Had a good drive down the Eastern side of the Bays towards Phillip Island. A warm sunny day and as I started getting closer to the Island traffic started building with a good smattering of interesting hot rods, restored and not so restored vehicles from the 1950s and 60s. There was a tailback of around 2 or 3 kilometres to the bridge across to the Island and the turn off to San Remo, which was unbelievably busy. A bit of a shock after a pretty quiet last couple of weeks.
It turned out that on top of the normally busy "happy families" holiday season the Kustom Nats were on this coming weekend with a really large collection of many custom cars, vans, utes and you name it. On Friday afternoon and evening many of the cars were on display along the San Remo Esplanade, along with band on the back of a "semi" outside the pub and about a squillion people.
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| Party time. |
So many cars and people.
Plenty of beautiful rare old Falcons to be seen.
The bridge from San Remo to Phillip Island. A natural traffic jam any time it is busy.
Some beautiful old vehicles in the caravan park where I stayed for a few nights.
Not to mention some amazing Combi Vans.
At San Remo, amongst many other cafes, shops, bakery and pub is a Fisherman's Coop right next to the jetty. The Coop is well known for its good quality Fish & Chips. That evening there was a queue way out the door, followed by a 40 minute wait for your order when you eventually reached the counter. Boom time......
Saturday 6 January 2018
The forecast was for a hot, scorching Northerly wind, which was exactly how it turned out. I decided to visit Cowes, the main town on the Island. It was yet another huge traffic jam and a very busy tourist town. The town has an attractive Esplanade and jetty which was packed with people enjoying the hot beach weather.
The beach at Cowes.
The jetty was busy with kids diving and jumping off, over and over again. Remember......
I diverted on the way back to San Remo to have a look at the Grand Prix Track near the centre of the Island in amongst the farming country.
The GP track is set in beautiful countryside.
At the track is a visitors centre, which is certainly set up to milk tourists for all that they are worth. There is a small history display that costs about $12 to view with the same charge to enter the garden from where you can get an uninterrupted view of the track.
Close by is a Go Kart track, where you can pay for time in a kart on the track. I didn't find out what that cost, but you would have needed to be a die hard as it was so hot outside by mid afternoon.
One of the few free exhibits was a McLaren Mercedes race car in the main part of the the Visitor Centre.
In the evening there was a cool gusty change which was most welcome after an unpleasantly hot day.
On Sunday, I ventured back to the island to have a look at the North East corner where the famous Penguin Parade is located.
The Nobbies is a a rugged point and coastline location with interesting succulents ground cover and nesting areas. It is open during daylight hours and has a large discovery centre and extensive boardwalk with viewing platforms. Parking is tight, but they had a Parks employee directing vehicles to available spots. That was a great idea and much appreciated by PJ.
The Discovery Centre with Cate and Shop is large and appears to be quite new.
There are active bird nests on the slopes all around the headland.
and as usual, Tourists Tourists everywhere......
Nearby is the famous Penguin Parade facility. Another enterprise designed to maximise the Tourist dollar.
There are acres of car and bus parks to accomodate the crowds each evening.
The large commercial centre has extensive shopping, cafes, ticket centre and entrance to the evening view areas.
It is quiet and open for no charge during the daytime, but I can only imagine the crowding in the evening. I talked to a man in the ticket office and he said that the coming evening was the first for two weeks that they had not been completely sold out. I was surprised when he also told me that the current (modern facility) was to be replaced by an ever larger new centre later this year to cope with the demand. He said the "old version" would then be bulldozed and returned to penguin nesting habitat. Bigger than Ben Hur.....
On the way back to San Remo, I visited the Koala Conservation Centre.
Another large commercial operation with entry to more boardwalks and bush walk koala habitat.
Koala's were "thin on the ground"
but I did see two sleeping in the trees.
Also on the Island is the National Vietnam Veterans Museum. I went to have a look and enjoyed some of the exhibits.
An old Bell Helicopter. Growing up in the 1960's I still have vivid memories of the early American TV series "Whirlybirds" which featured these machines.
An old Caribou transport aircraft outside the Museum.
Many exhibits of equipment and memorabilia of individuals and units that served during the Vietnam War.
It was a good reminder of how lucky I had been. During the Vietnam War, Australia supported the US as an active participant and introduced Conscription via a Birthday Lottery System. My number came up, but I was able to have it deferred whilst I completed my time at University. Fortunately, just at the time I was due to go into the Army, Gough Whitlam and his Labor Government was elected, and Conscription was stopped. Coincidentally, SBS had recently been showing the American TV series "The Vietnam War" which did an excellent job showing the history along with the pointless American involvement which resulted in nearly 50,000 of their own dead, not to mention the Millions of Vietnamese, Laotians & Cambodians. Enough........
Monday 8 January 2018
A few photos of Bryan & Leonie in the new kitchen. Leonie is a happy girl with her extra ovens and new layout. She does a lot of cooking and baking.
They have a very nice house, close to the main shopping area of Sale. Easy walking access to most of what is a very pleasant country town.
One of Bryan's mates dropped him off a 1983 bottle of Blue Nun. Not quite sure how that would be drinking these days.
I spent quite a bit of time with Bryan & Leonie and they were generous with their hospitality. We had a number of outings, including a visit with Bryan to Esso's Longford Gas Plant & Heliport, an evening meal at the nearby Seaspray Surf Lifesaving Club and a visit to Metung, a picturesque coastal village past Bainsdale on the way to Lakes Entrance. They spend quite a bit of their time helping daughter Bethanie with her 3 Grandchildren.
Leonie reading to Otis. He was loving it.
I did a bit of walking around town on a number of mornings and also took a Heritage Cruise from the Port of Sale through the old man made canal as far as the heritage swing bridge. From there, the river systems and lakes run all the way through to Lakes Entrance and were important as a trade route in the early days of the area.
Alan, the guide (age 76 years) was an ex City of Sale Engineer and local Councilor. He was very knowledgeable about just about everything. Quite a lot of wildllfe along the canal as well. The small shiny metallic item on the right, attached to the drive belt and shaft in the above photo is the electric engine. Tiny but very efficient for the vessel in calm waters. Powered by 48V batteries that get plugged into a power cord whilst the vessel is moored.
The old Sale Prison Wall and some of the buildings have been incorporated into the large new (& very secure) Police Station near the Port
There were a number of interesting sculptures, including these two in the inaugural "Imagine" exhibition. |
A great resource for a country town.
On Friday evening 12 January 2018, we had planned a night out at Bryan & Leonie's local, the Criterion Hotel, a short walk from their place. Leonie managed to discover that it was my Birthday, so it turned into a celebration. Excellent meal, good wine, great company and the place was very busy on a Friday night.
On Saturday, I had a pretty quiet day and then joined the Hughes family at home for an early roast lamb dinner with Bess and her three kids. A real treat whilst on the road and a lovely way to end a great visit.
On Sunday morning, I pulled up stumps and departed for Leongatha, on the way back towards Melbourne. Of course, that is another story........
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