Chez Dandenong 1

17/4/2018.  Tuesday.  R & R woke just before 7:00am to a still and cloudy morning of 11*C. At least the drive into Melbourne would be dry.  At 8:30 they left Lake Colac and headed for Princes Hwy a direct route from Colac to Melbourne.  The 30 or so kilometres from Colac to Winchelsea was entirely under road works at speeds varying from 40-80kms which they didn’t mind but it did make it difficult to see anything else.  The next 35kms to Geelong was double lane both ways and was quite a nice drive with undulating farming land.  They passed a memorial to Arthur Streeton and the Mt Duneed Winery just before the start of the M1 Freeway.  About 10:00am, RL was driving straight through Geelong after which the country side became quite steep.  They passed by the turnoff to Ceres and the country side returned to farming for a while.  At Werribbe, which is about 30kms from the Melbourne CBD, the traveller can see skyscrapers and the city’s haze. Though the area was built up for a while, it returned to farming or at least farmlets and new housing estates.  Since the M1 began, there had been several truck stops with KFC and HJ’s which are not something seen in WA.  R & R had thought to stop at Werribee for a break but missed the turn off and within minutes, at about 10:30am, they were on the West Gate Freeway.  Not the time to stop for the loo, so they had to trust the Navigator, RL with the driving and RA with the maps.  Tipped off by their daughter, H, about stipulating avoidances on the Navigator, RA had instructed it to avoid Southbank so that they would not be on a toll road.  RL exited the west Gate Bridge at Todd Rd and drove past Luna Park and down the coast to St Kilda along Beach Rd and Beaconsfield Pde.  The houses, there at the beach front, really are very grand. The Navigator did the rest taking them down the Nepean Hwy a while and then across to Dandenong.  T, who works with J, RL’s brother-in-law, was aware they were coming and greeted them warmly at 11:30am, chatting a while and showing RL where to park the camper.  They all had lunch and a cup together after which R & R let T get back to work.  They set up the camper under cover with just a wall and fence between them and the rail line. They rang their daughter, S, and sent an all contacts email stating safe arrival in Melbourne. T left at 2:30pm so R & R took that as a cue to go for a walk.  They walked south down Princess Hwy for 25 minutes and then turned around and came back again. They rang H, their daughter, while they had a cup before bringing their tech stuff into J’s living room and turned on the TV to watch some news.  They had barely seen any since leaving home save a random quick dip into the news on the ipad. After 6:00pm, R & R went into the camper to cook satay, as the ingredients were in its fridge, but they brought dinner back into the lounge room and watched “New Tricks” while they ate. They washed up and had a shower before heading back into the camper to sleep the night.  It looked like it was going to be a cold night with a forecasted 3*C … but they didn’t mind … they had beanies and socks and mittens.

18/4/2018.  Wednesday.   R & R slept well despite the trains zipping past every couple of minutes.  Eventually, they just didn’t hear them.  And … it wasn’t as cold as forecast.  Though they heard T arrive for work early, they stayed in bed to about 7:30am, before having breakfast and then reading/writing for a while. About 9:00am, R & R had morning tea with T before heading off, north up Princes Hwy in search of the three op shops they knew were only a couple of blocks away.  They were in no hurry so took their time walking and looking around.  When they got back T was having lunch so they joined him before having a cat nap.  They did feel a little guilty about T working and them just doing as they pleased!  There was an overdue account from TRB to deal with, so they paid the debt and then emailed requesting that the late fee be waived due to circumstances beyond their control.  Again R & R headed off for a walk, there and back, for no reason other than, to get some fresh air and exercise.  At 4:30pm, RL and RA looked through and sorted photos from his camera.  Then RL watched the news while RA read the draft for the next blog.  They thoroughly enjoyed dinner, despite the fact that it was finishing up all the last vegetables before heading off to Greenvale to stay with C and C, RA’s brother and sister-in-law, the next day.  They watched TV for a while but there was nothing much to hold their attention … proves they hadn’t been missing much while they’d been travelling.