OF MICE AND MEN!

As you might guess, our best laid plans did not eventuate! However, we truly believe that our timing has been carefully kept in our Lord's hands every step of the way. Victoria was to be just a brief sojourn as, having lived in central Victoria previously, we had thoroughly explored the state and so we were to make a brief stopover to see some friends in Warrnambool, Teesdale, Ararat and Rochester before going to my sister's near Bairnsdale and my brother's near Bega and then making our way northwards. However, we came to a long stop of 28 days in Warrnambool, and we thank God for old friends who look on us as family and so cared for us.

However, before Warrnambool we had an overnight stop at Dartmoor and five nights at Portland to finish off our 2019 adventure. Dartmoor is a quiet forestry town with koalas and beautiful tree sculptures, and the small school boasts of it being the place that Jeremy Cameron [GWS player] did his schooling.

Peaceful camp spot at Dartmoor

Other campers on the river

The first koala we saw beside the river

The second was wide awake

All the characters are from nursery rhymes

The original tree sculptures were an ANZAC memorial

The sign says it all

In Portland we did parkrun twice - on the Saturday and then on New Year's Day, went to the Pressie church on Sunday where our friend Rod was preaching for that Sunday, went bushwalking with the Portland parkrun people, spent time with Rod and Sandra walking and having coffee together in the heat, walked the town both in daylight and at night, toured the coast near Cape Bridgewater and walked along the beach there while trying to absorb the horrors of the East Coast bushfires that had impacted both my brother and sister-in-law in NSW and my sister and brother-in-law in Victoria on the same night early on New Year's Eve.

Normal Saturday

On NYD Steve ran and I volunteered

Bushwalking or Bushrunning at Cape Nelson Lighthouse

Spectacular views at Cape Nelson

It was hot in the bush

We appreciated the slight sea breeze out of the bush.
Steve came back to find those of us who walked the 8 km loop.

Cape Bridgewater 

The Petrified Forest that isn't really a petrified forest at Cape Bridgewateer

Wild seas below the Cape

Minute flowers eke out their existence

A photo really doesn't tell the story! We were getting wet at the lookout.

Portland has a tourist tram but we walked everywhere

Evening walk on the beach

Evening beach reflections

Beach below Anderson Point Steps

I cooled off in the water

This sand deposit told the story of wild seas at times, but not this day.

Interesting textures in the rock face

Enjoying a walk together

Another evening beach stroll

Cape Bridgewater Beach

I loved the sand patterns as we walked

We walked the 5 km return stretch of the whole beach

One end of the beach

The other end two and a half kms away

It was with very miserable feelings that we made our way to Warrnambool after parkrun on New Year's Day. Because our friend Rhonda has known both of my siblings for such a long time, we were able to spend a long time talking, debriefing and being concerned for the family from afar for those first few days, as well as trying to work out what we were going to do now that we couldn't get to the two farms on our way through to the rest of the family in NSW. Little did we know that the strange growth on my leg was going to stop us in our tracks. However, we made the most of our time by going to Allansford, The Great Ocean Road, Tower Hill and Port Fairy as day trips, as well as worshipping at the Church of Christ with Rhonda and Brian and participating in Warrnambool parkrun.

Port Fairy

Protecting Port Fairy from invasion

I loved the mural on the boat

Emu as we climbed Tower Hill

Stunning, if hazy, views

Emu chick ... or maybe a teenager

Keeping a watchful eye

It was hot and the magpie needed a drink as much as I did

We thoroughly enjoyed the walks around Tower Hill Reserve

Tower Hill is made up of extinct volcanoes

This mural depicts two generations on the corner of the TAFE building

Lots of street art can be seen in Warrnambool

This one is a mosaic

There were a few 3D pieces of art too

We were fortunate enough to speak with
Jimmi Buscombe, the Wombat Man, as he began
a new wall art - the Flight of a Thousand Birds

More of Jimmi's street art in another lane way

The emu and chicks is on the opposite side of the rail pass to the wombat

I loved the deatail of the chicks having hatched

The original Jimmi Buscombe street art

The water tower on the hill

At the back of a cafe

The second of the birds in the Flight of a Thouand Birds
Such a difficult surface to paint

Warrnambool Botanic Gardens

A meal out together at The Mortlake Thai Restaurant
Absolutely delicious food

Milkshake time at Allansford
in the Warrnambool Cheese Factory

I am so glad that the old Fletcher Jones Gardens are being kept

The three faces on the water tower represent immigrants and refugees living in Warrnambool

On Monday, 6th, I was going to go to the hospital to have the growth on my leg checked as it had started to change rapidly, but Rhonda told me that the local doctors who dealt with skin had advertised that they'd accept travellers who needed to be seen, so an appointment was made for Tuesday morning. The doc told me that it had to come out and that would be the following Monday. At that point we decided to take the van off the front verge and spend a couple of days away while we waited. Another night at Lake Bolac was followed by two nights in Ararat. We did Ararat parkrun, and then went to the very interesting Gum San Chinese Heritage Centre with Rod and Sandra before having lunch with them at the Manse. Later in the afternoon we made our way to the top of One Tree Hill for some spectacular views from the Lookout there. On Sunday we travelled to Skipton to meet with the small congregation there before heading back to Warrnambool for Monday's procedure.

