Victoria

Farm World 2024

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Farm World is an agricultural expo at Lardner Park in Gippsland.

I often go to expos for things which I don't have a lot of day-to-day engagement with, but am sort of peripherally aware of. 

I know a little bit about a lot of random subjects, so attending things to have a look around about is kinda interesting, even if the only farming-related things I do is growing fruit trees and watching Landline.

One of the main display areas & throughfares.

The car park.

Arriving there were obviously a lot of people already there, and the car park quite full, I didn't think I've arrived that late – just past 11:30. Parking a short walk from one of the entrance gates. The guys who directed where to park said there was a bus, it was a mini-bus, which I utilised, but many others walked, when I returned to my ute I walked, it wasn't too much of a walk, just past the lake.

I was aware of the importance of genetics in cattle production, and it's interesting to see it sort of there in reality, with just a cow (or a bull I suppose), an example in a pen sitting there of good genetics, or maybe good genetic stock? I don't know, I didn't go and ask questions, I feel I'm a bit of an interloper at these sorts of things, just having a browse, trying not to get in the way.

There were various livestock containment systems, portable fences and the like.

There's a display of concrete products, troughs and even a cattle grid and ramp, made out of cast concrete.

Hay cartage services with several "no smoking" signs around them. Not that there were many people smoking (or vaping), although the number wasn't zero, there were still a few people out smoking as they browsed.

There's all sorts of small, medium, large and huge, and very big farm equipment. Plenty of it I recognise in a sort of 'I vaguely know what those do' but could never really name specifically what they do.

My farming knowledge comes from watching Landline, YouTube channels like Tara Farms, and stuff like Clarkson's Farm. I also follow some farmers on social media, and I think some farming-related feeds are in my RSS reader.

Greenworks had an interesting range of electric gardening vehicles, ride on lawn mowers and also little buggies and even an electric bike.

Ford had the well known farming vehicle the Mustang on display, probably to pad out their other vehicles on offer; the F150 (which I kinda wanted to ask if they've worked out all the manufacturing faults) and the Ranger.

Gippsland BMW was also at Farm World, presumedly for all the well off farmers.

There are a lot of different options to eat, fried food, seafood, vegan options, and it's spread out so if you're in amongst the tele-handlers and and cherry pickers there's a coffee van. Find yourself up near the Toyota stand, German sausage, overlooking the camel rides, more food.

Farm World is on from Friday 22nd March through to Sunday 24th March 2024 at Lardner Park, 155 Burnt Store Road, Lardner 8:30 am-4:00 pm.

Cape Liptrap Lighthouse

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Cape Liptrap Lighthouse is located in Tarwin Lower, reached along an 8 kilometre long dirt road (Cape Liptrap Road). 

There's plenty of car parking, and there's three different lookout positions, along with a picnic table.

I really quite enjoy the South Gippsland Highway's almost meandering path through Gippsland. In early autumn there's already some trees starting to lose leaves, intensified today with the the very windy conditions. 

The road surface itself is not a pleasant drive, I wonder if it's ever been a smooth surface to drive along, because it's always been a rougher than others highway road.

Phone reception is a little patchy from Tarwin Lower to Cape Liptrap Lighthouse, with not enough signal strength for music streaming as I drove to and from the lighthouse. Never lost phone signal, but it dropped to one bar of 3G at a few points. 

Cape Liptrap Road and entrance to lighthouse car park.

The road itself to the lighthouse Cape Liptrap Road is a 8 kilometres or so of dirt road, I did it at 80 km/h or slightly lower on the way to the lighthouse, and was fine. On the way back out I was stuck albeit some distance behind a mini-van doing less than 60 km/h, and was rewarded with a significantly dirtier vehicle for it. So keep that in mind if going on a busy / dry day.

Footpath to Lighthouse.

It's about a 300 metre walk from the car park to the lighthouse, it's along a gravel path that's smooth enough. I was wearing Converse sneakers, and it was fine. 

It was very windy out at the lighthouse, I was wearing a baseball cap that fits well and comfortably in most situations, but was worried it might fly off my head in the extreme wind that's out at the lighthouse.

The information plaque on the lighthouse has a quote in Latin: Olim Periculum - Nunc Salus (Once Perilous, Now Safe).

The lighthouse is a lighthouse, it's not as big as some. There's apparently been numerous shipwrecks along the coast here, the information board at the lookout lists 5 different ships that were wrecked near there.

The lighthouse remains operational to this day.

Melbourne Airport Terminal Parking

When you park at Melbourne Airport to pick someone up you have a couple of options; the Melbourne Airport Wait Zone, which is free, but you have to contend with the 'Public pick up' which, while free will test your patience quite a bit.

Through the trees, the front of Melbourne Airport

The next realistic option is "Terminal parking" which is the car park located opposite the airport terminal. I've parked here on a number of occasions when picking my dad up from the airport.

The occasion before I parked in the wait zone parking I did just so, parking in the Terminal parking. I discovered that you could pre-pay parking to save some money. (Something I was not aware of prior to that.)

On this occasion I did pre-pay, you get a QR code to scan upon entry and exit, at least that is how it is meant to work in theory.

Melbourne Airport Public pick up zone

In order to book the parking you need to state a time that you're going to arrive and depart, the latter is easy enough; time of flight arrival plus 40 minutes in case of problems. 

Time of arrival, in theory is also easy enough; travel time plus 25 minutes. Because Melbourne traffic is so variable sometimes an accident or incident can quickly add up to mean that you're not going to arrive at your destination at the right time. 

So I'd set my arrival time for 2:30 pm. 

But due to the traffic not being terrible I actually arrived near the airport at 2:00 pm, I knew (because I read the T&Cs) that there was 15 minute leeway for entry, so I went for a drive past the airport.  (This 15 minute leeway window applies to booking of under 4 hours according to their T&Cs, over 4 hours and you get a 2 hour window)

However, in writing this post up I looked through their FAQ at the bottom of the 'Parking refunds' page which states that you can arrive 2 hours before your booked entry time and not incur a fee.

As I'd arrived early, and not wishing to incur a fee, I instead drove past the airport parking turn off, driving past the airport and heading for Sunbury on the Tullamarine Freeway. Then I did a U-turn at the Oaklands Road roundabout, that's also where the aircraft viewing area is for runway 16. In hindsight I should've just parked up there and watched the planes come in.

Ramp up the levels of the car park

I did the U-turn and drove back, turning off at the exit that's simply labelled as "Airport", which takes you past what I'd assume to be the aircraft fuel storage, and around and under the Tullamarine Freeway, pushing you out near the BP and Maccas at the exit of the airport.

I drove up to the entrance to the Terminal car park entrance and scanned my QR code to enter the car park, a little awkward to get your phone under the scanner on the parking machine. But easy enough, to enter, exiting would be another thing however...

View from car park

I elected to go up to Level 3 - the roof, or up to there and then more parking atop that, as in the past that's where people haven't parked, and therefore was easier to park.

Nope, not this time, it was quite full. 

At first I thought it was just that there was building work going on that was using up spaces in the car park. You reach level 3 by going up the circular ramps on the side of the car park (that is if you enter from Arrival Drive).

Level 3 - Section L

I ended up parking in Level 3, section L, with a pleasant view out south east out of the car park. It's under cover of the second part of the muli-storey car park.

First thing I needed to find were toilets, of which there are few within the car park itself, I did briefly consult the National Public Toilet Map app, but it wasn't helpful. I headed towards the terminal, but found that the car park does have toilet facilities. They're located on the ground level. They are functional, but not big, one male, one female and a disabled toilet and each door just goes straight into the toilet, so it's a combo toilet, sink and Dyson airblade dryer. 

Terminal car park toilets

The men's toilet (as they tend to do) smelt of urine, so unsure how often they're cleaned. These car park toilets certainly had an air of being less cared for than those within the terminal building itself.

Terminal car park map in lift.

Having relieved my bladder I went back up to level 3 to time how long it takes to walk from the lifts to the edge of the terminal car park, where I'd parked. Because my dad loves to complain and I knew he'd find any opportunity to complain about stuff. So I set a timer and set about walking back to my car to check how long it would take. 

