Sharing the Port Fairy Postcard

One of our first activities when we arrive in a new town along our trip is to buy a handful of postcards to send to the most junior and most senior members of our family. Our Mums will have had a lifetime of sending and receiving postcards but for the youngsters, this is something new and probably a bit quixotic. Our little nephews and grandchildren will most likely not receive much in the way of physical mail in coming years seeing how everything is going electronic. There is nothing quite as exciting as retrieving something from the letterbox - unless of course it's a bill.

Selecting postcards is less easy than you'd think. It is for me anyway. Town after town we see racks of generic pictures of pelicans, dolphins and whales. Obviously they qualify on the basis that they might be a bit exotic. You generally don't see such creatures if you live in a big city but they are hardly unique to a particular location and slapping a place name in a fancy font does not make them so. Aerial shots of a place are seldom really captivating. To me, a postcard needs to be a bit of distilled visual magic... something of the 'Don't you wish you could be here'. A postcard should sell the sizzle and not the sausage!

Finding ourselves in some of the more historic locations in the country has meant that we are starting to see some of the more classic styles of letter boxes and 'pillar boxes'. I've fallen for them and you're likely to see a few more pictures in coming posts. Sending postcards is becoming fun and a thing of whimsy.

The Bloke helping to hold up an old letter box in Portland. 

This one is no longer in use.

Having a night to sleep on it didn't dispel our disbelief at how cute Port Fairy is and that arriving here was like stepping into an actual 'postcard'. With something in the order of 50 buildings listed by the National Trust there is of course and old world charm to it but the star of the show is the mouth of the Moyne River which is flanked by rows of evenly spaced Norfolk Island Pines, and timber walkway jetties with white painted rails giving form to the boat harbour. The rows of moored boats add to the charisma of this gorgeous place. Every vista seems to sing.... aren't you glad you are HERE!

Holiday cottages and summer homes are in abundance.

If you can have your own little dock and sun deck... why not?

The iconic Oscars Waterfront Boutique Hotel.

We'll try to be good neighbours for a couple of weeks.

 

 Zofia on left.

Yes, it's true boat owners ARE obsessed with pictures of their own boat!

 Lots of timber 'Couta' style boats.

The 'General' will be particularly interested.

Outside the Port Fairy Post Office.

The sign under the slot confirms that it's still in operation. Phew!

A phone call last night from Port Lincoln friends, confirmed that we will wait here for a couple of weeks so we can see them again. Ken and Colleen are swinging past today on the way back to Wirrina from Hamilton and new contacts from Portland (only 45 minutes by car) promise to visit too. No, we are not lonely, even if we are missing YOU!