19 November 2013 - Sundowner Rockbank Caravan Park, Rockbank, Victoria

As I start this, the sun is shining brightly and the thermometer is rapidly climbing toward the forecasted 30 degrees. What a change from chilly Tasmania! But again I am getting ahead of myself.

Yesterday morning, we were almost sad to leave our lovely camp at Deloraine beside the Meander River, dwelling place of Tasmanian fowls and their cute little chicks, who, we discovered, can swim, an assortment of ducks and geese and families of ducklings but not goslings, to the caretakers dressing-gowned wife, the multitude of arty and crafty folk who recently hosted the annual craft fair and a whole lot of others. (We were told too that platypus frequent the river at Deloraine, but we saw none.) If one is in Tasmania for more than a fortnight and has time to do more that the regular iconic tourist attractions, Deloraine and surrounds should definitely be on the list.

We retraced, yet again, our route up the Midland Highway, pulling off at Latrobe which is little more than a suburb of Devonport, parked up and sought a barber and a bakery, the first successfully and the second put aside until we reached the larger city. Freshly coiffed, my husband drove us on to Devonport and then we parked up in a sports ground car park to lunch and prepare ourselves for our impending ferry trip.

We had decided to take our own “dinner” on board, given our lack of enthusiasm for the smorgasbord, or should I say, Chris’s disappointment. I was happy enough with this so we made up gourmet rolls and packed them with our pillows, blankets and reading matter. We then moved around to East Devonport and parked up down by the seashore, adjacent to the Abel Tasman Caravan Park we had stayed on our initial arrival in Tasmania. From there we were able to walk around the pathway, along the shore then up the Mersey River as far as the ferry terminal, immediately opposite Devonport City. It was a glorious day and so our impressions today were far better than they had been more than seven weeks ago.

Arriving at Port Melbourne before sunrise.

At 5 pm, we drove around to the terminal and joined the queues to wait, and wait, and wait, for the loading. I do believe there is merit in turning up at about 6.30 pm but then we had little else to do; there would be no disadvantage in doing so at all.

Our trip across the strait was uneventful, the seas relatively calm and we arrived at about 5.45 this morning although did not disembark until 6.30 am. It was still only early by the time we reached the roadside service centre a little to the east of Rockbank, where we breakfasted and sat waiting for the commercial world to wake up.

We drove to Melton where we organised new tyres for the caravan and a small repair to the connecting electrics between the landcruiser and caravan, to be done on Friday morning on our way out of Melbourne. Less than ten kilometres back toward Melbourne, we pulled into this caravan park, our third visit here, certainly tried and true and most convenient for our date tonight; we are meeting up with Bob and Janet from Sunbury for dinner tonight; a reunion we are looking forward to.