2 minutes 30 seconds.

The car park spaces are of a decent size, especially if you park next to a support column where there is extra room on one side of the space.

US-style pick up truck in spot.

But even if you're driving a large American-style pick up truck, they will still fit relatively well. 

All that I saw were reversed in, which I used to do when I had my Ford Ranger, as it's the most effective way to get the vehicle into a tight spot and fit it properly.

On Level 2 of the car park there is "Premium" and Valet parking, where the car park appears to have been renovated, with paint on the concrete and a more fancy walk way painted blue that is separated from the road with barriers.

Interior of Melbourne Airport

After waiting around for about and hour and a half or so until dad's flight landed, it was time to exit. I had my phone and the QR code held on it ready to scan at the exit and the screen said "Ticket Not Valid". I tried again, and again and then it said I needed to pay a further $30. 

Which means essentially I had paid twice and it ended up costing me about the same as I would have paid had I just rocked up and paid to get in.

Immediately upon returning home I submitted a refund request on Melbourne Airport's website, submitting both the booking number for my QR code entry and a photo of the receipt from the machine upon my exit.

The processing time for this, as listed on their website is 8-9 business days, which is a surprisingly long amount of time, not even 7 business days, but 8-9.

After 10 business days I sent another request with the reference number, and was issued with another "A case has been opened for your request".

14 business days on from sending the first parking refund message and they refunded the money I had to pay to exit.

The result of all this? 

Well, I probably won't pre-pay for the parking, as it seems to be fraught with mistakes, and by the time you want to exit, you just want to leave. And at the ticket machine there's no apparent option other than to pay the additional fee.

Maybe if I get there early I'll go and sit in the aircraft viewing area?

Or maybe I'll drive out further to Bulla or something. 

I won't park and wander the airport, and I'll just adjust my time to arrive accordingly. 

I'll obviously still need to park in the airport, but it'll be a much, much shorter time.

Noojee Trestle Rail Bridge

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It would have been a nice set of driver's roads, had I not been stuck behind a Hyundai SUV, who seemed to slam on the brakes every time they approached something that might vaguely be considered a corner.

There's something odd, in an interesting way about Neerim South and the area around it, it's all got a very designed feel in a weird sort of way. It made me think of a British town, not a fancy old one, just a newer one, I couldn't quite put my finger on what made it feel like that. Perhaps it was the well kept 1970s-style houses, tree lined streets, and a lot of European trees around leading up to Neerim South and other towns nearby.

To get to that point I had to go along the South Gippsland Highway, which feels like it gets worse each time I'm driving on it, and therefore there's not really much to say about that part of the journey, it is what it is.

Although whenever I'm on the South Gippsland Highway I'm always tempted by the donut van at the Koo Wee Rup observation tower. Have yet to actually stop, as it often feels like it's at the start of my journey and my adventure is the journey to the destination as much as the destination, and I shouldn't be stopping anywhere on the way there as that's a sort of delay to the goal of the day.

But I also think that if I'm going to have a doughnut it needs to be great as a treat sort of thing, and a lot of them are just okay. Growing up there was a doughnut van at Frankston trash and treasure market, and I'd always remember how yellow the dough was, how oddly shaped they were and how molten the jam was within, and crispy on the outside. A lot of doughnut vans their doughnuts are so perfectly shaped, industrially produced uniformity.

Anyway, the rail trestle bridge.

The car park.

Driving into the trestle bridge car park the road weaves around a few trees, there's parking for probably 10-12 cars, although the day I went there were only 4 cars parked quite spread out.

There are three paths to the top of the bridge, standing looking at the bridge there's the left path, that crosses a creek and then goes up a set of stone stairs that are set into the hill, this is undercover of the trees and ferns around 

Then there's the right path which is much more open, and also goes up stone stairs.

And a third which weaves its way around the landscape up to the top.

I took the left path because there were some people taking the other right path. 

I think I chose right, both paths have steep stairs, but going down the more open set of stairs is better than the darker path of ferns and trees.

The bridge itself is impressive in its size and construction. There is a disconcerting 'Bridge Capacity Maximum 10 Persons' sign, and walking along it, you certainly feel the age of the bridge. Or at least below my feet, wearing skate shoes the wooden panels certainly felt old and well worn and a little loose in sections. I could certainly appreciate you wouldn't want more than 10 people on the bridge's surface larking about.

There are two picnic tables at the bottom opposite the car park, one accessed via some steps and also a path that would let you access the two.

Yallourn Power Station

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I drove past Yallourn Power Station earlier in the year on my way up to Lake Glenmaggie and intended to come back and take some photos.

Yallourn Power Station from John Field Drive

There's something picturesque in its own way about it, especially on a sunny day. 

Or perhaps it's just that I have an odd sensibility for old industrial buildings. 

The roads that lead up to the power station are quite over engineered, there's a little underpass and everything, it's got a very 1970s road design aesthetic to its design.

The location where I parked was the Graeme Edwards Memorial Garden.

It seemed to be a decently used garden / park, judging by the bin, which I chucked some of my Instax film cartridge into when I was about to leave. I expected the bin to be empty, but it seemed about half full.

The garden is beside Yallourn W power station. And it is picturesque and interesting in its own way. It's very 1970s-style. It's different shades of brown. 

Not that anyone is building a coal-fired power station in 2023, but if they were, I doubt this is the colour scheme that you'd be going for if designing a power station. 

It's surprisingly noisy as you get closer to the cooling towers, a noise of water is the overerwhelming sound.

I noticed when I was there three guys going up on a lift up the side of one of the cooling towers on a lift like window cleaning lift.

The power station is meant to close in 2028. <source> I think it's something to look at, a piece of Victoria's history that will unlikely to stick around, Hazelwood didn't – that was levelled, I saw it in its latter stages.

One of the cooling towers (not the one the guys were going up) looked like it had a few repairs over the years, with a less than uniform structure to the tower.

The garden itself has some barbecues, picnic tables, and shelters. The grass was well cut, seemed to have been cut a few weeks ago judging by the clippings that remains on the ground. 

Same with the grass around the roads and other areas around or near the power station.

Is it worth making a trip out to have a look? Probably not, but if you're passing or in the area, take a little bit of a detour. It's not aesthetically pleasing in a traditional sense, but big industrial elements, be it construction, architecture or even earth moving can have an awe and wonder to it, then Yallourn Power Station also has an element of it. Much like other examples of "era"-architecture, it's very 1970s in its styling and no one is ever going to build something remotely like this again. So in that sense it is worth visiting because once it's gone, there'll be few examples of it standing anywhere else.

Upper Yarra Reservoir

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Upper Yarra Reservoir

I went for drive up to the Upper Yarra Reservoir, heading up Eastlink it was surprisingly busy for a week day. The route up was basically the same up to Mount Donna Buang that I did a few weeks ago.

Except in Warburton I continued along the C511 - Woods Point Road. Which continued to be a nice driver's road.

Then the road splits off with Woods Point Road continuing on the left and Upper Yarra Dam Road continuing straight ahead. 

There is a gate as you approach the reservoir with some speed humps also.

Sign: Upper Yarra Drinking Water Catchment “No People, No Dogs, No Fishing, No Swimming, No Shooting”.

You can tell you're approaching a dam that was built in the mid 20th century because you first see some sculpted grounds and well established European trees, the Maroondah Dam also has this feature nearby of mature non-native trees. Although there are fewer here than there.

I didn't realise there were camp grounds next to the reservoir, and basically in the shadow of the dam / reservoir wall. There were some people, maybe half a dozen people max with tents set up around this area. 

It was nice, there was big sign saying (amongst others) "No People", that this was a drinking water catchment area.

There's a concrete spill way, which apparently is not the source of the Yarra, but kinda feels like if the Yarra River is separated by a large reservoir that would make it a different river, or a tributary or something like that. But I'm not a hydrologist.

I took some photos, had a little bit of a look around, and then departed.

