Coffin Bay to Melbourne

8 -10 January

We drove from Port Lincoln to Geelong, via Adelaide. Even though we didn’t have the yacht on the back, we still travelled quite sedately, although the thrill of doing 110 was quite a novelty for us. The roads in SA are wonderful, so much so that I’m starting to wonder if Colin Barnett’s paranoid ramblings about being treated like the Cinderella state don’t have a ring of truth. SA seems to be getting a much bigger slice of the road funding, despite having 800,000 fewer people. We travelled on a wide network of roads, not just the main route, and found that cambered corners, regular overtaking lanes and neat orderly P stops every 10km. When towing the boat in WA, I am constantly scanning the road shoulders and hoping like hell I don’t have to pull off to deal with a flat tyre. Most of our shoulders are steep, narrow and erosion affected. By contrast, those in SA are like an extension of the highway, and most roads have a generous bitumen shoulder anyway, making a passing road train far less of a threat. We need to get our priorities right. But then, we will have Elizabeth Quay. Well, that’s enough of the political rant….
Oops! Back with more political stuff. As soon as we crossed the SA/Vic border, things changed for the worse. If someone is taking our share of the road funding it sure ain’t the Vics. The Princes Highway went from a beautifully smooth blacktop with passing lanes to a lumpy, cracked, narrow piece of rubbish road with only one passing lane in 100kms. It is a disgrace! In fact, we found this to be the rule rather than the exception in Victoria. The Great Ocean Road is billed as one of the great drives in Australia. The scenery is certainly wonderful but the road is so bad all the passengers are too scared of dying to take in the sights. In one stretch, marked as a 33km winding road, the speed limit was set at 100km/hr. I used all my skills (such as they are) to maintain a steady 70km/hr through the bends. The fact that a 12 tonne tour bus was only a couple of metres behind me for much of the way did not add to the enjoyment of the drive.
As we travelled, we assessed places in terms of sailing with Sandpiper later in the trip. Tumby Bay had some possibilities as an access to the Sir Joseph Banks Island Group but Port Lincoln looked better. As always, Port Augusta looked like sailing heaven, despite there being a 25-30 knot wind howling. We found a great launching ramp and adjacent caravan park at Murray Bridge to explore the lower sections of the Murray River down to Lake Alexandrina and Goolwa.

The Murray River at Murray Bridge, SA

We over-nighted in caravan parks using our little tent and the cooking facilities in the back of the car. Night 1 was spent at Port Wakefield, 100km North of Adelaide. Night 2 was in Mount Gambier and Night 3 A miniscule unsigned Caravan park in Winchelsea (100km from Melbourne). We had intended staying somewhere in one of the many beach side spots between Warrnambool and Angelsea but when we found the going rate was $53 a night for a tent site with no power we spat the dummy and headed North back to Princes Highway. For that sort of money I want at least an ensuite and preferably my own beer fridge.

Living small with tent and the car, Port Wakefield, SA

Highlights along the way:

• Completing a short historical walk around Port Wakefield.
• Consuming a couple of $5 pints at a 130 year old pub in Port Wakefield. (They even had $12 meals complete with soup and salad bar). The experience was enhanced by the bloke that latched on to us and described his trucking experiences in the Pilbara, making it clear that he was responsible for much of the growth up there.
•  Eating a dozen oysters bought in Cowell on the way up the Eyre Peninsula (different to those in Coffin Bay and easier to shuck).
• Using a road side toilet at a tiny town called Willalooka and having piped classical music and handcrafted pot-pouri sachets on the toilet roll holders (they were named Lynne’s toilets but we don’t know whether Lynne built them, ran them or died in them).

• The coastal scenery along the Great Ocean Road. The downside was that the crowds were horrendous at each town along the drive and the behaviour of drivers meant that we were lucky to complete the drive in one piece. I can’t believe how many people seem to think that cycling along mountain roads with no road shoulder, sheer drop aways and lots of mad drivers could possibly be fun.

Bay of Islands

London Bridge (the first span collapsed in 1990)

Loch Ard Gorge

• The splendour of the Mountain Ash forests and Fern Tree groves in the Otway Ranges. Again, some of the scenery was lost to us as our eyes remained fixed on the narrow winding switchback road from Lorne through to Winchelsea.

• A morning spent on the waterfront in Geelong. Geelong is a surprisingly nice place, unexpected because so many Melbournians rubbish it so. The City is neat, functional and the setting on Corio Bay is rather pretty. The proximity of the waterfront to the city proper is a big attraction and the recent developments have been suggested a model for Perth with the Elizabeth Quay project. We could do a lot worse. We bought a wonderful feed of calamari and chips from a boat selling mussels, paella and squid for $10. Best calamari I’ve had (and I’ve had a lot).

The Geelong Beachfront

The swimming area – Geelong

The “Mussel Boat”, Fisherman’s Pier, Geelong

Christine and the iPhone successfully navigated us along the M1 freeway, across the spectacular West Gate Bridge and up into Carlton to our hotel to commence the Melbourne part of our trip. For the next week, the car will be bedded down in neighbouring Fitzroy while we walk, cycle and tram it around this wonderful city.