Where to start? took me a couple of days to re-organise myself after the trip, sorry about the delay.
Had already pre-decided to head for Melbourne via Coloc/Geelong, as the rain was much heavier by the route
through Hamilton/Ballarat
Friday morning, after about 5 hours of broken sleep in the previous 24 hours. Was pouring rain and 13 degrees,
but with a promise of low to mid 20's for the day. Had some warm clothes under my protective gear, wore my
jacket outside the wets for access to pockets and storage. Left home a few minutes before 8 am to be at the
strawberry farm for supplies when they open at 8am. Heavy rain, limited visibility.
Click to enlarge
Not a great deal of highway traffic on the way to Warrnambool, but every vehicle that passed in
either direction raised a wall of wetness. A slower speed was mandatory for this trip, limited to about
85 for safety. First rest break was eastern side of Warrnambool at Terang, at around 9.25am. I found an
overhanging tree which gave me some protection for the ignited air filter that I was breathing through.
Some roadworks just east of Panmure, with unsurfaced roads and 40km per hour limit was a muddy interruption.
About 2km in duration
More roadworks after Camperdown, with restricted speed and bad gravel road surface for a couple of km, and
then further on major slowdowns with only one lane and temporary traffic stop-go lights plus
construction/maintenance vehicles on hwy closer to Geelong.
Open road at last after Winchelsea, still raining so still moderate speed required.
A clown in a car decided to overtake the line of around 8 cars and 3 trucks that I was travelling with
at lightning speed on a section of road which had double lines. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic, as
the visibility was poor because of the water and spray raised by the trucks.
Finally reached the Geelong bypass and was heading for Melbourne when we came upon a set of mobile flashing
lights and that same car that passed ten minutes earlier. Karma.
Moderate to heavy traffic on the way to Melbourne with 80km speed restrictions, but few people could reach
that limit because of the rain. This is when my GPS decided to play games. Kept going from graphics to
text screen, informing me that the cable was incompatible with the device for charging, and to please use
the cable supplied. It WAS the cable supplied. A short while later, the GPS shut down because of low battery.
Reached the Westgate Bridge at around 1.30pm. 5 and a half hours for what is usually a 3 hour forty minutes run!
Missed the turnoff for the bypass, and ended up on the Burnley Tunnel tollway, because the rain was so heavy
and roadsigns unreadable through visor. (This was the only time of the whole day that I was out of the rain)
Continued on the tollway as far as Officer, where I exited to head for what I thought was the correct direction.
I was wrong! Been a few years since last in this area, mental fade. Somehow ended up on back roads
Tynong/Garfield/Coralyn/Catani/Modella ... totally lost, with no idea even which direction I was travelling
because the sky was the same hue in all directions.
???? WTF ????
Finally came to an intersection which had a sign identifying a town in the area, and the direction to take.
Most of the signs in this area just name the road, no indication of what town lies ahead.
Lost about an hour or so of travel time here. One further holdup where there were several trees down across the road
and multiple cars and trucks unable to carry on until one of the local drivers finished chopping the downed trees into smaller
pieces until he ran out of fuel for his chainsaw. We all clubbed in and cleared one lane of the road so that we could continue.
Cruised into Korumburra at around 4.40 pm, almost 8 and three quarter hours on the road with only one rest stop.
More to follow in a later writeup.