This week Debbie has set the one word Sunday challenge as rural. As it coincided with Father’s Day I thought I would combine the two. It’s been a while since I saw both my parents, coming up to a year. I was lucky enough to have them both with me for almost five months last year, because of Covid they were stuck here for much longer than planned.
I asked them to artfully arrange themselves on some hay bales at a winery we visited
Our trip to Victoria included a one night stay on Philip Island. It’s a place I’ve wanted to see for a while and was intrigued as to why many of the places are named after Isle of Wight towns. I haven’t read anything definitive to explain it, just that the early settlers (1800 or thereabouts) had just holidayed there or saw a similarity.
We travelled from Melbourne with our two intrepid travellers, Laurence and Maddy, with Laurence driving. It’s an easy drive around 90 minutes and you can drive onto the island across the Philip Island Road Bridge from San Remo.
Our first stop of the day was lunch at Saltwater, a restaurant directly on the seafront. After pizzas and fish tacos, we wandered over to see a “squadron” of pelicans awaiting their lunch.
Newhaven
As it was almost 4pm by now we had to get a move on to check into our accommodation. A little boutique guesthouse – The Castle, Villa by the Sea, located in the North of the island in Cowes.
Cowes was named by Henry Cox in 1865, a land surveyor who had just recently visited the seaport in England. Before this it was called Mussel Rocks.
We were already very impressed by the beautiful scenery on our drive up to Cowes. After checking in we walked along to the seafront. I could imagine how busy this place is in the Summer, such a wonderful island for a family holiday. Calm sandy beaches and grassy areas for picnics.
Cowes
Dinner that night was in a Greek restaurant a short walk from our guesthouse.
The next day we had an early breakfast along the seafront before checking out at 10 am. I had a lot planned for today.
Our first stop was Rhyll, a little fishing port named after the one in Wales.
Rhyll
A beautiful carving by Brandon Lawrence. Brandon created this sculpture from the massive cyprus tree that was blown down in a storm in 2016. It is called The Ferry Captain and depicts all things nautical. It honours all the ferry captains over the years.
Continuing with our tour we drove through Philip Island and down to the South West to Ventor, where we had a brief stop to watch the surfers. This is also where the penguins live and there is a nightly parade on show. We gave this a miss the night before as it was extremely chilly, maybe a visit is on the cards for the summer.
Ventnor
Downwards now to the very bottom tip of the island – The Nobbies. Home to the fur seals of Philip Island. There is a wonderful walk around the cliffs that takes approximately half an hour where you can see the roiling rollers of the sea. It’s quite mesmerising watching the waves.
The Nobbies
There is also an interactive Antarctic museum here which we didn’t visit but looked like a great place for families.
Churchill Island
Driving back now across the island to Churchill Island, where a historic heritage farm is located.
Churchill Island was named by Lt. James Grant in 1801 for the name of the man who had given him the seeds first planted here. There are beautiful well kept historical buildings and magnificent gardens to explore. It is still a working farm where there are many animals freely roaming around. A truly tranquil place to while away an hour or two and soak up the peace.
The Farm and Surrounding Areas
Churchill House and Gardens
A fabulous weekend was had by all on this picturesque island. Below are some links for interest.
Philip Island Historical Society
Lastly a map of Philip Island
This week Cee has asked for real and fake photos for her Fun Photo Challenge – CFFC . I had some fun with this one searching through the archives and wondering what to use.
Something for Cee’s Midweek Madness, starting or ending with E.
I came across this house boat this morning while out for my exercise. Sitting in the river with a barnacle or three attached. Sadly unredeemable, but once someone’s home. The sky was smoke filled due to a recent bush fire.
Every two weeks Sandy and Amanda host Friendly Friday. This week it’s Hands and Feet from Sandy.
I’ve found a few from my archives.
👣🤝👣🤝👣🤝👣🤝👣🤝👣🤝👣🤝👣🤝👣🤝👣🤝
Perth is certainly keeping up with Melbourne regarding street art, I snapped a few the other day while in town. I looked up some quotes to go with these images.
“As you climb your ladder of success, reach down and pull others along with you” – Frank Sonnenburg
“I have weathered the storm, I have beaten out my exile.” – Ezra Pound
Feathers appear when angels are near
“You don’t needs words to tell stories, just look into my eyes” – Madhusmita Behera
6 June 2017
By now I think our two drivers were getting the hang of the roads and tolls! It was especially useful to be able to input a telephone number into the satnav instead of the actual address – very helpful considering how all the Japanese places were spelt. Because if you put an o instead of an a or e you can end up many miles away as all the names are very similar or so they seem to us. Also included in the satnav the amount of the toll you had to pay was spoken to you beforehand.
We had a four hour drive ahead of us as you can see from the map above. As Kyushu is made up of several small islands there was not really a direct route to take to Kagoshima.
We passed through Yanegawa on the way which is made up of lots of canals.
Arrived quite late to Hotel Shiroyama – beautiful hotel – high up on a hill overlooking Mt. Sakurajima. Sakurajima is still smoking and one of the reasons we visited Kagoshima.
As it was late decided to eat at the hotel on the 13th floor. Had a gourmet French dinner – fantastic!
Shame the windows in our room were frosted! so had no view – obviously you had to pay more for the view.
Make New Friends but keep the Old, one is Silver and the other is Gold
Posted for CMMC – November Colours – Silver and a Gold
