The Road Back Home

Well we had mixed feelings returning to Victoria. We love home but it means the end of our trip, however it also means Christmas and the boys have already sent their letter to Santa. So we trundled off from Robe and on the way to Port Fairy we stopped to have a look at Beachport, a lovely little beachside town with a long pier, and fishermen with serious tackle!

Wooz laid down to warm up and so we can see the mighty Exploder in the background.
Paul and Karen gave us the heads up on the bakery in Mt Gambier, so we headed there for a quality lunch, and then checked out the very, very blue lake.

Then we crossed our 7th state border back into our beloved Victoria, with maybe a little trepidation.

The next stop was the Big 4 at Port Fairy for a 5 night stay with an ensuite (demanded by Gaz), so we set up down the back with nice trees and plenty of bird life and we put up our xmas lights to add to the atmosphere.  Then Gaz enjoyed a nice private shit, shower and shave.

Kirst came up with the great idea that we could do a Kris Kringle with the boys and Paul and Karen, which was very entertaining to watch the next day at the shops.  We pulled the names out of a hat, each got $15 and had to try and buy something without the others realizing who was buying for who.  Fast forward to Joanna Beach for the results. Here we are with our purchases sitting on the hot squid bench. 

 Thats the surfing kooka Paul and Karen bought for us.

 And there is all the pressies nicely wrapped.  By this stage the boys had worked out who had bought for who!

 Unfortunately the wind was southerly, strong, and onshore the whole time we were there so there was no surfing. But we still did lots of fun things. All the boys had a go of fishing at the breakwater with lots of little fish being caught and Paul catching a decent sized King George whiting. Then we went to a pizza restaurant for dinner to be entertained by a hen's night, quite an eye opener for the boys seeing girls with dicks on their heads! The boys had plenty of swims in the pool and loved diving on the mats and pushing each other off, and the jumping pillow there was the bounciest on tour so the boys definitely stepped up their tricks doing a triple back with their arms in their undies.  Meanwhile the girls trundled off to the health spa to get buffed up and some happy endings.

It was either coffee and cake at Paul and Karen's or P and K's favourite hangout - Rebeccas.

From there we went for a drive to Tower Hill and did some nice walks up to the lookout and around the crater.  There was plenty of wildlife and we saw an emu with HIS chick!

Then we drove down to the lavender farm and noticed how much the boys enjoy learning about flora and fauna now.  They would've been bored silly there before the trip but were right into seeing all the varieties of lavender.  Then Gaz did his thing and bought out the shop - lots of good stuff though (oils, soaps, chutneys...).  We all had another big mini golf challenge too which was part of the caravan park and we complained should not have to pay extra for.  So we got one game for free, had a few rain intervals, and Arch trounced us with a flawless display that would've come close to the course record.

From Port Fairy we thought we thought we'd try some free camping at Johanna Beach. Along the way we paid our homage to the apostles and did an update on th photo we had last time we were there (bit warmer this time).  Plus a shot of Arch at the Arch and a few good ones at the Grotto.

Then we all had a great lunch at the pub in Port Cambell- great view, greasies, cake and coffee- BANG. We rocked into Joey in the arvo and setup at the peaceful and serene camping site.  The weather was great and over the sand dunes is a beautiful stretch of beach that gets a lot of swell normally but not during our 2 night stay.

 I had a bit of a splash but Arch was pinning his surf hopes on Kennet River.  Everyone loved the pit dunnies and after 2 nights we were out of water so we couldn't use our shower either.  We had a fun night giving out our Kris Kringles with Wooz and Nadan getting remote controlled cars, from me and Paul, but the standouts were Wooz buying Karen big undies and Arch getting me the bobby gnome with edible undies. 

 We had a nice day at the beach and Arch and Paul doing some fishing.  Paul caught 3 salmon and we cooked them up for lunch.  We had some nice walks on the beach, met some locals, raced up the sand dunes and had a refreshing swim.

Then the early prediction was for the weather to turn UGLY so I thought we would do something special (nothing to do with being JACK of living in the van for 8 months) and I booked in at Joanna River Farmstay for 3 nights in a quaint little cottage.  Cuddling up by the fire was the image in my mind but unusually the weather prediction was slightly askew and it was quite warm, a little cloudy with some showers but very humid.  It wasn't til the day we left the farm the weather turned cold again, but thankfully Kennets was protected from the southerlies and our surf dreams would be fulfilled!  At the farm however we were in heaven with lots of room, great beds, beautiful views and lots to do, there were even glow worms.  The boys fed the animals (their favourites were the maccapackers cause they spit at each other), collected eggs, wondered around the property throwing spike balls at each other, played with Zac the dog, and had to keep feeding the sheep because they were calling Nadaaan, Nadaaaan.



