|
|
|
Thursday 29/04/04
3.4/12.1 24.7/-26
On the road again!
This morning finds us parked opposite the pier at Port Arlington on the
western
side of Port Philip Bay between Geelong and Queenscliff following three and
a
half weeks in Melbourne.
A few special thanks to put out with a summary of our time there. To Woody
at
Tooradin for his help in fitting a new awning, locating a fuel tank, the use
of
his workshop and yard, his company and difference of opinion on how things
are
done :)). Woody's better half Julie who made us welcome, organised great
pizzas
and gave Margaret a shopping lesson. The Law's family who called in for a
couple of days while we were there. My Dad's place at Rosebud where we spent
10
days over Easter which included a wonderful family get together on Good
Friday.
Three fab days at my nephews Macclesfield trout farm. About 20Km from
Dandenong
and well worth a visit to catch & eat trout
(
http://www.eshopsaustralia.com/ARTF ). Four grey wet days at sister
Jan's in
Mooroolbark and we headed off for sunny skies.
Good old 'smart trip'
http://www.nowwhereroute.com/Scripts/hsrun.exe/Smarttrip/Smarttrip/MapXtreme.htx
;start=HS_SearchPage?UserType=Guest&SessionId=3715516 (that's a long one)
and
JK's directions got us up out of the Melbourne hills onto the ring road
which
took us around the city onto the Princes freeway. I was seriously frazzled
by
mid arvo so we called into South Werribee Beach for a late lunch. Huge
market
garden area with some nice housing and a bay beach. Heading for the You
Yangs
park we checked out a rest area on the freeway from the Camps2 book only to
find
a very large and busy servo so kept going. That was almost a mistake as the
entire area around the YY's is very private and fenced. After about an hour
of
driving around we settled on a locked gate entrance at the end of Toynes
Road.
Put the new heater to the test and settled back to watch the Bill when
knock,
knock, the real article in the form of the Lara Constabulary checked us out
looking for stolen vehicles and drug smokers. They were fine and had no
problems with us staying there for the night which was cut a little short by
daybreak trail bike riders.
We drove and walked around the YY's yesterday morning. Not so remarkable but
a
definite feature in an otherwise flat landscape with some big hills and big
laval granite rocks. Heading out to Geelong we made a quick decision to call
into Serendip Sanctuary which was a good move. Vic Parks have done an
excellent
job of creating a wetlands bird sanctuary with Brolgas, Bustards and Cape
Barron
geese the star attractions along with every form of duck, wallabies, paddy
melons (like wallabies), roos & emus. A walk planned walk goes through
ponds,
paddocks, aviaries, viewing hides and displays. It's free and has clean
modern
rest rooms, bbq's and picnic areas. On into Geelong where we were
overwhelmed
by the wonderfully enthusiastic lady volunteers at the Info center before
following her directions to tour the water front around town. Great signage,
we
were confronted by a 3t limit sign on the waterfront road, not before it.
Bugger it! Was a pretty drive in spite of a few reminder 3t signs until we
got
to the south side and an 'end load limit'. We had about 35Km to go to Port
Arlington where we had picked a boat ramp 6Kms south at Indented Head from
the
Camps2 book. Good onya, nice new sign - No Camping $50 Fine. We had however
stopped at the pier opposite the bowling club in PA and returned. Super
spot.
Tables, toilets, boats, watery sunsets and not a nasty sign to be seen. A
very
pleasant evening thank you. Today we shall go to Queenscliff and play it by
ear
from there.
Monday 3/5/2005
Another few days break in the diary. Partly because I’ve been slack but
mostly
because we have been settled in a house at Aireys Inlet for a few days. We
hugged the coast down from PA visiting the ferry terminal at Queenscliffe,
the
lighthouse at Point Lonsdale and Torquay. All very posh and developed not
offering much in the way of a spot to conceal R2 for the night. We did find
a
spot at a beach car park with no nasty NC signs but it was rather exposed
and we
felt better to move along. We got about 50 meters and the engine failed. I
had
tried once again, with nice clean fuel tanks, to follow the instructions of
the
previous owners in running out the rear fuel tank to switch over to the
front
where the engine would pick up fuel. Again – crap. Once the fuel runs out
the
air gets in and the system has to be bled. Up with the cab, out with the
spanners and we were away in 10 minutes tho she did protest about smooth
running
for a while. I now doubt the worth of using a fuel tank changeover switch
which
will not allow emptying the reserve tank. A transfer pump would allow all of
the fuel to be gotten from the rear without getting air in the fuel lines.
Some
trucks use a ‘balance pipe’ which is just a hose which interconnects the
tanks
bottom drain holes. I’d rule this out on R2 as the hose would have to be at
least as low as the bottom of the tanks and if damaged would lose all fuel.
Leaving Torquay we got down to Anglesea around 5pm and, realising we were
only
30Km from Aireys where we had use of a distant relatives house, decided to
go
straight there and backtrack for a look manyana.
And so we have had a very pleasant 4 days at AI with use of a washing
machine, a
log fire and ocean views. The only downer, it’s been bloody freezing. Winter
is upon us. We’ve done the cliff walk, the lighthouse, toured from Anglesea
to
Lorne stopping at every lookout and ‘slow vehicle pullout, and passed on
fishing
when ice cold rain began blowing on us as I got the rod out. A couple of
lazy
days with internet access and a baked dinner. I’ve left a little thank you
by
way of perfect TV reception replacing none at all. The old monster had blown
off the roof and in the interim Lorne has turned on a UHF repeater which the
antenna we used on R2 prior to the fabulous rabbit ears was put to use for.
Did
I mention that all over metropolitan Melbourne, even where regular TV was
unwatchable, we got perfect reception by using rabbit ears on the roof and a
digital set top box.
Time to shower and hit the road to Apollo Bay.
|
