Melbourne | Hunter G

Cleverly I left my departure until peak-hour and to add to that madness I decided to drive to the Melb GPO at the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth Sts to set my odometer to zero and take a temperatutre and humidity reading – OCD already kicking in. Temp = 19; Humidity = 41%

But I gotta say it was one of the more enjoyable traffic jam experiences in my life, knowing that this was the start of a cross-continental journey in which I was leaving the big smoke well and truly behind.

Approaching the GPO

Odometer set to zero at 5.34 pm on Nov 16, 2012

…over the Westgate Bridge. But where’s the Aboriginal Flag?

…out along the Westgate Freeway

…past the Mecca of Western Civilisation

…and on to the Mecca of Western Suburbs – Calder Park THUNDERDOME!!!….where the very first thing that greeted me as I turned in was a beautiful Black Rat (aka Bourbon and Coke pre-mix in a can), tossed from another arriving car.

Although very tempted to join the throng I decided to keep burning bitumen and really kill it on Day 1.

And so I ended up…in Diggers Rest, outside the abandoned pub. Yep, that’s right, a 52 massive kilometres from the GPO – Wow! At this rate I’d arrive in Broome in about 100 days, a little bit slower than I’d planned.

The abandoned and derelict Diggers Rest Pub

During the night I was entertained by some locals who decided to do circle work around my van, the occasional stone cracking into the duco…and then they were gone, roaring back into the night.