We had a fish in the lake, got no bites, but we found a dead perch, got it in the net and took it back to the cottage to trick Kirst we that caught a fish.  Everyone thought it was funny but a bit disgusting because it was half rotten. 

We saw a tiger snake crossing the road and we did lots og great walks- into the Otways and saw Triplet Falls, part of the Great Ocean Road walk, on the bridge at Aire River, Pt. Franklin where we found a sun hardened puffer, and Cape Otway lighthouse where we saw koalas, had coffee and cake and checked out the painting exhibition on all the ships.  On the second night we lit the fire because the boys were keen and we needed to dry some clothes and it ended up being a very hot December night!

We got packed up by 11 Sunday morning and headed to Apollo Bay for lunch and to do a shop before our planned last stop at Kennett River. Arch and I especially were looking forward to it, spending a week at Kennetts with protection from the SW winds and increasing swell, and we thought it would be a great place to relax in nature before returning home. What we didn't see coming was the first day blues, which we had forgotten about, but had experienced regularly on our trip, whenever we arrived in a new place and our comfort zone was back in the place we'd just come from. So we arrived, paid for 8 nights without questioning the price, set up and hit the surf which was going off. There were about 40 guys out but plenty of nice 4 footers to be had. Arch and I had about 2.5 hrs in the water and walked back into camp about 7.30pm.

We were pretty cold and Arch, me and Wooz shared the only 2 showers in the mens and once the boys turned theirs on mine was reduced to a trickle. Nevermind, we got into the van, the boys watched the end of a movie then we all jumped in bed. Kirst and I were never more aware of how small our bed is in the camper (compared to the big bed we just came from) lying there like sardines in the brine, and then we realized there was a small army of mosquitos in our camper all looking for an opportunity to land on our faces. It ended up being a shocking night with Kirst and I not getting much sleep and the boys, especially Nathanial looking like they had chickenpox the next morning. Kirst got a coldsore as well and then spent the whole morning building an inner fury that burst upon the lady in the office, who had charged us one of the highest rates of our trip with probably the worst facilities- and she wouldn't budge on the price, saying it was semi peak time which gave them the chance to rip off families. Some people are only in it for the money. We had to quickly get Kirst out in the surf to cool her down, then the sun came out and we just got through the first day blues without Kirst demanding we go home NOW. There was great wildlife, with koalas everywhere in the trees and beautiful birds flying around, and an awesome surf break across the road, which was apparently what we were paying for.

Arch was carving at Kennetts, reveling in the great point break and really getting confident. He just overstretched it a bit when he paddelled right out on the biggest day and nearly took a guys head off as he lost his board trying to get over a big one! Then Wooz had a dream abot surfing and fired up as well. We surfed most days, often twice, as the low tide came in, and we body surfed the others. Nathanial loved feeding the birds and Wooz and Paul saw a koala come an absolute cropper on the bbq. I squashed my finger in the stone sculpture building contest we had, trying to get the biggest rocks- OUCH!

We had a lovely walk along the Kennet River and a few coffees at the cafe, and we went into Lorne a couple of times to catch up with Karen and Paul. The first time the boys had a skate and then we had some dodgey greasies as we watched the surfers off the point. The second, Nadan got a Penny skateboard for his birthday, the boys had a jump on the tramps, then we had pizzas and went to the most boring carols by candlelight EVER. On the last night we had a beautiful walk up to another waterfall and agreed the Great Ocean Road is as good as you get.

It ended up being a wonderful end to our trip at Kennetts and we packed up on the last arvo and left the earliest on tour, the next morning. The whole coast was dead flat and the day was gorgeous, a nice send off. So we had brekky in Torquay, hit the surf shops and and checked out the surf museum. In ther we watched a bit of a funny surf film called "Fifty States", then arrived back in Melbourne at Nanny and Pops at 2pm, Monday the 19th of December. We had a nice catch up there then headed to Grandma and Pa's where we enjoyed a wonderful xmas and ofcourse Nathanial's 6th birthday and spent the next month relaxing before we found a rental in Beauie.

The journey continues.