Australia Days 3-4: Warnambool to Bordertown, Bordertown to Cowtowie (with a new car battery!)

Last Wednesday morning, we woke up in Warnambool after a sweeping 2-day tour of the Great Ocean Road. We drove through the town and came upon, what else?, another PLAYGROUND. This playground, according to my niece, is legendary. LEGENDARY, I TELL YOU. They had been here 3 years ago, and she has been talking about it ever since. So we spent a pleasant, sunny morning running around and checking out the play equipment, the maze, which you can see below, and the infamous "Flying Fox."

The maze.

What is a "Flying Fox," you ask? Watch the video.

This is why it is the Playground To Beat All Playgrounds.
I. Loved. The. Flying. Fox.

Patrick taking a turn.

Then we drove practically across the street and checked out the sea. It was beautiful.

Patrick and I decided that if we ever move to Australia, we will live in Warnambool. It has it all. The sea, delicious fish and chips, and the Flying Fox.

What more could you want?

Oh, how about a whale lookout like Logan's Beach?

No whales spotted though. No worries, Warnambool also has a Cheese Factory!

So, let's see:
1. The sea
2. The Flying Fox
3. Potential for whale sightings
4. A cheese factory

SOLD.

We actually spent a good part of the day in Warnambool. Patrick's internet card that Carolyn and Andrew had bought for him was not working properly, so we had to drop in to the Telstra store. Two hours and a faulty SIM card later, we were on our way.

We headed towards the Grampians, a beautiful mountain range in Victoria.

We saw some Emus along the way to the Grampians. It made me think of Steve, Patrick's brother, who tried to teach my niece and nephew to call me Auntie Emu because he thought it was funny. Steve, these birds are not cute or pretty or dainty so I'm thinking I should maybe be offended.

The Grampians in all their glory.

Unfortunately, we had to spend a little more time in Warnambool than we had expected, so it got dark pretty early into our tour of the Grampians. We tried to make it to McKenzie Falls, but it was so dark by the time we got there that we couldn't see anything. We stayed the night with some friends of Carolyn and Andrew's in Bordertown. They fixed us a GREAT meal of homemade pasta. We had never had homemade pasta. It was delicious! We enjoyed chatting with them and getting to know them. Mr. Hughes used to be a 9th grade English teacher, so we had an instant connection. He gave me many ideas to try out for next school year!

The next morning, we said all of our goodbyes, got in the car, attempted to start it, and nothing happened. Completely dead. We spent the morning waiting for a new battery to arrive and get changed. I took my niece to, you guessed it, another playground!

Because we got started late, Thursday turned out to be mostly a driving day. Our goal was to make it to Caltowie, to the farm where Andrew's sister and her family lives. We drove most of the day, only stopping to stretch our legs, to make some lunch on the side of the road, and to cross the mighty Murray River.

We pulled our car right onto this little ferry, and in less than 10 minutes they had pulled us across on a cable. Pretty neat.

We were just about to the farm when the sun began to set. It was the most beautiful sunset we had seen so far. It seemed to hang around for a long time.

We were welcomed by Andrew's family to the farm. His sister had fixed us a beautiful meal of roast lamb (homegrown!), roasted potatoes and pumpkin, fresh peas and cabbage. We had mulberry pie and custard for dessert. Yum. We sat around the fire and talked until bedtime, only briefly interrupted for a "second dessert" of pavlova and fruit. The tradition here is to have your dinner ("tea") and then dessert a little later, which they call supper. It's all a little confusing, but it works out for good in the end, don't worry.

Though it was one of the coldest nights we'd had, we had plenty of quilts on our bed and were plenty warm. We slept well and woke up early the next morning to catch the sunrise and milk the cow!