On the ferry - again

I was woken up early this morning thanks to other happy campers unable to sleep, and decided to wake everyone else up, pack up and get the %^*# out of here. It was 7am and we were in the car heading to the ferry ( which was about 800m away). I was sure we were going to be in the first 30 cars there, but alas no..... There was already a good 200 cars or more waiting in the lines to be the first on the boat. Oh how wrong that turned out. When we did finally see some movement at around 8am, it seemed pretty irrelevant what line you were in or at what time you got there. It was almost as if the ferry loading staff knew what they were doing, the way they loaded cars in depending on their size and whether or not there was a caravan attached. I was standing outside the car stretching my legs for most of the wait, mainly so the kids couldn't hear my comments as small cars that are just arriving at 7:58 were loaded straight into the ferry. The angst this was causing is due to the fact there is no reserved seating on the ferry, and the whole reason we got there early was so we could secure the lounge chairs on the top deck, of which there is probably only 50 available - not good odds considering it was taking about 600 people today. 

We finally drove on and I sent Tracy and Tyler running up stairs from our garage level 3 to top deck level 10 with a handful of bags and jumpers to spread over as many seats as they could, whilst I sorted out the rest of our gear with Dylan and Kayla. As it turned out, we once again managed to find a block of 8 chairs that were quickly rearranged so that we could spread out comfortably for the next 9 hours. All that panic for nothing. 

The smoke from the fires was still as thick as it could be and didn't clear up until well into 2-3 hours out to sea, and I was actually quite relieved to get away from it all. 

The trip across the notorious Bass Strait was once again as calm as we could ever expect, making the day pass without anyone reproducing their breakfast and trying to redecorate the floor. 

I never actually thought I would say out loud that I was happy to be in Victoria, but when we hit the mainland after 9 hours on the boat, I was happy. It didn't take long to pass though, as I quickly learnt that Google Maps doesn't always direct you to your destination via the best route for 12 metres of car and van...... Coupled with some navigation errors (by the navigator - because the driver is never wrong), we almost found our way to the freeway and on our way to Geelong instead of the 25km trip to the caravan park. A few corrective turns finally saw us get to where we needed to be and set up... Just in time for beer/bourbon/wine o'clock. 

Despite my best efforts at trying to make the family re-vote until the result went my way, the final vote remained at the decision to drive straight home tomorrow    I conceded defeat and went to bed.