[VIC] Portland,Warrnambool,Apollo Bay, Colac,Ballarat,Avoca

Portland's tiled shell

Tuesday 5 October we crossed the border into Victoria and stopped at Portland, a pretty harbour-side city where the European settlement history for the colony of Victoria began in 1834. Finding a caravan park right in the heart of town, we took a walk around noting the beautiful old Mac's Hotel which we had stayed in back in the 90s (we can't quite remember which year) - anyway it still looked exactly the same. The city has over 200 historical buildings from the 1800s. We strolled down by the water where there was a large shell and chair made out of tiles. We had mixed weather conditions over our two days in Portland and spent one afternoon hiding inside our van as a severe storm warning was broadcast on the radio, including hail. Luckily the caravan park was not full and so we moved our van to a back corner sheltered against a brick wall and out of the wind. Happy hour started early that day!

"Pip" the sheep dog at Port Fairy

Our next stopover was at Warrnambool, via Yambuk's "The Crags" with fantastic views of Lady Julia Percy Island and then Port Fairy where we noticed a sign advertising some Australian & New Zealand Sheep Dog Trials at the local oval. We stopped at the oval and had our lunch while enjoying the sheep dog trials - very entertaining. There was then an announcement made that the lunch prepared by the local country ladies was ready in the hall  - Paulie and I both looked at each other and knew that would be an awesome lunch, all that yummy homemade country food - shame we'd just had our lunch! We had a couple of nights in Warrnambool, seeing some local touristy stuff but also doing some administrative duties like spending over an hour in the Telstra Shop trying to sort out an incorrect bill - that was fun.

London Bridge, Great Ocean Road

Two of the 12 Apostles, Great Ocean Road

Next day we had a big day driving the Great Ocean Road (which involved lots of stopping to check out 11 spectacular viewing points - Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, The Grotto, London Bridge, The Arch, Razor back, Thunder Cave, Loch Ard Gorge and Cemetery, Mutton Bird Island and of course the 12 Apostles). There were heaps of tourists at each of these stops but the most popular by far was the 12 Apostles. We got caught in the rain a few times as the weather kept changing. The big chunk missing from the London Bridge collapsed into the water in 1990 while people were standing out on the end - they had to be rescued three hours later ... how scary! We then drove on to Apollo Bay for the night where we had a fairly water-logged muddy site from previous heavy rains there. We decided to shout ourselves out to dinner that night, so we rugged up against the cold wind and walked to the local pub for a delicious and hearty meal.

Otway Ranges

Leaving Apollo Bay next morning we took the Otway Ranges road to Colac - a very steep, narrow and somewhat scary road with the most awesome scenery of green rolling hills and valleys - reminded us of Maleny in some parts. When we arrived in Colac, we heard there was a festival on about 20kms away at Birregurra, so we headed for there. This was quite a big annual festival which runs for the weekend with lots of stalls, live music, wood chopping, pig racing, line dancing, snake shows and terrier races! Luckily it was a sunny day so we strolled around the festival enjoying the sunshine with all the locals.

Beeac's restored windmills

Monday 11 October we did our morning walk through the beautiful Colac Botanic Gardens before driving to our next destination - Ballarat. On our way to Ballarat, we stopped at the tiny town of Beeac to see the display of seven old windmills which had originally been built by Beeac windmill makers back in the 1850s and which had been restored to life again by the locals. The windmill park was being completed as part of the town's 150th first settlement celebration in late October. We then drove on to Ballarat and checked into the caravan park and took a walk into the city which was surprisingly big. Next day was an overcast and stormy day with a forecast of hail, which thankfully didn't happen. In between showers the next day we walked to Sovereign Hill and the Gold Museum.

Back home after Avoca Cup race day

Our next stop was to the country town of Avoca where we stayed for a few nights. Avoca is only a small town so it didn't take long to do the town tour - the one thing that did stand out was how many pie shops there were! Recent heavy rainfalls in the area made the caravan park a bit squelchy/muddy underfoot and we had more rain while we were there too. Friday 15 October we walked into town in the rain to get the newspapers and then it continued to rain all day and was freezing cold and very windy, so we basically spent the whole day in the van reading the newspapers, watching movies and cooking our meals inside (which was a first), thankfully we had everything on hand. We hoped the weather would lift in time for the Avoca Cup on Saturday - well it sort of improved - we caught the local booze bus to the races where we experienced the four seasons in one day which Victoria is famous for, but we were dressed in multiple layers in readiness. It was a great day though with a huge turnout of people from all over the state. We had a few small wins, plus I backed the winner of the Caulfield Cup and Paulie backed the second place BUT it was the only bet all day where we forgot to put on a Quinella (which paid $145) DOH! After the races, we joined the crowd of race-goers back to one of the local pubs for a few more drinks and dinner to top off the day.