BLAIRGOWRIE

G'day folks! Well we left the hustle and bustle of Melbourne on 24th Feb to head down to the peaceful tranquility of the Mornington Peninsula to stay with Chris and Jane in Blairgowrie. For you map lovers (Roberto) if you follow the bay around clockwise from Melbourne, Blairgowrie is on the point. The pace of life is much different, from four lane main roads with trams to roads of sand and roaming dogs. Judy drove us the 2hour journey to Spray Point Road and we had a walk along the back beach (the ocean side). Chris is not at all biased...this is probably the most beautiful beach we've seen, soft yellow sand, millions of varieties of shells and huge breakers rolling in from the Bass straight crashing on the beach and shaping this rugged coast. After our walk we arrived back at Chris and Janes just as they arrived home from work, well Jane from a hard days work and Chris from the golf course!!! The following day we really got into the Peninsula way of life and didn't even get dressed, we just lazed around the house reading and drinking wine. On Tuesday Chris gave us a guided tour of the local area, stopping at several beaches, both bay and ocean sides. The contrast between the bayside beaches and the oceanside beaches is huge, bayside is calm crystal clear shallow waters and very sheltered, and a few minutes walk and you are on the oppisite side where it is incredibly windy and raw. The following day we dropped Chris off at Rosebud Country Club as he was playing in a golf competition and we drove his car all over the surrounding area. We had our first sighting of a kangaroo, but unfortunately it was road kill. We then saw 3 more. It was quite upsetting seeing these huge animals by the side of the road. We drove to a lovely town called Flinders and had lunch, before picking Chris up and having a drink at the Country Club bar. Lah de Dah... Chris came 1st by the way and he wasn't smug at all!!! We attended a fantastic market with Jane on the Friday, all products must be hand made. We tasted lots of yummy food and nice wine. On Saturday we went to a Bollywood celebration as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in a vineyard owned by an Indian family. There was lots of Indian food and dancing and LOTS and LOTS of their wine to try and BUY!!! One fab sales pitch "come to our farm, we will feed you, get you pissed and sell you vats of vino". To say thankyou to Chris and Jane for putting us up or rather for putting up with us! we took them to a "Dine and Dip" at the Peninsula Hot Springs. This was great fun, we had dinner and a couple bottles of wine and then spent the evening lazing round in the hot springs. There were several pools ranging in temperature from pleasantly warm to unbearibly hot. Dan and Chris managed to get the sauna to 93degrees (muppets!) On our final day in Blairgowrie Chris took us to Point Nepean, where we hired bikes and cycled to the very tip of the Peninsula. It was here that the first shot of World War Two was fired as a German ship leaving the bay failed to obey signals and was shot at, they missed, bloody Aussies. After our bike ride we stopped at Portsea, a very posh place where a small house wouldn't give you much change from a million bucks. We had a well deserved beer...or two...or three. A fantastic end to a fantastic chapter of our journey. We are now heading back to Melbourne to get our asses in gear and buy a bus....