Friday, October 19, 2007

Day 4: Eden to Bright

We bought some large leather jacket for $2.50 each and continued down the coast.
The first stop was the nearby lighthouse at Green cape. Impressively windy. I could have sat there watching gannets all day until my lips were blasted off bit by chapped bit.
On the dirt road to the light house Caroline, with reference to my driving, said "I just close my eyes and think of what colour my new car will be."


Please don't run aground here. Thank you.

Disaster bay.
So called after a jamless picnic in 1866. Also a ship floundered there and most of the people drowned - and that put a real dampener on an already disappointing picnic. The waves were trailing chaos patterns, but I couldn't really capture it on film. A very nice lookout.


We drove into Victoria and had a petrol stop and lunch at Cann River. About ten k out of town we were flagged down by a group of concerned and confused backpackers. There were five of mixed nationality in a fully laden falcon that had boiled over.
'This is where you pour the water in, right?' asked their Irish ringleader.
A good learning experience for them. I'm sure they're fine.

Turning inland we came to a gorgeous little town called Bruthen. Omeo was also attractive. Both were compared with a travesty of a town called Tilba Tilba just south of Narooma back in NSW. Tilba Tilba is a crappy tourist trap with no saving graces at all yet was described in glowing terms by a delighted travel writer from the SMH. Caroline made heated comments about the mental agility of the writer and angrily tore up the review.
Bruthen would quite possibly made that writer's brain explode.


I had chosen a scenic route through the alpine region on the Great Alpine road via Mt Hotham and four hundred roadwork sites. Standing snow still around.
Caroline asked aloud in wonder "What the hell are we doing?" and laughed.
Uncontrolable bush fires from last summer had killed large swathes of snow gums such that the country looked uncannily like Nova Scotia with it's greys and faded greens.



A short while later she thought I was going to drive over the edge when I was making an unscheduelled photo stop.
"I thought you'd gone blind!" after she'd finished reaching for the handbrake.
Drove right over the mountains hindered by 30km/h bends and 40km/h roadworks to finally trundle into Bright at 6:30pm. Our chosen park was closed for the day. Caroline gave me a very unimpressed look, so I called the next place and got a woman called Dawn on the phone. She happily agreed to meet us at reception.
So in the gloom of dusk in a town called Bright we made Dawn come and meet us.

We rejigged the trip due to the very long distance covered today and cut out the Mildura to Menindee and Mungo section. Wise move, so we have more leisurely trip from Echuca to the coast via Bendigo and Ballarat, and also home.

Leather jacket on the bbq with greens and potato. yummo.

10 comments:

Pip said...

silver trees rock. reminds me of the train trip into salzburg when the deep greens of the forest firs turned silver as every single branch and needle was coating in scintillating frost.

worldpeace and a speedboat said...

I really enjoy your writing Hazman. especially when there's no punchline about fingers to spoil a nicely evocative passage. hmm... that sounded a bit rude... oh well!


carry on!

harry said...

"that sounded a bit rude"

No, that sounded a bit gold!

Cool.

Mz. B.Trousers said...

I've done that trip in varying stages, with a little less of the western bits. The coast road is a revelation - I had no idea that so much beauty fit into such a small space.
And even nicer when there's someone good to spend it with.
Sounds like you're having fun.
You are having fun, aren't you?

harry said...

"I had no idea that so much beauty fit into such a small space."

# Fyodor, did you want this one? Ok, I'll take it.
You have obviously never gone out with a Chinese contortionist sister double-act.

"And even nicer when there's someone good to spend it with."
# Only way to do it.

"Sounds like you're having fun.
You are having fun, aren't you?"
# Yes, I take two measures of it every morning.

Anonymous said...

# Fyodor, did you want this one?

Dude, I'm STILL trying to resist Boaty's finger-spoiling of nicely evocative passages.*

P.S. this is as good a place as any to say you're writing some high-grade shit here. Bravo; two fingers up.

* That came out even smuttier than I'd planned.

worldpeace and a speedboat said...

oh Fyodor, you can make single entendres about fingers and passages any time...

as long as they're not mine.

harry said...

"...you're writing some high-grade shit here"

# Thank you. It is, and my homies concur, how I roll.

anti ob said...

"as long as theyre not mine"

Fingers? Or passages?

Anonymous said...

I wondered about that, too. I thought maybe Boaty was warning me off her entendres.

Which is ironic because I've never been one for single entendres. When it comes to entendres, my policy is to follow the Captain & Tenille: "once is never enough".

Yes, thank you: _that_ is the Worst. Earworm. Ever.