyed all the wines. The Michael Shiraz (2008) (selling currently at Dan Murphy’s for $150/bottle) was the pick of the bunch, we thought, but we didn’t buy any of it. Wynns also had a good display with information, including a cross section showing the Terra Rossa soil that the Coonawarra is so famous for. I couldn’t help but try to imitate the label on the bottle with the old building, trees and my favourite wine drinker as well in the picture.

Apollo Bay to Portland 5/8/22

When I look at all we did today I realise why I was worn out in the evening.

It wasn’t that there was anything long and hard in it, but just that we were learning and looking and wondering and concentrating and planning the next bit all day. This tends to be the way we like to travel. We don’t plan ahead much, but rather see how we are feeling and then try to figure out what is around that we can do that might be fun (and in the general direction that we want to travel) without using so much time up that we can’t get to our destination. When we finally find out where we might be able to get to in the day then we look for a place to lay our heads that night. There is some stress involved in doing it this way, and I tend to miss some of the looking out of the window, as I am using resources to plan the next move, but overall it works pretty well for us. We are lucky that mobile coverage is pretty good usually.

Although it is called “The Great Ocean Road” , the road does not always stay near the ocean. As we took out first inland uptick for the day we stopped at Mait’s Rest for our first little look around. It is called Mait’s Rest because everyone called Maitland Bryant (the Forestry Inspector) “Mait” , and this is where he used to rest his horse on his rounds back around 1914. The 800m walk here is a delightful adventure through rainforest and Mountain Ash. There is even a carnivorous snail that lives here (although we didn’t see it). This was a breathtaking walk which we really enjoyed. The signs were very informative without being too much, and we were encouraged to stop and let our bodies sense the forest. I think it helped us to soak in all the experiences of the day to come.

After this lovely walk we headed back to the coast and Castle Cove Lookout. From here we looked out over the ocean again, enjoying the magnificent views back along the coastline. We also were able to glimpse a look at the path that is used by the Great Ocean Walk. In this spot the path was a narrow grassy one. There was a map on a board showing the extent of this long walk It would certainly offer the chance to gain some great views of the coast, but would be pretty ambitious I reckon. They recommend that you cover the 110km from Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles in 8 days.

Heading inland again, we stopped to do the Melba Gully Walk. This is the spot where Jessie Fry used to have tearooms back in 1921 and she named the gully after Dame Nellie Melba. She operated the tea rooms until 1948 and busloads of people came to the area to enjoy the tea and the bush here. Then they restricted the length of bus allowed on this road winding through the mountains, and the tourists dried up, and so did Jessie’s tea room business. She sold the property to the Madsen Family, who donated it to the Victorian Conservation Trust in 1975. The 1.2km walk through here is named after that family in recognition of their generosity. It is another delightful rainforest walk, with walkways to protect the roots of the huge trees and a beautiful stream gurgling along between the ferns and trees. There is also quite a large, grassy picnic area just below the large carpark.

We had the place to ourselves on the rather wet walk and stopped in the carpark to eat a snack under the watchful eye of a large black Raven before proceeding on any further. As we drove out towards the end of the Melba Gully Road to meet the main road again we noticed the lovely sunflowers that someone had put by the end of their driveway – maybe made from the brushes of a street sweeper?

Back on the road again, and we decided to take a side road and get out to the coast again. This was a fairly dodgy road at times, but took us out to a track, which we then followed to the Gables lookout. We could see the Ocean Walk track again at one point, and were quite close to one of their remote campsites which must be pre-booked.

On the way back out we stopped to take a closer look at Moonlight Head Cemetery. This very remote little spot on the isolated road and is the final resting place for a number of those who lost their lives in shipwrecks near here. The bluff near here is called Moonlight Head.

The next stop was a short one just off of the road. Gibson Steps (to the beach) offer an access down to the cliff base and beach, which is something not often found near here . This lookout also offered us views of the first of the big eroded rocks out off of the coast, which was exciting. There were a number of young people way down below on the beach, frolicking in the cold waves on this very windy day. We decided not to take the many steep and slippery stairs down and then back up again.

