From the sublime to the ridiculous; our camp site tonight compared with last night’s. The morning light brought a slightly more positive view of our camp site. We had shared it with a young French couple in a whizz-bang van, and all spent a very quiet dark night. This morning, investigation of the facilities revealed that the toilets were clean and most adequate, and on the other end of the building, there was a large covered picnic area complete with gas barbeque. The grass covered reserve was indeed locked off from vehicles but would have been excellent for tenting. In fact this camp site would be excellent in the middle of summer, a refuge from the blazing heat in the quiet shade.
We left the site mid-morning under cloudy skies, disappointed with yet another dull day. The road from Toolangi through to Kinglake passes through forest interspersed with cultivated small holdings. Closer to Kinglake, the ridge to the south of the road falls away and reveals an expansive view back to Melbourne. Today in the haze, the skyscrapers of Melbourne stood out like a massive grey castle in the distance. I imagine on a clear day the views would be stupendous; no wonder so many people have chosen to settle up around the Kinglake National Park. Here too, the damage wrecked upon this land by fire just a couple of years ago, became increasingly obvious. However it is wonderful to see that the tall charred gums have sprouted a mass of branches to appear like a bottle cleaning brush, just as we saw up the Queensland coast after Cyclone Yasi.
At Kinglake, we pulled into a car park and checked out a Farmers Market, paying the “gold coin” donation to the man from the Rotary Club for the privilege of doing so. The market was disappointing in its size, and yet the stalls had excellent wares, just none we needed or were tempted by. We were soon on our way again, heading on through Kinglake West, still scarred by the fires, where there were many new houses, some recycled bungalows having been moved onto the ten acre blocks, evidence that people were attempting to get their lives back together.
Soon the road descended from the range down toward Whittlesea, a pleasant rural township. Here we parked in the high school car park and read the Weekend Age, the one newspaper we had been able to get our hands on yesterday. While we sat quietly doing so, a large family arrived and rode their bikes and scooters around us, and then when it was time to go, found their battery flat. We were asked to assist, which we were able to do since they were carrying a set of battery jumper leads. This was the second time we have been asked for this kind of assistance and the second time we have discussed the need to buy a set of leads ourselves.
After lunch we walked around a few blocks including up the main street of the town where there were a surprising number of people eating at the few cafes and takeaways. We called into the Information Centre and struck up conversation with the volunteer there about the recent fires and generally living with such threat.
It was still early in the afternoon, however we decided to continue westward, on through to the Hume Highway, the very same we had travelled more than a week ago when we travelled from Melbourne to Seymour and on to Shepparton.
This rest area is actually an autobahn, complete with petrol station, McDonalds, Subway and Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the inevitable conveniences. There is a huge parking area, for both trucks and cars, very busy with both and no doubt will continue to be so right through the night. But from here we should have a short run into Campellfield in the morning to Advantage Caravan Repairs, once we manage to find our way to the other side of the freeway. Hopefully our Tomtom will have the answers. And hopefully by morning maintenance people will have called and emptied the overflowing rubbish bins and replenished the toilet roll holders. Sunday travellers place enormous stress on this service centre.
No comments:
Post a Comment