Tag Archives: Victoria

Cresfest 2025 in Creswick

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For many years my friendship group has been tossing around the idea of all retiring to a country town where we can all be within a few minutes of each other. One of my friends is very keen in Creswick being the destination and, since I’d never been, I decided this year, while I wasn’t working, would be a great time to check it out. Cresfest is an annual folk music festival that happens in April so it seemed like a good chance to see the town at its best.

I left Melbourne at midday on Friday and it took a bit over two hours to get there from Heathmont. Creswick is near Ballarat, which is on the opposite side of Melbourne and, unfortunately, involved driving down the Calder freeway. ‘Godforsaken’ might be a little dramatic, but it’s a drab and dull drive for an hour on a rubbish-strewn road with sad old farms every so often.

Creswick itself is surrounded by small hills and forest, making it a bit of an oasis in the somewhat barren landscape of central Victoria.

I arrived a bit after 2 and had a look around the Airbnb I’d booked (‘the house on the hill’ if you like the look of it). The house was very nice and well appointed except for the fact that all the lights, bar the lamps, were fitted with cold white globes, there by reducing the coziness of the property by half. Why anyone, anywhere outside of a medical setting, would put in blue white light over warm white is a complete mystery to me.

The house is built on a hillside overlooking the town but the front of the house is just bedrooms so there is a pod on the side of the house with a glass wall and a lovely view.

It has a log fire and some uncomfortable single wicker chairs, which is a shame because lounging in front of a fire in really comfy chairs is a premium night time experience.

After poking around the house and making a mental note of all the things I’d change if I owned it, I went for a walk down the main street, which is about 200 metres away down a steep hill.

The main street of a Creswick definitely has a fancier end. There is a French patisserie with very posh case of pastries, several historic pubs and restaurants and a local library that looks like it was built very recently with zero concern for the gold rush era streetscape.

No photos of the library, it was too ugly.

After a lap and a detour down a side street I walked back to the house and jumped in the car to visit the local lake.

Very pretty, possibly enhanced unfairly by the flawless weather. Jane tells me the water is always freezing.

For the rest of the afternoon and half the evening I drank wine, listened to the Parenting Hell podcast and did some drawing. I watched the sunset, birds flocking around, and ate a slice of cauliflower bake that I brought from home.

Jess and Christophe arrived mid evening and we had a few drinks before going to bed at a very sensible hour.

In the morning I was pleased and surprised to wake up without a hangover.

We had all bought Saturday tickets for Cresfest so the first order of business was getting our digital tickets translated into wristbands. Our first act of the day was a duo of Indian guitarists who played bluegrass (so they said, folk music is a whole new world to me) and got the crowd to sing along to Home Among The Gum Trees, which was twee but cute.

Jane and Ash were driving up on the day so I went back to the house to meet them then we walked back down the hill together. After not being able to get into a show that Jess and Christophe were already in (there were 20 venues spread out around the town) we sat outside the pub for a chat, got some lunch then went to see The Tuck Shop Ladies, who were very entertaining, playing short, funky, original songs.

We walked to the primary school to check out what was there and Jane booked a session with a fortune teller. We also caught a bit of a lovely father and daughter act who turned out to be friends of Kat’s. Small world!

I got a bit tired of wandering and headed back to the house in the late afternoon to sit in the sun and relax. Eventually I lit the fire and then everyone else came back and we sat and had a very pleasant chat for a while before Jane and Ash headed back to Melbourne.

The overall assessment of the festival had been that it was a bit overpriced, poorly signed (the food vans that had set up at the primary school were completely out of sight of the rest of the festival) and it would’ve benefited from more stalls. However the acts we saw were good, the crowd was lovely and the weather was 10/10.

Being so used to electronic music festivals, it was strange to be sitting down listening to people play, but it all felt very civilised and I expect it’ll get better every year.

Raymond Island

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Every year we catch up with Luke’s family (parents Lea and Pete, sister Erin and her partner Brendan and their three girls) and all go on holiday together somewhere in Victoria. This year our trip was to Raymond Island, which sits just off the coast of Paynesville in south-eastern Victoria. It’s about 3 hour’s drive from Melbourne through the very green Gippsland countryside. Luke’s family all came from Albury, so they drove over the mountains and Brendan got car sick. I’m sure he’ll appreciate me mentioning this in the first paragraph.

