Poowong and beyond: Giant Earthworms live there

The Poowong campsite was a very peaceful woodland clearing which made it a great place to spot birds and other wildlife, we spotted a kangaroo hiding in the long grass, just the other side of the stream. We explored the local area, including coal creek, a reconstruction of an historic mining town which also randomly had an excellent exhibition about Anne Frank. From there we went on to Loch, another charming little town where we found out more details about the giant earthworms of South Gippsland. We first learned about them from Bill Bryson's book, 'Down Under'. Sadly, the  place where Bill went to see these strange creatures pickled in jars has, for some reason, closed down. So our only option was to look at the info panels located under a motorway bridge in the tiny town of Loch. Unlike David Attenborough, we didn't hear them gurgling under ground, they would have been drowned out by the rain anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxeT_GDKv9g&feature=youtube_gdata_player

From there we made our way through the Gippsland countryside, stopping at a couple of wineries on the way. Lyre Bird Hill and Drummond's estate were both very small operations producing lovely wines so we replenished our stores and continued South for Wilson's Promontory National Park.

Queenscliff to Blairgowrie: The Mornington Peninsula

The ferry crossing to Sorrento was pretty quick with a few penguins to spot on the way. In Sorrento, a well-to-do town where we thought we'd spend the night, the camping options were limited with many of the public municipal sites not open until December. We caught the tourist info just as it was closing to prevail upon them for some camping options. 'Are you in a tent or a van?' The lady asked.... Never quite sure how to reply to this question we replied truthfully that we were in fact sleeping in the back of our station wagon. The lady seemed concerned that this might not be acceptable to the nearby caravan park, at which point we assured her that we had stayed in numerous caravan parks so far and no one else batted an eyelid. In fact this lady was the only person we have encountered so far who did bat her eyelid! Eventually, we made it to the charming Blairgowrie caravan park where we would spend the night.
The next day led us to explore the beautiful region of the Mornington Peninsula, where fortunately for us they also make excellent wine. It is a cool climate area and offers Pinots and Rieslings more than Shiraz which had been the most common variety so far. The real surprise favourites were the Chardonnays, which if we didn't have to store the wine in our car, we would easily have bought numerous bottles.
Montalto was the first vineyard and chosen primarily by its proximity to Flinders. Named for Captain Flinders who was a distinguished navigator and cartographer, the first to circumnavigate Australia in 1801-1802 as well as carrying out a lot of explorations and expeditions. A great deal of land features are therefore named after him, from the historic town in Victoria to the university in South Australia and much more in between. In Flinders we partook of a record breaking custard slice. The shop we bought it from holds the Guinness World Record for the largest ever custard slice, weighing in at 500kg, our slice came in at 500g! Still rather too much for us! We went to a second vineyard called Ten Minutes by Tractor mainly because of the name and unique because it's the only vineyard where we left empty handed!
While on the peninsula, we also took the time to visit the Cape Schanck lighthouse where we took a walk along the cliffs, nearly getting blown over before turning back to the safety of the wagon. Back in the carpark we admired the bravery of a surfer heading out into the high seas, high winds and rocky shores. Following our adventure in the peninsula, we originally planned to stay in Frankston. Though this was thwarted when the caravan site was full. Free camping is limited in the region so for the second time that day, we opted to go somewhere for the name. Poowong. Not only is it a great name, but the campsite was free. We stayed there for a couple of days, all the while exploring the South Gippsland area. It's very lush and green, beautiful pasture and rolling hills that are quite stunning, even in the continued rain.