This day turned out to be a soft start to the Crazy Toad Trip because both Ligas slept in. Jet lag is not an easy thing to shake when you’re coming from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere.
Before they got up, I’d showered, dressed, packed the car with my things and had a first breakfast of a couple of delicious slices of a dark rye bread that they brought me from Latvia. Yum! There was also some chocolate and a divine hand-woven wooden wrap that I’ll cherish forever.
Finally, they emerged and Liga announced, “I’ll make pancakes for breakfast!” It turns out that her pancakes were more like crêpes. She made a stack of them and we all devoured them. Second breakfast!
You can see Liga in the kitchen, behind the stuffed kangaroo she bought for her daughter, while Liga2 was setting the table.
After breakfast we loaded the car, said our goodbyes (poor Scout) and we set off. The plan was to do something before lunch at a winery, then do a couple more things before heading over to my sister Kate’s place to stay the night at her AirBnB at Mt Martha.
There’s method to my madness. The next day, I’ll be taking the girls along the Great Ocean Road. Staying at my sister’s place will save us getting up an hour earlier to get to the ferry at 9 AM. I decided that it was better to take the ferry to Queenscliff, rather than drive through the city at peak hour.
After a walk through the gardens at the Diggers Club property in Dromana, we drove to Trofeo Winery, just outside of Dromana.
This winery makes its wines in terracotta amphorae, like in Roman times, so I was curious to see what their wines were like.
Delicious, as it turns out!
The venue itself was beautiful, as you can see. All exposed brick walls, with huge windows and fairy lights strung up. The meal was beautiful, the wine was great and Liga was kind enough to pick up the bill for the three of us. It made me so glad that I cheaped out on taking them to the Point Leo winery, where the set menu for 3 courses was $100/head.
Trofeo winery was $69/head, so I felt good.
Afterwards, we went to the wine cellar and I bought a couple of bottles of wine to bring to Kate and Francis as a thank-you for hosting us. I liked the wine cork stools.
So what’s there to do in Dromana?
First off, we went to Arthur’s Seat. It’s the tallest spot on the Peninsula and has a chairlift going to the top. I’ve never been there, so off we went.
Honestly… don’t bother. The view is great, but most shots are spoiled by chairlift wires. There are children’s activities and some hikes, but we didn’t have time for them. On the way down, we stopped at a lookout on the side of the road and got much better photos.
The next stop was the Dromana pier. Liga loved it because it reminded her of one of her favourite movies – “Requiem for a Dream.’ We walked along it. The sun was out and the wind was blowing and these girls were FREEZING. I couldn’t understand it. Surely they’re used to the cold in Latvia? It’s up near the Arctic Circle! Anyway, freezing they were.
Not like the tough Aussie they were with.
Liga wanted to have the sea water touch her toes, so she waded in the warm waters of Port Phillip Bay.
“It’s warm!” she said.
She found a jellyfish.
Dromana Beach has a fine selection of bathing boxes. These are just wooden huts with no water or electricity attached, where people can come and use them when they’re at the beach. But ONLY if you own one.
The current price whenever one hits the market – which is extremely rare – is around $300,000 upward.
Then we went to my sister’s place. She and her husband have turned the first floor of their house into an Airbnb apartment and they’ve done a spectacular job. Two things my sister knows how to do well are interior design and customer service. This place is going gangbusters and it deserves to. (It’s called ‘The Manor’ in Mt Martha if you want to have a peek.)
We had a lovely evening. We sat on the lawn and polished off the wine we brought, then we went for a walk on the boardwalk over the creek.
THIS IS WHERE I SAW A LIVE SNAKE IN THE WILD FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE! I was walking along, chatting to Kate while the Ligas were behind, when I glanced off to the side and saw a pile of coiled scales in the sun.
No photo, I’m sorry. We were all so excited and the poor thing couldn’t cope with the emotion, so it slid away under the boardwalk. The photo above shows the other wildlife in the bush – my sister’s dog Huxley. This was just before he decided to go and jump in the creek so he could smell of creek water for the rest of the night.
I was so pleased and surprised that I saw that snake. So was Kate. She knows how unobservant I am.
“I can’t believe YOU saw it!” she said.
“This is Holiday Frogdancer,” I said. “She’s different from Everyday Frogdancer!”
Francis had a great idea that he’d prepared for the girls. He bought 6 Aussie snacks, and he had us all eat them. The girls rated them out of 10. There were Timtams, Wagon Wheels, Chokito bars, Clinkers, and Cheezels (my nemesis…).
When I was 7 I ate 3/4 of a box of Cheezels and then threw up. I have never been able to look a Cheezel in the eye again. Here they all are, traumatising me.
It was so much fun! Here is Liga playing the Clinkers game, were everyone guesses which colour the clinker is, then you bite into it to reveal the answer.
The consensus from the girls was that Clinkers and the Cheezels were the best.
Tomorrow was when the road trip swung into high gear. We have a lot of ground to cover to get to Uluru by Wednesday!
Dad Joke of the Day:
Excellent planning for the start of your roadtrip! These girls are sooo lucky!!
It only gets better…