Of course the weather had all cleared up now that we were on the homeward journey. Even though we had no more dirt through to home, I was a little concerned not to have a spare tyre. The first large town where I could get a repair made was Sale so after packing up we hit the road to Sale and our last views of the mountains.

 

We stopped at the first tyre spot in Sale and he took the tyre off only to tell me it was a star fracture in the tyre and could not be repaired. OK, what about a second hand tyre to get me back to Adelaide where I was going to replace all tyres following the trip. After checking his mountain of secondhand tyres, he didnt have one. He did suggest that I try the dealer at the other end of town.

 

On to Carmody Tyres. They checked their stock of used tyres and there were 2 that would be suitable, hooray. When the fitter went to fit them, he said the boss needed his eyes checked as they were the wrong size. Oh well, looks like I am replacing the tyres here. An hour later and there were 4 new Coopers LT265/60R18 tyres on the tug. He did suggest that I get the wheels aligned when we returned home so that they didnt scrub out on the inside again. Thanks for the $1600 advice. 🙂

 

It was now just a matter of heading west trying to avoid the Melbourne traffic and we nearly achieved this except for one bit of roadwork that held us up for about 25 minutes. Once we cleared this it was onto the Mornington Peninsula to Sorrento to catch the ferry across to Queenscliff (second time in about 3 weeks). Travelling through Sorrento, we passed the foreshore camping grounds where there were caravans and tents crammed in for miles. It certainly was polar to the serenity that we enjoyed in the High Country.

 

There was only a 10 minute wait to get onto the ferry and another smooth sailing across the bay.

 

Some more driving to our final destination at the Craters and Lakes Tourist Park in Camperdown. It was still quiet warm with some dark clouds to the north with potential thunderstorms and a bit of a breeze but it was comfortable as we spent the evening outside under the awning enjoying the last night of the trip and eating what fruit and vegetables we could as there was no taking them back into South Australia due to quarantine restrictions.