16 January 2011 - Koroit Tower Hill Caravan Park, Koroit, Victoria

A whole day of sunshine and warmth, and here it is as I start this just before 6 pm with the temperature still 36 degrees. Tomorrow is to be even warmer.

We spent most of the day out and about discovering the charms of Warrnambool, and many it has. What a wonderful holiday destination it is, beside the sea with walking paths everywhere, a lovely city centre and attractions to suit all comers.

Coastal delights at Warrnambool

Our first port of call this morning was the Information Centre which doubles as the reception for the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village, a state heritage listed precinct on 10 acres of land which offers “a breathtaking world class sound and laser show”  where the audience can experience the  hell of a shipwreck and survive it all. While this is all very laudable and is no doubt well worth the commercial entry price, we considered it too much for us, who tend to be very cautious with our tourist dollars. We did look over part of the period village and the coast beyond, visible from the terrace and were impressed with what we saw.

We drove on down to the breakwater, protecting the small harbour in the western corner of Lady Bay. The sun had brought out the beach goers and even at 10 am, there were many paddling in the water at Stingray Bay beside the mouth of the Merri River. We walked westward from there along the cliff top to Thunder Point, above the rugged limestone shoreline. The views were just stunning and a taste of what we have to come on the Great Ocean Road yet to be travelled. Much of the path was board walked to protect the fragile cliffs which are apparently eroding at the rate of 4 cm per year.

Returning, we stopped to read the interpretative panels about Middle Island, a very small island out from Stingray Bay at the river mouth, home to a small colony of Small Penguins. Back in the year 2000, there were at least 600, but by 2005 their numbers had fallen to less than 10. Desperate measures were required and they came with a rather off-the-wall solution.

The services of Maremma Guardian dogs, a breed originally from Italy to protect domestic livestock from thieves and wolves have been engaged. Today there are several specifically trained dogs on the island to guard these Little Penguins, and the number of the birds is growing at an increasing rate. What an amazing story! Needless to say, all but those who feed and check the dogs, are not allowed on the island.

From there, we drove across to the eastern end of Lady Bay to the mouth of the Hopkins River. We had crossed this river as we drove down from Ararat a few days ago, when I already understood this to be The River of Warrnambool. I had marvelled that such a trickle could be considered worthy of a city upon its banks, and yet here as it enters the sea, it has grown to require substantial bridges to take those that cross it on their way to Melbourne. At the Port Ritchie Lookout, a rather grand name for that overlooking the mouth, we were in the company of a Moslem family group; mother wrapped head to foot with just her lowered eyes in evidence, father in an untidy tee-shirt, baggy track pants and thongs and two daughters wrapped in vibrant turquoise scarves but dour and obviously wishing to be somewhere else. I could not bring myself to offer more than a nod as greeting; they were not out to make friends.

It was lunch time and so we headed for the Botanic Gardens, found a bench in the shade of large plane trees and hoped the crows about would not endeavour to further decorate the furniture from above. The park is pretty and full of European trees, obviously designed to attend to the homesick European settlers of old. The substantial pond is on a rise, the level of the water visible in that illusory way above the lip and the flowering water lilies stand above that again. We crossed over the bridge, looking for fish or eels, but only saw discarded plastic and a soccer ball.

The main street of Warrnambool is busy and full of excellent shops, spilling out into a couple of side streets as well. We found a business to do some printing for us and I purchased a new mouse from Dick Smiths, which like MacDonalds, is a known equation, predictable and always good value, even if lacking local flavour. We had fed a hungry parking meter before seeing a free parking area beside a new shopping centre close by, so were limited as to how much time we could spend wandering about window shopping, something I am getting much better at.

There are three Coles supermarkets in Warrnambool, along with an Aldis and Woolworths, however we personally prefer the first of the three larger grocery chains. We shopped at the one we had passed coming in from Ararat and came away with a trolly full of food items, which I soon had stowed once back at the caravan. Between that, watching tennis on the first day of the Australian Open and catching up with both my parents and Olly on Skype, it has been a busy day. It looks like the weather has turned, the winds now coming from the north; this will all be much more conducive to the coastal travel planned in the days ahead.