The rain that has been forecast arrived last night and as we were staying in a historic building with a tin roof it was very noisy! Luckily by the time we had finished breakfast, packed and loaded up the car it had stopped but the temperature had dropped by 20C overnight, yesterday afternoon it had been 34C and this morning as we set off it was 14C! The good news is a lot of today is either in the car or in a museum so we started our drive along the coast to Port Fairy – yep that is really what it is called! After about an hour we stopped at Beachport which according to the tourist information is home to the ‘famous’ 772m jetty, not something I was particularly aware of before coming to the area but impressive all the same. Before we went and saw the jetty we drove along the scenic drive which follows the coast for a couple of kilometres it isn’t one of the most dramatic coastlines but it was quite impressive so we got out at a couple of points and had a look, unfortunately just as we arrived at the car park by the jetty the rain started again so we didn’t bother walking down to it, instead we just had a look at it and the sea wall that has been built to protect the harbour then continued our drive. The next stop was Millicent which is home to the living history museum which is at the back of the visitor information so not hard to miss. It was raining quite hard by now so we were glad that a lot of the museum is inside. The museum started in the old school house which was built in 1873 but has grown over time and now apparently contains the largest collection of fully restored horse drawn vehicles in South Australia. Before we got to see them we looked at the waterwheel which although it still works doesn’t actually have any water by it and a steam locomotive that unfortunately doesn’t work, then you enter the first room of carriages and they are really impressive, they have some that I have never seen before including my favourite a bakers van that actually looks like a van only it has a harness at the front rather than an engine. The restoration of the carriages has obviously been a labour of love as they are magnificent, from here we went into the shipwreck room which had details of the various shipwrecks along the coast including one where the locals had obviously taken the cargo before reporting the wreck and the efforts the authorities went to when they were trying to recover the goods. The cargo had been insured for £10,000 but when the salvage was auctioned all that was left was £1,500 worth of goods and that included parts of the ship, it is said that most of the houses in the area are built using timbers from the various wrecks on the coast! There was a display of dresses through the ages and then another massive room of horse drawn carriages almost as impressive as the first room and finally a display of the various machinery used throughout the ages. Although it was only a small museum by the time we had finished looking round we had spent almost 2 hours there and it was lunch time! Millicent was proclaimed in 1870 after the Millicent Flats were drained providing land that was suitable for farming and later plantations. It was called Millicent after Millicent Glen the wife of one of the early pioneers and the daughter of the Anglican Bishop of Adelaide. There is a historic walk around the town but in the rain it was hard to make out some of the less well preserved buildings but we walked up one side of Main Street and back down the other then stopped at one of the few places that were serving lunch. It didn’t look particularly promising but the food was actually very good and it warmed us up so we were ready for the next part of the journey over Mount Gambier and on to Port Fairy. Unfortunately the weather has completely turned so the whole drive was in either rain, drizzle or cloud so we didn’t get very good views but we did see what looked like a baby Kangaroo just sitting at the side of the road. We think it was a Kangaroo rather than a Wallaby but to be honest apart from the difference in size I am not sure I can really tell them apart! We tried to get a photo of it but as soon as we got near it shot off into the bush so we continued and saw a number of signs saying we should see Koalas but they were either very well hidden or had gone somewhere to get out of the rain because we didn’t see any! We finally arrived at the hotel in Port Fairy about 5.15, we have lost 30 minutes on the journey as we have crossed into Victoria, and we were shown to our room. We have a great view over the river and a nice large room with a couple of chairs to relax in and as this is a bed and breakfast there is a sitting room downstairs that we can use if we want to. We will probably just crash in the room as we have some drinks and snacks to keep us going and the view of the river out the window, not a bad place to spend the night.