We pulled in to the Twelve Apostles carpark at about 1230 and headed into the visitor centre to see if we could find ourselves some lunch – a couple of expensive sausage rolls were obtained and we ate them as we walked under the road in the rain to the viewing area to have a look out to sea. It started raining more heavily as we went , so it wasn’t a lingering visit , but more of a pause, walk, pause walk.

A little further along we took the walk to Thunder Cave (which used to be covered over the top, but the top has fallen in over time)

and then on to Loch Ard Gorge where the Loch Ard was wrecked on 31/5/1878. The two survivors were in this more sheltered area. Tom Pearce (a ship’s boy) managed to rescue Eva Carmichael (a passenger) who was clinging to wreckage, and they both slept. The next day he climbed out of the gorge somehow and met two local workers from a local station, arranging a rescue of Eva. They were very lucky to come in to a more sheltered area but how he got out of this gorge escapes me.

We stopped for afternoon tea at Port Campbell in one of the many cafes, looking out over the bay.

Before pulling in once more to visit the Bay of Martyrs. Trev walked on to see the Razorback while Erica repaired to the car, keeping out of the rain and resting her knee which was now starting to complain.

Another stop gave Trevor a chance for another walk to the coast to see “The Grotto”

By now we were starting to decide about where we would be stopping for the night, finally settling on Portland for a destination, booking the motel room online. We travelled onwards towards Warnambool, where we headed once more for the coast (past an impressive lake and parkland area) . We watched the very high waves crashing around on this windy day and looked out at the huge breakwater wall on one side of the point, and Middle Isand on the other side. Middle island is home to a little penguin colony and also many shearwaters. The area is minded by Maremma dogs who live on the island with the birds. There is no public access except on tours. Two Maremmas guard the penguins during the breeding season and stay on a farm when they are not on duty. This saves the penguins from foxes, which cross across to the island at low tide and are able to decimate the population.

We chose to walk across the pedestrian bridge near here and out to Pickering Point, where we walked for a short while, but the wind was really howling and eventually we decided that was far enough and back-tracked to the car.

We detoured briefly through Port Fairy before continuing on our way. The Codrington Wind Farm (opened in 2001) was quite visible on our left as we drove. Apparently this was the first commercial wind farm in Australia. They say the site is near to perfect for the purpose because of the strong prevailing winds coming off of the Southern Ocean. I can believe it.

Portland, not surprisingly has a big port. We could see the ships lining up waiting for their turns and had to ask Mr Google what is transported from here. The answer was mainly raw products to make aluminium and sustainable forestry products, but livestock, grain, mineral sands and fertiliser also get a guernsey. Our motel was out the back of one of the grand old hotels in the middle of town. We ate out dinner at the hotel and enjoyed the fact that the motel was not busy (no neighbours to make a noise). I think the drive was just less than 300km, but all the stops had made it a very long day.

Ferry, Point Lonsdale, walking and Apollo Bay 4/8/22

We were out early and arrived at the ferry terminal over an hour early. The view of the fancy houses with their own stairs and jetties as we pulled out was a treat.

We even saw a seal (followed by lots of gulls) having a snack in the water. I managed to catch a very bad picture of a Gannet (I won’t make you look at it, but it was enough for an ID) Here is a much better pic of one. This was good , because we hadn’t noticed ever seeing them before.

When we exited the ferry, we headed out to point Lonsdale (across the heads from Point Nepean where we were just the other day. The had quite an interesting lighthouse area, remnants of searchlight placements and a rocky beach. We found some tiny snails collecting in the small eroded basins in the rocks.

The grey buildings were the remains of an old internment camp for Italians, which later became a Toc H camp. It is now surrounded by a high fence to keep people out and a warning about asbestos. The other building of interest was a board riders club rooms. I’ve never seen that before!

We picked up some less expensive fuel just a little later (730 km since the last fill) . The fuel station was called APCO and advertised that their products were local, they were locally owned and they even told us the split of how much of the cost went where. 7% goes to the station, 35% for tax and the rest to the distributors.

