Hello everyone, I hope that you're out and about enjoying your walks wherever you are around the world.
So we just got out of lockdown after 3 months and a friend asked me to do a short job for her to deliver a couple of hampers to some local hospital staff as a thank you from their boss for all of their hard work.
Easy job- a nice job to do and a big drive. It was so great to get out on the road, even though it wasn't the best day for driving...
As you can see from the map, the route took me a long way around Melbourne, to places that I haven't been to for a long, LONG time and to some places that I have never been before.
Screengrab taken from Google Maps https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/Southbank+VIC+3006/Doncaster+East+VIC/Wallan+VIC/Geelong+VIC/Brunswick+East+VIC/Southbank+VIC
Or check out where we are with #Pinmapple here [//]:# (!pinmapple -38.143106 lat 144.361304 long Historic, intriguing, unique and entertaining Geelong d3scr)
When I completed the last delivery, I realised just how close I was to Geelong and thought, what the hell, I'm going there for the rest of the day.
And so I did- despite how cold and wet it was.
So I would like to share a series of photos with you of a lovely little City just on the other side of the bay from Melbourne.
And I'm sure you will see, I went for a BIG walk, however these are only about an 1/10 of the 411 photos that I took on my iphone that day.
So without further ado, here is a pictorial walk to see some pretty fantastic sights, both natural and man made in no particular order.
So please, sit back, relax and just cruise around on my tour and enjoy the sights like I did and while we're here, I'll give you a little info on Geelong too.
The tourist information centre below is a good place to start.
The Wathaurong People were Geelong’s first residents and they originally called the bay “Jillong” and the surrounding land “Corayo”. The name Jillong has a meaning similar to “a place of the sea bird over the white cliffs”. Somehow we got it all mixed up and now call the land Geelong and the bay Corio.
The first recorded European to visit the Geelong region was Lt John Murray who sailed the Lady Nelson who on February 1st 1802 sent a party led by John Bowen to explore the region. Murray returned a few days later and claimed the entire region for Britain.
But it is thought Murray might not have been the first European to sail into Corio Bay, others including the Dutch, Portuguese or Spanish might have been in the region centuries earlier.
There is a bit of a legend that Charles La Trobe in 1871 found a set of Spanish keys in an excavation near where Limeburners Point stands a few hundred meters to the east of Eastern Beach. The keys (if they ever) no longer exist and details are a bit sketchy but there are some other stories in the region that help back it up including a story of a large mahogany ship wreck near Warrnambool, again to this day only a myth and never found.
Matthew Flinders, sailed into Corio Bay on the 27 April 1802. He charted the entire bay, including the Geelong area. In January 1803, Surveyor-General Charles Grimes aboard the Cumberland sailed into the bay and mapped the area.
If not the first, one of the earliest reported deaths of an Aboriginal person by Europeans occurred in October of 1803 when the First Lieutenant JH Tuckey and his party camped in the area around North Shore. Escaped convict William Buckley escaped to the area also around this time.
The name Geelong was given to the town in 1837 by Governor Richard Burke and was surveyed in 1838. In its early days Geelong’s main trade was in wool. Some of the world’s best wool is grown in the Western District and region around Geelong and the city was important as a port. Much of the Geelong waterfront was surrounded by huge wool stores. https://intown.com.au/locals/geelong/historical/default.htm
Opening in the mid 1850’s, the pier was a vital part of our port with rail being used to load and unload cargo. Originally knowns as Railway Pier, the post war modernisation of Geelong’s ports saw many larger ships move to Corio Quay. While Cunningham Pier did see some commercial use up until the 1970’s it was no longer suitable for modern ships and fell into disuse.
Other than the odd visiting naval vessel Cunningham Pier sat dormant for many years. But in 1989, some local entrepreneurs saw the potential of the green cargo shed on the pier and started the first of what became an institution on Geelong’s social calendar, New Year on the Pier. This mammoth event turned the goods shed into a huge nightclub with thousands seeing in the New Year. New Year on the Pier remained on the pier each new year until the pier was sold off in the 1990’s, forcing a slight name change to the event when it became New Year by the Pier.
In the mid 1990’s the 330 metre long pier was sold, and the green goods shed was removed to make way for the giant white structure that we have today. Island Trader opened their very popular Smorgy’s restaurant on the pier with an enormous buffet and an Animatronic floor show, which featured wind, water and a Geelong football / Greek God theme. The highlight of the show was an extremely cute animatronic seal who was called Salty. He was much-loved by young and old. It is rumoured that Salty the seal retired to the Jirrahlinga Wildlife Sanctuary near Ocean Grove.
https://intown.com.au/feature/cunningham-pier.htm
So as you can see, it is quite a significant and historical area, but as you will will see from the images below, it is also a great area for families, whether they be locals or tourists as there is something there for kids of all ages- including me! 😃
And with a huge thank you to 
If you too would like to share a #WednesdayWalk if your favourite part of the world, then please click on this link to find out just how and remember, to have FUN!! created/hive-155530
And if you want to see more of this fantastic, fun Ferris wheel, then check it out here dressed up in all it's psychedelic glory. @chociscorpipro/fancy-fabulous-fantastical-ferris-wheel-on-psychedelics
I will endeavour to create another blog on all of the other amusing, entertaining, interesting, fun, frivolous, historic and unique things about Geelong asap.
In the meantime, you can also see some other interesting shots that I got here for the #featheredfriends community SMAP contest by 
Thank you so much for reading my post, I really hope that you enjoyed it and look forward to your comments and thoughts.
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And unless otherwise stated- ALL photographs, all media, material and writings, are all my originals taken by me sometime in the past few decades or so somewhere in my travels and as such, ofcourse they are subject to all international IP and copyright laws and I may have already used them for my own commercial purposes here https://www.redbubble.com/people/CHOCOLATESCORPI/shop And here https://fineartamerica.com/art/chocolatescorpi, So please ask first if you want to use any of them as we wouldn't want you getting into trouble. Thank you 😊
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