NEWS # 070
Hi everyone!
The next morning, Friday the 25th and I'm up early, ready for the long drive
to Melbourne, some 890 kms away, or about the distance from Braunton to
Edinburgh! I pack up the car and head off around 0730 in order to miss as
much of the rush hour traffic as I can. Within about half an hour, I'm out
of the city and heading towards the airport and the town of Liverpool. Seems
that there are so many places in Australia which have names very like those
found in England.
I will follow the Hulme Highway for the next eleven hours or so and am not
thrilled by the prospect. It's not that the scenery isn't pretty but rather
that it is very similar, along the whole route. I am exhausted, after
staying out late the night before and have to stop every few hours to sleep
and then wake myself up again.
There are some strange places along the way including Dog-on-the-Tuckerbox,
which is a rest spot where the diner is made out of old railway carriages,
Holbrook, a small town that has a Submarine in the high street and Goulburn,
which has a huge concrete Merino Ram in the high street!
It takes me many hours before the suburbs of Melbourne start to appear but
the car doesn't miss a beat. Melboune is a reasonably sized city even by
European standards and has a very simple road structure. I am going to stay
with some friends from England, Toby and Nads, who are over here to work for a few years. I follow the Hulme Highway towards the city centre and then
see a sign for the southern suburbs, which I take.
Bad move, as I later find out. I follow the Western Ring Road, in completely
the wrong direction, for the next few miles until I see a sign for St Kilda
and take the next left. I then find myself on a Freeway which says Citylink
ONLY, whoops. I am only able to travel on this shortcut with a previously
purchased tag, which I don't have! Thankfully there is an exit route off the
freeway and I manage to escape before I am fined. I head back through the
suburbs and refind the Hulme Highway, which takes me right into the centre
of town.
I drive along, map reading as I go and work out that I need to turn left at
the end of the road and then first right. Not possible, as there are no
right turns allowed. I do a slightly illegal u-turn(!) and then turn left.
Thankfully, no-one sees, so I continue along the St Kilda Road.
Finding Elwood, where my friends live, is remarkably easy and I only have
to stop in a garage, to find out where their road is, before I drive
straight there. I think they are surprised that I find them so easily.
They live in a very nice house and have very kindly made me up a double bed
to sleep in, complete with sheets and a duvet. Luxury, after all the tiny
beds I've slept in over the last few months. Nads cooks dinner and we spend
many hours catching up.
Seeya,
Halesy
