On Friday we left for Point Lonsdale which is a coastal township on the Bellarine Peninsula, not far from Geelong, for the weekend. A friend of Craig's has a holiday house there which they very kindly offered us for the weekend. It is a beautiful house - 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms - l tell you, this holiday house is bigger than our house! We arrived at about 8pm after stopping in Geelong to grab some dinner.

We got up about 7.30am on Saturday and after breakfast we decided to have a look around. Point Lonsdale itself is pretty small, not much of a shopping centre and a few cafes and restaurants. We went to the foreshore and had a look at the views then went onto the rip view lookout. We took the steps down to the beach and strolled along it while watching the waves crash onto the shore until we came to the Point Lonsdale Pier which seemed to be a popular spot for fishing and a good vantage point for taking in views of the lighthouse and the surrounding coastline. The lighthouse is situated at the tip of Point Lonsdale and was built in 1902. We stood near the lighthouse for ages just watching the ships pass through the rip. It was quite fascinating. The Rip is where the calm waters of Port Phillip Bay meet the choppy seas of Bass Strait and on the other side of the bay entrance is Point Nepean, at Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula. There are tours of the lighthouse but as didn't want to do that we walked along one of the walking tracks passing by what looked like old bunkers which, we discovered, were dotted all along the coastline. It started raining so we headed back to the lighthouse for some cover and continued to watch the ships some more before heading back to the car before the rain became too heavy. From there we drove a short distance to Queenscliff (which was a strategic defence post because of its proximity to the entrance of Port Phillip Bay and that would explain the bunkers we saw), we first went to the foreshore but as it was still raining we didn't get out of the car and you couldn't see much either, then we drove through the main street down to the harbour where we went up the lookout tower which gave us panoramic views over Queenscliff and the bay. There is a ferry that departs from here and takes you over to Sorrento - an alternative to the road route via Melbourne. There were lots of boats moored on the wharfs, some of them expensive looking, and apparently you can purchase seafood from the ones that catch fish. Not far from the harbour is the Bellarine Peninsula Railway which operates a collection of heritage trains from around Australia on 16 kilometres of restored track between Queenscliff and Drysdale. I would have liked to have a ride on the train however we were too late for the departure and they weren't running another one that day, so we walked up the main street looking for somewhere to eat lunch while taking in the sights of the historic shop fronts and buildings. After lunch we decided to head back to the house as it was raining and we just veged out until it was time for dinner. We drove to Geelong and after driving and walking around trying to decide where to eat we took a punt on a place called Lamby's Black Sheep restaurant which was nice.

On Sunday we left Point Lonsdale after breakfast and headed towards Geelong via St Leonards, Port Arlington, and Clifton Springs. The ocean views were wonderful….l could just sit and watch the ocean all day. Craig showed me where he used to work in a bakery at Clifton Springs…he said a lot's changed since he was there. We lunched in Geelong at a café on Cunningham Pier. It was so windy along the pier we almost got blown away! Afterwards we went to the Ford Discovery Centre which is a showcase of car technology and a behind the scenes look at how cars are made. There was quite a lot of interactive stuff as well which was quite interesting. Then it was time for a coffee and cake before heading back to Bendigo. All in all it was a lovely relaxing weekend.