Oz On the Road - Day Six

Day started overcast and rainy and I thought that it was going to be a repeat of yesterday. However, after a couple of hours of driving the sun started to break through and the day stayed relatively sunny and clear thereafter. Much more pleasant to see the sun when driving. It does lift the spirits. Today was a lucky day for animal sightings. My first destination was a national park called Wilson's Promentory which I believe is the most southerly point of mainland Australia. This was way off line from my ultimate target for the day, a town called Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula. By going to the Prom as it's known locally I was going down a peninsula back over which I would have to retrace my tracks and then head down another peninsula to get to Sorrento which is a ferry port that would allow me to get to the Great Ocean Road without having to drive through Melbourne, which I really didn't want to do. I was a little dubious about taking the time to go to the Prom but everyone said that it was worth it and I decided to go even though it would mean close to a 500 k drive. As it turned I couldn't take the last 25k of the drive since the roads were closed as a result of the disastrous floods that SE Australia suffered last spring. The roads are still under repair so I had to turn around and head back but not before having some fabulous animal sightings and photo ops. The first of these was a flock of emus that wandered out of the bush and started to cross the road as I drove by. I pulled over and grabbed my camera but they were very shy and I couldn't get very close so pictures of bird backs only. As I was driving down a dirt road to get off the main road ( and I use the term loosely since I rarely saw another car in my whole time in the park) I thought I saw a sleeping animal in the middle of a meadow. Out I got to explore and up popped a kangaroo who was very wary (and itchy, most of my pictures are of her itching and scratching, like Harry). She let me circle her but wouldn't let me get any closer that about 10 feet and then off she hopped into the woods. Finally on my drive out of the park I saw something large and furry in the grass off the side of the road. Investigating once again, this time I found a wombat fast asleep. Not a very interesting subject for a photo; just a large, dormant, furry sausage but at least I've seen one.

I then headed for Philip Island, since I was so far off my route anyway. Not very interesting and and I was feeling weary so finally pointed myself in the direction of the Mornington Peninsula and Sorrento but fatigue was setting in as it was about 4:30 getting dark and I had driven about 450k. That leaves me about a 125k run in the morning to catch the ferry but I'm fine with that as an hours run on the other side of the ferry is the start of the Great Ocean Road, hereafter referred to as the GOR. I'd rather leave that for tomorrow as that shoud give me the better part of the afternoon to spend on the GOR.

Looking forward to that but with a mild degree of trepidation since this is a long weekend here and everyone seems to be on the roads. I have no hotel reservations so will keep my fingers crossed that my hotel luck holds.

I'm starting to feel weary; this is the fourth straight day with 400k plus days, driving on the wrong side of the road etc and fatigue is setting in a bit but a beer and dinner will set all right.

Signing off for tonight.