Turn Left

Down, over and across…

Down -Cairns to Melbourne. Tick.

Over -Bass Strait to Devonport. Tick

Over- Bass Strait to Melbourne. Tick

Turn Left. Tick

During one of Australia’s hottest and driest summers on record, we have been fortunate to avoid most of the really hot weather, apart from a couple of very hot days in Canberra. We have seen the results of the terrible fires on the North Coast and watched as the fires have devastated some of the areas we have already travelled through. Our thoughts and prayers are continually with those communities. As we leave temperate  Tasmania, we are welcomed back to the heatwave, that is the mainland.

After driving off the Spirit of Tasmania at 5.45am we breakfast at Daylesford, an hour or so north-west of Melbourne. We have heard much about Daylesford’s reputation as an alternative, sustainable spa town. Breakfast, a wander through the local markets and a stroll around the man-made lake is about all we can manage, for by 9.30am the temperature has already hit 30 degrees.

By the time we get to Dimboola, a town famous for its salty pink lake, as the setting for the 1969 play Dimboola and the subsequent movie, and as the inspiration for many of Sidney Nolan’s paintings, the temperature has climbed to 41degrees.

There is nothing pleasant about 41. We set up camp. Our fridge is struggling and Morrie’s air con has surrendered without a fight. We sit outside in the shade of our awning with a wet towel on our heads and our feet in a bucket of water. No photo attached.

At about 8pm when the temperature has dropped to 40 we embark on a walk along a nearby path and discover, to our embarrassment, that the deep and inviting Wimmera River runs just at the back of the caravan park. A swim as we watch the local kids impressively (and probably illegally) dive from the road bridge, revives mind, body and soul.