Having been to Warrnambool a number of years ago, we decided to bypass staying there and go on another 20km to Port Fairy and bed in for six days. We reserved Warrnambool for a day trip. We stayed at Southcombe Caravan Park, which is a sizable park situated behind the dunes, which form a barrier between the park and South Beach and within walking distance of the town and Griffiths Island.
The township itself if a picture postcard town with a well kept row of shops and cafes. There’s a number of classic pubs from the typical Aussie two-story verandah style to a white brick single-story English coaching inn style.
The town is set back a little from the Moyne River, which is lined by beautifully kept rental properties and a marina style wharf with personal moorings as well as fishing charters and cruise boats. The area has a true shanty town feel and you can imagine strolling along the marina wharf past crusty old Welsh ex-pat cray fisherman smoking corn cob pipes and greeting you with a hearty ‘ooh,,,arrhhh’. As it was, when we were there the wharf was fairly empty apart from some customers at the Fish’n’chips Restaurant and one lonely vendor selling fresh seafood from his boat (Tiger Prawns at $50/kg… no thanks). Still… it’s a very pretty area and very enjoyable to walk around.
From the Marina you can walk over to Griffiths Island, which is bound to town side by two rock causeways that can be crossed on foot. The island was once a Whaling Station but is now a Shearwater nesting and conservation area. A walking track circumnavigates the island, which also includes, yes, another lighthouse.
It’s a very satisfying walk and brings you back to a small park area at the edge of the township and wharf area. Another pleasant part of Griffiths Island is that, as well as being a protected breeding habitat, there are a few areas set up for public use such as a calm swimming beach where the waves are blocked by a constructed row of basalt boulders and some lookout areas.
Aside from being a visually pleasing town there is a godd choice of cafes, bakeries and pubs. For Pub Night we chose the Caledonian Inn. It is a simple, white, brick, single storey inn style pub that is the oldest licensed pub in Victoria. The night we went was a cold, wintery, drizzly night that made you feel as though you were in an English seadside port and looking for a place to warm yourself.
On entering the pub you could immediately feel the warm of log fires at either end of the building. The bar area was cosy and quite full with locals wearing jumpers and beanies (drinking cold beer). The walls were full of prints and paintings of the pub as well as steam ships that frequented Port Fairy in years past. It’s a really well presented inn that makes you feel comfortable and speaks to the history that has passed in and around it.
Dinner at The Caledonian was well above average as well. THe menu had an Indian influence (mainly due to the kitchen staff being Indian) but was quite diverse and properly filled the gastro-pub brief. Rob had the Lamb & Rosemary Pie and Jo the Twice-cooked Pork Belly. The pie was deep and chock full of luscious, tender chunks of lamb in a rich, thick gravy on a bed of rustic mash and broccolini. Pure comfort food on perfect night for comfort food. The pork belly was a masterpiece… A generous slab of perfectly cooked pork belly with super crisp crackling, sitting on a bed of chats, crispy pancetta and peach salsa with a light curry seasoning. Sounds insane but it was a perfect fusion of German style pork belly with Italian pancetta and Indian/Asian influenced salsa. A very memorable meal. We jointly bestowed the Caledonian Inn with the title of ‘Best Pub in Victoria’…
Our stay at Port Fairy was a fairly relaxed time where we settled in and let the weather determine our schedule, which meant we spent a lot of time doing not very much, which was a nice change. Our next stop over the border to South Australia and the beachside township of Robe…
Being so close to Warrnambool we took the opportunity to visit a bigger regional centre and do a bit of necessity shopping needed after a month on the road.
First item… a gas refill. Our magic gas bottle finally enptied itself. We picked up our brand new caravan in February 2019 and it came with two brand new 9kg gas bottles. We have finally emptied the first gas bottle two years later, hence referring to it as the magic gas bottle. Admittedly, we’ve mostly been on powered sites so the fridge and hot water have been running almost exclusively on electricity but still we have done quite a bit of cooking and BBQ’ing from that single first bottle. Anyway Warrnambool was the closest place we could get it refilled so that was enough of a reason to visit.
We also needed to replace one of the shackles for the safety chains between the cruiser and van. One of them became a bit tight after a reversing sharply into the van site at Barwon Heads causing some tension on the shackle. It could still be used but needed to be properly tightened, and undone, with pliers.
The other items on the shopping list were a 19mm and 22mm socket. We brought a torque wrench on the trip for tightening the cruiser’s and van’s wheel nuts but forgot to put in sockets for them rendering the torque wrench useful only as a self-defence weapon.
We didn’t feel the need to do any sight-seeing in Warrnambool so instead settled for lunch in cafe that was a bit reminiscent of the original ‘Central Cafe’ in Queanbeyan. Rob had a fishermans basket that was pretty good and Jo had a ‘quesadilla’ that bore no resemblance whatsoever to your standard cheesy/meaty toasted/folded mexican classic. It was more like three open-face tacos. None the less it was really quite delicious despite not being a quesadilla.