Golf at Albury then drive to Geelong

 3rd February 2023

There is no hurry to get to Geelong, where we will catch the Spririt of Tasmania to Devonport tomorrow, so we had booked 18 holes of golf at the course we are staying for a morning game before we leave.

The course is very green, like everything else around here after the record rains we have had in recent times. Last night we had some quite heavy rain, so the ground is still a bit soggy, but we decide to play anyway.

It is by no means an easy course, quite long and no run under the conditions we played, and there is a bit of water to contend with.


After a reasonably quick round, experiencing a number of little squalls that came through, we arrived back at the clubhouse dry and in time to have lunch before we headed on to Geelong.


The club is quite modern and the food good.

After lunch we hit the road to Geelong, about a 4 hour drive which was going well until we approached the outskirts of Melbourne where the traffic started to come to a standstill. They still have a way to go in sorting out traffic congestion getting in, out and around the City. I couldn't even imagine using Avalon Airport as a gateway to Melbourne. 

The weather started to turn nasty with some decent rainfall and by the time we got to our motel, The Admiral Inn, we were very grateful they had an onsite restaurant. The rain was now pretty steady and we had no interest in seeking out a meal elsewhere. It seems we were in good company, as the restaurant was packed and later walk ins were turned away. The waitress commented that since the Spirit of Tasmania now leaves from Geelong, they have been run off their feet.

We had a good meal and were ready for a good nights sleep.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spirit of Tasmania back to Geelong

25th Feb 2023 The Spirit leaves Devonport at 10.30 am and Rosevears is about an hour away. As boarding starts at 8.00 am, we plan to arrive at around 9 am, giving us plenty of time before the close of boarding at 9.45 am. We arrived at just after 9 am, to find a very long queue of cars, trucks, caravans etc all lined up waiting to get their boarding passes and enter the loading area. It took us a good 30 +  minutes to get through this process and were advised when we received our pass that the sailing was delayed due to the lkate arrival of the ship. Apparently the overnight trip was a bit rough. Eventually we were all loaded on board and departed Devonport at 11.30 am, and hour late. It is hazy with some light rain, but dead flat seas and only around 10-15 knots of breeze from NE, so a pleasant crossing is likely. The trip is uneventful, and the captain does not make up any lost time, so we ended up disembarking at around 10.30pm. The new Geelong terminal still has a bit to sort o...
Read more

Tarkine Drive

Image
 22nd Feb 2023 Today we plan to see the section of the Tarkine Drive that was not possible yesterday. It involves a backtrack of around 30 km south of Smithton to pick up the Eastern part of the drive.  The drive takes up South through Irishtown and Edith Creek before we reach the turnoff to the tourist drive, which runs through mountainous country, through rainforests and on sealed roads. The key feature of this drive is the Trowutta Arch, which we look forward to seeing. It is an easy walk through some incredibly old Myrtle Beech forests with giant tree ferns. The free ferns are obviously very old and huge There are very old myrtles along the track Soon we reach the feature of this walk, Trowatta Arch, formed by one of two sinkholes in the area.  Amazingly on our trip up the Western Coast we have seen huge areas of volcanic rock formations and basaltic deposits, which are now interspersed with sedimentary dolomite formations.  Trowutta Arch The pathways are incredi...
Read more

Drive to Coles Bay

Image
 10th Feb 2023 It is time to leave St Helens and make our way to our next destination, Coles Bay. It is another shortish drive, but speed limits and conditions suggest it will take around 2.5 hours. The tourist guides recommend moving away from the coast at the St Mary's turnoff to go up unto the hills to take in this little village and the scenic dive through Elephant Pass back to the coastline. Not long after leaving St Helens, we drive through a couple of heavy rain squalls. We are soon in Scamander, a pretty little coastal town before reaching the St Mary's turnoff and heading up into the hills. It is raining heavily in St Mary's (I am sure it is scenic in sunlight), so we continue through town and to Elephant Pass to take us back to the coast road. We start seeing signs the the road is closed at Elephant Pass and sure enough, after travelling some distance down this road, we had to turn around and backtrack to the turnoff just past Scamander. Finally back on the coast ...
Read more