More recent Travel

This covers the last day of our trip to Dunkeld and is almost completely devoted to the drive back to Mallacoota.  We rose from our beds promptly and did a short stroll around the walled garden, packed the car and headed off.  There was a small diversion to drop the photo album we had been lent back in the meter box at the Catholic Church. We set off at pretty much exactly 0800 hours with Polly (we were using Google Maps rather than the Mazda system) suggesting we'd be home by 1710.  The drive along the Glenelg Highway to Streatham was uneventful apart from getting foggy near Streatham.  Once we turned North the only excitement was the number of wind turbines.  As we approached those photographed on the way down  we could see a lot more that had been out of sight heading South.  Frances did a count and concluded that it was over 100 turbines in a number of farms. As we approached Melbourne Polly asked if we wished to switch to a faster route as there w...

 No, not the musical: the town in Western Victoria. I will begin with the excellent view from our accommodation as the morning sun hits Mount Wargurri. When we arrived in Dunkeld a nice volunteer lady at the Information Centre had shown Frances a few walks around the town.  One of these went on a series of dirt streets around a walled off garden.  There are a number (I think 12) of gates in the wall through which the curious can peer in.  Here is a gate and a section of the sandstone wall.  This is a view through the gate. From a conversation on one of our walks it emerged that this is the holiday house of a Melbourne QC (now of course a KC).  Joining this information with various other things we came across said KC owns a lot of property around town including the posh hotel and restaurant in the main drag.  The Kitchen Garden (across the road from the walled garden) provides the fruit and veg for the restaurant.  One could draw an allusion to the...

We have been very alert to the road closures due to floods.  This included the Google Maps suggested route from just West of Beaufort to the Glenelg  Highway. We headed off on 17 October to Dunkeld in the Southern Grampians.  The first illuminated sign was not about floods, but congestion on the approach to the Westgate Bridge (which turned out, in the lanes we chose to be less congested than has previously been the case). We rumbled off to the West, seeing no signs of congestion or flooding.  Past Ballarat we saw our first (distant) windfarm. When we turned South, just after Beaufort a closer wind farm was seen. Much closer! This installation was accompanied by some other decorations along the verge.  I think it is permanent rather than the installer emulating the retail industry and urging Christmas spending shortly after the Queens Birthday! The decorations were an interesting mix of items including house parts (eg chimney cowlings) as well as mor e Christmas...