A WEEKEND in THREE PARTS

Last night we posted on the start of our weekend and Barwon Heads. 

It featured a small snippet of the TV series "Sea Change".

Today we took the car to the opposite side of the bay.

Join us on part two of our weekend.

Barwon Heads is on the Bellarine Peninsula and is reached either one of two ways. You can drive from the Melbourne Central Business District to the long flat boring highway to Geelong and then on to Ocean Grove. You enter Barwon Heads via a bridge that takes you across the outlet of the Barwon River.

Down on the far right bottom corner is Sorrento and Portsea. We caught the Ferry out of Sorrento and took some time to wander around the village of Queenscliffe before moving on to Barwon Heads.

The other more interesting route, particularly for us due to living 20 kms to the other side of the CBD is to drive through the rolling hills and bayside roads of the Mornington Peninsula to catch the Ferry at Sorrento that takes you to the historic village of Queenscliffe. We decided on this way and enjoy the trip across the bay.

The Ferry leaves Sorrento at the end of the Mornington Peninsula. Sorrento was on of Victoria's first settlements but was abandoned due to the lack of fresh water.

The water colour reproduction below shows the scene in the background  from a century earlier.

Sue became highly excited with the thought of crossing Port Phillip Bay on the Ferry - me, I get sea sick.

It actually is a quite an impressive ferry and very comfortable. After living on the bay for over 30 years, this was the first time we've taken it.

Yep! That's us enjoying a bit of fresh air in the depths of winter in Melbourne.

Barwon Heads started in the late 1800s as a small fishing village and during the 1920/1930s transformed to a sleepy holiday town. I actually remember spending maybe a week there with my folks and a couple of other families in a holiday home. I must have been around 10 years of age. What does come to mind was the freedom we had at that age. Without parents we went swimming, bike rides and caught Yabbies in a nearby dam. I can still remember the catch being thrown into boiling water and everyone enjoying a feast of Yabbies and locally caught fish. That was over 50 years ago.

The Ferry takes you to Queenscliff where we thought we would take in a light lunch at the VueGrand Hotel.

Looking out the windows of the VueGrand we saw Harry's bus service.

Lunch was a platter of dips with flat bread and squid with lime aiol

Barwon Heads is remembered by many reasons to many people. Possibly the most recent is that it is the Australian home for Cadel and Chiara Evans. Cadel of course being Australia's first Tour de France winner. I say first because sometime in the future I expect another Aussie will get there eventually now that Cadel has shown that it is possible.

Inside the Vue Grand Hotel Queenscliff.

This church has been converted to a home and is the main street of Queenscliff.

Further popularity was thrust upon Barwon Heads through the successful TV series "Sea Change", which was centered around the township and its rickety old bridge. You saw yesterday's post with a small snippet of Laura, and her daughter and son arriving in "Pearl Bay" and meeting Diver Dan. Its a series with a quaint twist and one that kept us enthralled for several seasons.

Barwon Heads was also used in the closing scenes of the film - On the Beach, based on Neville Shute's book.

We'll show some photos of Barwon Heads tomorrow.