Our Port Fairy Last Hurrah

Our very first excursion into the Port Fairy township inevitably included scouting about for a sausage roll to sample. The Bloke has really embraced the Sausage Roll Table of Fame ever since Steve from Easy Tiger noticed that finding a sausage roll was a recurrent pattern for the Bloke in every new port or anchorage. We'd been given directions to a bakery but it was clearly a poor omen that we actually walked past it without even noticing. You can normally smell a bakery; the aroma of freshly baked bread is very enticing. We should have already guessed that the sausage roll would disappoint. Eternally optimistic, the Bloke sought solace in the knowledge that 'the other bakery' could by visited the next day. Alas, another disappointment.

Max, the Port Fairy Harbour Manager was mortified to think our visit would be anything less than perfect and began to hatch a plan for Port Fairy to shine on the Sausage Roll Table of Fame. He briefed his mate Doug at the Clonmara Tearooms to take on the challenge. While Max, wife Heather and I enjoyed yummy tea and scones, the Bloke enthusiastically devoured a jumbo sized sausage roll.

You'll need to refer to the result table to check out the score but the reputation of Port Fairy was redeemed on our last day.

"I'm a little tea pot... blah, blah... "

The Vacancy.... you can make the call?

Max and Heather, our tour guides for the day.

GOOD Sausage rolls are to be had here!

Seeing as Max had us in the car he took us on a short trip to showcase a bit more of the local terrain. The Tower Hill State Game Reserve, Victoria's first proclaimed National Park, is not far away and is situated in a a collapsed volcanic caldera (extinct of course). The lakes and sheer size of the craters is way larger (4km wide) than the ones we'd visited at Mt Gambier.  Matthew Flinders noticed the hill from the ocean when he was mapping the south coast. The walk to the lookout at the top of Tower Hill helped to walk off the scones and sausage rolls.

 

The path to the lookout at the top.

 A little rest half way up.

Make no mistake, it was steep.

 

It's a miracle. They made it to the top!

 Outlook to the ocean across one of the crater lakes.

 Looking towards Warrnambool and the layers of 'Tuff' - volcanic ash in the crater

 

A discovery centre and picnic area are located within the basin of the crater.

Here we had a closer look at some koalas.

 

 And cheeky emus.

On the way back to Port Fairy we also called through the cute little town of Koroit. Like Port Fairy, it is full of gorgeous 19th century buildings and cottages. Max confirmed that the tinsel shamrocks on the lamposts were a fixture and locals actually spoke with a slight Irish brogue. We are unable to confirm this but we'll bow to local knowledge every time. What's the bet that there is a GAS (Guinness Appreciation Society) club here!

One of the cutest Hotels you'd ever see.

It's even cute around the corner.

The Koroit Post Office built from local 'Blue stone'.

We suspect that only Superman uses the phone booth now.

 Still in operation, the Koroit pillar box.

So much to see and we hadn't even got to the Great Ocean Road!