<happy sigh> That was a good few days...
The Islandkateers met this weekend at Cape Bridgewater - 6ish hours out of Melbourne down along the South coast. Soulsis and her daughter ('bec, who turned 12 on Saturday) met Niki at my place on Friday morning after I took the cubs to school. To all our surprise we were packed and underway by 10.30, not only that but we (ie: Niki) managed to fit all of our gear in the car! This is notable because last time we went on a weekend away there was only 3 of us and the spare seat ended up being packed full of stuff that wouldn't fit in the boot. As Niki said, we must be getting better with practise.
We took our time getting there, stopping for breaks just outside Geelong, then in Camperdown, where we found an op-shop! We passed through Warrnambool which had previously been the furthest we'd been along the coast - going inland to Adelaide is something else entirely - then had a final stop in Port Fairy. Soulsis found another op-shop, and I found a lolly shop. : ) Port Fairy is lovely, it's like all the beautiful, quaint, old, pretty bits of Warrnambool pushed closer together.
We found our way to Cape Bridgewater, which is a lovely little coastal town, very quiet, with a widely curving bay surrounded by cliffs. We got to our accomodation by, oh, 5.30ish I think it was, Met Sam and Al there, then got settled in to our rooms (first there, first choice, woohoo!). Then we headed into the nearby town of Portland for dinner. It was dusk by that time, when a lot of critters become active, and unfortunately we hit a wallaby when it jumped out from the shrubby brush lining the side of the road. We think it must've clipped the front corner of the car, but weren't sure if it had been killed. We backtracked and couldn't find any sign of the poor wee thing, and it hadn't sounded like a solid impact so hopefully it took itself off with just a headache. Still, that was a bit of a downer after the easy trip up, and the 'Kangaroos ahead' road-sign we saw shortly after was just shy of mocking.
Anyway, got into Portland and found the pub that'd been recommended to us. Alarice, Pete and Paul were apparently on their way in (they'd driven from Adelaide, about 6ish hours the other way) and they made it to the pub just before the kitchen closed.
We had a good dinner (I had a 1/2 serve of fish and chips, which was about the equivalent of a full meal for me, and sticky-date pudding for desert) then Soulsis, 'bec and I decided to go for a walk and meet everyone else at the supermarket in a little while. Well, we walked, and walked, in the dark, with no sign of the shop. Saw some interesting things but not what we were expecting. Of course, we'd simply continued up the main road, the one that ran along the waterfront, forgetting completely that we'd turned off from another road on the way in. Ooops. Walked back a bit, then cut through to the road where we were supposed to be, then were rescued by Al... <sheepish> It was a good night for a walk, anyway, and not difficult, only a slight hill...

We got back to the camp without incident and not long after that Mike and Karen arrived. Lots of happy chatting - it'd been a while since some of us had seen the others.
Drifted off to bed around midnight, in a room I had all to myself...

continued tomorrow

Yep, lots more to say and too tired to do it now - especially with an early morning looming. : )