After driving through Warrnambool and seeing a thriving, exciting town, I wasn’t ecstatic to see the few establishments on the main street in Port Fairy and almost drive past it. I know all the YHA hostels in Australia aren’t brand new or eco friendly but I assumed there would be a certain theme that went along with being a YHA. Apparently they can be any sort of hostel, with rooms, a kitchen and a tv room. After being in the latest and greatest in Melbourne and Apollo Bay, coming to this ancient house with separate dorm buildings out the back wasn’t my idea of a sweet place to stay. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the ones I’ve been in but I wasn’t feeling this one. Oh well. This stay was a one-nighter anyways and it would be a quick one at that.There’s a small island out at the point called Griffin Island that was really pretty. It had a small lighthouse at one end and a whole bunch of green space in the middle that they recommend you stay off of because of the nesting birds. I didn’t see many birds there right now at least not live ones. For some reason there were a number of dead birds or parts of them near the trail. I guess they’re the ones that didn’t think migrating was a good idea. On both sides of the island there are pools near the shore that are filled up by wave action, without the odd wave that comes over the side they don’t get a whole lot of new water. A lot of the rock on the shores were black, volcanic looking boulders. I didn’t think there was any other wildlife on the island aside from the nesting birds but a couple of wallabies(I think?) popped their heads up as I rounded the last turn in the path. I have no idea how they got out here as they’d have to go straight through town to get here from the surrounding woods.A late dinner at a local pub called Stumps was more than filling. I was planning how to steal things from the buffet after they brought my meal of lamb and potatoes that was smaller than I had hoped, when the waitress mentioned all the other food was included. Quite happy about my find, I hit the buffet and piled up the delicious goodies including some fantastic bread that I definitely had thirds of.After a quick tour of the hostel I packed it in early, getting ready for the long day of adventuring ahead. I couldn’t wait to get into a room by myself at the hostel here but apparently different hostels have different polices. The 3 guys at this one were packed into a tiny room that barely had enough room to turn around in. Being the first one to hit the sac, I was disturbed every 5 minutes by the other 2 fellas coming and going. The older fellow, I had seen in Melbourne and was a little strange. All I saw him do was wander around staring at everyone with his instant coffee in one hand and a mug in the other. For some reason I dreamed about serial killers that night.There was a nice point to the quick stop in Port Fairy. Actually it was about 15k out of the town on the way to the Grampians. Tower Hill is actually an old Volcano that they’ve made a wildlife reserve. You can drive through the middle and see koalas, kangaroos and emus. I didn’t see any Koalas here but definitely were followed by the kangaroos and checked out the emus from a distance.
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