Halls Gap to Cranbourne
We arrived too late yesterday to visit Brambuk the National Park and Cultural Centre so we intended to do that this morning before driving on. Checks at the building yesterday evening and online had failed to reveal opening hours but we guessed that 9:00 am was likely. That allowed us an extra hour of sleep before we rose, ate breakfast, and made ready for the day. By that time the sun was well up and shining on the heights above us.
Just before 9:00 we parked at the centre and confirmed our guess about opening time. We spent a few minutes looking at information displays about the national park and then followed signs to the cultural centre out the rear door. There was some historical material displayed there but then Majella saw a sign indicating that the cultural centre was in another building some distance away. We walked there but found it was looking rundown and had a sign on the door indicating it was closed but would be refurbished and reopened under a new cultural partnership.
On the way back to the car we took the short wetland walking loop around the rear of the main building. There was a depression that looked like it should be a shallow pond but it was dry. The loop took us back to the car park where we were ready to move on.
Rather than take the short route out of Halls Gap and back to the main highway we drove south down the valley toward Dunkeld. Both sides of the valley had tall steep ranges with a scattering of jagged peaks. The road was lined with trees that limited visibility either side and it was not until we were approaching Dunkeld that the area to the east levelled out into plains where we could see grazing cattle and sheep.
We made one stop along the way to park and walk 800 m each way to see Silverband Falls. The trail was well maintained gravel and mostly fairly level with just a few stretches of gentle climbs. What glimpses of the creek we had were not encouraging for a waterfall since there was no water or just an occasional small pool. The falls had a trickle of water but were clearly not at their best. Still the walk accounted for our morning exercise. We left thinking that the flow we had seen over Mackenzie Falls yesterday might be managed using water from Wartook Reservoir for the benefit of tourists.
Soon after we entered Dunkeld, Majella spotted a sign to an arboretum and thought that might be both interesting and a suitable place to stop for coffee and a driver change. The entrance indicated one way at 20 kph so we complied, expecting to find somewhere to park. We didn’t and were bemused because the signs placed by trees were too small to read from the car and it was effectively impossible to park and get out. Even stranger, the end of the one way drive did not return to a point near where we entered but instead deposited us on the far side of the park. As we exited we saw a sign facing out the exit gate and welcoming visitors. Very odd.
We continued a little way out of town where we found a rest area where we stopped, drank our coffee, and changed drivers. At that point we could still see the Grampians in the distance.
I drove on along the road that I expected would take us to Ballarat but just beyond Streatham our navigation app turned us north toward Eurambeen where we rejoined the main road we had followed before turning off just past Horsham yesterday. I drove on through Beaufort and past Ballarat before we stopped for lunch in Bacchus Marsh. That was at Chicken with a Mission, a small store that helps to fund aid to Cambodia. It was established when COVID made it impossible to travel there to work on projects. Majella had a chicken burger and I had some tasty Buffalo wings.
Majella drove on from there to Cranbourne. We encountered some rain along the way, mostly light but with occasional heavier bursts. We entered Melbourne via the West Gate Bridge and then took the tunnel and motorway to the south east. For some unknown reason our navigation app initially directed us to the wrong side of the street for our motel. Naturally we failed to find it. We did a couple of rounds of local streets and filled up with petrol ($2.16) before we eventually found the motel and did not overshoot the entrance.
It was raining quite heavily when we arrived so we got inside and waited until it eased before I fetched in our bags. After a short rest we decided that there was plenty of daylight remaining and the showers were scattered enough that we could drive to the end of the peninsula at Portsea. That was about an hour away, several km to the freeway, a long run down it, and several km off the end to our destination.
We paused at Sorrento pier to see the terminal to which the ferry terminal we saw at Queenscliff in 2019 connected. The Spirit of Tasmania had just come through the heads and was steaming across the bay toward Melbourne. From there we drove on to Portsea and into the Point Nepean National Park. It was close to 6:00 pm closing time by then so we did not linger long but drove on to the ocean side of Portsea and looked over the surf beach. There were too many stairs to tempt us down to the sand and back up.
Dinner was at a noodle bar in Sorrento. Majella had spring rolls and I had chicken Pad Thai. We shared a French cider. Then it was an hour of driving back to Cranbourne to retire for the evening.
