On my way

18-19 August 2026

Pencil Pines at Pine Lake

As I was working my way through my list of things to do before I left home, and creating another list of messages to send and people to contact while I'm parked and waiting to get on the ferry later this afternoon, I am reminded of when I was heading to Bhutan in 2015 and needed to get a heap of stuff done in Bangkok airport before I hopped on the plane to Paro.

It was a fine day and I very much enjoyed the scenic route North, heading over the top and stopping at Pine Lake for a little wander to admire the Pencil Pines and assorted other alpine plants.

A few of the pepperberry bushes had the remains  of their fruit crop.

Just a few pepperberries

Once at the ferry terminal the queues to check in and then to board were tedious. But finally I was parked right down in the bowels of the ship and established in my cabin, which I'm pretty sure I've been in before. 

Sunset over Devonport

A diversion to the bar procured me a glass of bubbles and then I was able to sit back, finish off my long list of messages and emails and things to do before sitting down to a packed dinner of Bento Box vegetables and pork and prawn meatballs. I won't mention the totally  non-ecologically sound nature of the wrapping for my vegetables, but it did at least ensure that the individual components were kept separate from each other.

Bento dinner

The forecast for the crossing is considerably calmer than last time I crossed ,for which I am grateful. 

And, it was a remarkably calm crossing.  A gentle roll once we were  in Bass Strait, but then sometime during the night even that disappeared.

Getting off the ferry was interesting, we were called to the cars on deck one and then had to wait half an hour. The ramp had to be lowered which meant the upper decks needed to be cleared first and then we were ready to go, with the 45°, very narrow, route up.  I watched the first car navigate up. It was a big ute that was having trouble manoeuvring around the corner to be able to line itself up to get up this very narrow access. Personally, I'd have sent up one of the little cars first, one that had less necessary manoeuvring around corners today, but mine is not to reason why....

An unbelievably tight fit: that big vehicle was headed up that grey ramp!

One of the chaps directing cars told me he was going to get me to back up, to which my response was that was a remark likely to elicit very unladylike language. Once some of the vehicles had cleared I was permitted to turn around and drive up. 

As I left Corio and headed for Melbourne, mist sitting low on the fields provided a rather etherially beautiful scene.

Maps gave me directions for my first stop and en route told me that there was going to be a 20-minute delay because of a collision on the Princess Highway. It was remarkably accurate, so I got to my destination almost at the anticipated time.