This morning we were up early with the promise of a busy day. We headed into Sale, 54 km further east along the Princes Highway to meet up with some long term friends of mine that I had arranged to see, at the Port of Sale We arrived a little early so we took the chance to have a quick look around the newly opened and updated building at the Port of Sale which included a Library, a Cafe and the Gippsland Art Gallery. My long term friends soon arrived and it was SO good to see them both and to spend some time together and share with my family as well. What a blessing that was! After refreshments at the Cafe that overlooked the Port itself, we ventured back together into the Art Gallery for a more thorough look. What an impressive space this is! |
After farewelling the guys, we continued along the Princes Highway to check out the town of Bairnsdale a further 68km east of Sale. We were surprised that it was smaller than Traralgon as it is mentioned far more often on the news as a central regional town of the Gippsland region, than Traralgon or Sale and had just assumed it to be bigger. We then continued a little further (16km) south to the seaside town of Paynesville which was a quaint little village that included an operating car / passenger ferry to get across to the adjacent island, Raymond Island which is a haven for Koalas.
Whilst we were in Paynesville we were lucky enough to spot the iconic Lady Nelson replica sail into the marina. Whilst she did not have all her sails up it was a pretty impressive sight to see!
We headed back into Traralgon and had time to call into the local Antique Bottle and Collector's Store which was packed with all kinds of bottles from different eras. We were most surprised to discover that the "Bottle Man" was very close to our next door neighbour who has recently passed away and had the shared interest of bottle collecting! What a small world!