Friday 16th March

Eureka, we made it to Ballarat this afternoon after stopping at a couple of disappointing prospective camping places just outside Lismore in Derinallum, they were not much chop really so we changed plans and headed off to Mt. Widderton. We passed the signs to Pura Pura, Vite Vite and Nerrin Nerrin, where they must have either hearing problems or just really like the sound of their town’s name. It would have been nice to stay in Derinallum which was near to Mt. Elephant, we could see the mountain from a long way away and as we got closer it became obvious as to why it received that name. On the road there I noticed two sets of fishtail burnouts down the centre of the road made exactly opposite to eachother which created a symmetrical pattern, sort of like a bunch of figure eights lined up, it would have taken a lot of skill and practice to achieve this. I would call it a kind of art as it made me think about it, although I doubt you would find a market for that type of medium very easily. A friend Mark who works at Port Campbell Information Centre told us about Mt. Widderton which has the largest lava cave in Australia. It is on private property, a cattle stud farm and is not really on the tourist route so it sounded intriguing, BYO torch and suitable clothes was all we were told. Helen is going to write her thoughts about it. I would like to tell about the little custom that occurs between truck, bus or large vehicle’s drivers, I suppose you would not know about it if you have never driven a large vehicle. As you approach each other a little wave of the hand, or just an uplift off the steering wheel of the index finger is offered, it is rarely ignored or forgotten and it does take a while to get used to. There is definitely a sort of community spirit between these guys who share the roads We passed more yellow fields with sheep of the same colour as the dry grass, just woolly blobs in the greater yellow of the meadow.