LOCH
Our plan is to continue driving east in Victoria from the Mornington Peninsula towards the most eastern town of Mallacoota and then up the eastern New South Wales coastline towards Sydney.
Hubby was looking
forward to visiting Phillip Island and the Bike Grand Prix Circuit there and a
place called Wanthaggi where his grandmother lived when she first arrived in
Australia from Scotland.
Anywhere on
the coastline would have broken our budget so I looked for a base a bit inland
and found the quaint little hinterland town of Loch. The township of Loch itself is very cute,
however probably due to COVID was pretty much a ghost town when we were there.
The only
thing that was open was the brewery/distillery.
There were 2 staff on duty and when we visited, 2 customers. They said that due to staff shortage, they
could not provide taste testing.
Seriously?... How many staff does
it take to give taste testings to 2 couples?...
I took some photos and walked out of the shop. Hubby, being such a nice person gave them $30
for a mixed 6 pack of beers. And guess
what? They were all horrible! Lol. Subsequently, COVID or no COVID, they received 1 star review on Google.
Anyway, the
Loch Recreational Reserve turned out to be good as a base to stay. $25 for power, very clean facilities, nice
and clean BBQ’s, level sites on an old concrete tennis court, nice views over
the countryside including cows and a cute little suspension bridge amongst the green
forest. Recommended.
Driving to
Wonthaggi and Phillip Island was only about half an hour to each. Inverloch is a bit further from
Wonthaggi.
WONTHAGGI
The drive
from Loch to Wonthaggi over the mountain range was beautiful. Lush green paddocks with dairy cows and deep
blue coloured dams, along with stunning views as far as Phillip Island. We saw a lookout complete with old Bedford
bus and stopped for a couple of pix.
Wonthaggi
is very old. Built for coal mining, it
still has tours of the old mine. We took
photos of some of the very old buildings, some dating back to 1910. The pub was built in 1911 so we paid a visit
there and had a great lunch. We felt COVID safe as we were the only ones in the
dining room. I took a couple of snaps of photos on the wall
depicting the old street in town. As you
can see, a few of the old buildings still have the very old farceur but the
shops underneath are current. The
building that houses the book shop below was one of the original buildings and
was a bank.
--oOo--
INVERLOCH
Both hubby and I really liked Inverloch with its stunning beaches and laid-back atmosphere. The day that we visited was lovely after having had with so much cold weather, and we are in the later part of January! I was wishing that I had have thought about wearing my togs. I really wanted to go in. The water was clean, sparkling blue and terribly inviting. We even saw a stingray in the water. Anyway, looking forward to some warmer weather finally as I have had beach withdrawals.
--oOo--
FLAT ROCKS
& EAGLES NEST
Heading back to Wonthaggi along the coastline we stopped at a couple of places. Flat Rocks and Eagles Nest, both worth a visit. Flat Rocks is where there they found old dinosaur bones. I dipped my feet in the water here. So nice. And took some photos of the colourful seaweed in between the rocks. At Eagles Nest, we enjoyed fabulous views along the cliff coastline.
--oOo--
PHILLIP ISLAND
We both really liked Phillip Island. We saw some stunning views including beautiful beaches as you can see in the photos below. As mentioned above, we paid a visit to the race circuit and hubby took some nice photos.
Then we went to The Nobbies View Point. This is a 'must see' when visiting Phillip Island. Nice wide walkways around the rocks with lots of penguin caves below, but sadly it wasn't penguin season when we were there. However the views over this little island called Round Island were stunning and over to the coastline of the Mornington Peninsula.
When we
stayed at Stony Point there was a ferry across to Cowes on Phillip Island so we
decided to visit Cowes. What a gorgeous
little tourist village with lovely views over the bay with Stony Point on the
mainland in the far distance. See video
below.
On the way
back we took a side trip to Rhyll beach.
This was really nice. I couldn’t
get enough of the sun glistening on the water, one of my favourite sights. See below. Also, it was cool to see the boats being
launched, including one being launched by a tractor! Lol.
Yes, our day trip to Phillip Island was one of our Big Lap highlights.
 |
The Nobbies View Point |
Cowes, where the ferry comes in from Stony Point
Rhyll, our favourite
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