Golf on the Dunes Course and Drive to St Helens

 7th Feb 2023

Once again it was an 8.20am start with a light breakfast in our room, checking out of out accommodation, and a short drive to the Dunes course carpark (~4kms).

 The weather is again kind to us, and the course less crowded than the Lost Farm. Barbougle Dunes was the first of the golf courses built here and is a true links course, carved out of the sand dunes and facing the vagaries of the coast.


                     This Par 3 is 185m into the wind, and the flag is behind the bunker


                        Typical Scenery on the course which follows the coastline

It is one very difficult golf course and we both struggled with it, not beating our handicaps this time and Carole managing to finish one point up. I was one up after our Albury game so we are now all square.

I almost managed a hole in one on the par 3 16th hole, when the ball ran up to the hole but hit the flag and bounced off. 

We finished at just after 12 noon, so decided to drive to Scottsdale for lunch, only 20 km away. We had lunch at the Cottage Bakery, very popular and probably one of the few places in town to get something to eat. Woolies was next door, and we dropped in there beforehand to get a few essentials.

From Scottsdale we set out for St Helens, our home for the next 3 nights. Google had selected the quickest route for us, which took us through some interesting territory, mainly of well maintained (but dirt) roads, which were very dusty. Eventually, we got to St Helens and checked in to the Queechy Motel where we are staying for the next 3 nights.


                                                                 Queechy Motel


                                                    Georges Bay (across the road)

The units are basically self contained cabins with some kitchen facilities, a communal laundry etc. We were in a good spot right at the back on a single level (you can just see half of the Audi parked out the front). The motel is just across the road from the water and an easy walk to town. There is a very nice French Restaurant on site, that sadly was closed for the week.

First priority, after checking in, was to find a car wash, as the combination of dirt roads and patches of rain had made quite an impression on the Audi. Fortunately, we found one attached to a boatyard in the back blocks of town and with a coin operated gurney with wash (with detergent) and rinse options, the car was almost restored to pristine condition. As long as you keep feeding coins into the machine.

Cloudy weather, with occasional rain is still with us, and it is quite cool. The township of St Helens is a reasonable size with a couple of IGA Supermarkets, quite a few restaurants and fresh seafood outlets. 

Our dinner venue choice was the pub in town, The Bayside Hotel. It was a popular venue with decent pub food.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spirit of Tasmania back to Geelong

25th Feb 2023 The Spirit leaves Devonport at 10.30 am and Rosevears is about an hour away. As boarding starts at 8.00 am, we plan to arrive at around 9 am, giving us plenty of time before the close of boarding at 9.45 am. We arrived at just after 9 am, to find a very long queue of cars, trucks, caravans etc all lined up waiting to get their boarding passes and enter the loading area. It took us a good 30 +  minutes to get through this process and were advised when we received our pass that the sailing was delayed due to the lkate arrival of the ship. Apparently the overnight trip was a bit rough. Eventually we were all loaded on board and departed Devonport at 11.30 am, and hour late. It is hazy with some light rain, but dead flat seas and only around 10-15 knots of breeze from NE, so a pleasant crossing is likely. The trip is uneventful, and the captain does not make up any lost time, so we ended up disembarking at around 10.30pm. The new Geelong terminal still has a bit to sort o...
Read more

Tarkine Drive

Image
 22nd Feb 2023 Today we plan to see the section of the Tarkine Drive that was not possible yesterday. It involves a backtrack of around 30 km south of Smithton to pick up the Eastern part of the drive.  The drive takes up South through Irishtown and Edith Creek before we reach the turnoff to the tourist drive, which runs through mountainous country, through rainforests and on sealed roads. The key feature of this drive is the Trowutta Arch, which we look forward to seeing. It is an easy walk through some incredibly old Myrtle Beech forests with giant tree ferns. The free ferns are obviously very old and huge There are very old myrtles along the track Soon we reach the feature of this walk, Trowatta Arch, formed by one of two sinkholes in the area.  Amazingly on our trip up the Western Coast we have seen huge areas of volcanic rock formations and basaltic deposits, which are now interspersed with sedimentary dolomite formations.  Trowutta Arch The pathways are incredi...
Read more

Drive to Coles Bay

Image
 10th Feb 2023 It is time to leave St Helens and make our way to our next destination, Coles Bay. It is another shortish drive, but speed limits and conditions suggest it will take around 2.5 hours. The tourist guides recommend moving away from the coast at the St Mary's turnoff to go up unto the hills to take in this little village and the scenic dive through Elephant Pass back to the coastline. Not long after leaving St Helens, we drive through a couple of heavy rain squalls. We are soon in Scamander, a pretty little coastal town before reaching the St Mary's turnoff and heading up into the hills. It is raining heavily in St Mary's (I am sure it is scenic in sunlight), so we continue through town and to Elephant Pass to take us back to the coast road. We start seeing signs the the road is closed at Elephant Pass and sure enough, after travelling some distance down this road, we had to turn around and backtrack to the turnoff just past Scamander. Finally back on the coast ...
Read more