Ahhhh, Balnarring. All of 30kms from home. Yet it still qualifies as a weekend away. It worked out really well since Blake had an important engagement on the Saturday that he was still able to attend.

Balnarring is located due South of Frankston and is easily found by following Coolart Rd.

Hard to miss the park itself as its on the main road into town.

The Nomads had all been allocated sites in Section A, down the bottom left of the above map and right on the beach.

We’d scored site A04 and all looked pretty good before we’d set sail. There were 10 vans coming for this trip and most of the usual suspects would be there. The weather was looking decidedly dodgy and altogether Melbournesque. Rainy, cloudy, southerly winds up to 30km/h (and we’re at first landfall for that wind), chance of a thunderstorm late Friday arvo ,but getting progressively better as the weekend went on … maybe … tops in the mid twenties was the forecast. Thank god for mobile Internet, TV and board games.

The reality was somewhat different.  Didn’t take too long to get down there and setup.  Although it was a bit windy down at the beachfront the trees and scrub around the vans effectively nullified the wind.  It could be heard, but not felt all weekend.  Likewise, if it rained it was pretty minimal.

Friday night was spent having a chat and we ended up tucked up around midnight.  I got up early to go for a walk and discovered that some, now exploded, beers had been left in the freezer overnight.  Not too much mess though.  I ended up going on Steph’s walk between Browns Rd and Waterfall Gully Rd.  That was the last section of the Two Bays walking track for me to walk on.  I’ve now done it all in dribs and drabs.  The time has come to do the Lighthouse to Lighthouse trek one weekend soon.  Found a very ingeniuosly hidden geocache on this section too.

I arrived back in time to see Blakey off for his test.  I did a bit of reading whilst waiting for sleeping beauty to wake up, but she still didn’t get out of bed nutil about 10am.  It was about then that I discovered I didn’t have the 3G router with me and I wanted it this weekend so that I could get the remainder of the nomads onto the forum.  So I headed home to grab it, only to not be able to find it at home either.  A quick call to Kell had her find it in seconds inside the van where its always kept.  I obviously fail comepletely at using my eyes.

I picked up the Blakster on the way back so it wasn’t a completely wasted trip.  He reckons he did alright … guess we’ll find out when the results are known.

Saturday lunch planning was underway when we got back.  I’d suggested Flinders pub with an adventure to see something mysterious after lunch.  We got a few takers and Dave & Char, Alan & Sandy, Fred & Joan, Ian & Brenda, Sue & Rod, Kellie, Hannah & I all headed to Flinders.

The pub looked quite busy on the outside, but was nearly empty on the inside.  We discovered the likely reason for this upon looking at the menu.  $27 for a Parma and precious little else under $30 was strike #1.  Strike #2 was the realization that the character of the old pub has been lost by their modernization works.  Strike #3 was the licensed bakery just over the road.

Kellie, Hannah & I had Fish n Chips and a Souvlaki while the others went to the bakery and got some other yummy things.  All were happy with lunch and didn’t miss the pub one bit.  Sue picked up the worlds biggest vanilla slice on the way out.  Dunno where she’s gonna put that!

After lunch we headed out of town via the Flinders Golf Club.  It’s a picturesque drive through there and there were a couple of para gliders to provide some more to look at. 

I’d promised something weird and unusual after lunch and we headed towards Cape Schanck to find it.  It had been awhile since I’d been there but I managed to find it OK.  We pulled up on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere … bush all around.  I think everybody was a bit shocked when I told them we were here!  There is nothing to see except bush on both sides of the road here and a camouflaged track heading in.

A bit of “This had better be good!” turned into “What the?” pretty quickly.  Much speculation ensued as to what this place may have been.  A bit of cold war paranoia?  A storage facility for …. ?  But I think it was Fred that first said that maybe it was somebodies house.  A house it is!  Known locally as the Submarine House.  Built in the early 70’s.  I put the full history up on the Nomads forum.

Little adventure over we headed back to camp.  A circle was formed.  Beers were had.  Ian found a brown snake behind his van, but he wasn’t trying to steal any beer so he was left alone.  The snake, however, was probably scared out of its wits with so many extra vans around.  He retreated back into the nearby scrub and wasn’t seen again.  Ian probably was trying to steal beers though, so we had to keep an eye on him.

A bit of a quiet night Saturday, most were content to be left to their own devices.

Sunday morning saw the first slight rain of the trip.  This wasn’t enough to stop Hanny going in for her 2nd swim though.  A quick packup for me, since I was off chatting while Kel did it all … well I thought she’d done it all.  I came back to find the van all closed up, with only the roof to put down … so I did.  Switched over the fridge, etc, etc and hooked her up.  It wasn’t until we got home that we discovered the cupboard latches hadn’t been done up!  There was crap everywhere … and a strange smell … Oh NO!!!  Had Hannah left the porta-potti unlatched as well?

Thankfully not!  Those cupboards needed a good cleanout anyways…

Sunday we took the kidlets and Poppie up to Overport Park for a run around.  A good end to the weekend.