Day 12 / 2015 - Melbourne to Warragul

After a 3 week visit back home we have once again returned to Melbourne If we missed you when we came home we truly apologise and hope we will catch you next time we are back. Since this is a New Year we have also restarted the day count and financial summary from day we returned to Melbourne.

The flight to Melboure was pretty uneventful except for the last 10 minutes where we hit turbulence causing a few people to reach for the sick bags. We had decided not to pick up the van the same day as we landed and spent out first night on Melbourne soil in the Ibis Budget hotel. It was okay and suitable for a night the rooms were clean and only being 400 metres from the airport was a boon you could return there and use all the cafe and food shops for dinner.

Next morning we gave Roger a call letting him know we would be there about 11am to pickup our car and van. Next we called for a Taxi to take us from the hotel to Somerton about 30 Km away. Arriving Roger met us at the gate and drove us down to where the van and car were stored right where we had left it. A quick check over and load up of our belongings and we were off. Roger escorted us out of the complex and we were on our way. We can highly recomend R & R Caravan Storage check out their website www.randrcaravansecure.com.au for more info if you want to store a van in Melbourne.

we headed off down the Hume Highway turning right onto the Western Ring Rd then left onto City Link Rd then left again onto the Monash Freeway throught the Tunnel then on East out to Warragul. We had toyed with the idea of trying to bypass the toll roads but after a few previous attempts we decided it just wasn't worth the anguish especially when towing a van. The tolls are if you buy a pass it costs $15.80 for a 24 hour period. You can either prepay before or pay up to 3 days later using their web site.

Our destination was Warragul. Dave and Brenda who we had met on the way to Darwin Last year invited us over to have a look at their side of town. Warragul is a small rural town about 100km from Melbourne down the Monash or M1 as it is also known. The road is good and traffic flowed freely but it was just after New Year so most likely most Melbournians were still on holidays. Arriving at the caravan park situated just off the M1 we booked in. We had a choice of a grassed or slab site. We chose the slab but had to wait until it's current occupants vacated. 

The site was a bit tight to get onto but we managed and set our self up then headed into town to reprovision the fridge as we had no fresh food having got rid of it before we stored the van. Warragul has all the shops you need for the basics such Woolworths and Coles as well as the required bottle shops. The park is actually walking distance from the town centre and is also walking distance to the rail station. Warragul has a train service running every hour to Melboure between 4 am and 10pm And takes approx 1.5 hours to get there. If you Travel at off peak times then it cost $10.00 per person each way.

There are a number of tourist spots you can visit around the area we headed further down the freeway and called in at the towns along the way. Traralgon is proberly the largest and has a well equiped Tourist Information Centre this was as far as we went East. Returning back west we called in at Morwell which has a memorial to all immigrants coming to the Gippsland region. All the names are listed on stone tablets. Next we stopped at Moe. There is a heritage town there but we didn't go in as we had seen enough heritage museums for a while. Next was Yarragon which has an array of gourmet food and wine from the local area to sample as well as many boutique shops to browse. 

Darnum was our last stop where we visited the Musical Village. There are many pianos and organs on display here in various conditions some lovingly restored some being restored and some in original condition. The tour guide was well versed in the history of most of the major pieces proving to be a very interesting tour.

We had planned to get up into the Alpine region of Mt Baw Baw but the weather was pretty ordinary to say the least over most of Victoria preventing us from going up. We did fill in the time with a train ride to Melbourne on both Thursday and Friday. Thursday we travelled to Gellong to catch up with Graham and Rhonda to drop off their suitcases they had so kindly lent us. On Friday we travelled in again this time to catch up with Mike, Carley and Blake as the had returned from WA and were heading for Tasmania a few days a head off us. It was interesting to watch the loading process giving us some idea on what to expect. We have built our skills at navigation the public transport system and once you get to know your way around it is quite easy to use.

We had a ducted gas heater fitted to the van for those expected cold nights in Tasmania. Apart from gas the only other source of power required is 12 volts from the battery making it an ideal heater when away from caravan parks. The installer came to our site in Warragul from his base in Healsville about 100km away. He did a very professional job and were happy with it so far but we really haven't tested iton a real cold day. We went for the Gas option over the Diesel option purely because we didn't wan't to have to install another fuel source otherwise they are both as good as each other.

Winston and Sue who we had also met on the way to Darwin came from Melbourne with their Motorhome and spent a few days with us. With Dave and Brenda we all spent few happy hours and an dinnners reminicing about travelling around Australia last year. We also talked about this years travel as we all seem to be heading up the east Coast around the same time.

We have now left Warragul and are on our way to board the Spirit of Tasmania on Monday Morning. We are going to overnight at a BP roadhouse about 60km East of Melbourne then plan to leave there about 5am in the morning and try to beat the peak hour traffic jam along the Monash Freeway into Port Melbourne. Boarding time starts about 6:30 and the ferry departs at 9:00am and we expect to arrive in Devonport about 6pm. We have booked 2 nights at a park in Devonport just to get our bearings.