Birthdaytripping

Happy birthday to me (for yesterday)! We had a fun day out in the country. I particularly enjoyed the drive up to Woods Point because it was a very foggy morning, and the forest looked spooky and magical in the mist.  It was beautiful when the sun started to break through. 

On the Black  Spur between Healesville 
and Narbethong 

A little way past the  Warburton turn off on 
Woods Point Road

Most of the road between the Warburton turn off and Woods Point is unsealed. It was fairly smooth...apart from all the parts that were slippery with mud and riddled with potholes and corrugations. Luke did a very good job of avoiding most of the potholes, but some teeth-rattlers did sneak up on him. It's far from the roughest road we've been on, but getting back onto bitumen was still quite a relief. 

We arrived in Woods Point around lunch time, and parked our little muddy hatchback behind a row of even muddier four-wheel drives.  I think we were the only people in town in a two-wheel drive. 

I was careless getting out of the car and managed to get mud on my jacket, leggings (front and back), dress (front and back), my handbag and even my sunglasses, much to Luke's amusement. I had to leave my jacket in the car, but a tissue and bottle of water removed most of the rest of the mud on me. Luke also got some mud on the back of his calf getting out of the car. Fortunately, as we walked up to the pub for lunch, it soon became obvious that nearly everyone had a bit of mud on them. Woods Point is a popular destination for four-wheel drivers and dirt-bike riders, and most of the people in the pub were there for one or the other.   

Waiting for lunch. No 9 on 9 July

The Woods Point hotel is one of the most isolated pubs in Victoria (it's beyond the reach of the internet!), so I was quite surprised to find a young English woman working there. She'd been there for six weeks and was enjoying it - even the lack of internet access wasn't bothering her as much as she expected. I doubt I would cope with the isolation or the lack of net access. I should add here Woods Point is a very small town of only about 100 people. There's a police station, a school, a mining company office, a general store (which was closed yesterday). 

Luke and I both had a chicken schnitzel sandwich for lunch. It was made with supermarket white bread and Kraft Singles cheese, but it was greater than the sum of its non-gourmet parts. It was pretty delicious, in fact (just as well because we waited for more than hour to get it. I don't recommend arriving just after a fleet of four-wheel drives.)  

After devouring our schnitzel sangers in super quick time, we went for a wander. Woods Point is a great place to visit for someone like me who like things that are old, rusty and decrepit!

 Old, rusty, decrepit car

 Old, decrepit service station with rusty bowsers

If you do a google images search for Woods Point, you will see a lot of photos of this tiny service station. It's very cute and I love the old bowers. Here's a shot of the two on the right. 

Diesoleum!

Bowser detail

 Another little shack

 On a lean 

Side view. It appears to be held together with a 

bit of wire, a couple of rocks and a miracle

Before heading home we stopped at the cemetery. There were far fewer graves than I expected, but a sign at the gate explained why: in 1939 the Black Friday bushfires destroyed the town and burnt the wooden crosses marking most of the graves. Only some have been replaced with simple white signs bearing a name and date of death. 

High on the hill

No neighbours

Luke's car after the drive home 

All in all, it was a fun day out. You can see more of my photos here.