On Friday we had a wet trip from Mansfield to Healesville, however there were enough breaks in the weather to allow time to experience the serenity at Bonnie Doon (for "The Castle" fans). We also called into Eildon and drove across the dam wall.
We found it quite humourous that we crossed the Rubicon on our way from Eildon to Healesville. We even had to wait for the bridge opening ceremony to finish and we were first in the queue from the north to cross the new bridge. We then headed into Marysville for lunch. The rebuilding efforts after the Black Saturday bushfire in 2010 are still ongoing, however, the town is looking good and it is in a beautiful setting.
On Saturday it was still raining and any plans to look around Healesville were quickly shelved and we headed to Dromana on the Mornington Peninsula with a stop in Melbourne to visit with Julie and John.
We stayed on the Mornington Peninsula for 2 days and our highlights were Fort Nepean in the Point Nepean National Park, Cape Schanck and the lush, green rolling hills of the hinterland. The old fortifications and tunnels at Fort Nepean easily take an hour to explore and you can catch transport from the visitors centre to the fort for a small fee if you don't want to walk the 6 klm. On your way to the fort you pass by the memorial to Harold Holt at Cheviot Beach. For our younger readers Harold Holt was the Prime Minister of Australia who never returned after swimming at Cheviot Beach in December 1967. His body has never been found. The walks at Cape Schanck were spectacular for the views. When the persistent showers got too much for us we called into Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm for decadent desserts and coffee.
On Monday we drove to Phillip Island for a 2 day stay. Before crossing the bridge to the island we stopped at San Remo to watch the pelican feeding at 12 noon and a seafood lunch at the Fisherman's Co-operative. It is fair to say that Phillip Island is one of our favourite places visited so far. We spent 2 and a half days driving the roads, doing the walks, seeing the views and being amazed by the wildlife. If you are ever on Phillip Island do not miss the boardwalks at the Nobbies, the walk along Woolamai Beach towards Cape Woolamai, the cruise out to Seal Rocks and the Penguin Parade. The seals and penguins number in the tens of thousands and you see hundreds of these up close on the cruise or the parade. It is well worth spending the extra money on one of the premium penguin parade packages. We purchased a Sky Box package which limited our group to 10 people with our own ranger guide, access to the box where the rangers count the penguins each night and entry to parts of the boardwalks where visitor numbers are heavily restricted. We didn't have to fight the crowds to get up close to the penguins and we easily saw at least 100 penguins up close.
Today after a brief episode of fog the day was bright, blue and cloudless - making our coastal drive to Wilsons Promotory a delight. The most beautiful part of the drive is between Cape Paterson and Inverloch (Burunong Coastal drive). Make sure you detour off the road into the lookouts to view rugged coastal scenery. Inverloch itself is a pretty little town with sheltered beaches - a great lunch stop. We then drove out to Cape Liptrap along 8 klms of well maintained dirt road. Whilst the lighthouse at Cape Liptrap is nothing special, the scenery is. We also tried to drive down the dirt road to the historic lime kilns but the road become increasingly boggy after recent rains and we decided to turn around. We believe it would have been achievable in a car. From Cape Liptrap we drove through glorious green hills and farmlands to Wilsons Promontory, arriving just on sunset. This made for a slow trip through the park to Tidal River due to wildlife (kangaroos, emus and wombats). The last few kilometres into Tidal River had amazing scenery and coves which we can't wait to explore over the next day and a half.
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