Adventures of Delvy : Navigational challenges

I left Kyneton around mid-morning with the intention of stopping in Ballarat for a look around. However, my best intentions came unstuck as I lost my way in the centre of town and became a nervous wreck. I never have been the best navigator (just ask Gary!), and you’d think it would not be possible to lose the yellow and blue ‘i’ sign, but I did. I managed to pull up outside the university gates at a dead end street across three empty parking spaces, at the same time that Gary decides to phone me, as he bobs around in the Indian Ocean monitoring his diving guests. “What are you doing driving through a city?”, he exclaims. “You have to put up with your own navigation now”. Thanks, and I am, and now I know how it feels to have someone navigate for you who can’t navigate. So I exited the city as gracefully as I could, pulled over at the first large rest area overlooking paddocks (sigh!), cracked open a jar of pickles and had a cup of tea. Note to self: avoid all cities. What I’ll do when I reach Adelaide I don’t know, but surely the airport can’t be too hard to find.

Back to normality and on a country road, I headed south west to Derrinallum, a small and easy to get around village: just my thing. The recreation reserve on the east end offers overnight camping for a donation, with fantastic views of Mount Elephant. And with a name like that, I just have to climb it. I organised to collect the key in the morning from Geoff at the local garage, and meanwhile, sat back and watched the Tuesday night footy practice while cooking some dinner.

Mount Elephant was formed some 20 000 years ago and is one of the highest volcanoes in Victoria, rising 240 metres above sea level, and is the most obvious as the land all around is flat for miles. The crater rim walk takes about an hour, leading you up to the trig point then east around the rim and through the cone. The views are spectacular, but make sure you take a wind proof jacket, on any day, as it can get very blowy. Parking is in the quarry, where I spent the rest of the morning relaxing in the sunshine. I could have quite easily stayed all day (and night) but needed to return the key and push on for the coast.

After travelling on the roughest main roads I have come across for a long time (I don’t even think the Midland Highway in Tasmania is as bad!), I made it to my chosen campsite, after thanking the GPS for by-passing Warrnambool. It was perfect weather for a quick spin on my bike from Killarney Beach Recreation Reserve into Port Fairy for a look around, and the sight and smell of the blue Southern Ocean was uplifting.

It’s been a big 36 hours: early night tonight.