Raymond Island is in the Gippsland Lake system. Ninety Mile beach runs along a strip of land on the ocean front, which keeps the waters of the lakes much calmer.

Unusually, despite it being only about 200 metres from the mainland, Raymond Island is accessible only by ferry. The ferry only takes five minutes but if you’re outside the continuous service hours, sometimes you have to wait about half an hour for it to return. Foot traffic is free on the ferry but cars are $14 return.

We are staying about 2km from the ferry port on Western Boulevard.

The ferry crosses where it says ‘Raymond Island’ on the map.

Our house sits right next to the power pole which brings all the power to every house on the island. I probably wouldn’t have even been aware of this fact if we hadn’t arrived to discover the whole island was out of power thanks to a large catamaran catching the power line and breaking the connection.

The power pole was slightly bent by the accident and now has to be removed.

For the first day we avidly watched all the workmen come and go and talked to locals about the progress. The power came back about 7pm on the second day. Luckily we had a bbq, the hot water was heated by gas, we had a log fire and the caretaker brought us a bag of candles. As Lea said, it only makes the holiday more memorable!

Luke and I drove down on Monday and stopped at the Morwell Top Pub for lunch. I mainly wanted to write this down because the lunch was really good and if we come this way again we would definitely break the trip there.

We made it to the island by 4pm and caught the ferry over. The island has no shops or really much to do, but it is well-known for its resident koalas!

There are supposed to be over 200 but we didn’t see any on our arrival.

The house we are staying in was booked by me through Stayz. It is two storeys and has all the kitchen and lounge etc on the top floor to make the most of the views.

Erin, Brendan and the girls are in the downstairs space where there is a queen sized bed and a room with three sets of bunks. Lea, Pete, Luke and myself are sleeping upstairs, which has worked out well with the girls waking at the crack of dawn each day. I spent last week in Orange while Mum was in the Base Hospital recovering from her hip replacement, so this has been a good chance to catch up on some sleep after staying in her hospital room for three nights.

The view from the front of the house

The weather the first full day we were here was very windy but it was pretty still from then on and we’ve been out walking lots and gone over to Paynesville on the ferry for coffee.

We also walked the koala trail and saw lots of koalas!

They can be hard to spot.

Along the koala walk was a kookaburra sitting very still and watching all the people go by.

If you’ve never heard a kookaburra’s call, search for it online and have a listen, they are very unusual!

There is a house that hires Surrey bikes to travel along the koala trail. Erin, Brendan and the girls tried them out.

Rather than slog around on heavy bikes, Lea, Pete, Luke and I went to the Metung Hot Springs, with lunch at the Metung Pub on our way there.

I hadn’t even heard of Metung before, but it’s a very posh little hamlet on the water and the pub had a lovely view over all the yachts. We arrived to find the place pretty booked out, but the waiter said a party of four was very late so he gave us their table right by the window.

I couldn’t say no to fish and chips with a view like this.

Next were the hot springs. The Metung ones are part of the same chain as the more established Mornington Peninsula Hot Springs. The ones in Metung are only two years old so they don’t have as many pools. We were lucky in our timing as there weren’t many people there so we got to sit in the hottest pools – individual barrels – that overlooked the lakes.

The barrels sit half under the decking, there’s actually lots of leg room.

The time limit for the barrels was ten minutes, so we got in and out a few times and moved to a larger and cooler barrel pool and a shallow ‘stargazing’ pool, which was sloped so you could lie back and look up.

We spoke to a staff member who said many more pools were planned and it certainly felt like they needed more, the capacity of the place wouldn’t be huge right now. I’d like to come back in a few years and see it when it has expanded.

Seats overlooking the water
We hired big fluffy robes.

My main tip would be to wear sandals in, don’t leave them at the lockers. I left mine and some of the paths were pretty sharp gravel.

The springs are about 50 minutes from Raymond Island by road.

