Monday 20 November
Hobart – Melbourne – Dalyston
OMG. An early flight seemed ideal when it was booked, but when the 5am alarm sounded, I wasn’t so sure. I haven’t been up that early for a long time. I was just glad we were smart enough to have everything ready and all I had to do was roll out of bed, shower, dress, pack toiletries and head out of the door.
We managed to be on the road by 540am and it was actually quite beautiful outside at this time. The sun was just starting to rise beyond the horizon and everything was cast in a warm glow. If it was any other day I would have been keen to take some photos, but we had more pressing details to attend to, namely filling the hire car with fuel and then heading to the airport.
We parked and took in our one bag for stowing, printed a bag tag and boarding passes, then proceeded to the check in counter where we were asked if we wanted the emergency row, sure why not.
With new boarding passes and our bag sent down the belt, we found a small café for a ham and cheese croissant and hot choc. We took time to enjoy our breakfast, before returning to the car and driving back to East Coast car rentals where we paced around the car park as more patrons arrived in anticipation of dropping their cars off at the 7am opening time.
Once our car and a number of others were given the inspection once over, we were bundled into a mini van and returned to the airport. We made our way through the security checkpoint and as we were moving through the terminal we heard our flight being called, so proceeded straight to the gate joining the line. A short time later, we walked across the tarmac, up the stairs and into the emergency seats of row 26.
We buckled ourselves in, waited for the plane to fill and the it was up n away just after 8am. Paul too, advantage of the time, writing up his brewery reviews. Meanwhile, I used the time for some shut eye, unfortunately it wasn’t a long enough flight to gain the hours I missed this morning.
910am we touched down at Tullamarine and taxied to our gate, the same one we had boarded through a week ago.
We made our way through the crowds finding the baggage claim. Thankfully our bag was there waiting for us. We then made our way outside the terminal and onto the parking bus shuttle. We had to visit the other terminals and then all of the parking shelters before finally reaching C.
We located our ca, filled it with our bags, set the GPS and joined the traffic of the freeway, welcome to the crawl. I think it was fortunate that we were avoiding toll roads, as we seemed to be diverted around the worst of it.
We drove over the West Gate Bridge, the made our way through the south bank, Toorak areas before eventually finding the M1 once again and continuing the journey further south east. After clearing the city, the drive was relatively painless and we were able to cruise along at a good speed making it back to the van in Dalyston for 1230pm. It’ s funny that we spent more time in the car driving a shorter distance than our flying time from Hobart. When Bass strait came into view, we marvelled at the fact we were standing on the other side of the Large mass of water only a few hours before.
We moved the van back into our usual position, Paul got busy filling the water tanks, while I unloaded the car and began unpacking some of the things. I made up a shopping list and then we drove into Wonthaggi to do a big shop, the biggest we have done while on the road, but not surprising seeing we managed to clear everything before going to Hobart.
Once we returned, Paul got busy turning the car back into a mobile garage while I put the shopping away and then made lunch. After eating, I took the time to go through my clothing, packing the unneeded winter woollies and some other items in my case for storage and then rearranging my cupboards.
Paul continued marching through the 6 reviews he had to write up, while I settled in under the quilt
(The air con was on and I was cold) watching another couple of PLL episodes, finishing disc 3 and loading the final one of the series.
By the time Paul had finished and my tv watching was done, it was after 5pm and we needed to get out for a walk. It was still warm and bright outside so we took advantage of the conditions and made the trek to the bridge crossing the Powlett River. We watched for fish around the pylons and then made our way back.
I took some time doing some net stuff, only to have a message come through saying that I had gone from 66% to 85% used data due to my hotspot tethering to the iPad, leaving me with less than 1gb to use over the next 10days, bugger. I switched to writing up the blog and filling out Paul’s brewery log instead.
We prepared and cooked dinner, happy to be in charge of our own meals, not only for the wallet, but also for the waist line that has expanded somewhat and needs to come back into check. We ate, cleaned up and continued reading and typing. Paul phoned home, chatting to Jaden and Ballsy about life back in Perth.
At 9pm, we finally decided it was time to head to bed. I spent time reading the Tom Hanks short stories, which I haven’t looked at for a week and then we turned out the lights.
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