CarExpert Open Day

Today I went to the CarExpert Open Day, at Docklands. 

I didn’t really know what to expect, being an online/YouTube-based meet up. The last purely YouTube thing I went to I think was in 2011 out at Birrarung Marr and was quite uncoordinated.

I've been to various live podcast recordings which is a slightly different genre of 'internet-based things occurring in the real world'.

It was held on the top of The District Docklands east car park, on a very cold spring day. Apparently there was a coffee cart, but as I’m not a coffee drinker, and a disposable cup with a random tea bag slipped into it is not my idea of a wonderfully pleasant drink I elected not to imbibe.

Only about a quarter of the roof top car park had cars on it, and there were a couple of dozen people wandering around.

The Ineos Grenadier looks like an old Land Rover on the outside, but the inside has a fabulous amount of buttons and switches inside, and unlike most cars which are automatic which have a small place for your left foot, in the Grenadier there's actually a sizeable place for your left foot to sit.

The Renault Megane E-Tech looked the most 'movie future' car of the cars there. Like it's got the general idea of what a car looks like now, just pushed into the future a little bit.

It was certainly better sized than the photos and videos I've seen of it in online. Inside it was fine, has a similar airy layout to others like the MG4 and the Hyundai Ioniq 6. I'm not sure if I prefer this or the more 'cockpit' style that cars like the Polestar 2 have (this wasn't on show, but I've had a look at them in the past).

The Porsche Cayenne was surprising as they often look quite big on the road. The interior was nicely considered, two large screens, the one in front of the driver had analogue (albeit digital) dials on display. I'm not really a fan of alcantara which was on the steering wheel, but it felt nice and soft, although I do wonder how well it'd wear with day-to-day use.

Interior of Porsche Cayenne.

The second infotainment screen was bright and clear. There were some shiny additional controls on the centre console.

Sitting in the Cayenne was perfectly fine, however getting out of the car I whacked my thighs on the seat bolsters, as they're sporty seats. But that could become irritating very easily if you had to live with that day-to-day.

The Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 was huge. I've seen these and the other US imported utes out on the road and they've looked huge. But actually seeing one in person, just standing in front of it, it's huge.

Also, I went to get into it, like I do my Ranger ute, which is step up, grab the inside door handle and slide in, pulling the door with my momentum to close.

When I tried to do it with the Silverado I almost fell backwards. It was just so huge and big, I realised I had to stand on the side skirts and then step into the cabin and sit down. And then grab the door and close it.

The interior is nice enough, it's very big and US-style, a very chunky gear selector. 

I don't know how anyone manages to drive these in anywhere built up, it's just so big.

The BYD Dolphin was interesting. A similar sort of floating design language as the E-Tech and Ioniq 6. A smaller screen ahead. But the interior isn't as odd as the BYD Atto 3. It's functional enough and simple enough. It's not quite the car for me, but I think it'll do well. The Atto 3 has already sold very well in Australia.

The MG4 was likewise fine. It also had a small screen ahead of the driver, compared to the E-Tech and others it's a very small screen. But it's a different market class.

The screen was okay, swiping across on it was smooth enough, but not as smooth as you'd see on your phone or whatever. But it's better than using the touchscreen on my Ford Ranger (although my Ranger is now a few years old). I think this will be a great EV for people, the get around and do stuff. The Camry of the i30 for EVs, something cheap and functional.

The Ioniq 6's interior was very similar to sitting in the Ioniq 5's interior, it's got more of a centre arm rest / cup holder area than the Ioniq 5. Like the 5 it had the camera pods and digital mirrors. I'm not really a fan of them, there'd be a learning curve I guess to look at or around the A-pillar rather than out the window when checking mirrors.

The Ioniq 6 was also running in V2L (vehicle to load) powering the sound system that they had on site.

The BMW iX1 was alright. Like the other electric cars it had a smilier floating open design inside. What seemed to be smaller than the E-Tech screens inside. 

Well considered and placed controls for the media on the arm rest. 

And on the doors a wood, or wood-effect panel. Although it was a lot of different textures and materials inside the BMW, brown leather and leather highlights, brushed aluminium, plastic, and on the door these plus two textured materials (one over the harmon/kardon speaker) and then the aforementioned wood.

The Nissan Patrol Warrior was the oldest, and inside really looked it. Given that this vehicle is around $100,000 it's a lot of money for a terrible interior. 

The screen is absolutely tiny, and the rest is a lot of grey plastic buttons surrounded by some piano black to tart it up a bit.

The buttons on the steering wheel too just make it look dated. 

Like the Silverado it's got a petrol V8, so it's not exactly going to be economical. 

Mazda CX-90 front.

The only car I didn't sit in, mostly because people seemed to be constantly in it was the Mazda CX-90. It had an interesting third row of seats, which looked like it would be almost impossible to have anything other than a baby seat in it.

I departed about an hour after arriving as I watched (and then felt) the rain slowly make its way towards Melbourne. The combination of the exposed site and the wind was making for a pretty cold adventure out. There didn't appear to be anything else that was going to happen.

I spoke to many members of the CarExpert team; Paul, Jade and Jack, along with Anthony Crawford (the co-founder of CarExpert) about cars, which was nice to do.

The District Docklands east car park

I went here for the Car Expert Open Day. I've never been to this car park. I don't think I've ever actually driven to the Docklands either. Have been to the Docklands in the past, but have usually come in via the tram. It's just an area of the city I've never found I've needed to go to.

Getting to the car park itself is very easy, coming off the CityLink going over the Bolte Bridge it's the first exit onto Footscray Road where there's significant roadworks going on. 

Then it's the first right onto Waterfront Way, and then I used the Waterfront Way entrance, but there is another entrance around on Little Docklands Drive.

The height limit is 2.17 metres, which should be fine for all passenger vehicles on the road at the moment.

You need to stop at boom gates and push a button for a ticket, the machine prints your numberplate on the ticket, and it is reading your numberplate into the system as well as I'd find out upon exit.

The passage in is a little, not confusing but basically if you're in there for 90 minutes it's free, which is presumedly to cover people who are going shopping at the Woolworths which is on the same site, and there are defined 90 minute parking bays again I presume for this purpose.

Then you continue through until you locate a ramp up for 'staying longer'. I went up to the staying longer level as I wasn't sure how long I wound be staying at the Car Expert Open Day. 

View of the city from the car park.

As I made my way through the car park I did briefly glimpse at a parking ticket machine in the middle of one of the levels. 

However once I made it up to I think the third level I didn't see another ticket machine, not at the lifts and stairs where I walked up to the roof where the Open Day was being held. 

I did notice once I wandered up to the Open Day area that there was a second lift area which might've held a ticket machine, but I didn't explore that.

The car park itself looks new and well kept, the bays large enough for my ute, although I reversed in to get the maximum use of the space there.

Upon departing I had not spent 90 minutes, I'd only been in there a little over an hour, but I had the ticket ready and my wallet ready just in case. And I was looking around for a ticket machine just in case.

There were a few A-frame signs placed directing towards the exit which eventually led me to hard to line up for exit.

As I slowed down and readied to insert the ticket the machine showed an animated smiley face / thumbs up emoji and the gate opened allowing me to exit. Which evidently meant it was reading the numberplate as you entered.

Little Docklands Drive and neighbouring car park.

The exit was on Little Docklands Drive. I realise now looking at the map I should have just gone straight ahead, as that would have led me to Footscray Road and turn left onto it.

Instead I made the mistake of going down St Mangos Lane, which led me back to Waterfront Way, but meant I had to do an awkward u-turn in front of Observation Drive. 

Which was...inelegant, I at least was going slow enough that when I hit and mounted the curb it wasn't too bad. I should've just gone around the block again and gone out on Little Docklands Drive.

Melbourne Caravan & Camping Leisurefest 2023

Having entered off of the Princes Highway and parking on the grass near that entrance there was a little bit of a walk to one of the gates and entrances. I think in the past I came in from Springvale Road. I paid for a ticket at the gate there is no difference in price between paying online or at the gate, and if you pay at the gate it’s one less site with your contact info.

