MINI D blog: Three states and counting

We entered our third state and our second timezone tonight -- only one more state and time zone to go -- but the big miles are still ahead of us.

After a day of some of the best roads in Australia, we've camped up at Robe -- a historic seaside village on the cost on South Australia's south east coast. It's a hop and skip away from Mt Gambier. The Editor in Chief suggested we should visit the former's Blue Lake. He didn't plan on it being pitch black when we arrived...

When we hit the Mount, Muttley pointed at this black lump on the horizon and said, 'That's Mt Gambier's famous Blue Lake...' Oh well, scratch one photo opp...

Robe's charm is in a large part due to the fact that many of its buildings date back to its establishment in the 1800s. The other part is the Caledonian -- the best little pub on the coast between Port Fairy and Adelaide. It's on old haunt of Muttley's and he's really on to something. I'm in love with the joint and I haven't even seen it in daylight yet.

We've scored a beaut little two-storey cottage with sea views. We'll I'm told there are sea views -- note above... It's dark.

If this update is a touch disjointed it's because I'm writing it in bed on a Nokia N95 and wishing I'd bought a Bluetooth keyboard for it -- even at an outrageous $200. May lord have mercy on my digits.

Muttley meantime is still over in bar, with his Macbook as an alibi, ostensibly searching for a wifi connection... A likely story...

Yesterday's drive was a ripper. The Great Ocean Road is a must drive for anyone remotely interested in wheel twirling. According to Muttley the Lorne to Apollo Bay traffic was typically slow -- lots of slowpokes in much bigger vehicles. They frustrate the hell out of you when you're in something like the MINI, but at least most of pulled aside eventually and you're rolling again.

By mid afternoon I'd had enough of examining the backends of trucks and Toyota Coaster buses...

Then after Apollo Bay, all of a sudden we had the road to ourselves. On the ups and downs past Lavers Hill and on to Port Campbell, the road was magic -- better surfaces and well cambered bends that allowed the D to flow and behave the way a MINI is supposed to behave. I thought I was doing just fine, but Muttley keeps muttering about me needing driver training... We made it anyway

Port Campbell was cold and deserted. The sun that blessed us from Sorrento to Lorne was replaced by clouds and a chill that turned sunny seaside into British holiday coast. Muttley says I'm soft -- but he's Victorian and I was born halfway to Brissie.

The wind farms closer to the South Australian border were surreal and Warrnambool and (black Blue Lake aside) Mt Gambier are, I've declared, deeply disinteresting.

Day three put 750km more under our wheels and our consumption figure is resolutely stuck on 4.5L/100km... The GO Road is probably as heavy as we can get on the go pedal -- with lots of three– we're expecting we might get back into the threes by the time we hit the Nulla-bore.

Tomorrow it's the Coorong, Murray Bridge the wine valleys ... I wonder, where are the beer valleys and the diet coke valleys?... Then, like, wherever.

Oops, Muttley's back from the bar... And he's still walking.

He's been told night driving over Nullarbor is very dangerous.... Here be dragons. He's also declared night driving is henceforth verboten. We'll see about that...

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