Leaving Wilsons Promontory I knew something had changed when I noticed the sun setting over the water! Of course, I’d rounded the bottom of our big island and was heading West!

Generally speaking, after the splendour of “The Prom” the landscape heading west is pretty uninteresting, dominated by flat farm land, including wind farms (which by the way do make a fairly loud humming noise), with a myriad of coastal lakes.

According to my lighthouse running order next up was Cape Liptrap, after turning down a rather enchanting dirt road bordered by what looked like overgrown bonsai plants I was disappointed to arrive at a particularly desolate place on which sat a fairly uninteresting lighthouse.

With night rapidly approaching I headed for Inverloch wondering if I’d somehow switched hemispheres, but on arrival was relieved to find I’d arrived in a rather nice Australian coastal town, even though the orientation still seemed a little off? I overnighted there and in the morning wondered if it might one of those places, and some people, who look better at night?

My next lighthouse was Cape Schanck which was only about 2 hours away so I decided to visit Phillip Island on the way. On the way Dr. Google kept throwing these bizarre place names at me like Wonthaggi, Koo Wee Rup, Lang Lang and San Remo. You couldn’t make these up and maybe that’s why they borrowed a few from other parts of the World.

After crossing the bridge at San Remo I didn’t arrive in Italy or even Monaco but I did arrive on Phillip Island. I’m not sure what I was expecting but it was probably more interesting than what I found. Famous for motor bike racing and fairy penguins I’m not sure there’s much else to be said for it. Well, actually there were a couple of other memorable things like a weird lighthouse thingy that seemed to be a cross with a traffic light, a concrete wave, a few weird rocks and the “World Famous Penguin Parade” that was evidently “Sold Out” according to all the signs without a single car in the car park?

So after doing a slow lap around Phillip Island I headed for Cape Schanck which, as you will see in my report is an impressive lighthouse in a interesting location.

On the way I passed through Flinders a place I’d heard of via a business opportunity a few years back involving Golden Breed which is where they’re headquartered. What a dream to be able to run a global business from a place like this. Seriously one of the nicest towns I’ve been to, set on a peninsula with golf course like Pebble Beach and harbour on one side and surf beaches on the other, surrounded by beautiful countryside with a really classy laid back town centre…without a petrol station as I was to discover!

After a 20km detour via Rosebud to top Max up I made it to Cape Schanck just on sunset, which was spectacular.

I headed back to Flinders to overnight down by the harbour and was awoken by the ANZAC Day dawn service. A solemn occasion in a special place.

After breakfast and a bit more of a look around Flinders and surrounds I headed to Portsea to catch up with my dear old mate Drew and stay at his “cliffy” Villa Costalotta, a far cry from the more humble accommodation I was use to in Max and strangely incongruous to my life as a vagabond! Not unexpectedly the red wine flowed, the chatter never ended and the afternoon and evening merged into one late night. After a long shower and sleep, the next day involved a stroll along the beach in the rain to the local cafe and a high speed tour of Portsea in a vintage Aston Martin, again a far cry from my more sedate travels in Max but a lot of fun nonetheless. That night I was spared a repeat performance of the night before because Drew and his wife had a dinner party to attend and I caught up with their son James who was home from his globetrotting travels and it was interesting to hear how a Worldly 33 year old sees the future!

Coincidentally the final day of the Bells Beach Pro surfing contest was scheduled to happen the next day and I swapped my 7 star room for a night in Max so I could be on the first Sorrento to Queenscliff car ferry in the morning and get to Bells as early as possible. But that’s another story.