Womadelaide :: Day 4

This morning I breakfasted in a little cafe called "Port of Call" in the Portland town centre.  The morning was overcast and trying to rain, so it was nice to go into a busy, well lit, warm shop full of families and couples enjoying themselves and the smell of coffee and toast.

I had a big day ahead with two country festivals to visit, so ordered poached eggs, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms.  But when the plate came they had added bacon and it was huge!  I enjoyed about three quarters of it, with a nice pot of peppermint tea.

Then it was off to Heywood, a country town about half an hour north of Portland for what sounded like a lovely event - the Heywood Wood, Wine & Roses Festival.

However, when I arrived I realised that the title was actually bigger than the festival itself.  There were about a dozen stalls selling home made items and plenty of vans selling rubbish food.

There was a mismatched pair of Disney characters wondering around together - Ironman and Woody from Toy Story.  Ironman was very impressive, but I wondered what the body of the man inside the suit looked like - probably some weak, skinny thing.  Woody, on the other hand was a lot shorter and fatter than I remembered him from the movie and his eyes gave the impression he'd been on the turps all night!

There was a face painting stall for the kids and as I watched, the artist went from one child to the next using the same brushes that, not only had she not sterilized, but she hadn't even rinsed them.  It's hardly surprising that infectious diseases are spread so easily amongst children with this lack of hygiene practice going on!  The kids seemed happy, though.

There was a centre stage with the current performer being a Roy Orbison tribute act.  He didn't really look much like the Big O, apart from the black wig and glasses and didn't sound like him at all.

The worst part was he couldn't make the high notes!  When singing "Crying", the last line sounded like "O-Over Y....", then his voice cracked and totally disappeared.  It was quite entertaining actually, but probably not for the reasons he had intended.

I was struggling to find any Wood, Wine or Roses for which the festival was named, but finally came across a stall selling wooden models of country houses.  These seemed to be the only wooden things in the whole festival.

Then I discovered a tent right at the very back with two wineries displays inside, if you could call them that - a trestle table and banner each and some boxes of wine to taste and sell.

After tasting their wares, I ended up buying a wooded chardonnay and a port.  I wasn't really keen on buying any of their "Slaughter House Red".  Not sure what that would have been anyway!

So, that was the Wood and the Wine checked-off, but I couldn't find Roses anywhere, nor any other flowers for that matter.  So, I asked at the enquiries van and they directed me to the Scout Hall at the side of the festival, where they said there was a roses display.

Finally, I found something that I could enjoy and appreciate!  The hall was filled with the most magnificent display of roses and the smell was wonderful.  The (presumably) women of the town had obviously put a great deal of effort into growing and tending to these blooms and then exhibiting them proudly for all to see.

So, at last I was able to walk away from the Heywood Wood, Wine and Roses Festival with a smile on my face.  Next, it was onto the "Music in the Vines" Festival in MacArthur, another half an hour's drive north-east.

What a difference from the first festival!  Firstly, the weather had lifted and it was warm and sunny.  The festival venue was situated within a winery and there were vines all around, the food was far more real - wood fired pizzas, hand made burgers, cheese platters, salads and fruit.  There was wine, of course which was quite nice, as well as soft drinks and free water from large canisters, not individual plastic bottles.

Most of the grapes has already been harvested

I arrived at about 2 o'clock and the entertainment was already underway - various performers from around the region, plus some from further afield.  A nice variety of styles from folk to country, pop, jazz, blues and ballads, and people were already enjoying themselves.  I sat near one group who immediately started chatting with me and invited me to join them.

In between the musical acts were lovely performances of local dance schools, including an Irish dance troupe and a group of young girls doing a modern ballet with silver wigs.

It was very much a family event and there was plenty of entertainment for the kids, including a clown making balloon animals - far less opportunity for contagion there!

So, I continued to enjoy myself listening to good music, enjoying the sunshine, drinking wine, eating cheese and pizza with my new friends for the whole afternoon and into the evening (although I did cut back on the alcohol for the last few hours, as I was driving).  The crowd began to swell throughout the afternoon as the line up of performers became gradually more famous.

The final act was the big draw card - Russell Morris who is very famous all over Australia and a stalwart of over fifty years of music.  The last time I saw him perform was in Birdsville two years ago at the Big Red Bash.

He performed some of his newer music and then did some of his famous older ones like "Sweet Sweet Love" and "The Real Thing".  I thoroughly enjoyed this last performance, before making the hour's drive home to Portland at about 11:30 pm and into bed in my little caravan.

Womadelaide :: Day 3

So it's time to pack up, hitch up and say farewell to Apollo Bay.  Today I'm heading to Portland, which is about a four hour drive. On the way, I detoured down to the Cape Otway Lighthouse. 

The drive towards the Light Station was through a lovely forest of gums and I spotted quite a few koalas as I drove through.  But then as I came closer to the coast, the vegetation changed remarkably.  I was driving through what I can only describe as a "skeleton forest"!  All the gum trees had died for some reason and there was only tea tree and smaller shrubs.  It was a really weird feeling driving through it.

Having arrived at the Light Station, I was able to visit the Lighthouse itself and then afterwards there was an historical talk in the Light Keeper's Cottage, which was really interesting.

