10/04/2022 Musings on Melbourne, and Staying in Keith.

It was nice to spend a week in Melbourne just down the road from Daughter, with the bonuses of a dog to play with and a bicycle to ride. 

I watched balloons float overhead while walking the dog in the morning.

There were endless bike paths to explore: in the city;

beside new highways;

down gravel paths behind airports and golf courses;

and around lakes.

The dog provided unconditional adoration and puppy eyes, always begging for a walk or a tossed ball.

The last roses of summer bloomed in my street,

and I watched the sunset with a  beautiful young woman,

who needs to learn better manners.

I met  some seagulls,

and found a really creepy seagull sculpture.

And of course, we had coffee and cake on at least one occasion. Purely to fit in,  you understand.  "When in Melbourne etc..."

All  good things must come to an end however, so on Tuesday morning I packed the car, fed the dog, mopped the floor, and started the drive back to Adelaide.

It rained.  Surprisingly, I navigated my exit from Melbourne without using a toll-road and with no  more than the usual traffic related stress.  

Terrible weather to be going out in, unless you're a duck.

It rained harder as I left Melbourne behind.  Trucks roared down the highway in their personal clouds of spray, and everyone kept on driving at 110 kph despite not being able to see very far at all.  The crack in the windscreen took this moment to inexplicably double in size.

I took a break at McDonalds and waited for the weather to behave.  By the time I stopped for lunch in Horsham the rain had gone altogether, although the clouds remained.

 

"I'll sit under the trees," I thought. "And have a picnic lunch."  Alas, the seats were wet and the wind was cold.  I moved my picnic to the car.  I'm getting good at car picnics.

I had just spent all morning sitting in the car, and then spent all lunch time sitting in the car, so I braved the cold wind and went for a walk around the Horsham Botanic Gardens.  This didn't take very long.

I found more end-of-summer roses,

and some roses that were altogether gone.

By the time I stopped to look at the Pink Lake, the sun had come out. 

The pink lake relies on a combination of high salinity, algae, and bacteria to provide the colour which means it varies from all pink to not pink at all and when I went past it was somewhere in the middle. 

By the time I stopped at the South Australian border to eat my last banana (pesky fruit fly quarantine!) the shadows had lengthened to late afternoon, and I rang ahead to book some accommodation in Bordertown.

Bordertown was full. "It's school holidays!  And everyone is traveling all over the place this year!"

There were tent sites available at Bordertown Caravan Park but I didn't want to pitch my tent.  I wanted to get started early tomorrow so I could get back to Adelaide.  I rang ahead to book some accommodation in Keith and glory be, I found a room in the Keith Hotel Motel, which was far from grand accommodation but met the minimum requirement of not being a tent. 

This is not the Keith Hotel-Motel.  The Keith Hotel-Motel wasn't anywhere near this picturesque.

One of the things I love about small towns is their never ending creativity in creating attractions and follies in the optimistic belief that people will flock to appreciate said follies, spending money in the local businesses as they do. A brief walk around Keith led me to the delightful discovery of Keith's folly:  the land rover on the pole.  

Why?

Ahh.  That's all clear now.

The AMP Land Development Scheme.

Land-rover follies notwithstanding, when I came to turn off the light at bed time I made the not so delightful discovery that, due to some less than stellar electrical connections the light would remain resolutely on and the switch would pop and crackle defiantly if pressure was applied.

Never let it be said that I couldn't ignore potential electrocution or shut my eyes to the risk of an electrical fire roasting me alive as I slept.  I was tired, so I donned my trusty eye mask and went to bed with the light on.

Home for the night: Keith Hotel Motel.