My Way on the Highway in the Silver Shell Motel

[mark greenhill]

This follow-on from my last post Spirit of Tasmania is a brief photo essay of
my drive Northeast up the Hume Highway to the border town of Albury. The Hume is a dual highway
from Melbourne to Sydney that skirts the western edge of the Great Dividing Range over fairly flat terrain.
If you've been following our news you'll know that Victoria has been sweltering in a heatwave since mid December,
temperatures reaching 43'C (109.4'F) at Wangaratta where I spent Xmas and New Year's with family.

At Port Melbourne I was among the first cars to drive off the ferry. It was 6:30PM and it's a 180 mile drive
to Wangaratta so I topped up with fuel and headed out of Melbourne via the Western Ring Road to pick up the M80.

Somewhere near Kilmore I pulled off the highway into a shaded thicket to have tea.
A semi trailer rolled by with a John Deere earth mover on its tray.

It was a pleasant place to eat and I took some shots for the record.
Perched in the tree tops watching over all this was an Eastern Rosella Parrot

Some 3,000 semi trailers travel between Melbourne and Sydney nightly
and a strictly enforced maximum speed limit of 110kmph (67mph) applies.

​

 

[mark greenhill]

... While high above at 10,000 feet a jet drew a vapor trail on a clear blue sky.

Nearby two brick chimney stacks were all that remained of what once must have been a fine old homestead.

Just before nightfall I began to feel weary and decided to camp in my car for the night by the railway line -
there's something comforting in the roar and rumble of a passing train and it seemed like a nice safe place to be.

During the course of my colorful life I have slept in many strange places, like park benches,
airport departure lounges, kayaks, tents, bivouac bags, an assortment of double beds,
but I have never been so comfortable as in my car beneath the stars on a moonlit summer's night.

If I am addicted to anything it's coffee!

The long arms of the Hume stretch northeast in the dawn towards Sydney!

​

 

[mark greenhill]

WANGARATTA! - I think that one of the hardest things to photograph is a township;
impossible to capture in a single shot but taken from the roundabout at the end of the mainstreet
may give some idea as to the character of this tidy little city.

I came upon this quaint, open-front, pre-loved clothing shop in a small village called Yackandandah
a few miles east off the Hume towards the Snowy Mountains.

The Albury Railway Station is right on the border of VIC and NSW where on journeying from
Sydney to Melbourne author Mark Twain had to change trains at 3:00AM in the morning.
At that time the Victorian and New South Wales Railway guages were of different widths!!!

The Albury railway station platform is commonly said to be the longest in Australia,
but actually Melbourne's old Spencer Street platform was longer.

Not far fron Yackandandah is Tangambalanga ... how do you say that again?

It beats me as to how these cuddly little guys manage to sleep in a gum tree - that's one thing I've yet to try!!!

​

 

[artyman]

Nice travelogue, more suited to a blog perhaps.

 

[shootmoi]

so many pics put me off commenting on all of them but the last one is nice

 

[mark greenhill]

Nice travelogue, more suited to a blog perhaps.

so many pics put me off commenting on all of them but the last one is nice

In hindsight I think both you're right - too overwhelming. I should have broken the post into three instalments.

 

[mjolnir]

I really enjoyed reading this. The pictures are great and the fact that there are so many helped to pull me into the experience. Looks like a place that's well worth seeing.

The blue sky certainly makes a change from what we have at the moment.

 

[mark greenhill]

I really enjoyed reading this. The pictures are great and the fact that there are so many helped to pull me into the experience. Looks like a place that's well worth seeing. The blue sky certainly makes a change from what we have at the moment.

Thanks Rob, it's good to know that you weren't overwhelmed by so many images presented at once.

 

[Chumpalot]

I like the captions, very informative and some of them are quite entertaining. Oh, the pictures aren't bad either

 

[Andysnap]

My gawd it looks hot and dry. Interesting shots, I like the travelogue style and the buildings are a very interesting.

Andy

 

[mark greenhill]

I like the captions, very informative and some of them are quite entertaining. Oh, the pictures aren't bad either

Thanks David ... aside from visiting my family I really enjoyed the tour in spite of the wilting heat.

My gawd it looks hot and dry. Interesting shots, I like the travelogue style and the buildings are a very interesting. Andy

Thanks Andy, I really appreciate your comments although I must admit that the pics in this post probably mean more to me than anyone else. There is an incredible sense of space and freedom out there on the road knowing that if you drove all day and night non stop it would take months to circle the continent. I'll be heading back for another visit later this year when it's cooler.

 

[Yv]

Great read and really good collection of pictures that give a flavour of the journey. I am not saying every picture is perfect, some are way better than others but I tend to view this kind of thing as a collective and it works nicely

Now then, please remind us, whats all that blue stuff?

 

[mark greenhill]

Thanks Yvonne - as you rightly recognise, my intention was to to take the viewer with me on the journey rather than shooting classic landscapes. Hence your description of the set as a "collective thing" is very apt.

Probably better placed in Photos for Pleasure. Oh well ...:shrug:

 

[mark greenhill]

Now then, please remind us, whats all that blue stuff?

Oh yes, the "blue stuff" is the home page of an unrelenting sun!