I discovered that the Cape Otway Lighthouse is Victoria's oldest working lighthouse, built in 1848.  It helped prevent a lot of ships from being wrecked off the coast of Cape Otway, but some still were.  There is a lovely sculpture of a shipwreck near the entrance to the Light Station.

After that, I headed off to my destination of Portland, following the Great Ocean Road again.

On the way, I stopped off in Port Campbell to view the amazing limestone cliffs, the Twelve Apostles and London Bridge.

The Twelve Apostles

London Bridge, which actually fell down in 1990!

I arrived at the Holiday Village Caravan Park in Portland at about 4 o'clock and set up.

My lovely clean van picked up some mud spatters
during the trip!

I didn't go out for dinner this evening - just had a quick lasagne and salad in the van, watched some TV and was in bed by 9:30.

Womadelaide :: Day 2

It was cool, overcast and a little rainy this morning and I was so cosy in my little bed that I just turned over and went back to sleep!

When I finally awoke for the second time, it was about 9:30.  I flicked on the kettle and decided to make myself a couple of boiled eggs for breakfast.  Then I realised that I didn't actually have any egg cups in the caravan - so made poached eggs instead. (Note to Self:  Get some egg cups).  Then after washing up and showering and a pretty laid-back, relaxed morning I drove into the town centre again and saw some lovely sculptures on the foreshore.

Then I went for another walk along the beach.

After that I did a little grocery shopping and to see if I could find any egg cups.  I finally found them at the local Op Shop.

These cute little egg cups will be just perfect,
because they are wooden and so won't break in the van!

I also found a lovely long skirt and top at the Op Shop.

The whole lot only cost me $10, so I gave them a $10 donation as well.  I do love Op Shops!

Then I went to the Apollo Bay Bakery and had one of their famous scallop pies.  It was particularly yummy!

After lunch, the weather started to clear up and become warm and sunny.  So I drove up to Marriner's Lookout, which is the highest point in the area and right behind the caravan park.

View of Marriner's Lookout from the caravan park

Once I had parked, there was another five minute walk up a steep track to the Lookout, through some lovely little fern gullies.

On the way I stopped to take a picture of the caravan park from the top down.

The walk to the top was really worth it, because the views were spectacular!

On the way back to the car park, I saw a little family of blue wrens hopping about in the grass and managed to get a picture of a male.

Once I had returned back down to sea level, I went to the fish market as Apollo Bay is famous for it's beautiful sea food.

An interesting sculpture on the wall

I didn't end up buying any fish, but enjoyed looking through everything there.  Then I walked along the harbour and saw all the fishing boats and other yatchs.

Back to the caravan to put away the shopping and sit and read in the sunshine for a while.

The weather began to close in and by the time I left to go to La Bimba (another high-rating restaurant) for dinner, it was raining slightly so I took my parka with me.  It's a good thing I did, because the rain got gradually heavier as the evening drew on!  La Bimba is above one of the shops in the main street and I was lucky to get a park just across the road.

This is a rustic, Italian-style restaurant - very different to the one last night.

I was fortunate to get a table right at the front in the window, so I could watch everything that was going on outside.

As I was in a famous seafood town, I decided I would choose some fish meals and (feeling adventurous) I selected a cuttlefish dish for entree.  I've never had cuttlefish before, but figured "When in Spain ...".  I chose another Barossa Valley white wine to go with this dish, but an Italian-sounding one - a 2016 Vigna Cantina Trebbiano.  The cuttlefish was similar to calamari but a little fleshier and it was served with zucchini and finely-sliced radish.  It was actually rather good and the wine went with it perfectly!

The waitress also served some homemade sour dough bread and homemade butter, which was absolutely delicious!

As the evening drew on and it got dark outside, the rain settled in quite heavily and I was glad I had brought my parka for when I left.  It was kind of nice to be sitting at the window of a warm, joyful, rustic restaurant, eating nice food and drinking lovely wine, watching the rain sweep through the ark of the street lights and people huddled into their rain coats and umbrellas, scurrying to their cars.

Then, for main I wanted to order a whole baked snapper, but they had sold out and instead the waitress suggested the grilled whiting.  With this I ordered a 2018 Head Shiraz from the Barossa.

When the plate arrived, I groaned inwardly because (harking back to my vegetarian days), I really hate seeing the head and eyes of a fish on my plate.  It always feels like it is looking at me.  In fact I was pretty sure the semi-fish closest to me was actually laughing at me!  Nevertheless, I tucked in and soon discovered that it had been garnished with coriander, which I really dislike.  I'm one of those people who just cannot stand the taste of it! 

Then, as I tried to eat the fish I discovered that there were dozens of little sharp bones throughout it.  No matter how hard I tried to separate the flesh from them, I ended up picking one or two bones out of my mouth with every forkful.  So, I only ended up eating about three-quarters of the first fish and left the rest, explaining to the concerned waitress that it was cooked perfectly but just wasn't to my taste.  The wine was lovely, although a little peppery.

So, I decided to finish off the evening with a tarte tartin and a peppermint tea.  There's nothing more yummy than apple, caramel sauce and cinnamon with a homemade vanilla ice cream and the peppermint tea helped settle my stomach after all those strange and unfamiliar flavours.

Home and into bed by 10 o'clock.  The rain was pelting down on the caravan roof and the wind was really buffeting the van about, but I was warm and dry inside and was soon rocked off to sleep.