We'd booked a 5 day weekend away in Victoria; two days in Apollo Bay along the Great Ocean Road, three in Melbourne itself.

Qantas has been in dispute with... well, pretty much all of its workforce about pay, conditions and job security for months now, and this day was no exception. The baggage handlers chose to throw a one hour strike, from 8 to 9am.

Our flight was at 8:30am.

We got away about an hour and a half late which scuppered plans to visit the RAAF Museum at Point Cook (to the west of Melbourne) even had we been able to find it, which we couldn't. However it didn't matter as we were so late that we had to head on to Werribee Mansion where I'd made us a lunch booking at Joseph's Restaurant. Beyond the RAAF base (which is supposed to be next to the museum) it's mostly vegetable farming. So it probably shouldn't have surprised us when the GPS told us that the road back to the main road was unsealed. Not a problem in itself, but a lot of heavy vehicles had been using it for access to a new housing estate. And had left lots of potholes. And it had been raining.

After rally-crossing the Lancer back to the main road we arrived at Werribee Mansion, which is now a hotel/spa. It was originally built by the Chirnside brothers, wealthy pastoralists in the area, between the 1870's and 1890's. From 1923 to 1973 it was a Catholic seminary.

The lunch menu was a bit disappointing. (Only 3 different options per course, and no red meat? I mean, sure, it used to be a Catholic seminary, and it was a Friday, but that would seem to be labouring the point a bit.) More disappointing was the light (grey, as you can see) and our lack of time to explore the gardens (in particular the State Rose Garden), the Heritage Orchard and the Open Range Zoo. Well, there's always next time.

But at the time I took this shot it was already 20 to 3, and time to head for Apollo Bay while there was still light.