Wangaratta to Melbourne

March 18, 2010 [Written yesterday]

Trip Day 40

I'm sitting in a nicely appointed coach car heading for Melbourne and Chapter 7, a short overnight and thence on to Chapter 8, the hike in Tasmania that starts Saturday morning. The train was a few minutes late but we're moving at a good clip and won't stop until we're at Southern Cross Station. It's a great view out the windows, but the land has gotten monotonous. Flat cattle and sheep country. The mountains are behind us. Rose Valley spoiled me. It was gorgeous.

We left the farm in Rose Valley about 1 intending to have a long lunch after which Stephanie would drop me at the train station for the 4pm express to MEL. That happened, but not without a hitch. As we were leaving Brown House, she wanted to be sure one of the gates was closed. We drove to check and when we turned around to leave she hit a concealed stone that dislodged and rolled under the front axle. It was just big enough that it lifted the front end just enough off the ground that the front wheel drive Mazda couldn't get purchase. We were stuck.

We'd left Matt earlier after a little scenic tour of the southern end of the property and he had been headed off on his motorcycle with the dogs looking for stock that might be in trouble. It looked to me as though we might be able to jack the car enough to pull or dig the rock out, but we couldn't find the jack. I did mutter to myself a bit that being down a jack in this place would be asking for trouble, but it plainly wasn't' there (not my first mistake this trip). We headed for the main house to look for a crowbar and shovel and got lucky. Matt was back with a lamb that we'd spotted earlier looking poorly. He'd had flats in the Mazda recently and looked at me a bit cross-eyed when I told him it wasn't in the car. We headed back to the car. Sure enough it was under a plastic panel, just where it should be. The panel was just jammed closed and needed a little Australian persuasion. I was a little, ah, chagrined that I'd missed the jack, but it turns out to have been the second piece of good luck…maybe the best of the day. As he was jacking the car he pointed out 'jumping jack' ants all over the ground near where we were working. They're nasty buggers that look very ordinary. They grab skin with their pincers and then sting like a bee. The venom is toxic and can cause severe injuries. Matt himself, stung many times during his outdoor life, has developed an allergic reaction and now needs to be very careful around them. I could just see myself under the car digging the rock out and wondering what those little stings I was feeling were. Tazzy would be out and I would likely be in a clinic someplace.

So Matt got the car lifted. We jammed a timber under the front wheel and he backed the Mazda off the rock. All good. We were off for Wamgaratta and a shortened lunch.

[I'm posting this from my suite…pretty snazzy digs for one night…in the Crown Tower, overlooking the Yarra River in Melbourne. Melbourne looks very interesting. I'm a bit sorry I don't have more time, but I'd not have missed the farm experience for anything! A cab is picking me up in a few minutes for the trip to the airport and Chapter 8, the last one: The Bay of Fires Walk. My foot has healed a good bit and I'm reasonably confident it'll carry me just fine.]