I'm not really into caravanning, I'm more a curious observer from the borders of this oeuvre of adventuring. So my observances are from this perspective.

Wombat

There were several caravans with two single beds in them, with cupboard in between, which is an interesting solution to the problem of bedding in a caravan.

I'm not really a fan of the pop-top caravan, I feel that if I were out adventuring I wand a protective space from the outside, especially when sleeping.

It was nice to caravans with double beds, and a nice kitchen area plus bathroom, and several had a toilet and basin area and also a separate shower area. Others combined all this together, but I think day-to-day living that little bit of separation would really help with living within the caravan.

There's two main options on display the caravan and the motorhome. The latter built into a van or onto the back of a small truck. Both are a compromise and I'm not sure which one I would go for, were I in the market for one.

I can see the perspective for both, the van means you can go basically anywhere a van would go, and they're a lot more subtle than a caravan and a tow vehicle. But they're a lot more compromised in terms of space, power of the engine and things like that.

If I was going to buy one for myself, I think I would still go for a caravan, albeit a small one, much as in 2019 when I saw one then, I think I still like the Lumberjack Sheoak (Series II). The one I saw back then was the first generation one, but this is more updated one. It's also gone up in price by by 10 grand on that one to $31,990. 

It's got a sleeping area and then a separate kitchen area. 

It's still not totally perfect, at least for how I would use it, it still uses gas. I'd have an induction hotplate in there running off a battery system. I watched a few YouTube videos comparing gas vs induction as a camping option a while ago, and it made a very compelling argument for induction. If you've got solar panels on your camper, and a power station storage system or the like then it's basically free cooking fuel when the sun's out.

Ultimate Campers was the only one that I saw that had what appeared to be an induction system for cooking.

The Stockman Rover has a similar idea to the Lumberjack Sheoak, being a pod-style camper trailer. Their prices however are higher at a hair over $50,000.

I bought a bag of jam doughnuts, which were kinda disappointing. They were hot, freshly cooked but just lacking kinda.

Melbourne EV Show 2023

I wouldn't bother. If you're interested in a particular EV brand, seek them out in their respective show rooms or where ever, but don't bother here.

View as you walk into the Melbourne EV Show 2023

I'm relatively interested in EVs, read about and watch YouTube videos about them (and internal combustion engine cars too), not exactly a "motoring enthusiast" as the Shannons adverts go, but I'm informed enough. 

I saw an email a week or so ago from the RACV about the Melbourne EV Show at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre (or Jeff's Shed as I still think of it as). I did look at the website before going, so was aware that there weren't going to be all of the major car brands there, but still hoped that there would be something of interest.

For starters it's not exactly cheap to get in $32 for an adult. Back in the day that might've been a showbag of promotional stuff or something, but now that gets you nothing except the ticket. 

The show itself was in the end of the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, and took up maybe a quarter of the space. 

Of the major car brands there was; Peugeot, Hyundai, Kia, Polestar, GWM, Audi, plus Zagame which had; McLaren, Cupra and Fiat and Abarth on show. There was also car clubs like the Tesla Owner's Club present as well. Along with other EV things like scooters and bikes which I'm not really that interested in. Plus JAC Motors had two trucks on show.

I had a look around all the vehicles that were on show and had a sit in several of them.

One which I was interested to have a look at and sit in was the Hyundai Ioniq 5, as it's a design which has fascinated me since it came out, and because I had wanted to have a test drive in one. However according to Hyundai you can't, you have to pre-order one and then they'll let you test drive it. 

But there was one here so I thought I could sit in it, and have a feel and see how the switchgear and everything felt.

So I was sat in one and put my foot on the brake as I sat in it (habit mostly), and it prominently said in the dash "key not in vehicle", so I felt safe switching the driving modes around just to see how the dash responded and how the display changed in the different driving modes. Then I thought I'd try putting it into drive to see if any of the animation changed or something, and nothing happened, obviously because the key was not in the vehicle, so I moved to get out of the vehicle, taking my foot off the brake...and then the car started to creep forwards. I pushed my foot quite quickly onto the brake and fumbled around with the gear selector to put it back into, well I couldn't find park but I put it in neutral in the panic.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 N

Suddenly a rep for Hyundai appeared and I explained what happened, he hunted through the glove box, and couldn't find the key and then someone brought the key over from a locked box somewhere. He seemed as puzzled as I was, and I kept apologising for what happened.

He couldn't work it out how it managed to move without the key inside it.

But he explained "the Minister was here earlier and it must have been left in an on position". Which I guess was fortunate discovery by accident that I did it and they discovered it, and that it wasn't a child or something that was messing around with it, because it could have ended very differently.

So I guess I have test driven an Ioniq 5, all of about 5 centimetres. 

So that gave me a rush of panic and adrenalin.

After that I wandered around to the other brands. 

I quite like Peugeot's 508 PHEV Sportswagon, it's got the added practicality of a wagon, and is from a European car brand, and a little bit left of field being a French car brand. 

Also the e-208 PHEV was also a nice looking small hatch. 

The Peugeot Partner Van which I also had a sit in, that did not have a comfortable driving position. I think were I looking for a van the Ford e-Transit would be a better van. It perhaps might be okay for short drives.

Polestar 3

There were a lot of people at the Polestar stand, there was only their upcoming vehicle the Polestar 3, which is due next year. The Polestar 2 you need to go to their 'Polestar Spaces' to see.

The Polestar 3 is a small SUV type design, from what I could see it looks nice. Although from a design perspective I think I prefer the Polestar 2.

One stand that had a lot of people at it was the GWM Ora, known in some markets as the 'Ora Funky Cat', although here it's just called the Ora, but it keeps its logo of an exclamation mark. It's one of the smaller EVs and probably one of the cheapest on offer, it looked quite popular with the older people at the show.

Talk with headphones

There were talks going on at the show, with an interesting format that it was all done with wireless headphones, so you could sit there listening to the bloke and there was no loud speaker sort of arrangement, just the bloke on stage talking into a microphone and everyone sitting there watching him with headphones on. It was nice. Although I really hope (but kinda doubt) that they clean the headphones after each performance.

I was surprised by the Kia stand, the EV9 and EV6. I'd seen the EV6 before in a Ford / Kia dealership area and didn't think I lot of it. But seeing the GT-line version and sitting in it in person really changed my perspective on it, it's actually quite a nice looking vehicle. I also appreciate what Kia are going for with their EV9 SUV, it's a much more boxy sort of look, in the same sort of realm as a traditional Land Rover Defender or a Jeep Wrangler.

Audi RS e-tron GT

I was also surprised by the Audi RS e-tron GT, which I had seen in reviews both video and print, but it always looked really big in those. But in person, it's large, as it's a four-seater car, but it's not huge. There was a Porsche Taycan nearby and that did look big.

The interior of the Audi is like all Audis, it was well considered, everything and how it works for the driver has been considered. 

The screens are a little smaller than some – like Polestar who go for a large centre screen and then a screen in front of the driver. But it lends itself to a driver-focused car in the Audi. 

EV Land Rover

There were some interesting stands on conversions of internal combustion engine cars – Land Rovers and a conversion for a Mini. 

However, having walked around the show for about an hour, I felt like I'd had my fill and it was a little bit underwhelming.

If you're interested in experiencing or looking into an EV in more detail go to that brand's car dealership or show room, 'space' as Polestar call them or 'experience centre' as BYD calls them. I think you'd get a better experience than at the EV show.

Chadstone Car Park C during early 2023 works

EDIT: Information below is no longer valid as of November 2023, as the layout of this car park / its entrance has now changed.

My preference for parking when I visit Chadstone is Car Park C, what has often been known as the "Coles Car Park", this is accessible from Warrigal Road, via Middle Road and City Circuit. 

It's my preference as I'm usually getting to Chadstone from the Monash Freeway, so am exiting onto Warrigal Road for Chadstone.

Currently there are building works and road works ongoing at Chadstone and will be for the next 6+ months moving forward. 

