Port Albert and the Prom

Well- we're back in Oz, a couple of days sorting out and a get together with cousins Paul and Marrianne (first two on the left)Geoffrey and Jennette(first two on the right, over here from the UK for a couple of weeks). So we had a meal out in an Italian restaurant with Barbara and Dave, ( more cousins!) and a great time was had by all.

Paul generously allowed us to use his weekend home in Port Albert for a couple of days, he had built it and another next door with a view to selling a few years ago when Port Albert was due to become a big marina, but unfortunately that fell through. So it has proved difficult to sell at this time.It's a lovely house though, three good bedrooms and two bathrooms, with a big living room and a log fire. Maybe when the economic situation improves they will go.

Port Albert itself is a sleepy little town, more a fishing village than anything else, when it was built in the 1840s it was thriving on the back of the goldfields up country a bit. But by the 1860s a road had been built to Melbourne and the big ports and Port Albert declined.
Since then it has survived on a small fishing fleet, and weekend fishermen who come down here to their little holiday homes.
Anyway, it gave us a chance to chill out a bit for a couple of days after our whirlwind tour of NZ.




We had arranged to meet Lee and Karen and the children on Wilson's Promontory, for a weekend. So on Friday we left Port Albert and made our way over to the national park, to find a campsite absolutely packed. It's a good job that Lee had booked us two pitches, as we arrived there was a notice saying camp full. And that's with over 400 pitches!.
Anyway, it turned out to be a lovely area, with a river and a beach close by, and a lot of wildlife.

As we sat in the evenings a a very large wombat just strolled by nonchalantly, totally unfazed by the fuss he was causing around him. Karen has a thing about them, it seems one ripped open her sister's tent to get at some food. Anyway that's the first time I've seen them in the wild, although Anne has elsewhere.

The Rosellas were so tame that they would eat out of Anne's hand, very cheeky actually, they just come up while we are eating looking for a handout. They are impossible to resist, they have such vivid reds  blues and greens in their plumage.

We did a fair bit of walking over the weekend, five miles on the Saturday and six on the Sunday, uphill and down dale, As we hadn't walked for a while we were shattered, particularly as gale force winds kept us awake most of the nights.
But we had a great time with our friends, Lee cooked a roast of pork in the Weber, (which has become a bit of a tradition with us over the months since we met them!).And of course the wine and beer flows, I have found a good alcohol free one which I like. So it was a bit of a wrench when we came to part on Sunday afternoon, just as the weather improved, and made our way back to Mornington for a couple of days before we continue our adventure.