Family, friends and fancy stuff

An relatively short but wet trip trip from Nelson saw us checking into the Gardens Caravan Park at Port Fairy just on lunchtime. We were delighted with site number 95, facing the Moyne River under large Norfolk Island Pine trees (which would later prove to be an effective block for our satellite dish 🤣) but the view was great. This caravan park encompasses the local oval but it must have been an ‘away’ game for the Seagulls as we saw no action on the oval or netball courts.

Port Fairy holds a very special place in my heart as my favourite uncle lived here until his death and my auntie and cousin still live here.

Family were largely the reason for including Port Fairy in our itinerary, but what is not to love about this charming village that sits on the bank of the Moyne.  It is one of the busiest fishing ports in Victoria and vessels of all sizes are tied up at the picturesque wharf where many families try their luck with a line in the water.

We spent five nights in Port Fairy, walking along the beach and into town and perusing the shops. It is interesting how easy it is not to buy things when you only have about 22 square metres to live in.

It was lovely to be able to catch up on family gossip with Auntie Heather and Jacki and be treated to dinner at Chez White twice!

In an effort to offset the calorific intake we incorporated an afternoon at Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve one day and a day trip to Warrnambool with another stroll on the beach there. Like Port Fairy there had been significant storm damage a couple of weeks earlier, thick kelp littered the beach and the breakwater was closed to pedestrians.

The weather still wasn’t lending itself to barbeques and sitting outside watching the sunset but the forecast was getting better and we looked forward to some sunshine at our next stop some 55 kms north at Penshurst.

Our good friends Jenni and Bill farm several thousand acres in Penshurst and we were to spend a couple of nights pulled up in their driveway.

We arrived in bright sunshine, parked up and proceeded to catch up on the last couple of years over a cup of tea before Jenni surprised me by saying she had a ride planned for the afternoon.

I was ecstatic, first ride in a couple of years and whilst Russell headed off in the ute with Bill, I saddled Paddy to help Jenni check on calves a few paddocks away.

Paddy was a perfect gentleman and when we found a newborn calf that needed tagging we called the boys and watched while the job was done.

Penshurst is a gorgeous little town and the next day I had the opportunity to check out the Wetlands whilst Russell and Jenni had a roll at the local Bowls Club where Jenni is a member.

I’m not sure who was the eventual winner of the bowls comp but we all enjoyed the pies from the Penshurst bakery that we had for lunch before saddling up for another ride in the afternoon.

We covered enough kilometres that my soft unused muscles felt it the next day (and the day after)  but it was wonderful being back in the saddle and I am very grateful to Jenni and Paddy for the opportunity to do so.

We finished the day with dinner at the pub where it was great to catch up with another friend, Sharyn, as well as Jenni’s daughter in law and grandchildren.

On Saturday, our fridge well stocked by Jenni with produce from the farm, we headed off to our next destination, Daylesford.

Daylesford sits in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range and despite its beginnings as a gold mining town,  is  best known now for being a ‘spa’ town. The area around town encompasses several natural mineral springs and is in fact the source of over 80% of Australia’s mineral water reserve.

The main street was a hive of activity with many restaurants, chic clothing stores and galleries. We arrived early enough to walk around beautiful Lake Daylesford along with many other tourists. Melbourne is only an hour and a half away and that makes Daylesford a very popular weekend destination.

Very nice but very expensive Thai takeaway completed the day and we were pleased to see the sunny forecast for Sunday as we planned to visit the markets the next morning.

The ‘Covid safe’ style market with reduced stalls to maintain social distancing, was still worth visiting, situated as it is under picturesque deciduous trees adjacent to the railway station. We made a few purchases, had morning tea at nearby VERY popular “Cliffys” and then headed back to wait for the arrival of the restored Diesel Electric Rail Motor (D.E.R.M.) that would take us on a scenic ride to Bullarto, about half an hour away.

A quick stroll in the main street (the chef needed a rolling pin) and we were home in time to get our washing off of the line before threatening skies delivered a brief thundery shower. Tomorrow we are on the move again, destination still to be decided 😉