Around The World In 80 Waves

I cross the border and drive westward into the state of Victoria, continuing past Melbourne toward the far end of The Great Ocean Road.

It is extremely windy and the van, which has aerodynamic qualities equivalent to those of a house brick, is getting blown all over the road. I am having to saw at the wheel at times just to keep it moving vaguely in a straight line. The wind is coming from the Antarctic so it isn’t the warmest either.

I headed for Warrnambool, near which I turn back on myself and start driving eastward in search of a place to stay the night.

However with concentrating on the driving conditions I hadn’t noticed the fuel gauge which was actually below empty.

I head for Peterborough confident that I will make the short journey there, but arrive at the petrol station to see the lights being turned out and somebody running into the back as I do so, which isn’t very helpful.

There isn’t much I can do in Peterborough without fuel or a place to stay the night, so I decide to gamble on the remaining 15 kilometres between Peterborough and Port Campbell, which as you can see means I was attempting to do nearly 60km on vapours!

Generally my luck has been running well on such issues on this trip, so after lots of breath holding and coaxing the car along without touching the accelerator unless absolutely necessary I’m not too surprised to roll into the seaside town.

I go into the Port Campbell Hotel to ask where I might get some unleaded petrol for the van, but soon discover that the fuel stations in town are closed for the day and so are the receptions for the camp site and the local hostel. I ponder what to do next over a few beers, whilst chatting to the staff and locals at the pub who are enjoying the last day of play in the third test of The Ashes.

It isn’t long before the usual Manchester weather stops play, (and it turns out the match) which means that the England and Wales Cricket Team draw the game and retain The Ashes. Congratulations to the team and to the British weather that certainly played its part in this test match.

I daren’t even turn the ignition after leaving the pub so spend the night parked in front of somebody ‘s house where I had pulled up upon arrival. The owners of the house on the town’s high street then don’t look too pleased when the see me cooking bacon and eggs in front of their house whilst I was waiting for the garage to open the following morning!