Once awake this morning, we were quickly out of the hotel and dragging our bags up to the multi-storey car park where we had left the car. The hotel had a concession rate there and it cost us A$22 for 24 hours parking, not too bad for a city centre.
We managed to find our way out of the centre and dodge the trams and were quickly headed over the West Gate Bridge on the M1! The M1 freeway turned out to be a busy road with 5 lanes of traffic heading in each direction. Some of the lorries, known as 'land-trains' effectively tow two trailers behind them. It makes them very long, but they still drive at over 60mph!
About 25km out of Melbourne, we turned off the freeway and headed down a very long, very straight road heading towards the sea. We saw lots of birds and eventually pulled over to dig our binoculars out of our bags and find the bird book. We had a look around and were enjoying the sight of a 'flock' of Ibis overhead when a lady driver stopped next to us. She was a fellow birder and wondered what we were looking at she was a bit disappointed when I told her. The birds we were excited by were really common for her!
Eventually, we rejoined the freeway and headed in to Geelong (pronounced 'zherlong' with the emphasis on the 'zher') which is quite a nice seaside town. Outside it, however, are quite a few petro-chemical plants. We parked near the pier and walked to an information kiosk to find out how to get to our lodging. We ended up with a pile of leaflets and a free Geelong bag!
As we walked back to the car, we passed a cafe and ducked in for yet more fish and chips, well, actually I had calamari and chips. I have to say, it's a cheap meal here and the fish is inevitably fresh from the sea.
We decided that as we had a couple of hours to kill before we could check in we would explore the Bellarine Peninsular. This is quite a large agricultural area with a few seaside towns. It's also an important wine producing area. We saw a lot of wineries, but the one we chose to go and do a tasting in 'Jack Rabbit' turned out to be more of a dining experience and gift shop, so we left empty handed!
We visited Portdarlington, St Leonard's and Queenscliff. The last of these overlooks the narrow channel which gives access to Port Philip Bay and Melbourne. There are a lots of monuments here to various naval organisations. There is also a Victorian fortress to guard the port entrance!
Then it was time to head for our Air B&B lodging. We are staying in Belmont a suburb of Geelong in what was once a granny annex to a large bungalow. The room is lovely and our hostess friendly. As we'd eaten at lunch time, we went to Aldi to buy some salsa and chips for dinner. How romantic is that on Valentine's Day!
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