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...

I fired up Polly this morning to find that she was going to send us through Moulamein and across the Hay Plain which did not appeal to me.  It turned out the problem was flooding near Narrandera.   However it seemed that a small diversion should be able to avoid this.  Hmmm.  note the words 'small' and 'should". Before leaving we checked out a few things around Kerang.  This is the Community Centre, named after John Gorton (see below). Opposite the Community Centre is a nice park with these artistic creations. A noticeboard in the park had a timeline of events and personalities including this reference to John Grey Gorton.  Before becoming a politician (other than roles in the Shire) he ran a family property at Mystic Park, a tad North of Kerang.  His wikipedia entry is fascinating. There are a range of War memorials out the front of the RSL. From the Boer War. In my studies of war memorials  - and they were reasonably extensive when doing t...

 We have headed off on a trip to visit various lakes in Victoria and central NSW.  The main aim is birding, but there might be some interesting flowers around as well.  The first day stops in Melbourne to see daughter and small people as driving straight to Kerang would be a bit much for us these days. The route is quite standard with a first stop in Bruthen to get a pie and a loaf of bread at the bakery.  The pie (steak and kidney) was well up to standard, scoring 8.5 on the official scale. I ate the pie in the park on the opposite side of the road.  Frances had noticed this object on our last visit but here is a photograph. The plaque explains what it is.  I have been thinking about how the pilot felt dropping from 40,000 feet to 500 feet with no motor.   Frances took over driving after a fuel stop in Bairnsdale - diesel at 197.9 cents a litre vs 237.9 in Mallacoota.  I set up up the Mazda satnav (Sheila) first but then thought that was goi...

 Not a series of old rock songs but the road home. We packed up expeditiously and drove out of the hotel (with little drama fitting through the car park entrance this time) at 0750.  There was a little excitement on getting to the street as a brown bomber was giving out pickets just down the road: but he didn't pay any attention to us.  (Which probably means he got a high score in the "Self-preservation" section of the selection test.) No need to involve Sheila on the way out of town as it is very simple: Right turn onto Victoria St, drive 300m and right turn on to Exhibition St.  Going down the first 500m of Batman Ave, offer up a prayer that we are not running up that slope (on a parallel road) at the start of the Melbourne Marathon. On, on to the Wild East. The most surprising thing about this image is how little traffic was coming towards us. Normally that road is 3 lanes full doing 20kph.  Also note the gloomy looking sky.   The sky became a littl...