We had arranged to meet Claire for morning coffee in Camberwell so we drove there after breakfast. We had managed to get a late checkout of 2:00pm so we could leave the van on the site. After coffee we drove to Port Melbourne to checkout the parking options near the ferry as checkin doesn’t start until 5:00pm. Returned to the caravan park and reattached the van and headed back to Port Melbourne via the Citylink toll road. Found a spot on Beach Road not far from Station Pier and spent the afternoon reading a book and eating lamingtons! Joined the queue at 5:00pm and got on by about 6:45. Departed at 7:30pm and had a beer before dinner at the buffet. Managed to sleep quite well and was awoken by the 5:45am announcement that cars would be disembarking in 45 mins. I looked out of the window expecting to see water and I discovered that were already tied up in Devonport! Getting off and on the road was fairly straightforward although we did have a moment of anxiety when we couldn’t quite locate the car and van! Drove to Longford where we had breakfast in the van before stopping for lunch in Oatlands. The last leg of the holiday went well although we momentarily blocked access to our street as the garbage truck arrived at the same moment we were backing the van back onto its slab. Luckily for us (and all our neighbours) he returned the next day!
We had a wonderful trip, the company was good (except for the scrabble) completed some 10,500 kms and saw parts of Australia that we had never been to. The van performed well although a new battery might be in order!