23rd & 24th Feb Wednesday & Thursday

We have spent the last 2 days doing maintenance stuff to RV and car etc...Because this is a big town and bigger shops for us to get the material we needed .. plus I did some shopping for some new walking shoes...

Tuesday 22nd Feb Heading out

On our way to Geelong today... packed up early and headed for the ferry at Sorrento..

The Ferry too about 40 mins to get to Queenscliff....

Sailing out of Sorrento

All tucked away nice and neat for the journey..

Leaving the ferry at Queenscliff

We then headed to Belmont where we will stay for next 3 day

Monday 21st Feb

Our TV in the bedroom broke down...after ringing up the company they said we had to take it down and post it back to them for repair... gawd what a night mare...took  John for ever to figure out how to get it off the wall to start with...then we had t parcel it up and take it to post office...NEVER a dull moment with us...


Packed up later in day ready to leave in the morning...awning still playing up also when we go to fold it back will have to get someone to look at that too before too long...

Sat & Sun 19th & 20th Feb

The weather turned cold these last few days, we went for a drive to check out Sorrento and see what we had to do regarding catching the ferry on Tuesday...While there we had a late lunch fish and chips and sat on the shore line... it was really nice...

Friday 18th Trip to Port Nepean National Park

I have not wrote in the blog for a couple of days as we have just been hanging around the campsite and beach..
But today we decided to check out the Port Nepean National Park, which is right on the tip of the Peninsula.

We boarded the little train that takes you there, its pulled by a tractor...

Point Nepean is a popular tourist destination renowned for its historic features, outstanding coastal scenery and panoramic views of Bass Strait, the Rip and Port Phillip Bay.

 It has a long history of use by indigenous people and contains a wide number of aboriginal archaeological sites. Historic Point Nepean has spectacular views of the Port Phillip Heads.


It is truly one of Victoria’s beautiful natural landscapes. It is a special place with so much to see and discover. We found out that  its  history has played an important role in shaping the early settlement, quarantine and defence of Victoria, which we had no idea about till we visited here.

Point Nepean is part of Boonwurrung counrty. The Boonwurrung people lived on and around Point Nepean over 1000's of years ago gathering shellfish and other foods along the coastline.

Extensive shell middens are reminders of their presents so many years ago.

A shell midden, which has probably been there for 1000's of years amazing...

We took the train right to the end of the point although it has several spots along the way where you can get off and explore around like the Quarantine Station which has a lot of historic significance, it defended the Colony of Victoria against disease and foreign attack..

It was established in 1852, and was the major place for quarantine purposes in Victoria until 1979 and closed in 1980.

It all started out when in the early 1850's the government established a quarantine station. But  before the original building was completed an emigrant ship arrived with many passengers affected by yellow fever.

The ship was the 'Ticonderga' that had left Birkenhead England eighty days before arriving at Point Nepean. She had eight hundred and eleven people on board when she sailed. Because of the lack of the most necessary amenities and over crowding, fever developed amongst the passengers, with the result that they had 96 deaths during the voyage.

When they arrived at portsea on November 6th 1852, the survivors were quarantined, their numbers being so great that tents had to be erected to accommodate the overflow from the existing buildings. Another 82 of the ships passengers died. Deaths were so numerous and sudden that coffins were not available, and burials had to take place without them.

They didn't have the people to dig the graves, so the bodies were placed vertical in recesses in the cliff face and the overhanging bank was then broken away, the resulting landslide burying them.

The site was also used by the army as the Officer of Cadet School from 1952-1985 and as the School of Army of Health from 1985 -1998. In 1999 the Quarantine Station buildings were used to accomodate Kosovo refugees...

Today as we look at the buildings they are all empty and locked..

 The history is amazing !!

Also on the way was the memorial site for Harold Holt on the 17th December 1967, Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia, went for a swim on Cheviot Beach near his holiday home. He disappeared beneath the waves and was never seen again. It was one of the largest search and rescue operations Australia has ever witnessed. Holt’s body was never found.