Smoky sunset on Lake Bolac

The Lake was almost still giving the scene a Monet feel

After sunset

Gum San had a dress up section

Our friends looking appropriately sombre

Lookout from the top of One Tree Hill

We didn't explore where the track went from the One Tree Hill Lookout

The congregation at Skipton meet in the hall but we had to look inside the grand old building

To cut a long story short - the projected one hour procedure became three hours and the squaama had grown exponentially so that the stitching back up of my leg was difficult. The poor young doctor was worried that I would have an ugly scar instead of the intended neat one. However, I did remind him that I was 71 and not 21 and that a scar didn't matter! The pathology results showed that everything was taken, so my scar will be a reminder of how fortunate I was. Being incapacitated for an extended time meant that I watched a lot of tennis and cricket, and as the wound began to heal we managed to get to Port Fairy again, enjoy a couple of meals at the Mortlake Thai just down the road in Warrnambool, go to the cinema to see Little Women, sit down to volunteer as photographer at Warrnambool parkrun twice, and take a short stroll to Hopkins Falls. That's when I realised that the doctor's idea of a walk was vastly different to my idea of a walk! When the doc deemed me okay to move on, we left Rhonda and Brian after 28 days of wonderful hospitality. We are so thankful for long friendships.

We arrived back in Warrnambool on our Anniversary
two days after my birthday, and Rhonda had cooked
and iced gluten free gingerbread biscuits.
We'd already eaten some before I thought to grab a phone snap.

A drive to the Great Ocean Road

Bay of Islands coastline

Standing in the Bay of Islands

TheTwelve Apostles

People everywhere

Trying to squat with a walking stick for balance
proved impossible to completely miss heads

The day was getting greyer rapidly!
The rain began shortly after and we turned back.

A very wild day in Warrnambool as we went for another afternoon drive

We drove back to Timboon for a couple of nights of free camping in the recreational Ground and over two days did the amazing Food Trail where the cheeses and the ice-cream were definitely my favourites. We also popped back to the Great Ocean Road on a clearer hot day to experience the difference, and what a difference it was!

The Stawberry Farm had their  admin and cafe building burn down.
They were using the local school food van to sell drinks and strawberries

Although we could have picked, we just bought a kilo of seconds.
Sweet and juicy and oh, so fresh.

Loved this mailbox near Peterborough

Port Campbell on a very different day

It was so hot I would have loved to have gone paddling,
but the pressure bandage and dressing ruled!

It's such a stunning coastline

Old sign on an old coastal walking track

I liked the moonscape look of this rock near The Arch

The Grotto

From there we went, in extreme heat, to Teesdale to stay a couple of nights with the Wesleys and attend the induction of Surendra into the Parish of The Leigh. It was wonderful catching up with the family of whom we had become so fond in Mt Magnet, WA. Steve's visit to the skin doctor extended our stay for another two days as he had an incision into his back. Fortunately the pathology resulted in that not being anything other than a pigmentation anomaly. And so we were back on the road again in very hot conditions. We drove through dry grasses, high and thick, on the roadsides and talked of the fire threat that they were before stopping the night at Newstead where there was a fierce lightning storm for a number of hours.

The heat was palpable, the smoke haze thick

A former Tasmanian Rob White during the service of Induction

Surendra during the Induction

Our last stop for this section of the blog was to camp in the back yard of our Rochester friends. We enjoyed meals together, marvelled at the silo art and the laneway mural with the life story of the Iddles family and in particular Ron Iddles, a Victorian policeman. On Sunday we were able to attend the Pressie church where a couple from Tasmania are ministering. As with so many other rural places, we spent a long time chatting with people after the service. We were blessed to have been there. We went to Bendigo for a day with my Uncle Nev, his wife Lorraine, and my cousin Rachel, and that was a lovely interlude together. 

Before the lightning show at Newstead

We walked around the lake when we stopped
for a coffee in Bendigo en route to Rochester

I still need to volunteer because of my leg

Beautiful silos in Rochester

Grand old country buildings

Iddles Lane was only painted in January

Mural on corrugated iron

Depicting the history of Majors, the supermarket

Such interesting snippets of history can be found

Checking out the service time for Sunday

We walked a trail along the Campaspe River in Rochester

Historic homestead on the other side of the river

Steve wanders along the Camaspe trail
Next blog entry is his!

And then it was time to move on and hit the North East Silo Trail, but that's another story which Steve will tell!