well we have arrived in melbourne on monday the 15th. we have booked into some nice serviced appartments in St Kilda.
To continue from the last blog in Mount Gambier. And for hector's information we played 18 holes and despite using some some very average clubs and off the back tees, 32 points were harvested! with any luck with the putter it could have been 40 points! twas ever thus.
We decided to have 18 holes in the morning although the weather forecast was not great, fortunately it turned out fine and the course was a pleasure, a lovely parkland layout. We didn't stop to do any sight seeing and set off for Port Fairy down the coast. A c ouple of hours later we arrived, we were bowled over with Port Fairy. It is a lovely spot with all the houses different and loads of village activities going on -- sheep dog trials-- craft fairs-- lots of restaurants. We stayed at a motel - fairly average. We ate at the local pub which was very busy-- I had a steak and m had her usual steak and ale pie!!
The intention the following day was to play the Port Fairy links golf course. Reputedly one of the the top 100 courses in OZ. But I wasn't happy with the hire clubs and not that bothered about playing so with a dissapointed M we moved on. I must point out at this stage that this was not supposed to be a golf trip but we are not great sight seers and unless something really stands out then 4 hours of exercise and a bit of fun seems to be a good idea.
Our next stop was port cambell and the 12 apostles. The iconic place of the ocean road. It is spectacular and of course full of tourists, mostly asian.
We stayed at the port cambell motel on the suggeation of Bob Estridge who was a mate of the owner. Unfortunately he was in Bali so we didn't meet up.
Not being overly impressed with PC we decided to drive inland and look at a different view for a change. We arrived in some very interesrting countyside that was obviously an old volcanic plateau-- Camperdown-- it had 2 lakes apparently one fresh water and one sea water! How that was possible considering how far we were from the coast god knows. We looked at a couple of lovely golf courses but it being sunday no equipment -hire was available. The weather was lovely about 28 .
So with our golfing ambitions thwarted-- yes i know this isn't a golf holiday-- we headed back to the ocean road to Anglesea.-- mainly coz it has a good golf course! The course is famous for having loads of kangaroos on it. We were unable to play it because it had 200 women on it, can you imagine that?
So it was another night in the usual motel. we went to a very good local italian restaurant while it absolutely poured down outside. As it was Valentines day margaret insisted on paying, she is such a romantic!
The following day it was off to Torquay further alongt the great ocean road. Astonishingly we ended up playing golf on a lovely linksy type course. They were very friendly and it was a tough round as the wind was blowing hard-- hence no scores are available.
having finished at about 2.00 pm we set off for melbourne and arrived at about 3.30pm and booked into these apartments.
The apts are situated above an Aldis which is very convenient. We had steak last night and chicken stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon tonight.(for those chefs amongst us).
Today was spent trying to get our bearings around Melbourne. It is superb weather, blue sky and about 26 degrees. We went to a place that did tours to "Ramsey Street" (Neighbours) and M is going to go on the tour on thursday . She is very worried that Doctor Carl will be there when she wants Toady to be there so we will wait and see!
We then went on a tour of the MCG. It was a great trip, took about an hour and took us places that only the members can get to. The facilities are absolutely fantastic and was followed with a visit to the museum of sports, still at the MCG. The highlight was a room with a hologram of Shane Warne going over his career highlights.- Very realistic.
We then went on a bus that took us around most of the main spots in Melbourne, which is a mixture of new and old buildings. A huge amount of Art and cultural buildings not to mention the usual sporting facilities-- not as impressive as Singapore on the eye but i am sure more goes on underground.
Haven't decided what to do tomorrow but the weather is set fair!