Public Transport Trip in Victoria: Port Fairy!
The trip to Port Fairy last weekend was the first trip after a very long lockdown so I would really love to share the details of the trip. One for the memory.
Anyway, if you know me well, you will probably also know that I am a BAD driver. I seriously don't enjoy driving that much. I like driving on the straight road (who doesn't haha), but it really stressed me out when it comes to parking. So, when we were planning this trip, our first criteria is:
GO TO A PLACE THAT DOES NOT NEED DRIVING 😆
Port Fairy was the last stop at Great Ocean Road (yes, that very famous one), and since we have never been there and it is possible to go there entirely by public transport, we booked the tickets immediately. I know we are missing out on a lot of road trips here in Australia, but I find it a unique mission to try exploring Victoria by public transport, if possible. That will be my mission now, stay tuned!!
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| Google Image shows this when I searched Port Fairy. I mean, it looks kinda nice right? |
1. Transport
So, can you really travel to Regional Victoria by public transport? In fact, according to Google Map, Port Fairy was 283km from Melbourne city. Well, it is definitely more convenient to rent a car in Melbourne to drive to Port Fairy and it takes around 3.5 hours. Taking public transport took us around 4.5 hours by Vline train and coach service.
Timing-wise, we opted for the morning train service so we departed from Southern Cross Station at 730am, reaching Warrnambool train station at 1100am. We boarded the coach which was waiting for us at Warrnambool station already (So efficient!) and the coach waited for another half an hour before departing. We reached Vline Port Fairy coach stop at 12pm and the stop was directly in front of Port Fairy Visitor Centre (So convenient!). To be honest, with only one hour difference between driving and taking train, we will go for train anytime haha. Personal preference maybe, but well, we could read and listen music while we are on the train and coach, so why not?
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| Early morning waiting for tram |
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| The field just beside Visitor Centre. Doing my favourite thing when go on trip - reading signs. I learn that Port Fairy was once called Belfast too because it was an Irish man who brought the land. Always interesting to learn a little bit about the history of the town! |
2. Food
It is only when you travel outside of city, you realize how blessed you are with the choices of food you have in the city. Staying in the city has made me forgotten that Australia shops do NOT open till late at night. In city, I can even order Ubereat at 8 or 9pm. In Port Fairy, there are of course restaurants that opened for dinner, but guess what, with the Covid restriction of only 20 patrons allowed, it means that you will have to reserve a place for dinner.
RESERVATION? WHAT?
There are only two main streets that are busy in this small town, one is the Sackville street, where our hotel is located, and the other street named Bank street located perpendicularly from Sackville Street. We walked at both streets and to our dismay, the town was really quiet after 7pm and nothing really opened. MY DINNER HOW?
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| Only 7pm...... |
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| In the end, we had burger on the first night. And we were lucky because it closed at 830pm and we ordered like 820pm hahaha. |
But, don't get me wrong, the food in Port Fairy was unexpectedly good! I supposed it is a fishing town so it had seafood and the restaurant really did well in showcasing their seafood. There are not many restaurants here, so I suppose they serve mainly locals (see the empty streets, tourists don't seem to stay overnight here), which makes their signature dishes really appealing. We learned our lesson first night, so immediately we called to EVERY restaurant (which is probably only 6 to 7 in the town in total? LOL) to book a dinner place for second night. We were lucky that we got booked in last minute in this restaurant - Blakes restaurant the next day.
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| Scallops as entree, fish and steak as main. The fish is MONKFISH and oh man I LOVE this fish. I tried a monkfish dish in Norway before and it was really the BEST fish dish I have ever had. I don't know how to describe the fish, but I remembered it was so tender and so good. This was not as good la, but still good enough that I know I will come back for this. |
3. View
So, at first glance, we thought that Port Fairy was not as exciting as we imagined, but the longer we walked around, the more we realize it was an interesting place to visit because it had an island, lighthouse, river and beach - all of the views in one place. We went to the small island on the first day with the lighthouse and on the second day, we went to the beach. The first day was massive walking that my Fitbit recorded 16000 steps and my feet got so swollen the next day. I can only go for a beach walk because my feet got so sore and painful😅
Lesson learnt: Do not wear sandals to trip even though it is summer. We checked the weather and it was 17-30degrees, but we thought it is summer and we want to go to beach so... big mistake!
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| The hotel that we stayed. By the way, there are many historic building like this! |
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The building interior. SO pretty right. Do try to stay in cottage when you are here! It is self-contained, and really quite an experience. (Ours came with jaccuzi spa too haha)
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| The lighthouse and the sea. And my secret admirer there 😋 |
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| We even spotted wallabies (two or three of them) during our walk. |
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| I like the long and muddy beach here before I learnt of something. Do you notice a person lying flat on the beach there? He is not sun-bathing but actually searching for something and wait for it.... |
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| I am not sure whether this is the worm that he is looking for but yes, he is looking for a type of worm named SPEW WORM (Google it haha). Apparently he said it was a very good bait for fishing Mulloway (a type of big fish) and you can find many of these worms along this beach so he used special tool to pump and dig these worms out. My hubby and I got so weirded out by this and so after that, we tip-toed the beach the whole way haha. |
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| The next day at South beach. I can barely walk properly now. THERE THERE SPOT THE CULPRIT! |
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| Well, this is the time when you have to travel with masks so one for the memory. |
Overall, it was an enjoyable trip. Did I mention that it was also our 4th year anniversary too? ( If follows the Australia wedding that we had haha! We actually celebrate both wedding dates in Malaysia and Australia, LOL)
One for the memory because Victoria finally came out from this whole Covid mess and it was worth celebrating, and one for us, for the past 4 years and for the future more. This year was so unexpectedly tough but I am thankful to God that He continues to sustain me through the hope that He has given me and I really like something that I heard today from my friends because it really resonated with me:
Though it seems isolating during Covid lockdown, I don't feel alone.
In Covid time, I pray a lot more than I usually would. Sometimes, I looked out the window and wonder how this will all end and wonder where is God. Isolated at our own room and place, helpless yet deep down I know He has already came, and the truth He has given me is the hope that I can rely on in whatever
circumstances. I know I am not alone and I am forever thankful for that.
Stay strong my friends, may you never give up searching the hope and the light. And if you are not feeling well for any reasons, let's reach out to one another! Hopefully, the time that we can all travel and see each other face-to-face will come soon!
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