We were now heading down the Great Ocean Road for the first time in many years. We stopped at the giant arch over the road before driving onwards to just outside Anglesea. Here we chose to do a little loop walk up the hill to get some great views. The area had been burnt fairly recently which meant we had great views of new growth coming through. Lovely furry Yakka growth, fresh leaf growth, some delightful wattle and tiny white flowers of the sundews popping up.

They had separate ovals for cricket and football here!

We had quite a few km of the bendy Great Ocean Road before we stopped again to do yet another little walk. The lure of a waterfall was just too much and we pulled in to a little parking area and followed a track and boardwalk inland to Sheoak Falls. We were greatly entertained by the lovely wrens on the way (at least 5 females to one male) before finding the lovely cascading falls.

Then it was onward towards Apollo Bay to find our home for the night.

It’s hard to believe, but there are suburbs in Apollo Bay – we were staying in Marengo (just heading out of town on the other side). We drove back in to town to find some tea before watching a little more Commonwealth Games and dropping into bed.

Arthur’s Seat and Balcombe Estuary 2/8/22

We drove to Arthur’s Seat and parked just by the Eagle gondola ride. We had a bit of a look at the ride, and were thinking we might come back and have a go, but in the end decided that we didn’t need to part with over $50 to see the same views we had already seen on our walk.

The circuit walk is only about 2 km long (a bit more once you have wandered around looking at bits and pieces). We went down to the Flinders Cairn first. The views were great from here. There were another couple of lookouts also on our route, and all offered great views.

The paths varied over the walk. Some nice bush and also some beautiful planned garden vistas as we walked in the Seawinds Garden section.

There are a series of sculptures embedded in one of the walls at Seawinds – they are all ceramic sculplures by William Ricketts.

We enjoyed a cuppa in the car while we sheltered from the nasty cold breeze and decided that we would do a bit of driving and have a bit of a look at the western coast of the peninsula that we hadn’t had a look at. We drove out to the coast, emerging near Dromana, and working our way up. Most of the way there is native scrub between the coast road and the beach, so you can glimpse the wooden bathing boxes occasionally, but can’t see much of the sea. There were some clifftop areas, where we got a few glimpses through.

We pulled in off of the road to a little sheltered picnic area near Balcombe Bay. Here an estuary goes inland and a local friends group have worked very hard to set up great interpretive signs and a lengthy boardwalk along the estuary as it heads inland.

We followed the path , crossing over the narrowing waterway to the top of Augusta Street, before continuing inland a little longer. At the next crossover we again used the bridge and came out very close to Uralla Road. Here we headed back towards our carpark, still enjoying the lovely tranquility and the flat walking of the boardwalk. The only company was the the local dog walkers, and the wrens.

At Mornington we deviated out into Schnapper Point and the old Park near the Point. Apparently you can paddle board here, but today it would have been very difficult. There was lots of wind and lots of waves.

We now headed inland. It was starting to get late in the day. There are a number of good walks available at the Devilbend Reservoir that we were keen to take a look at. We found our way there, but by the time we did, it was getting a bit darker, and we really only had a few minutes to have a look at the sign there and get a feel for what the walking was like, before we had to get out of the car park to avoid being locked in. There are a number of shorter walks there and also a long one which circumnavigates the reservoir. Might be worth a visit next time we are over this way.

Now we were quite a long way from home, but it was dark, so we headed homewards on a road we hadn’t taken before – following along on the other side of the peninsula. We even took a side road out to the coast in the town of Flinders to get a glimpse of distant lights down the coast and an impression of what we were missing. We did note that there was a Golden Breed store here. We didn’t think the brand existed any more. Google tells us that there are still three Golden Breed stores in Australia and this is the head office!! (The others are in Byron Bay and Noosa Heads) Back in the day (about 45 years ago) this was a very sought after brand to wear.

It was an interesting and wearying day. We ate up the last meal from ingredients in our fridge and sat down to watch more of the Commonwealth Games, anticipating that this would be the last of our touring. There was a forecast for a very rough night and lots of rain continuing into the next day. In the end the worst of the winds missed us and the next day was actually a real beauty.