Between houses

 So on 5 July we finished packing the car and headed on in the dark and the rain at about 0630.  Daylight arrived somewhere after Genoa.  I think we were close to Drummer (about 45km) before we saw another car.

We each guessed the number of caravans we would see at Cann River.  Frances voted for 10, allowing for school holiday travelers while I was influenced - unwisely - by the foul weather and went for 2.  The park was well occupied, with Frances estimating about 15 occupied sites.  From Cann onwards the traffic coming towards us was quite steady: certainly more than there has been for the past 2 or 3 trips.  I think a certain amount of sanity returning to fuel prices has got people on the road again.

I have entered up the fuel purchased at Bairnsdale and was struck by the similarity of consumption this trip and last.  There is a notable difference between the consumption on the legs Bairnsdale - Mallacoota - Bairnsdale  (about 6.8 l/100km) and Bairnsdale - Melbourne - Bairnsdale (about 5.8 l/100km).  That is the difference between steady speed on a mainly flat road and twisting and turning though hilly country

As usual we stopped at Newmerella (swap drivers) where the rain stopped; Bairnsdale (fuel) and Rosedale (swap drivers).  As we passed through Stratford I glanced to the left and was a little surprised and the amount of housing that was visible.  According to Wikipedia the Census population of Stratford is close to 3,000,  about double Mallacoota whereas we thought it would be smaller.

The driving on the M1 was stress-free with no hold-ups and no psycho ice-addicts evident.  Around Pakenham I noticed the average fuel consumption was showing, as usual, around 5.6.  I was very surprised to see it had dropped to 5.1 when we got to the Kingsway.  The benefits of steady cruising.


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