Lighthouses

We limped into Warrnambool, with a still misfiring car on the Monday of a long weekend. Needless to say, we didn't feel like driving it very far, so we walked, all along the foreshore, and saw Middle Island where the maremmas protect the penguins (watch Oddball!). Apparently the maremmas hang out at Flagstaff Hill, which is like Sovereign Hill, but much smaller.  It looked like a great day out but we were not in the mood. However, we could see it, and the maremmas from our van. And a lighthouse.

After a carless (but not careless) day without the car while Subaru looked at it and replaced various expensive spark plug related bits, we had our wheels back. We wanted to test them out before towing again, so drove to Port Fairy. What a pretty town. We went to Griffith Island where we saw a lighthouse.

 It was extremely hot, so we went to a calm rock pool beach called Pea Soup, and had a lovely swim (once we lost all feeling in our toes). It was lovely, and the car does seem to be fixed this time. Needless to say, it is getting looked over again by our own Subaru dealer when we get home!

We moved on to Narrawong outside Portland. Another gorgeous park, inside a meander of a river, with a floating bridge over to the beach. Very peaceful and lovely, with fire drums for hire. We really want to come back here, maybe for Portland's Upwelling Festival.

Our first excitement here was finding fossilised shark teeth. Apparently there is a limestone reef offshore that is dissolving and the teeth wash up. After a lot of hunting on four visits we did find two fossils. Ben found the first, which is apparently a great white tooth. I found the second, smaller and unidentified tooth. Thanks to Ben for the photo.

We visited Cape Nelson to see, you guessed it, a lighthouse.

We visited Cape Bridgewater, and went on a fabulous boat tour to see seals. There was what the brochure described as a 15 min gentle stroll to the jetty. Hmmm. A big hill to walk up and down, but great views.

Ben loved bouncing over the swell in the small rubber ducky boat. The seals were wonderful :-) and very photogenic.

We visited the lighthouse in Portland for a complete set :-)

We also visited the gannet colony, which fortuitously had a volunteer there to let us in just when we drove up.  There was an electric fence between us and the birds so the photo is a bit distant.

We highly recommend Portland as a place to visit and explore, and hope to come back.