Pakenham to Lakes Entrance

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Today is our last day with Dot and John.  Dot would have liked us to stay till Saturday as VAME, the dollshouse and miniatures club, have their Christmas meeting including workshops.  But Saturday is still a long way away and we want to keep going since we still have the coastline of Victoria and NSW to travel before we're back home.  So, we pack up, talk a bit more and finally say our goodbyes.

We leave at approx. 10 am.  We would have loved to go to Phillip Island to look around and find some caches, but it's very overcast and since we have had heavy rain the last few days we think it better to skip this and move on.  First we pick up some more groceries and Woolworths so that we don't have to worry about food for a while. 

I would also have liked to look around a bit at Wilsons Promontory, but Patricia seems to want to push on and I don't want to be difficult. The original idea is to stay for the night at a campground near Foster, but it appears to be too close since we have changed our plans, so we drive on for a while until we stop for lunch at Meeniyan. There is a decent picnic area in the centre of the street and we manage to just finish lunch before the rain comes down again.  Patricia wants to get her hair done and inquires at the hairdresser's opposite.  She goes back at 1 pm and I read in the van.  I've discovered another favourite author on my Kindle (Judy Nunn) and start a new book.

Meeniyan picnic area and hairdresser

The drive to the next rest top for the night is quite uneventful and we stop later in the afternoon at Providence Ponds (#34 - S37 55 14, E147 16 25).  The coords for this stop are a bit out (on the other side of the road as a matter of fact), but we find the place alright.

Providence Ponds rest stop

Today I also ring Stephen and Kevin to see how they are going and get to hear the latest news.  Everyone is okay at home.

Dinner is a mixture of rice, curry, vegies and chicken and after the dishes are done Trish walks over for a chat with some other travellers.  Within no time a woman comes walking up to me and says hello in Dutch!  She's from Friesland and travelling all by herself.  Her plan is to go to the Blue Mountains where she's going to do a course to become a jillaroo!  She's in Australia for four months.  Since she may be travelling a bit north of Brisbane at a later stage I have given her my phone number. 

Afterwards I read a bit more of Heritage (a book about early migrants in the Snowy Mountains) and have a very early night: 8 pm!