More recent Travel

 The total distance driven on the trip was 1,756 kms, averaging about 6.54 l/100 km (42.8 mpg). The eBird Trip report lists 102 species reported to eBird.  To that could be added three species seen while driving for which a report was not submitted (Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Nankeen Kestrel and Wedge-tailed Eagle).  Not a bad outcome. Here are links to the posts. To Melbourne In Melbourne Western Treatment Plant To Port Albert Tarra Bulga Yarram Art Trail etc The Prom I haven't done a post about the drive back as it was pretty standard.  The South Gippsland Highway was a quite pleasant change to the Princes Highway.  Fuel at Bairnsdale was 40c/l cheaper than at Mallacoota!  Many "drivers" on the Princes Highway appeared to subscribe to the view that one can only overtake in the special lanes.  

 One of our reasons for choosing this area was to visit Wilson's Promontory, mainland Australia's most Southerly spot.  (It is also one of the windiest with a record just of 170 kph in August 1991.)   Before heading off there was a very pleasant sunrise.  This was a great improvement in the weather as most days on this trip the early mornings have been 8/8ths cloud. En route we got good views of a couple of the turbines from the Toora wind farm (we came along the highway this time)  ... ... and some weird chainsaw art beside the road. It was 87 km to the Park entrance and a further 20 to the campground at Tidal River, and then - had we been bold enough to try - 24km to the tip (5 hours walking).  The drive was satisfactory with only one bit of weirdness as the GPS took us round the farms (rather than the houses) to avoid Foster: I guess there might be a traffic jam there in Summer.   The gate to the National Park was curious: I presume it is there to block people without a camp

Today was intended to be a relatively quiet day as we have been rushing here and there for most of the last week (and have a big day planned for Saturday).  The main item was the Yarram Art Trail. Before getting there we swung in to the Alberton Historical Cemetery.  A most interesting site with the graves in 2 areas: one lot - sorted by religion (branch of Christianity that is, no Jews, Moslems, Buddhist or Jedi Knight graves were noticed) - close to the road, the others about 600m away beside the Albert River.  Reflecting on this, and the level of the River relative to the rainfall (none recently) and the tide (mangroves indicate tidal) I am surprised that quite a few of the graves are not flooded on a regular basis. These headstones were in the first section.  Looking at the timing of the deaths of the kids suggests epidemics of some sort in 1872 and 1874.  However it doesn't appear to have been an official epidemic  although they do note, contrary to the table, there were a lot