G’day from Blairgowrie (on the Mornington Peninsula),

I left Mt. Gambier around 7:30, and rather than follow the Princes Highway, took an alternate route, rejoining the highway at Portland. I stopped at a bakery in Port Fairy for provisions, and left the highway again outside Warrnambool, for the Great Ocean Road. There were too many tourists at the Twelve Apostles lookout, so I stopped a couple of kilometres down the road, at Gibsons Steps, and took some photos of the “One Apostle” (I’ll attach a photo to tomorrow’s email, for reasons explained below).

I reached my motel at 5ish. I thought I’d be there sooner, expecting to be early for the 3pm ferry from Queenscliff. I misjudged how long the drive would take, and was lucky to catch the 4pm one, arriving at the terminal at 3:50!

The motel is a rip-off. There was no one at reception when I arrived. There was a note stuck to the outside of the door, saying “Julian Jordan – look in keybox” (where you’re supposed to put your key if you’re checking out early – beats me why you can’t just leave it in the room?). My key was in an envelope, sticking out of the box. Reception is nominally open from 9am to 7pm (if you’re lucky, apparently). There’s no breakfast of any sort available. You can only dial local numbers on the telephone. You can’t do modem dial-up through the phone system (I’ve sent this via my mobile phone; that’s why I’m not attaching the photo). This is at a supposed 4-star motel, that’s costing $140 for the night! Its one redeeming feature, and one of the reasons I chose it, was the restaurant, which was reputed to do good Indian meals. They were right; the Beef Vindaloo was excellent!

Today’s leg of the trip was 520km. I’m continuing towards home tomorrow, along the Princes Highway. I expect I’ll be home on Friday afternoon.

Cheers,
Julian