Dartmoor 19-22nd March 2010

 We had planned to move to the Showgrounds at Warrnambool but the morning we left it was raining so Lynn suggested we keep going.

 We stopped for morning tea at Port Fairy where the rain eased but it was still quite cool. We were initially parked down near the port or wharf area but as we wanted to look around more we parked the rig near the Information Centre where there was plenty of room and several other rigs were parked there too. It made for easy access to the main  shopping area. Before we left town we drove around the Tourist route on the sea side , where the coastline was typical of the whole region of the limestone coast. Craggy rocks of sandstone/limestone and lovely little coves of sand with some good surf in places but most of it inaccessable. The other thing that took my eye was the lovely bluestone buildings in the town particularly the old churches.

 Once we had left the area and were nearing Portland we were looking for a lunch spot and came across Yambuk Lake . The picnic area is beside a river that runs out of the lake to the sea. There is only a few farms and a couple of houses in the community but there is a caravan park with a lovely outlook over the river and to get to the picnic area you drive through the Park.

 An unusual feature of the picnic area was a large slide which looked like it would be just as much fun for adults  as children.  This area was at the back of the beach which could be acessed easily via tracks over  the sand hills.

At Dartmoor we found a lovely camping area with lots of great people at the end of the main street where the post office and general store were. The town has a great history. It also had a defunct forestry industry . There are lots of plantations in the area that were part of the Great Southern forest scheme and were processed at Dartmoor.

 The things that most people remember the town for are the carved trees that line the main street.
 They were done with a chainsaw  and were old rotten pine trees that had been planted at the end of WW1.As these trees were now a hazard they were carved with permission of the families that had originally planted them.

The Fairy Tale Tree

 The trees nearest the camping reserve  had smalll animals and Children's fairy tale characters  carved into them. However further up the main street was a series of carvings all related to WW1, and outside the RSL was a lovely carving of Gallipoli Cove. All carvings were done with the chainsaw.

The other side of the tree

Horses drinking from trough

 The Nurse   statue 1

The story board

 The Servicemen

The Scout

 Reflection made this difficult to photograph

 At the top end of the street was an interesting cafe come craft /gift shop which had a series of  amusing set of embroidered pictures of old ladies.