Mariners and Mailboxes Part 2

A continuing illustrated guide to the Shipwreck Coast

Ahem, as I was saying in Part 1, you haven’t been able to access the beach at the gorge for several years, but that may be no bad thing - it has maintained its pristine, elemental state. And there is something about abandoned places that’s ineffably poignant, like this tennis court that’s been hosting ghostly games since the little settlement of Cowley’s Creek shrank almost to vanishing point in the 1960s.

We stayed in nearby Timboon, connecting Port Campbell and Camperdown by rail trail, complete with cool trestle bridge,….

…flourishing forest canopies….

…and the ubiquitous orange flags.

You’re not far then from Maits Creek, a sublime stand of surviving temperate rainforest in the Great Otway National Park.

Does anyone, apart from our Substack confrere David Wilson, know that the mountain ash is the world’s tallest flowering plant?

Anyway, you do now. Meanwhile, this 200-year-old, 30m, tripartite myrtle beech….

…is on the National Trust Register of Significant Trees. Aren’t you glad there is such a thing? Even if it’s too late for this big fella…..

But you know I’m saving something don’t you? Have I told you I have a fondness for letterboxes? Timboon is famous for its organic dairy and distillery, and features an excellent local Thai. But locals take their mail delivery seriously, and there are the makings of a fabulous calendar in all their receptacles’ improvised varieties. Inevitably, milk churns get a good run…

…but so do cows themselves….

….not to mention poison containers….

….hooch bottles….

…mini silos….

….and, I’m not kidding, microwaves.

Sometimes they stand alone like this corrugated covered wagon (‘Honey can you see if the rock has arrived?’)…..

….sometimes they hunt in packs.

They seem to be delivering to The Addams Family…..

…the Jetsons (complete with metal flowers).

….and to a potential reality mash-up: Lego Farmer Wants a Wife (complete with camels).

Anyway, too soon we say goodbye….

….albeit with the snowdome for my mum, and another fund of memories.