Geelong and Mount Evelyn

26/3/2015

Started relatively early to make a dent into the winding Great Ocean Road before breakfast. Stopped at Lorne for coffee, breakfast and some photos of the beautiful scenery.

Lorne beach

Lorne beach, other side and come clouds already forming again

It's a great road to drive, reminded me of my time delivering bread in the mornings in the Tyrol in Austria and in particular up to Falterschein and in Pitztal. You feel when you corner how the load in the back (back then bread and rolls, now a campervan full of stuff) starts to getting close to move and sometimes, when the corner is a bit tighter than expected, or the speed is a few kmh too quick for it, something really moves and shifts place. Had a water bottle and my shampoo bottle rolling around in the back today, but apart from that everything stayed at its assigned place.

The weather was changing frequently today, from lovely sunny to totally overcast, to some drops of rain. I continued on B100 Great Ocean Road until Torquay where I visited the library for the update of the blog and had another coffee.

From there I continued on to Geelong, and booked into the caravan park in Belmont. I did a quick run along the river and then got picked up by Ken.

Geelong is the second largest city in Victoria with about 180,000 inhabitants in the greater Geelong area. It's located on the other side of the Port Phillip Bay, about 70km west of Melbourne CBD.

Spent a great evening with Maika and Ken, had some tasty wines, a lovely steak, engaging conversations and watching Australia beat India in the cricket semi-final. All in all a wonderful evening. Ken and Maika used to work in various Asian countries and it was very interesting to hear their experiences form all these years in Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia and their travels to many more countries. No wonder Shannon, their oldest son and friend of mine, took up the challenge to move to Vienna with his wife last year. Good on him!

They offered for me to stay in one of their guest rooms and I spent the first night in a normal bed again for more than 5 weeks.

Distance traveled: 87 km

27/3/2015

Very different to wake up in a proper bed at normal room temperature. ;-)

After a coffee, I went for a walk with Maika along the beautiful Geelong foreshore and up into the Botanical Garden. The sky was blue but you could see the could forming already. Forecast for Melbourne is not too good for today and tomorrow. Let's see how we go.

Geelong Pier

Geelong foreshore walk

Protected swimming area in Geelong

Statues in the Botanical Garden

Straw man taking it easy

Driving all the way through the Melbourne metropolitan area was rather tough – lots of traffic and avoiding toll roads as I don't have that electronic ticketing thing set up, didn't make it easier. Melbourne is incredibly big and spread out, and Mount Evelyn, where Kaye is living is on the totally other side compared to where I came from. My plan is to explore downtown Melbourne using public transport. In Lilydale, about 5km down the hill from Mount Evelyn is the start of the train network that goes all the way to Federation Square.

Mount Evelyn, in the YarraRanges and close to the Dandenong Ranges is very hilly, some of them are extremely steep. Had one with 17% and one with 16% gradient, both up and down. I had to change gears quite frequently in the van to make it up the hill and not get out of control on the way down. The wet road certainly didn't help either. That would be hell for cycling is you're not extremely fit!

I had a coffee in Mount Evelyn to check out the area and find some fee WiFi and then had a look at one of the dams that feeds water to the Melbourne area a few kilometers outside of Mount Evelyn. The weather was wet and cold, so I didn't even take any photos. The area here is very lush and green, lots of huge trees, beautiful and pleasing to the eyes after all the dry land I traveled through in Western Australia and South Australia.

I met Kaye's parents at their house, had an afternoon tea and a long chat with them. Very lovely but very old people. As they have a huge block of land here, the van is nicely parked up and it feels almost like in a nature reserve there, green vegetation all around.

Went out to dinner with Kaye, her partner Greg, and friends of them, Collin and Alison from Scotland. How awesome was listening to thick Glasgow accent again. I can't allow my mind to wander or drift even for a second when in a conversation with a Scotsman, otherwise I risk totally loosing comprehension. Very nice people all of them and we were laughing a lot. Also very good tucker at the bistro where we ate, had some juicy medium lamb ribs and several glasses of red wine to wash it all down. (Thanks GRRM for using this expression frequently in your awesome books – I trust I adopted it right.)

On the way back to the house we drove up a mountain in the Dandenong Ranges, but the view wasn't too good because of the rain. But you could still see how huge the metropolitan area of Melbourne is. We saw a fox, just next to my camper van when we came back to the house.

Been reading a bit more of Marcus Aurelius' wisdom over the last few days and found some more quotes to share:

“18. Is any man afraid of change? Why, what can take place without change? What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature? And canst thou take a bath unless the wood undergoes a change? and canst thou be nourished, unless the food undergoes a change? And can anything else that is useful be accomplished without change? Dost thou not see then that for thyself also to change is just the same, and equally necessary for the universal nature?”

Excerpt From: Aurelius, Marcus. “Meditations.” Book VII

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“27. Think not so much of what thou hast not as of what thou hast: but of the things which thou hast select the best, and then reflect how eagerly they would have been sought, if thou hadst them not. At the same time, however, take care that thou dost not through being so pleased with them accustom thyself to overvalue them, so as to be disturbed if ever thou shouldst not have them.”

Excerpt From: Aurelius, Marcus. “Meditations.” Book VII

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“59. Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.”

Excerpt From: Aurelius, Marcus. “Meditations.” Book VII

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Distance traveled: 140 km