I was in Port Fairy to play golf.  At home my second golf club is at Elie in Fife.  It’s an old fishing village, now a holiday village for the Edinburgh and Glasgow middle classes with a wonderful, simple but excellent golf course.  I had been told that Port Fairy is an old fishing village, now a holiday village for the Melbourne middle classes with a wonderful, simple but excellent golf course.  I’m always sad when American golfers visiting the UK choose to only visit the great, championship courses, missing out on the smaller “2nd tier” courses which can be just as good golf and offer as much interest as the St Andrews and Muirfields of this world.  I try to encourage them to slow down and visit the Elies, Broras and Golspies.  It would have been remiss of me, therefore, not to visit Port Fairy.

Breakfast at a local cafe was excellent:

As I made up for the lack of WiFi in my AirBnB by updating this blog over brekkie and lots of excellent coffee.  I also dealt with e-mails about my job situation, which appears (touch wood) to be nearing a resolution which will allow me to get cracking with the new job in the New Year.

I was playing with Shane at 11.45, so had some time to explore the village:

Just like the beach at Elie

The river runs through it

I’m still surprised to see defences against invasion here.  This time the perceived threat was Russia in 1907.

The golf course at Port Fairy had been described as being one of the most links like courses in Australia.  I don’t think that’s right. I think it isn’t like a links, it is a links.  No individual architect gets the credit here, the course has developed through the work of its members, though more recently Mike Clayton (again) has offered a guiding hand.

Arriving early I was struck by the simplicity of the clubhouse:

My host, Shane, is a property valuer who left Melbourne (where he had been a member at Commonwealth) a few year back with his family to live out here.  He’s another very good golfer, playing now off 2 and having been better in previous years.  The course makes brilliant use of one prominent dune which provides a number of spectacular views and

The first tee shot gives a feel of what’s to come

Sadly a bogey on this par 5

Shane walks off the green with another par

Looking back from behind the excellent bunker-less par 3 15th, one of a few bunkerless greens

Port Fairy is a real golf club.  No vast echoing clubhouse.  No impressive dining facilities.  A super golf course, a small but sufficient clubhouse, a bar with beer (and wine for those that want it) and a staff of 6 (I think, three greens staff, a caterer, a manager and a pro).  Lots and lots to like.

I had a very enjoyable game with Shane in a good cool breeze (at last, 18 holes wearing a sweater) and actually played reasonably well.  We had a couple of beers and said goodbye, before I went back out for another 9.  A cracking place and a cracking club.  I’m very glad I visited.

I awoke on Tuesday to find that the grey damp weather of the previous evening had stuck around.  I had breakfast at the hotel and headed down to Sorrento for the ferry.  Arriving with a bit of time to spare I grabbed a (very good) coffee in a local Italian (of course) cafe and read about the drive ahead of me.

The Great Ocean Road runs west from Geelong (west of Melbourne) and is regarded as one of the great drives.  I boarded the ferry for the 40 minute trip across the mouth of Port Phillip Bay.

Leaving Sorrento

I had been told to watch for dolphins accompanying the ferry on its crossing but, sadly, they didn’t appear.  I’m not surprised given the drab weather.  The ferry arrived in Queenscliff, which looked quite a pleasant town, a little bigger, perhaps than Sorrento but, rather than explore, I headed west, stopping only to stop for a refuel.

Whilst planning the trip I had looked at the possibility of staying at Barwon Heads, a golf course which offered accommodation and pretty good value stay and play packages.  I had decided not to in part because the best value packages were full board and a jacket and tie was required for the dining room .  A couple of people had suggested though that, even if I wasn’t playing Barwon Heads, it was worth a look in, as I would be passing close by.

A twenty minute walk around suggested that this was somewhere I would have enjoyed a lot:

The really cool bunkerless short par 3 4th hole

After a short interlude at Barwon Heads I set off on the Great Ocean Road.  I must admit to having been slightly underwhelmed by the start of the drive.  Obviously the weather didn’t help (though it had stopped raining) but the early scenery, whilst attractive, didn’t have the grand drama of some of the Sydney coastline.

As I drove, however, the scenery seemed to gather momentum.  I stopped for lunch at Airey’s Inlet and sat by the fire in the pub:

I had not, it is fair to say, anticipated sitting by an open fire on this trip!

Airey’s Inlet is known for its lighthouse, so I walked up there:

After a very attractive interlude where the road runs inland, through dramatically hilly and very green country, it hits the coast again for the part of the route which is most famous.  The cliffs along this stretch have worn, leaving standing rock formations in the ocean.  By now the weather was, if not exactly sunny then brighter and the frequent stops to admire the scenery increasingly compelling.

I was doing the drive in a day.  I’m told visitors often split it into two or more days, staying as they go along the route in the numerous slightly quirky, attractive towns.  I can imagine that would be a wonderful couple of days or more.

I arrived in Port Fairy in the evening and had a walk around this old fishing village before grabbing a pizza and calling it a day.

Our game on the Old at National had been cut short by a spectacular electrical storm.  It turns out that this storm (or other storms part of the same system) have attracted international attention due to the astonishing number of cases of thunderstorm asthma caused which, very sadly, have taken at least 4 lives.  Who knew there was such a thing?

My plan for Tuesday was to head west along the Great Ocean Road to Port Fairy.  Rather than drive back into Melbourne, I was going to stay in Portsea, on the tip of the Mornington Peninsula and catch the ferry in the morning to Queenscliff on the Bellarine Peninsula, thus avoiding the need to drive all around Port Phillip Bay and deal with the Melbourne traffic.

I had booked into the hotel at Portsea golf club, though I did not plan to play golf there.  Portsea’s reputation, from those I had spoken to and from what I havd read, was of a good course which had, perhaps, suffered when the club got into financial difficulties building the new clubhouse (which now doubled as a budget hotel).  What I saw of the course from my bedroom window, even in the grey wet evening following the storm certainly looked attractive.

I ate in Sorrento, the neighbouring town, from where the ferry would leave in the morning.  Sorrento had the feel of a smart seaside resort out of season, though the hotel bar and restaurant were doing great trade.

The view from my bedroom window

I had booked a room at the Portsea Hotel, which is an integral part of the clubhouse at Portsea golf club.  Portsea is on the western tip of the Mornington Peninsula and is next to Sorrento, from where I was catching the ferry in the morning.  I wasn’t going to play Portsea, though I had briefly considered this, but I can see the attraction of this for a golf trip.  Certainly those bits of the course outside my bedroom window looked pretty enticing.