On the road home – Day 2

y margcalFirst posted on March 2, 2014

In the morning I did a self-drive tour of Robe. It is a glorious place with some very expensive looking (holiday?) homes. However, as with Victor Harbor, also a popular destination, I’d rather not stay there. I don’t know what the alternative to Victor Harbor is, but for Robe, for me it’s Beachport, a much quieter spot a little way down the coast.

My car near the red and white striped pyramid, symbol for Robe  

Gaol ruins at Robe

However, I didn’t visit Beachport on this trip. Unhappily, my homeward plans were changed at the last moment. While at the Adelaide zoo I got a text message that the old school friend in coastal Victoria, whom I’d planned to visit en route, was going to Melbourne for treatment for a recently diagnosed, very serious health issue. I’d planned to take two nights to get home but having got as far as Robe, I decided I could go straight home the next day, via Penola, Hamilton, Ballarat.

The Robe-Penola road was probably the most minor route I travelled on but while the road surface was fine, it was narrower than more significant routes and seemed to carry more trucks. To be honest, that was scary. One truck in particular was inches – seemed like single digits – from me. I was glad to get to Penola and a more major route again.

At Penola I went to the Mary McKillop Centre. I wanted to tell the people there how much joy I get every time I look at the quilt I won in a raffle on my first visit there, about 10 years ago. It’s a beautiful thing, entirely hand-stitched by a then 80 year old lady from Mt Gambier. Imagine my surprise when I told my story – the ladies on duty exclaimed, “She keeps making them!” So she must be 90 now and I bought more tickets in another quilt raffle

As well as libraries, when I go away I usually do a church crawl too but not this time. However, I did visit the church at Penola, said a prayer and lit a candle for my school friend.

               For my friend - the candle at 12 o'clock

Then it was lunch (very slow service) and from that point I pushed on to home through Casterton, Coleraine, Hamilton (abortive hospital library visit and rest stop at the tourist info centre), Dunkeld and then Ballarat. 

       “Blackboy” grass tress – on the road to Casterton 

       Casterton – was once a fine building 

                    Casterton, rising up out of a valley 

                           Coleraine Railway Station ...

... it’s been a while since the last train!

     Wannon Falls near Hamilton ... the water is - where?

I know it’s evil but it was easy to have tea at Macca’s on Bakery Hill in Ballarat – don’t tell anyone! The break at that point allowed me to get into Melbourne having missed the peak hour traffic, cutting about an hour off the driving time doing it that way.

Finally, it was home after 562km that day for a grand total of 1,856km (480 + 367 + 447 + 562) for the four says (in total) driving to Adelaide and back. I didn’t work out how much the petrol cost but it would have been cheaper to fly!

THANK YOU to the ALIA  Vic Library Technicians Group for organising the library tours and dinners in Adelaide which were the impetus for this little road trip.