The Mornington Peninsula

First a few words about yesterday we had programmed the starting point of a circular route as Claire said, found it and started to walk around. It was a cold morning and in the shade of the trees and damp underfoot it felt chilly cold. Claire was a little apprehensive as she is a bit scared of the wildlife when we heard this eerie whale. We weren’t sure if it was a siren or one of those Aboriginal whirly things but either way it was spooky. We could only imagine that it was some sort of fire alarm signal. Following the bridge the route took on a much smaller path with overhanging branches and squawking birds that you couldn’t see. Although Claire had totally squashed the idea of Puffing Billy, the train ride when we were planning our route she suddenly had an overwhelming urge to go on the train after all. I was trying to make her feel better about it by mentioning the toilet thing. We turned back and reset the savnav for Puffing Billy.

I think Claire had imagined one of those little steam trains we get at home where you hang one leg out of each window and chuff around a park with screaming kids. No, this was a proper restored steam train which ran on a 2 foot six inch gauge track. I must say though with the wind chill I wished that I had taken my coat. Having to make the return journey made it a bit too far especially having seen the route on the way there. If Ian and Jane want to do it, I will drop them off at the station and pick them up at the lakeside so they only have to do one way.

Today we headed off on tour around the Mornington Peninsula starting at Frankstone, stopping at Mornington which is a pleasant little town. You can actually see the heights of Melbourne across the bay on a clear day. We then set off through Dromana to Sorrento at the end where you can get the ferry to the other side of the entrance to the bay. The ferry cost $10 each way on foot or about $63 for a car and two adults each way. A nice spot so we parked up for lunch, walked all the way around but not finding anything but the normal tourist food. Just as we were loosing hope and expecting to get a snack we found a little French/Italian called Joey’s. It looked a little pricey but they offered a special lunch where you could chose any of the pasta dishes with a glass of wine for $20. Claire had the linguini with chicken and avocado while I tried the seafood linguini. At last, proper cooking; mine had 5 king prawns, 4 scallops and a fresh water Cray fish locally called Marin. It also had chilli, tomatoes and XVOO but I had to ask what the last ingredient was. The waitress said it stood for extra virgin olive oil; how could I have missed that. I am very pleased that I finally have something good to say about the restaurants over here. I have also really enjoyed all the Chinese food we have tried from the various China towns.

That photo of the blue and red parrot that Claire put in her blog yesterday landed on my shoulder while I was trying to take a picture of those white Parakeets which were posing on the sign for me. Just for a moment, I felt like Captain Hook, especially when I saw the Japanese tourists going for their cameras. It flew off and landed in the tree where I took its photo.