At the moment all traffic on Middle Road is funnelled either left or right at the traffic light intersection, there is no forward traffic allowed. 

If you're visiting Chadstone and intending to park in Car Park C; when turning onto Middle Road from Warrigal Road turn right from the farthest right of the right turning lanes and keep to that lane as you go around the corner. You'll be next to the median strip as you get onto Middle Road (and inevitably be sat waiting at the traffic lights).

First entrance, do not enter here, but exit here when you leave.

Turn right from the far right lane onto City Circuit. Don't be tempted to get into the left lane and do not try to enter the car park from the first entrance. That's what everyone tries to do.

Don't panic, it does look like the other entrance of Car Park C (there used to be two one after the other on City Circuit) is blocked, that's because it is. 

One way road - City Circuit. Car park entrance is just after this bend.

Additionally the road becomes one way as it goes around the corner. 

Follow City Circuit around the corner and there is a second entrance into Car Park C. Turn left here (around the road works barriers) and then immediately turn right and go up the ramp to level 3 of the car park. 

It's generally not as busy up here because everyone goes in on the lower level, does several loops and then, and only after a few more loops do they get up to level 3. 

Level 4 used to be accessible but has been blocked for building works.

Car Park C ramp to level 3.

Also, if you're driving a 4x4-type ute or SUV don't panic...too much, I drive a Ford Ranger and it fits into Car Park C. It doesn't look like it, especially when you're driving up the ramp and looking at the scratches on the roof, but it does. However always double check the height of your vehicle and the height of the car park (2.0 metres). 

Note, when exiting do not go out the way you came in as that will deposit you back onto City Circuit and you can't go back around that one way section. Instead at the bottom of the ramp turn right, then left and then follow the car park around to right and then left you can exit, there's signs or you'll see cars coming in. This will let you exit out the first car park entrance, the one everyone was using to get into the car park. Then you can depart wherever from there.

Mount Donna Buang

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There wasn't much to see from the viewing platform, it being a cloudy day. But it was still bracing to get to the top.

It was a surprisingly easy drive from EastLink to Warburton. Along Canterbury Road for a lot, then York Road into Mount Evelyn, through the slightly awkward roundabout in Wandin North and onto the Warbuton Highway, then it's just on that all the way to its namesake.

It was about 15ºC in Warburton, but as I drove up the road the degrees started to come off the temperature, until when I reached the top it was 5ºC with a decent breeze dropping the temperature even more. 

Donna Buang Road is in good condition, about 3/4 of the way up there was road works, it was pretty significant road works as well. It reduced the road to one lane, controlled by traffic lights. It looked like they were rebuilding the road from somewhere at least 5 metres below the surface of the road, as there was a digger at what I assumed was 'ground' level and its arm barely came up to the road surface. Once you turn on to what is listed on Google as 'Rd 2' and is marked as being the road to the summit, the surface remains good, and the speed limit is 80 kilometres (as is most of Donna Buang Road), however some sticks that had fallen onto the road, nothing huge, but you'd certainly notice it in a non-4x4 type of vehicle. Given there was no traffic it was easily avoided.

About half way up the road there was a huge parking area, and a toilet block.

After that it's a short drive up to the lookout itself. 

The lookout is a set of stairs up to where you can (presumedly) see the view all around the mountain. Unfortunately today was cloudy, although it still afforded a bracing view.

The climb up was easy enough, although the wind and temperature at the top was quite brisk.

I met some cyclists at the bottom of the lookout, they'd cycled all the way up there, I took their photo for them holding their bikes in front of the sign. According to Wikipedia it's a challenging route averaging 6.2% climb over 16.6 kilometres.

I had a little bit of a wander around, there's a toilet block up there, with a large LPG tank beside it, I wonder for hot water for the toilets? I walked and nearly tripped down the stairs that led to the (closed) toboggan run. The stairs' treads are very shallow, not sure if that's so if they're covered in snow they're easier to transverse, but I elected not to explore them further.

In Warburton I stopped to take a few photos of an older building located at 3475 Warburton Highway. It's clearly a 1930s style building, from the look of it I thought it might be a government or council building, or perhaps a former hospital, it had this practical sense to it. Upon writing this up it seems it was a Weet-Bix factory – 'Sanitarium Health Food factory', the factory closed in the 1990s, and in 2016 it was supposedly under development to become accommodation, but had been hit with delays.

When I stopped and took some photos today there was some evidence of some demolition out the back / side of the property which had been fenced off with temporary fencing and the windows, at least on the first level had been boarded up. 

The driveway hadn't been blocked, I could drive in, although I kept to the front area of the building.

It's got a great many older trees that have been planted out the front and even a garden bench for sitting under the trees. This was why I thought it might be government or medical in history rather than a factory. 

I also took some photos with my Instax camera, both the wide one (still loaded with black and white film) and I've also bought a new one which takes square film. I quite like the quality the camera and film gives the images.

Canberra 2023-08 -4- Return

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I awoke and remained in bed, having gotten to bed pretty early the previous night, but not quite ready to arise at whatever o’clock it was (it was about 5 am), and decided to roll over and try to sleep or watch some YouTube or something.

Eventually I dragged myself out of bed into the quite cold space of the guest house. The fire had gone out I'd messed up the air intake on the fire; closed it a little bit too much down it seemed, leaving a bit of an unburnt log within. However the small oil-filled bar heater was only just keeping back the worst of the cold.

The previous night I had already tidied away everything I could. I have a separate dirty clothes bag to my clean bag, so that was waiting near the door for my PJs to go in before being chucked in the back of my ute. I'd boxed up my snacks container that contained snacks, biscuits, tea, sugar, my mug and emergency trangia as well. My remaining clean clothes were in my Big Bull roll-up bag.

Quickly dressing and re-packing everything I made ready to leave, getting my bags and other stuff out into my ute I firstly marvelled at the frost that was on my ute’s tray, and then realised the large amount of frost on my ute's windscreen would actually need melting before I left.

Starting my ute I sat with the windscreen de-mister / heater on full power for more than 10 minutes as I waited for the frost to melt to enough depart. According to my ute it was -3º outside. 

I think this might be the coldest I’ve begun to drive in.

When I was in Tasmania it definitely got cold enough to snow while I was driving, but not so still and cold. 

It certainly felt quite cold as I waited for things to start to defrost. 

Then after enough time had passed to warm the vehicle enough to get the wipers to free the frost I departed. 

Within Canberra it wasn’t too bad, I’m not sure if that’s what passes for peak hour, but none of the traffic had gotten to a stop, or stop start sort of position, all of the traffic was moving pretty well.

I had to get from Beltana Road, Pialligo to the start of the Barton Highway in Lyneham.

The route (the same as I took to get to the AirBnB on Monday) was Fairbairne Avenue, past the War Memorial and onto Limestone Avenue, along that past some nice examples of Australian inner-surburbia architecture and then left at Wakefield Avenue. Crossing the tram tracks onto Northbourne Avenue and then north up to the Barton Highway.

Then it was just a case of following the Barton Highway all the way until it met the Hume Freeway.

However, leaving Canberra on the Barton Highway I encountered one of the least comfortable conditions to drive in; fog. Thick fog.

Can’t really do anything about fog, and especially on the Barton Highway which is undergoing upgrade, so there’s very few safe places to pull over.

And really unlike really heavy rain, which you can pull over and wait for it to pass (I have done so in the past when I’ve not felt safe), fog isn't going to disappear quickly, unless there's a breeze or a sudden burst of sunshine to get it moving, and there was not a lot of either this morning.

As got further along the Barton, thankfully the fog did start to lift.

And once the Barton became a separated road with a median strip it had pretty much entirely lifted. 

Entering onto the Hume I stayed on it for long enough to get to Yass, where I stopped at the McDonald’s in Yass for breakfast. 

A little over 180 kilometres later I stopped at the Little Billabong Rest Area, to pee and have a little bit of a walk and stretch. Without having taken photos and it being geotagged I’m not sure if I’d actually be able to say where it was that I stopped. 

