After a peaceful night’s sleep we ate breakfast, put our luggage back in the car and left Horsham just before 9:30.

Not far from Horsham we passed the Green Lake. Unlike the previous day when we had stopped at the Pink Lake, which wasn’t very pink, we chose not to stop as it didn’t appear to be very green.

The Western Highway at this point is a country highway with one lane going either direction so when we came up behind a caravan being towed we had to wait a bit before we could safely overtake them. As caravanners we too drive at a more moderate speed when towing.

Further south the Grampians came into view but this time we wouldn’t be detouring there, much as it’s one of our favourite places to go. Hiking in Gariwerd NP in springtime is fabulous. Click here to read a previous post of one of our hikes to the spectacular Pinnacle.

At Dadswells Bridge we did stop. Regular readers would know Australian towns love their ‘bigs’ and so Dadswells Bridge has it’s ‘Giant Koala’. You can get an idea of how big it really is from the second photo.

Continuing on we drove through Stawell and Ararat before stopping in Beaufort at their bakery for a hot chocolate and to swap driver.

Energy levels renewed we continued on, bypassing Ballarat and Ballan before beginning the descent over the Pentland Hills.

Again we stayed on the freeway near Bacchus Marsh climbing again at Anthony’s Cutting near Melton.

At Melton we dropped in for lunch with an old friend of Karen’s, who actually introduced me to Karen over forty years ago. Of course none of us have changed a bit! After eating and chatting for some time we headed off again hoping to miss some of the peak traffic in Melbourne. As you can see that was optimistic as we descended on the Westgate Bridge and found ourselves in the midst of heavy traffic.

At least we could admire Melbourne’s skyline as we crawled along.

Two hours later we found ourselves in familiar countryside with vines covered with yellow leaves.

Approaching Arthurs Seat and Dromana the last of golden hour was evident.

On arrival at home Karen was met by our very enthusiastic dog, Mel. Through Trusted Housesitters we had left Mel in the very capable hands of a young couple from Poland who had looked after our garden and enjoyed Mel’s company. They headed back to the city, leaving us with a very happy dog and some delicious cheesecake they’d made.

After driving about 380kms, with a slow journey through Melbourne, we were very happy to hit the sack that night with some happy memories of a wonderful time in Adelaide.

The next couple of posts I will focus on a few excursions and walks on our Mornington Peninsula.