 Check out the stairway in the back ground to the top of the hill

Then we come to the history of the Military forts and tunnels not to mention the scenary.
   

The entrance to Port Phillip Bay was the most heavily forted port of the British Empire. There are many Colonial and Commonwealth structures dated from 1880's to the 1940's located around the park. Fort Nepean is considered to be one of the best examples in Australia of a major fort complex showing the changes in military engineering through the 19th and 20th centuries.

 

This spot was built in 1892 for a "Quick Firing Gun" it had a rapid rate of fire to prevent the fast moving torpedo boats passing through

Where this gun "barrel 1489" sat it was the first official allied British shot of World War I...On the 5th August 1914...It was fired across the bow of the german steamer ship "Pfalz" when it refused to stop as it tried to go through the heads to avoid capture. It did then spot and was returned to Melbourne !

Barrel "1317" was the first official allied shot to be fired in World War II on 4th September 1939.

These were the only shots fired in anger from the Port Phillip defences...

I could go on and on with the history of this place...much of the barracks etc were all under ground which  we explored..

After a long HOT day of exploring we headed back on the train...taking in more breath taking sites.

We had an amazing day, I am just so amazed at the history Melbourne holds..

Tuesday 15th Feb

We should have left today but like it here so much we have booked another week....Today we decided to stay home and relax on the beach...beautiful hot day, the water was lovely

Because we are only a minute from the water I decided to go up to the house and make lunch and bring it back...we sat in our beach tent ...it was great fun...

After lunch the tide was going out so we explored the weeds and found lots of different creatures..mainly crabs..

Later we headed back and showered and treated ourselves to a night out at the club for dinner..

Monday 14th Feb "The Enchanted Maze Garden"

Today we had an amazing day out to the ......

The Entrance into the park was just lovely

What a great place, so much to do, we first explored the various mazes..

The first one being the

Children's Maze

This maze is specially designed for kids to stop and play. It has a series of themed gardens that will capture the imagination of everyone....The featured gardens include The African Savannah, The Beach Box, The Fairy Realm, The Panda Garden....

The Hedge Maze

We wander through the beautifully manicured Leighton Green Hedge Maze and apparently it had a Japanese Garden in the centre, which we never found, we spent some time in here trying to find our way out let alone the middle...But we had fun

Can you spot Johns HEAD !

The also had a Turf Maze the object was to walk it and find your way out without coming off the path

John had a go but cheated !!

The Blue Gum Gallery Maze

This Maze is a totally different experience from the other mazes, this maze proves that just because you can see through to the centre and the bridge in the middle it’s not always a certainty that you will succeed in reaching the middle, we walked around this one for quite a while also before we finally found the bridge...

From here we viewed the

The Christmas Garden 

 which has Santa’s  sleigh and reindeer's underplanted with whites and reds, topped off with a magnificent Weeping Holly.

Note Rudolf's red nose

Once we had finished the mazes we moved on to the

Sculptures

We walked through a magical bushland dotted with giant wood sculpture carvings, sound sculpture and wrought iron work.
Set amongst 5 acres of old growth eucalyptus. The Sculpture Park  over many years  have had many pieces of art constructed on site by a wide range of artists including Chainsaw Work, Metal Creations, Clay & Wax..Here are pictures of the amazing works....

The Mona Lisa

My  Hero !

From here we moved onto the Tube sliding  which involves an inflatable tube with a laminate surface applied to the underside of the tube. This smooth surface glides on the constructed slope like a ski glides on snow.

John thought he was going to get away with it but with gentle coaxing he decided to have a go.... you sit inside the tube then slip, ride and fly at super speeds down the slide run.  I wanted him to have another go because I missed him coming down the slide but he said NO WAY.. he was buggered the hardest part was dragging the tube up the hill....Hes a good sport will have a go at anything once !!

After a most amazing day we headed out through the Lolly Shop..and on our way home...