I had decided that I would not be driving to the end of the Hume Freeway, and would not be using the Western Ring Road to come home. Given the experience of my last return from Canberra and my general dislike for the Western Ring Road I elected instead for the B300, the Melba Highway and other related roads.

The B300 is rougher, I think it’s gotten worse since the last time I drove on it. It is a much more visually interesting drive however, going through townships, past paddocks, abandoned farm houses. Driving past bodies of water, and changes of elevation. 

I stopped at Bonnie Doon, mostly as I was stuck behind someone doing just under the speed limit, although not quite enough to overtake safely.

I took some photos, stretched a little bit and had a bit of a snack and a little drink of water before returning to the drive home. 

On the Maroondah Highway, approaching Ringwood was the only place were the traffic got really heavy, which was surprising as I didn’t think it was quite peak hour time just yet at around 4:00 pm ish.

If you're on the Maroondah Highway heading for EastLink at the turn off for the Ringwood Bypass stay in the left-most right turning lane when you're turning on and stay in that lane. Otherwise you'll have to get from other lanes into that to get onto EastLink, in heavy traffic that's going to be more tricky. 

My day finished, at home, having left Canberra decently well rested, I hadn't needed to take any power nap breaks like the last time. Yes, I was tired after the drive, but not as much as I had been the last time. And especially so, that I hadn't needed to contend with the Western Ring Road, and associated roads in the midst of peak hour upon my return.

Canberra 2023-08 -1- Hume Highway

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The Western Ring Road remains my most hated road, I hate driving on it. Everyone is so aggressive.

I entered the road and stayed in the far left lane, merging onto the road I saw a guy in a white 1990s Ford ute who seemed to accelerate towards me, then proceed to tailgate me for 30 seconds before swerving into the middle lanes and continue to accelerate before getting stuck behind a truck.

Like, mate you saw me, I’m in a Ford Ranger ute, it’s not as though you’re going to intimidate me, and you accelerated up, why…? 

Also the design of the Western Ring Road is just not great, it feels like it’s from another era with different considerations of safety and design. 

I made the mistake of being in the far left lane and then needing to change lanes before Sydney Road. 

It was a relief getting onto the Hume.

It was nice as I went further north to see that the the canola in bloom. It always puts a smile on my face to see the sea of bloom. And especially so when there’s a sea of bloom next to a field of green that hasn’t yet to bloom, it’s this intense colour contrast. 

The drive up to Canberra was fairly simple, there was a little bit of rain after I crossed into New South Wales. 

I stopped a couple of times on the way there, mostly to pee, dunno why I needed to empty my bladder more this time around. Firstly in Victoria at the Wandong Rest Area.

At Mullengandra rest stop I used the number on the side of the toilets to report that one was blocked and the one I used the tap was loose, so when you pushed it, it didn’t stay on.

I think it’s a good system, it being there so you can report it.

I didn’t see anyone else making a report, everyone else was just going in, doing their business and then leaving, or maybe walking around and chucking some rubbish away.

I was going to stop at the same Coles Express as I did on my last attempt to come to Canberra, at Gundagai, but decided as I had a little bit more fuel I could make it to Canberra. That fuel stop would have made me arrive an extra 10-15 minutes later, and I’d already stopped more than I would have liked.

Arriving into Canberra it was raining off and on as I made my way through the outskirts of the city.

I was glad of having CarPlay and Google Maps open. I had already looked at the route, and even written myself notes, although mostly the writing of the notes was so so I had it in my head, having already looked at things. However driving through Canberra it was good to have something guiding my way.

Arriving in Pialligo the road that my AirBnB was on I found had become a one way road, they seemed to be upgrading the road. But nevertheless I continued along the road, easily finding the address, and was grateful of the detailed instructions provided by the AirBnB host.

Lake Mountain

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I had been meaning to go and have a look at Lake Mountain for some time. I've never been up there. As a kid when we 'went to the snow' as a family it was to Mount Baw Baw. 

I saw the forecast last week for this week, and today the weather was clear of rain; sunny and 8ºC, the following day would be cloudy, so knew as we're heading towards winter that I'd want to take the opportunity to go and have a look before the roads closed to general traffic. 

I know I could go in the winter, but then I'd need to carry snow chains and pay an entry fee, plus I didn't actually want to do any on-mountain stuff, mostly I wanted it as a destination to explore the roads and landscape there, and have a little bit of a wander.

I always consider the odd cut off when travelling on the Maroondah Highway between the suburbs and the countryside that is Lillydale and the turn off for the Warburton Highway. Once you go over that hill and you're on the other side there's little indication that there's a bustling suburb behind you.

Then it's a journey through farmland and lots of wineries, I passed one that had a helicopter parked in the front grounds.

Selover's Lookout, Healesville

And given the architecture of many of these wineries, these aren't cheap wines. Or maybe they are inexpensive wines that just have lots of throughput? I doubt it, there was some with quite fancy exterior architecture. One that looked like a long semi-circular building. Not unlike a Nissen hut or an airship hangar, although super fancy and architecturally designed, rather than utilitarian.  

The Maroondah Highway (B360) between Healesville and Narbethong is awesome, some majestic driving roads that work its way through rainforest. Towering eucalyptus trees and ferns thick on both sides of the road. And it's 80 km along all of this, which to be completely honest is about the maximum I was comfortable doing in my Ford Ranger ute. On the way up I might've been able to do that except I was stuck behind a nervous (new) MG driver who seemed to panic brake at every corner, on the way back down I felt like I was cooking my brakes a bit to stay under 80 km.

You then turn off onto the B512 Marysville Road heading for Marysville, which somewhat surprisingly is 100 km. On the way there I think it would have been a good drive, but I was still stuck behind the nervous MG driver, and they stuck at about 97 km; not quite low enough for me to overtake, especially on unfamiliar roads.

A decent amount of elevation changes, enough that I was yawning / swallowing to clear my ears a bit.

I'd never been to Marysville before the Black Saturday bushfires, so had nothing to really frame my view of the town. There's numerous new buildings, but a surprisingly amount of older plants that are still growing around the town.

Thinking of plants, that's one thing I love doing drives and road trips in autumn, all the European trees are full of autumnal colours; deep oranges and reds, and the streets full of leaves. It's majestic, but must annoy some people / the council needing to clear all these leaves up.

Lake Mountain Road and Marysville Woods Point Road

Continuing through Marysville and onto the C512 Marysville-Woods Point Road, the sunlight was very dappled as I drove along the road. 

Lake Mountain Road, start

When you reach the turn off for Lake Mountain Road which continues to be the C512, you know it immediately because the road lines change from white to yellow. 

There's a gate at the start of the road, and the speed limit is 80 km.

Immediately I thought 'that's a lot' as the road starts out very narrow, it's still wide enough for two lanes, but just, you wouldn't want to be cars towing something passing at a few points along this road. The road does widen up a little bit more beyond these first couple of narrow corners. 

Start of Lake Mountain Road

After the entrance / ticket box (only manned during winter) there's a couple of parking spots along the way up to the top of Lake Mountain.

Annoyingly Wikipedia is conflicted about the name of Lake Mountain, it might be named for George Lake, the surveyor-general of the area, although this is un-cited, or because of the "tarns, ponds and bogs near the summit", which is at least cited, but only with one citation, and according to the citation it's a reference from one book, itself was published in 2003. It's not available online, but I still have my doubts about it. Mostly as there isn't really anywhere for there to be a decent body of water on Lake Mountain. And if it was a tarn, pond or bog, wouldn't "Boggy Mountain" have been a better moniker? 

Lake Mountain map

Everywhere states basically the same thing "There is no lake on Lake Mountain, instead it was named for George Lake, who was surveyor general at the time." In some brief research it seems a lot of sites state something to this affect, a lot of them word-for-word. Which is odd, there also doesn't seem to be a good reference for George Lake, I feel like this is going to be a separate research topic to look into.

Driving up to the base of the Lake Mountain Alpine Resort there is a cafe and there are some activities on going during the non-winter periods. There were some flying fox / zip-line activities I could see from the car park, and there were some people doing some sort of ride along on an inflatable tube.

I indulged in neither of these things, nor did I investigate the cafe. 

The journey, the road trip, driving etc is the more important, more enlightening part, that the destination for me. Driving gives me time to consider the landscape, time to ponder in my head, to enjoy the distance, and think about spaces in between.

All that said, I did have a little bit of a wander. Despite it being 8ºC outside, and a little bit of a breeze which I did feel somewhat on my legs, the sun was out and I was wearing a...autumnal-thickness jacket over a t-shirt, along with a scarf I felt was enough. With the sun out it was quite pleasant. 

Walking around I saw the operators at Lake Mountain have been collecting any of the snow that has been falling and piling it up, it was mostly covered in white tarps. I guess any snow that falls they collect and save for the snow season, any snow they don't need to wait for / make is money / time saved.

Having seen some snow and not feeling like I wanted to indulge in any of the activities on offer, I returned to my ute and began my journey home.

The traffic had really started to pick up when I was driving through Chirnside Park. On the Maroondah Highway home I did at least remember I needed to be in the right lane because you need to turn right onto the Ringwood Bypass (route 62), there is a long diagonal arrow lane heading towards the traffic lights and right turn. 

But because of the amount of traffic going at 80 km, if you don't know it's there, even with Google Maps / Apple Maps / GPS navigation it feels like it doesn't tell you soon enough that you need to be in the right lane, especially if you're cruising along in the far left lane, that's two lanes you need to get across to get to the third outer lane.

On the Ringwood Bypass my inclination is to get into the far left lane in order to be ready to turn off onto the M3. But during busier times the traffic to turn off onto Warrandyte Road and Ringwood Street often backs up onto the bypass itself, so you're better off to be in the lane second from the far left. Then after Ringwood Street (or the second intersection on the bypass), you need to take the M3 exit and then keep right in order to stay on it. 

I will probably return to Lake Mountain at some point, if only to walk the summit. Although any summiting of any of the snow mountains around will be an adventure left for the summer.

Blue Rock Lake

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I went to Blue Rock Lake spillway via Shady Creek, just so there was a bit more variety of roads travelled to get there. 

It's a nice drive along Old Sale Road, with speeds varying 80 km to 100 km, dropping down to 60 around the townships. And had a variety of farming landscapes (along with some bush) and elevation changes.

The townships are interesting, lots with old oaks and other European-type trees, at the moment their leaves are turning autumnal, turning orange and yellow and starting to drop all around them.

Driving through it was still a nice enough day, the sun was shining, there was a decent breeze, but nothing to really worry about.

On my journey there it did answer one question which I found a little perplexing when looking at Google Maps to plan going out here, or around this area. The traffic layer always showed red/orange around the Brandy Creek-Old Sale Road intersection, which I couldn't fathom. But upon driving through the intersection I found that it's got a new large roundabout on it.

Then I remembered something from during the pandemic, during the lockdowns I was idly looking at Google Maps when we were all locked down, and it showed really busy roads around Melbourne. After mentioning it on social media I found out that it's based on averaged historical data so; 'it was busy a few months / year ago therefore it's busy now'. Same with this intersection it seems; showing orange / red but there was no one there. It appears it was a recent upgrade to the road, part of the Victorian Government's regional roads project.

I drove over to the other side of the spillway, there's a tower there. The reservoir itself was started in 1979 and finished in 1984, and the building is very blocky and 80s in its style. <More information>

There were some odd white posts on the bank above the spillway that I wasn't sure what they were.

I also went around to the Blue Rock Lake picnic area which is closer to Willow Grove, the town of the area. 

The picnic area has two boating jetties to one side and then on the other side of the very large car park there are barbecues, a playground, plus a table tennis table. There were a few people there looking at the lake, and several vehicles from Victoria Fisheries. 

I think I preferred the quiet desolation of the spillway to the picnic area. 

Stumpy Gully Vineyard Lunch 2023

I recently went to Stumpy Gully Vineyard / Dining for a family lunch, and it was...fine.

I'm not sure if post-pandemic and lockdowns etc I've become used to a 'get in, eat and leave' sort of scenario, but it felt somewhat slow.

From arrival at 1:00 pm to leaving at 3:35 pm, it felt like a very long service for an entree, main and dessert.

The menu was small, 4 things on the entree, 4 on the main and 3 on the dessert.

Often when I'm going out eating somewhere I'm not taking photos of the food, as I'm eager / wanting to eat. I'm not a food blogger. (I'm not sure what I'd call my writings here, but not food blogging).

I was asked multiple times if I wanted to drink, no, I was happy with the sparkling water. Which was Italian and tasted fine, tasted of nothing really. I'd have preferred a locally produced sparkling water, there's a few that are Mornington Peninsula-based.

After ordering we were served slices of bread, which I'd assume was baked there, it had a good chew and soft interior. The butter was also made there and had a fennel pollen dusting. I'm willing to bet that herb pollens is a big thing for chefs trying to find something new, as soon as I heard them say it I thought I'd heard of it before. A while ago browsing the Essential Ingredient I found Dill Pollen for sale, it's out of stock, but it's $82 for 28g of the stuff.

I opted for the 'House Made Cotechino Sausage' as the entree, I like others at the table saw it, googled it and then...when it eventually came out to the table were a little perturbed. We'd all assumed it would be a single sausage, but instead it was a slice (albeit a chunky slice) of a large sausage - think slightly larger than a Polish sausage in diameter. It was served with a handful of beans, and a small leaf of radicchio. 

Then, after some wait, the mains came out. 

I had opted for the duck, unlike my fellows who chose the steak. 

I like to cook, so if I'm out and about opt for stuff I'm less likely to cook at home.

The duck breast was quite large, perfectly cooked. It had a few forest mushrooms (tiny), pumpkin crisps, chickpea cream and tuscan kale. 

I've never really been a fan of kale, despite its prominence in the last 10 years or so. I've tried a few times to cook with it at home, and tend to just opt for spinach, or if not, silverbeet. I've just found that it's a very bitter unpleasant vegetable, that you need to put a lot of stuff into to get a nice vegetable output. 

Pumpkin Pie, with apple something beside it.

This kale was fine, it had been cooked in some sort of stock I'd assume, or had been salted and buttered and wilted, but retained a deep green colour.

Lastly I opted for the Pumpkin Pie, which had an...unappetising texture. 

Very, if not extremely loose in its texture. 

I have a photo of this, as I opted not to eat it.

I could have, it wasn't inedible, but what's the point of eating unless you're going to enjoy it?

The views from the dining room are nice. 

Their front door is big, but easy to open.

Their dining chairs are uncomfortable, and I needed to keep moving to be comfortable.

Melbourne Airport Wait Zone

Plane just about visible taking off.

Picked my dad up at the airport. In previous times when picking him up I'd park opposite the airport and wait for him, but last time he complained about how much the parking was (even though I said it had already been paid), so this time I thought I'd take advantage of the wait zone car park (also referred to as the "Ring & Ride" or "Airport Wait Parking")

Arriving and turning off on Exit 18 of the Tullamarine Freeway onto Mercer Drive, I didn't immediately want to turn into the waiting zone car park, so continued to the roundabout at the intersection of Mercer Drive and Airport Drive, then turned left onto Airport Drive and went down to the BP which is a short drive down from the Wait Zone on the corner of Airport Drive and Link Road (address: 182-184 Airport Drive, Melbourne Airport)

It's not really on any aerial maps, it seems to have been completed in late 2020. It's viewable on Google Street View and Apple Maps' Look Around. But not their aerial from above offerings. Bing Maps does show it.

I didn't need fuel, just wanted to get a drink, there's a Maccas there as well.

Depending on where you park, wanting to get back to the waiting zone car park will involve a U-turn by going some distance along Airport Drive to the Sharps Road intersection and doing a U-turn there.

Bing Maps helpfully has arrows showing you how to exit. Source.

If instead you leave via the truck parking area, you can exit and turn left onto Watson Drive and turn left onto Link Road, and then turn right back onto Airport Drive. Then you need to do a U-turn at the Mercer Drive / Airport Drive roundabout that you previously turned left at. 

