The miracle is that we finally went to visit Gary and Denise in Melbourne. We haven’t been to their place for a few years so we were all a little surprised.
First stop was to take some photos of the wood carvings along the road in front of our hotel at Lakes Entrance.
We enjoyed a cooked breakfast at a little cafe facing on to the river before heading off from Lakes Entrance.
The Victorian roads offered lovely long straights, but we were not allowed to pass on them, and they were further ruined by the fact that there were long barriers in the centre of the road which are like the ones on the sides of the roads so that you don’t hit trees! This all seemed very unnecessary and frustrating to us .
We stopped for a loo stop and cuppa at an Apex park on the outskirts of Stratford with a medieval playground! They also have a walking path that goes along here, and a sculpture trail.
Rather than taking the main road, we decided to head off and went past the Latrobe power plant (according to google this is the Yallourn W Power Station) , where we did what we could to get a view of the Station. It was a bit hard to find the best way to go.
Then we headed into the hills towards Willow Grove and the Blue Rock Lake – where we wedged ourselves into a corner and sheltered from the gale force wind as much as we could to eat lunch overlooking the lake. The lake was built to provide water for the power stations down the mountain and a number of farms were swallowed up by it. There is a lovely memorial to the early families of the area here.
The road became more and more winding as we headed into the hills and soon we found ourselves coming through the tall forest areas.
We did make one attempt to follow a “short cut” per the Garmin car navigator, but turned around when we ended up on a forest track which was rapidly becoming steeper, slippery and narrower. Definitely not the best way to go.
We came in to Melbourne via Yarra Junction and arrived at Denise and Gary’s place in Warrandyte at about 4pm – already sick of Melbourne traffic and ready for a cuppa.
It was good to see the developments they have made to their place since our last visit and to hear of their plans for the future renovations of kitchen and family room areas.
Luvapuzzle 