-- From Mt Gambier to Melbourne, Spirit-of-Tasmania, Devonport

The road tracklog
from Mt Schank to Melbourne & Devonport
from 15/03/2010 to 21/03/2010 

On Monday March 15, I returned to Mt Gambier to publish pages of my website sitting by ground in front of the Library which opened only at 09.00. Then I made some technical purchases for my truck. From Port McDonnell to Nelson the road curves along the sea always of turquoise colour. I had lunch on a rest area in Nelson before establishing the bivouac at Pritchards in Lower Glenelg NP at the edge of Glenelg River. Alas the sky darkened and some drops of rain fell. The target of the week was to head to Melbourne on Sunday morning to embark at 09.00am on Spirit-of-Tasmania bound for Devonport.

The next day was announced gloomy, in the early morning a fog covered the shore of the river. I have despite everything happiness to see a rather rare bird a Laughing Kookaburras. I always arrived in Portland in the fog to ask in Visitor Center the localization of the Library. The WiFi Internet access was free but the connection key was introduced by the employee who gave also a password. In Victoria each Library has its connection method. Internet eldorado of Libraries in South Australia was finished, no more connecting in the morning or in the evening sitting in front of the door!

I had lunch in Bridgewater Bay where the fog rose around 2 p.m. Then I was going to visit a Petrified Forest which has nothing to do with that in the Great American Parks, moreover a panel explains the misunderstanding.

At the end of the afternoon I found a bivouac very sympathetic in a forest where young Frenchmen in “working holiday” greeted me.

On the coast many wind farms are announced to the tourists by inviting them to visit them. I did not know if in this country this type of renewable energy is disparaged but at the very least the government makes efforts to sell it. I made a rapid stop in Warrnambool, alas the Library did not have wireless connection moreover time of use was limited to half an hour!

Around midday I stopped in Bay of Island to admire a dramatic sandstone landscape eroded by weathering and sea, read the comment of the picture below. The sky darkened and the temperature fell consequently tourists got rarer. I decided to remain on this deserted carpark.

I spent a peaceful night on the deserted carpark of Bay of Islands. But it rained during the night and in the early morning the sky was obstinately covered with black clouds. I left it around 10am to continue the visit of the coast by driving the Great Ocean Road which according to a booklet of Visitor Centre saw during the 19th century more than 70 shipwrecks of sailing boats from Port Fairy to Apollo Bay. Indeed it is constantly beaten by a violating undertow of the ocean pushing boats again the coast where they were failed. Bad weather and movements of the ocean carved since millennia structures in the sandstone of the coast which does not cease moving back. The pictures below give some significant examples of them. The sun showed a short appearance between the clouds about midday whereas I was at Twelve Apostles giving a surrealist picture, see the Gallery.

On March 20, it was a  short driving day to approach Melbourne. The road twist in rolling coaster at the foot of Range Otway I stopped in Geelong for the usual visit of a Visitor Centre for getting documentation and of a Library for using Internet. The esplanade of the sea is decorated by figurative and expressive statues in the humorous Aussie's tradition. Then I went shopping for complement of provisioning and for filling tanks with diesel before going to bivouac in Moonap Caravan Park.

Left at 6.00 from Geelong I arrived towards 7.30 at the Station Pier in Melbourne by blocking in front of a bridge of which the vertical clearance was 2,7 meters in Montague St. I looked for a street further to head to the port. Spirit of Tasmania was at quay charging  vehicles. I embarked at once and which was not my surprise, departure was done at 8.48 before the hour envisaged. The garage was not full. In spite of a covered weather the sea front of Melbourne was dramatic as well as the Westgate Bridge which is not without like a bridge in Bangkok on the port. The voyage lasts in theory 10 hours but the ferry arrived rather at 6 p.m. My truck being in front of the exit rear gate I was at once at quay not having the leisure to take pictures, then the quarantine visited my cell for the inspection of the products whose importation is prohibited in Tasmania, primarily fruits, vegetables and fish. As some other campervans I bivouacked at the Recreation Centre on Oval.

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