The April visit

 After our March visit was put back a week to avoid being here for the bogan fest of the Australian Grand Prix in Albert Park this visit was to get back to the pattern of travelling up on the Sunday after the monthly U3A meeting.  That meant it coincided with the start of Standard time, which we ignored, leaving Angophora Drive in the dark at 5:45 new time.  

We didn't see any marsupial until Gipsy Point Rd where a large kangaroo jumped out as we passed.  I managed to swerve as did it and despite a couple of bumps there no loud bang.  The 'roo bounced away and on stopping there seemed to be no damage to the car.  I suspect the bumps were the wheels going over its tail as it also swerved.  That is the second time this has happened to us (the first being in the mid 1980s about 25km East of Hay, around 8pm - ie pitch dark - as we drove to Adelaide).

No other excitement until as we approached Melbourne we saw signs about the Domain Tunnel being closed.  That meant that our satnav set us to leave at exit E2 for a drive along the Yarra to Punt Rd.  Exits E4 (to Malvern) and E3 (Toorak) had long tailbacks.  Eventually we got to turn off Alexandra Avenue on to Dobson St (to get to Punt Rd) and it was a mess as expected.  My suspicion that Google Maps is very wrong suggesting we use this route heading East was reinforced.  It was rather a mess all the way from the M1 to 505, but probably only added 20 minutes to the trip.

This pretty much set the tone for the trip WRT satnav.  Coming back from the Western Treatment Plant we were sent off into the bowels of Docklands with the usual chaos.  Going to and from Newport Lakes we were told that Kingsway was closed so went on a bizarre tour of Southbank in each direction.   (The return trip was very odd as we ended up back on Kingsway, which seemed to operating as normal - probably better than normal).


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