our travels: MORE TRAVELS

This morning we left the Geelong Showgrounds. The last couple of days we have been shrouded in terrible smoke from the horrendous fires that they are experiencing down the east coast of Australia.....so we can only imagine how those poor people who are in the area are coping with the smoke.

It’s been a terrible start to 2020 for lots of people in the bushfire zones who have lost friends, family, their houses, their properties, their livestock and their income......and how can we comprehend how they feel as we, the lucky ones, go about our normal day to day and our travels. We can’t!

But what we can do is keep them in our thoughts and do whatever we can to help in some small way, whether it be donating money, or non perishables, water & clothes. And I can’t even think of all those poor little bush animals.

We are heading west now, its the safer option, towards Warrnambool. We had morning coffee at a lovely little town called Camperdown. The weather has cooled down here a lot, so had to dig out the jacket, and for all those who know me, don’t laugh, Ed had to wear a jacket too!!!

Camperdown is a dairy farming town, with rich volcanic soil, also good for wool growing. It’s also a tourist town as its the gateway to the Otway Ranges, and the Shipwreck Coast.

The buildings here are around the 1880’s era..

Courthouse

We had a nice walk around this town...you step back in time sometimes with these old towns....and you see all the old shops as they used to be, no modern shopfronts here!

We were going on to Terang, but the little caravan park was too crowded for us, so we found this lovely little free camp in a town called Panmure with a population of 421..and was established in the 1850’s ...when Timbercutters came to the area to harvest the River Red gum. With the clearing of the native forest and high rainfall, it became a thriving dairy industry.

The Post Office opened on the 1st January 1867.

Don’t think its changed much. We did go in to have a look and buy a loaf of bread, which has increased a bit in price since it first opened at $5.00 a loaf.

We don’t mind paying that as the camp site is free and it all helps.

There are a few of us here, its just that we are spaced out a bit which is nice. There’s a playground for the kids, lovely clean loos....a great camp kitchen with BBQ’s, and a swimming hole, where we spoke to a lovely young girl who was just about to have a swim. She said she was a local, so didn’t have to go far for a warm shower!!