Advertisement
Published: November 21st 2011
Edit Blog Post
Monday 14th November – our intention was to use this break as a chance to relax and unwind. When we look back on what we have done in the last 14 months in general and the last couple of months in particular we feel that to be able to have a period of calm and absolute rest will do us good. Nevertheless, on Monday 14th November we couldn’t resist having an early morning walk after breakfast. We strolled through the village and past the two small stores on our way to the beachfront. There’s a 9 hole golf course in Peterborough which claims to be the most picturesque course in Australia. It’s in an idyllic location and is particularly well maintained. Today appeared to be Ladies Day although we don’t know if it was a competition or just a normal Monday procedure. It was a lovely walk for us and we eventually returned to the house for a cuppa and a read. We “stayed in” for the rest of the day (Graham had a much needed “doze” which seemed to last for hours) except for a brief excursion in the car at about 7:30pm to find the best spot to watch
the sunset over the ocean. We identified a perfect spot – near to The Bay of Martyrs – which we should be able to walk to another time. Tonight, though, we misjudged the time and there was still a lot of daylight left – the sun wouldn’t be setting for perhaps another hour so we returned to the house and settled down for the night, watching the latest stage of Aussie X Factor before retiring to bed.
On Tuesday 15th November we had a very casual start to the day. We thought we would have a short drive today, perhaps as far as Warrnambool. There were a couple of things we needed to buy which we couldn’t get at the local store but, anyway, the drive to Warrnambool promised to be a nice one and would complete our coverage of the recognised “outside lap” of Australia. On previous trips we’ve travelled as far as Port Campbell west from Melbourne and about 12 months ago on this trip we covered the road from Warrnambool further west, but we’ve never travelled the 60 kilometers or so between PC and W. We left the house at about 11:00am driving west and passing
several signed lookout points which we’ll probably visit when Daphne is with us in December. We also passed the famous Cheeseworld before we reached the outskirts of Warrnambool. We’d never been into the city centre before and it was easy enough to negotiate although all the centre parking spaces are controlled by meters. We paid our $1 for an hour and managed to do all of our shopping in that time, including buying a couple of chicken wraps to take away. We then drove to a beautiful park area overlooking the Pertobe Lake where we ate our wraps sitting under a gazebo to protect ourselves against the strong breeze. Afterwards we drove through the Pertobe Lake area to the ocean front and walked across the wooden footbridge onto Middle Island. We then found our way to the Information Centre and gathered a few more details that might be useful when we return to the area with Daphne. A conveniently placed Woolies store was our next port of call and then on our way back towards Peterborough we called in at Cheeseworld, just in time for the 2:30pm cheese tasting. A pot of tea and some scones with jam and cream
(it’s becoming a habit) went down well before I purchased a couple of different cheeses.
We then meandered back to Peterborough and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. It’s certainly an idyllic place to unwind and it’s a long time since we felt quite so restful. One of the lounge rooms has hundreds of books so there’s plenty of reading material. I found the book called “We of the Never Never” which I have been promising myself to read ever since we visited the area where it is based near Mataranka. I doubt that I’ll finish it on this visit to Peterborough but I’ll carry on with it in December when we return. Similarly, there’s a DVD player and we have identified two films which we are determined to watch – “Man From Snowy River” and “Red Dog”. As luck would have it, I was able to buy a copy of Snowy River while we were in Warrnambool but Red Dog is a very new film and won’t be out on DVD yet. We’ve been keeping our eyes open for a cinema but, so far, our timing keeps letting us down.
Wednesday 16th November we identified as
Cheeseworld - not quite as good Vincenzo's up in Queensland
here, the cheese tasting was done under strict supervision unlike the unlimited supply at Vincenzo's! a car-free day so we walked through to the “front” at Peterborough and enjoyed the glorious views across the ocean. There are plenty of crumbling rock formations visible from there, similar to those at The Twelve Apostles or The Bay of Islands, and the information boards tell of various shipwrecks that occurred during the “discovery” days. It’s easy to imagine how the wrecks happened as the waters must be so treacherous, but it makes for some fantastic scenery. There were no golfers around today so we were able to walk across the golf course, taking in the wonderful views as we went. The golf course winds around a “corner” which, coincidentally, took us back towards the house. Even without the coastal views, the house is in a fascinating place with a large expanse of water stretching behind the house attracting all sorts of birds but particularly Black Swans. Back at the house we both found our current books and spent time reading out on the front verandah - it was very relaxing. The afternoon and evening just drifted by although we dashed out in the car at about 8:00pm trying to catch the sunset that we had missed out on
a couple of nights ago. The sun looked magnificent but a layer of cloud on the far horizon stopped it from being a magical sunset. Tomorrow we will be leaving this lovely place so, reluctantly, I began packing but at least we can travel safe in the knowledge that we will be returning to this gorgeous location again in December. The rest of the evening was spent watching our newly acquired DVD – The Man From Snowy River – which meant we had a much later night than we had intended.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.193s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 12; qc: 27; dbt: 0.1529s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb