Melbourne to Warrnambool

We woke up early this morning, and got underway early. Not that we had too! The hotel was close to the airport, so we headed from Tullamarine to Melton, where we had breakfast at a cute little bakery – it wasn't as good as the Pinjarra bakery though. We went to the tourist information centre there, and they ladies were lovely. Mandy – she was almost as good as the ones in Portugal.

So, with 101 maps in hand we head out of town – decided to ignore the Nav Man, and took the raod that looked like it headed the way we should go. The Nav Man was constantly telling us to do a u-turn, but we continued to ignore it for another 5km or so, then once we came to a gravel road we decided that the Nav Man may have been correct. To be fair, we had earlier done what it had told us, and it took us to a no through road!. Having said that it has been very helpful.

We were supposed to get a Prius Hybrid car as we wanted to see how they drove. But clearly the hire car gods were against us as they didn't have one available. So they gave us a free upgrade to a Ford Fairmont Ghia – it's like driving a tank – HUGH! But the air con worls rooly good mate, and it's got reverse sensors which is a bit weird but helpful.

We headed to Ballarat and went to Sovereign Hill, Simon was very sad as he didn't find any sovereigns! He did however buy himself a nice suede hat – and here it is being my birthday!

As we left Ballarat heading for Warrnambool, we again used the Nav Man. It decided that the best was to go was along a number of gravel roads, some narrower than others. Who said you can't have an adventure in Victoria. Anyway, we made it safely.