The forecast for today was much better and the skies were blue when we first woke but the mist soon arrived. We packed up and headed to the local cafe for breakfast before setting off back down the road to Dunkeld, stopping to drive up Mount William on route. You can drive almost to the top and walk the last 2km to the summit. By the time we arrived the mist was below this point with no visibility so we decided to save our legs and head back down. We stopped just before Dunkeld and walked up Mount Sturgeon which had originally been on plan for the day before yesterday. It's a relative small peak at 602m, meaning a 350m ascent but a nice walk up through the forest and great views from the top across the plains to the south and north to the Grampians. Bizarrely there were three people on the summit playing cards. Takes all sorts! The circuit took about 2 hours and it was good to stretch our legs. Back at the car we had lunch and then headed off east on the journey back to Melbourne, stopping off outside Ballarat for tea. Ballarat is an old gold mining town and a popular tourist attraction with a mining museum built on the hillside. We've driven 1643 km over the passed week. Back in Melbourne we're staying at the Ibis Budget for the night before our flight out to Tasmania in the morning. It's basic but very functional (the shower reminded us of the one on the old Superfast ferries, which sailed from Rosyth to Zebrugge) although the wifi wasn't working when we arrived so we went to the airport to take advantage of the free wifi there and to eat as there's no food at the hotel either. We've decided to extend our stay in Tasmania to just over two weeks as we are both looking forward to our time there in the great outdoors. We've struggled a bit over the past week with post travels blues from SE Asia but hopefully these will dissipate soon. We've hired a campervan for the first week (and possibly the second subject to availability) and as we are not sure what the wifi will be like on the campsites it may be a while before we can update our blog.
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| The view south from the summit of Mt Sturgeon |
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| Looking north east with Mt Abrupt in the background |
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| Mt Sturgeon from the road to Dunkeld |
Well you can think of us on the six hour vip bus Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng tomorrow! We are looking forward to that after minibus travel leading to wet rucksacks (thank goodness for dry bags) and four hours on the stool between the rows of seats I suffered on the last journey!
ReplyDeleteWiFi wise we bought a dongle in Oz but it was expensive and probably not worth it for you. Free WiFi in the library there and in NZ.
Enjoy the camper van though
J&B