One morning Luke and I took a drive across to the back of the island to Gravelly Beach, which is much more pebbly than gravelly. It was pretty much empty and the water was almost completely still. We could see tiny fish swimming about and the beach was covered in tiny shells.

There was quite a bit of seaweed but also some patches that were clearer. Everyone else went to the beach later than us when the wind had picked up some more. That’s the problem with the seaside – so often the lovely weather is chilled by the winds. The water temperature was around 13 degrees, so far too cold to be getting in anyway, although the girls have wetsuits so they have managed it.

On our last afternoon on the island we all went down to the little beach on the far end of Western Boulevard, about 500 metres from our house. Brendan played beach cricket with Evie and Lola, while Thea hid from the curious black swans.

Looks tropical until you feel the water temperature
All the animals on the island were very friendly… too friendly for some!

On the final morning Luke and I packed the car and then met everyone else at the ferry to go over to Ginny’s Cafe, which we’d all been to multiple times by then.

I like being in a place long enough to go back to the good places repeatedly. We also had dinner at the Old Pub one night, which wasn’t fancy but the food was fine.

Last thing to do was get a stranger to take a photo of us in front of the ferry before heading home.

Hopefully we’ll be back one day and when we do the weather will be just as good! As we drove out of Paynesville the first few drops of rain started falling, as if to emphasise our return to everyday life. From here Lea and Pete are visiting family, Erin and Brendan et al are heading to Wilson’s Prom then back to Lakes Entrance to spend time with Brendan’s family.

The duck family we watched from the balcony
A family of magpies kept an eye on the food situation on our balcony.

Altogether a very successful holiday!

Cumberland River Camping 2023

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Cumberland River sits in the Otway National Park, just west of the (somewhat exclusive) beach town of Lorne. It is situated on the Great Ocean Road, about three hours south west (or five hours if you’re going in Summer while every man and his dog is heading to their 3 million dollar beach house) of Melbourne.

Jess and Leah have been going there for years, but I took my first trip last Summer. The campsites have to be booked by the previous March as it’s a super popular campsite and it’s easy to see why.

View from our campsite.
Kids enjoying the deep spot in the river while the mum in the foreground told us about the tiger snake they saw there once, that swam down the length of the pool while everyone leapt out as fast as they could.

Jess takes her nephew, Jett, while Leah takes her son, Jiah. They are pretty close in age, so when they aren’t arguing they are having a ball.

We book the campsite for seven nights each year and last year I went for four nights, this time I only managed one. I’d come back from the cruise to find that our friend who had been minding the house was still recovering from Covid and somewhat worse for wear, then when I got to the campsite I got a request to return to help look after a friend who is in Melbourne but is suffering from long Covid.

Luke’s station wagon.

Rather than set up a tent, I take Luke’s car, which has ample room for one person to sleep when I add in a couple of foam mattresses. Sleeping in the car is great as it is a nice flat surface and the car body cuts out some of the sounds of the campsite. this year we camped close to the river, which meant nice water sounds rather than people talking.

After I arrived I walked down to the deeper bit of the river with Leah to watch the boys mess around in their little blow-up boat. Unfortunately the water was quite cold or I would’ve waded in.

Our campsite. Since the boys are obsessed with fire (what child isn’t??) Jess bought them boxes of matches to experiment in the fire drum that the campsite provides. needless to say, they didn’t last long!

In the evening Leah made dinner with jackfruit (a meat substitute), which I’d never tried before, and then we walked to the beach, which is just across the road from the campsite.

Kind of looks like tuna but the taste is a bit sweet. We had it in burritos with bbq sauce. Tasty!

The waves at the beach are way too rough for swimming but it’s the only place where phones have reception so we walked down and the boys entertained themselves by doing what kids do: smashing things.

Hopefully no one misses those rocks.

After a bit of texting with Luke I headed back and despite the early hour I ended up in bed by 9:30.

In the morning I woke up surprisingly late to find a small mob of kangaroos eating grass quite close to the car. Leah and I watched them for a bit and a huge male hopped over and then, rather annoyingly, decided to sit right next to my car door just as I decided to go to Lorne. I waited him out and eventually got away.