This is because Mercer Drive is a one way road, coming off the freeway, so you have to access the wait zone car park from Airport Drive.

Driving into the wait zone car park is a little...not confusing, but there's a ticket machine, but the boom gate was up and the screen just said "Free Passage" with a smiley face emoji.

So I drove in and parked. While I was parked there I did see a few people driving in and also being confused by the parking machine / lack of the boom gate being down. I guess you don’t expect it to be free immediately. The Melbourne Airport website does say it’s free for 30 minutes, then from 30 minutes to an hour it’s $4. Anything beyond that is charged at the regular parking rate. 

At least that’s what the website says, but I know I was there for more than 40 minutes and didn’t need to pay anything. 

There is very little shade, there’s one or two trees that hang over the car park, but they’re small ones. I saw some people put their windscreen sun protection up to keep the heat out. 

You have the choice of looking out to the other car parks or out into grassland.

It’s surprisingly quiet there, especially considering it’s right next to the airport.

I got out of my ute and had a wander around, there’s not much.

Information board.

There are two bins, they’re unlabelled but there’s looks like there’s one for rubbish and one for recycling, when I dropped my empty can of V into one it sounded like it was the only thing that was in the bin.

There’s a pay station for presumedly when the ticket machine / boom gate is working.

There’s a mid-sized screen showing the arrivals of flights which is almost impossible to view with the sun beating on it.

And there’s an information board of where to go when you leave the waiting zone.

There is no grass around, it’s all compacted sand footpaths. That has not stopped some people letting their dogs shit on the side, I saw two piles that had not been cleared up by their owners (at least I hope it was dogs). 

Incidentally there are no toilets at this car park.

Exit and Entrance.

Then as I readied to leave I did half worry that the boom gate may go down as you approached, as the parking opposite the airport is done via credit card and reading your number plate, and thought they might have applied a similar process here. But it seemed not. (I had tried to watch people leave, but they seemed to not encounter anything like this)

So I just drove out and headed for the arrivals parking area.

The “Public pick up” was not amazing. Everyone is impatient, while in theory you should be able to drive up and easily park as you do at drop off at the terminal, in practice people are parallel parking. This results in more impatience, and people speeding in right at the 10 km/h speed limit and then getting annoyed by everyone and tooting their horns in impatience. There is a 1 minute limit for pickup.

Steamfest 2023

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Held at the National Steam Centre, home of the Melbourne Traction Engine Club is Steamfest. It's located at 1200 Ferntree Gully Road, Scoresby, immediately after the exit off of EastLink for Ferntree Gully Road if you're going north. <link>

It's held across the Labour Day long weekend from the 11th March 2023 - 13th March 2023. It is full of stationary engines, industrial engines, traction engines and a miniature railway that goes around the boundary of the land.

Before you even pay your $15 entry (for adults) is a mini rail crossing for the miniature railway, complete with boom gates operated by a pulley system from the mini-Scoresby station area. 

Then you're greeted by the sounds of a fairground organ, with the background sounds of whistles, engines and the sound of steam being worked.

The first shed as you start to wonder is full of industrial steam engines, with most in operation and all having an information sign to explain where it had come from. Although some of the older ones it's seemed to be a case of 'we're not sure who made it'.

This supplies the steam for all the engines on display.

Cleaver Brooks Co., Milwaukee, USA

(Built under licence by Tomlinson Steel Ltd., Western Australia)

Four-pass Economic Package Boiler

Because of all the steam and engines operating in this shed it's quite warm inside these sheds. 

The next shed, they're actually all joined up but had different doors and different engines within. The next section held diesel engines and the boiler that was generating the steam for all these engines, followed by some models, and then the steam engine and the other steam-operated parts of the Lyttelton II tug.

Outside of the sheds there were more people showing off individual smaller traction engines and random engines like a MerryGo Round engine. 

MerryGo Round Engine

There was also a shed of books for sale, the various manuals for many of the engines and older vehicles that were on display, plus magazines etc.

Towards the back of the site, heading out to the ploughing area there were a several older / vintage trucks and cranes on display.

In the ploughing area I saw a plough being operated between two traction engines, it's basically winched along by one and it tilts / pivots in the middle so at the end of one row it can tilt and then be pulled back by the other engine.

It seemed, looking at it to be somewhat of an inefficient process, with two of these huge traction engines to do ploughing, especially in the context of when these would have been coming in. I can imagine (with the costs involved) farmers just sticking with their clydesdale or other horses for ploughing.

As I wondered back I contemplated the food offerings; a milkshake / tea and coffee van, a pizza van, a burgers, sausage stall and a hot chips van.

I went with a sausage in bread with onion $4.

Before I left I decided to ride the miniature train. They have diesel and stem locomotives pulling carriages around. You leave from Scoresby and there's one stop at Clydesdale (basically where the ploughing happens) and they'll give you a pass so you can jump back on the train. 

The miniature train is very quite small, the carriages wobbled / swayed a bit as the adults sat down onto them. I wish I'd asked what gauge the miniature railway was. 

The train I ended up getting had a diesel locomotive. It moved at a decent speed.

We got about 3/4 of the way around the track and then came to a slow stop, it seemed the steam locomotive had broken down, or something so we had to wait in the sunshine (and then after a few moments we crept forwards to some shade) until the steam locomotive had been fixed.

All up it was a great interesting day out. It's mostly flat and gravel or paved, I saw lots of people with children and with prams. Also several people in wheelchairs both the pushed variety and people propelling themselves. 

The only part that might post a problem is the ploughing area which is grass. There is a tractor with trailer that goes from near the front around the site, so if there's people with limited mobility then that's an option.

Parking is on a mix of gravel parking out the front of their gates, and then as that filled up they opened up a paddock next to this, it's where I parked, there were a mix of cars both SUV and not, there shouldn't be any problems parking regular vehicles.

If it's sunny best wear a hat as there's not a lot of shade around when you're not in the sheds.

Mount Sugarloaf

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Mount Sugarloaf is a short drive from Kinglake. 

It's nice, if underwhelming. 

The drive to Mount Sugarloaf takes you through the the outer reaches of Kinglake West which is small township of houses on National Park Road. 

Then you go into Kinglake National Park.

It's a short drive along a sealed road up to the lookout. There is a sign that says no busses (or rather it's a sign with a picture of a bus and circle with a line through it). 

It's quite a nice picturesque drive up to the lookout. Speed limit is 60 kilometres, until you're near the end, where it drops to 40 km/h and there's quite a tight bend in the road.

Melbourne just about visible (with a x30 zoom)

At the lookout you can just about see Melbourne, and you can sort of see the surrounding areas, although the trees are blocking a lot of the view.

There was a relatively inviting Mount Sugarloaf walking track leading away from the car park. 

The path goes all the way back to the entrance to the national park area, so I wasn't inclined to take it.

On the drive out I saw a wallaby, had to stop and give way to it, it seemed to not care that I was there.

The road itself has a few holes in it to be aware of, especially one which is a little hard to see on the way out just before the entrance to the national park.

Start of Mount Sugarloaf walking track

On the way there I more or less navigated for myself, I had Google Maps open and it on my phone via CarPlay, but knew where to go. Up EastLink, turn off at Ringwood, along Maroondah Highway and then through Yarra Glen and up the Melba Highway before turning off onto Healesville-Kinglake Road (C724). I knew I needed to basically head north-ish and then turn for Kinglake.

But on the way home I wondered what about the other route that Google Maps offered up. Namely Heidelberg-Kinglake Road (C746).

The 'road narrows' signs should have been a warning.

It was interesting, and I've not often needed to turn the steering wheel in my ute that much going down a hill.

The people cutting the corners as they were going up the road could have been done without if I'm totally honest.

It was an interesting drive. 

The landscape on this road was also much drier compared to the road taken up to Kinglake.

It turns from country blocks to large blocks to the outer suburbs very quickly, and then suddenly you find yourself staring at Eastland Shopping Centre waiting to turn onto the Ringwood Bypass.