We stayed at Limeburner's for a
few days and caught up with the people we now considered to be
friends. Dave did the stock up shopping trip ready for our impending
final departure as I still couldn't ride the bike due to my cocked up
coccyx. Final stock-takes were made and finally we were ready to
leave.
On the Friday morning we threw
off the mooring lines and wound our way out of the shallow bay for
the last time. We quietly slipped past the buoys and the early
morning fisher folk standing on the jetty and out into Port Phillip
bay towards Queenscliff.
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| Wouldn't want to bump into this beacon! |
As
we neared Queenscliff we took a little detour to see the Pope's Eye
Annulus and Chinaman's hat. Pope's Eye is the
uncompleted foundation for an island fort.
Begun in 1880, it was
intended to defend the entrance to Port Phillip from invasion by sea.
However, due to improvements in naval gunnery it was eventually made
redundant and is now used as a beacon and as a refuge for a large
assortment of marine life including sponges and corals and
a crap-load of seagulls and other assorted birds, with the occasional
seal and dolphin thrown in.
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Pope's Eye - Annulus
|
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| Pope's Eye covered in birds and poop |
Chinaman's Hat now serves as a shipping beacon and a
seal
platform for the local Brown Fur Seals but
the story is quite interesting, Chinaman's Hat - Port Phillip Bay
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| Seals at Chinaman's Hat beacon |
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| Seals at Chinaman's Hat beacon... a bit closer |
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| Seals at Chinaman's Hat beacon...closer still. |
Whilst we were watching the
seals, the ferry went past and so we sailed alongside and then behind
her as she chugged her way to Queenscliff, our final destination for
the night. Tomorrow we finally poke our noses into the ocean proper
for the first time in ages.
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| Sea Road Ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff |
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| Last sunset in Port Phillip Bay |
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| Just before nightfall... looking down to the Bay from Queenscliff |
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