I had breakfast in a bakery in town and was joined by a very polite cockatoo, who sat very close to me but kept quiet while edging gently forward.

Look at this distinguished gentleman!

Then I took a walk along the much longer and safer Lorne beach. I took some photos of the rocks and seagulls.

I mean, they are pretty great rocks!

Halfway down the beach I got the call to come back to Melbourne. I initially decided to wait until the following day, but by the time I got back to the campsite I’d changed my mind. It would be nice to have a full day at home before packing up once more, so I left. On the drive back I spotted an echidna crossing a fairly quiet country road. It’s little waddling run was super cute, but when I see something like this I spend the rest of the trip praying that the wee beast doesn’t get run over.

I did feel somewhat refreshed from the tree-bathing and beach-walking, however being at home was lovely too. All the moving around I’ve done lately makes me appreciate home anew every time I return, and that’s definitely one of the pleasures of travel!

Walking the Belgrave to Ringwood Rail Trail

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After adding a number of walking bloggers to my reading list, I have felt more motivated to expand my blogging to small excursions and not just big holidays. Also, being from Melbourne, it’s nice to write about and promote my home town.
I have walked the Lilydale to Warburton rail trail many times and I like the idea of rail trails. In Victoria they are usually decommissioned rail lines where the tracks have been removed and all that is left is a nice, wide track through the countryside. I recently discovered that the train line that passes within a kilometre of my house is accompanied by a rail trail that stretches for 20km, so this morning at 8:30 I walked to the local station and caught the train up to Belgrave then started walking back home.

There are a few small hills along the way, but otherwise the trail is fairly flat after the first five kilometres.

The path mostly sits between the rail line and the road. Some places are more sheltered from traffic noise, at other times it is right by the busy Burwood Highway.

I couldn’t say that there are masses of things to see – some native birds, some bright graffiti, and I was most impressed with the giant lyrebird mural along the side of the Belgrave supermarket.

Some parts of the walk are leafy and open, some are grey and industrial. It gave me a good opportunity to see the new station at Bayswater, which is kind of impressive if you like architecture that reminds you of a futuristic communist suburbia. At least they gave over some walls to bright murals.

I stopped at a cafe in Ferntree Gully for some caffeine and was sad to find that my soles stung when I stood up.

This is always my problem with long distance walking – I never get muscle pain, there’s never any long lasting aches, just sore soles that feel much worse after I’ve given them a rest and then have to go on. Later on I stopped at a park bench to eat my tin of tuna and took my socks off and rubbed my feet properly. This definitely helps but feeling sore after only 10 km is a sign that I really need to step up the training before I get to the U.K. next year if I want to make the most of it.

The National Rhododendron Gardens.

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Living in Melbourne means having a reasonably diverse range of scenery on your doorstep – from miles of beautiful beaches to foggy temperate forests, snowy mountains, vineyards and dry bushland. Closest to where I live, on the eastern side of the city, are the Dandenong Mountains (well, let’s be honest, hills) that have large areas of national and state forests and hundreds of kilometres of walking tracks. There are also many gardens and arboretums and one of the best is the National Rhododendron Gardens.

The gardens are over 1.5 km in length and doing a full circuit can add up to 5km (approximately 3 miles) and it’s all quite hilly.

Right now the rhododendrons are in full flower, the magnolias are a bit past it and the azaleas are almost out.

 

The gardens open from 10 till 5 and parking at this time of year can be a nightmare so I got there at 9:55 to find the gates already open. When you’re out to take photos it’s really nice to beat the crowds.

By the time I left there were hundreds of people there, quite a lot of them tourists form east Asia and many a giant tour bus in the parking lot.

 

 

I was slightly annoyed to have completely missed the cherry blossoms again – I never seem to remember to go, despite having two blossom trees at home to remind me. I consoled myself with a piece of chocolate brownie form the new cafe (research!) and watched a bunch of elderly people complain that the shuttle bus that takes you around the gardens cost money to ride – which seemed a bit churlish considering the gardens were free entry. No pleasing some people, I suppose!

 
So if you’re nearby, go have a look! It’s well worth it and there’s acres of lawn and many a kookaburra just waiting for picnickers to leave their crusts:-).