FRIENDLY VISITS

The next part of our road trip was all about catching up with old friends as it turned out.

It wasn't necessarily planned that way but that is how it happened and after a week of reminiscing and a whole lot more, Joy and I are happy that it did.

We moved on from Tostaree Cottages near Lakes Entrance and headed west towards Wonthaggi along the South Gippsland highway.

There are many small towns on the coastal route to Wonthaggi and after a brief stop in a very windy Port Albert we moved on to Welshpool before travelling and extra five kilometres to Port Welshpool.

Once again we are glad we did, as found a curved jetty (see above) which was built initially to run a train line to enable fishermen to transport their catches to Melbourne.

The train line did not eventuate but the jetty remained and still proves to be a great site of interest for passing travellers such as us. The jetty was built to reach the deepest part of the channel and it is 800 metres long.

The Bass Coast of Victoria is a stunning part of Australia, with impressive rock formations, picture-postcard beaches and clifftop walks with spectacular views.

Our 'tour guide' for the next three days was my old mate Steve Lloyd.

Lloydy and I worked together as sub-editors on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland for about 10 or 11 years before both being made redundant in 2020.

He was raised in Wonthaggi and was the ideal guide.

Steve showed us around all his old haunts and also took us to places that on our own we would never had found.

We took a short trip to Phillip Island and on our stops we found wildlife in abundance, such as echidnas and Cape Baron geese (above), which looked to us like small dodos.

With Lloydy as our guide, I was certainly able to keep my goal of 10,000 steps a day in.

Joy had warned me before I left that our journey might turn into some sort of boot camp and obviously that message had been passed on to our tour guide!!!

There was more walking the next day as we explored what can only be described as a mini Great Ocean Road down to Inverloch.

Along this stretch of coast, there seem to be beaches to suit all tastes.

Surf beaches similar to those on the Gower in Wales, were followed by tiny bays with rock formations perfect for fishing off.

Shack Bay was our favourite and would be a great place to take the kids in the summer.

It was certainly too cold to swim when we were there.

After a great time with Lloydy we headed for San Remo, en route to Melbourne.

San Remo is famous for a group of pelicans who come down every day to be fed by volunteers, who check for injuries etc.

But, true to form, as with no cheese factory access and caves not open, the pelicans decided that on this day they wouldn't show up... you couldn't make it up!!!

Although disappointed we soldiered on to our campsite for the night in Coburg, a suburb of Melbourne.

Some sites had wanted to charge $75 for a night's stay. The Big 4 site was a little cheaper but still out of our price range, anyone wanting to check out Melbourne, it was the perfect place.

All amenities were incredible, spotlessly clean and modern. In fact in camping terms it was five-star luxury and highly recommended.

We then met up with another old pal... Justin... who I have known for 50 years.

We had a good catch-up and great food in an Irish Pub.

It was great to reminisce once more.

Our next port of call on the friends reunited trail was in Elwood, the next suburb along from St Kilda in Port Phillip Bay.

Neil and Sonia, who we met in China in 2017, were kind enough to put us up for the weekend.

We loved St Kilda and Elwood and Joy was even thinking of buying a place in Brighton, a neighbouring suburb, but was probably put off by the $28 million price tag.

Again the theme was walks and we did plenty of that.

We loved our time in suburbia and once again had perfect hosts.

The only downside to the trip was West Coast Eagles' loss to North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium, but at least it was another sporting venue to strike off my list.

Joy and Sonia spent the afternoon 'house hunting' in Brighton and it turned out that the only place we might be able to afford was one of the brightly coloured beach huts.