Day 55: The ferry to Sorrento

Up early in Apollo Bay and went looking for breakfast but - being a Saturday - nothing was open. Grabbed an iced coffee in a box and got ourselves packed up to continue our trip east. We couldn't find anyone to give our money to so ended up giving it to the cleaner who promised to pass it on the the hotel management. We scraped the ice off the bikes and then got on the road into a cool breeze and headed off. It was a stunning day but quite cold.

We followed the coast road through Lorne and Torquay and then decided to avoid Melbourne by taking the ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento. A bit expensive at $35 each but a great trip nonetheless.

The ferry was a catamaran and obviously well used by the locals. Took about 45 minutes and dropped us off at Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula. Dick has a neice at Brighton in Melbourne so we decided to visit her and say hello. It was a bit of a drag through the Saturday traffic but eventually we got to her house but (of course) she was out!

We found our way onto the motorway and, being a bit fedup with city traffic, had a blast down the M1 through Warragul, Moe (I loved that name) and through the Latrobe Valley. This is known as Power Station Valley and you could certainly see why. There must be big coalfields nearby as there were at least three power stations sending huge plumes of steam up into the air.

We got to Sale at around 5pm and booked into a budget motel. We were given a great room for $90 and then went round to the local cricket club for a meal, a beer or three and - of course - to watch the rugby. If you want to have fun watching rugby then I can only recommend that you do it in Orstralia, surrounded by Orstralians ... provided of course that the All Blacks are winning. It was a lot of fun and we took a bit of stick for being kiwis but we enjoyed ourselves.

And so tomorrow we head up towards Canberra - should be a long day but hopefully a good day!