A few weeks ago, we headed off to Mortlake in the western district, for a weekend away.  Its only 235kms from Melbourne on the Hamilton Highway.  We headed off Friday morning, stopping in Geelong before continuing our journey, looking for dry stone walls that are plentiful in the area.  This is because the site has around 80 or so extinct volcanos in the region, creating a considerable amount of paddock stones.

We drove to Pomboneit-Foxhow Road in Pomborneit North and found a quiet road wholly lined with stone walls which the western district is known for. There had been a lot of rain in the area the days before, and the ground was saturated.  And so was I when I got back to the car. Bad idea to wander around in Ugg boots. I ended up changing into my waterproof hikers when I got back to the car. I know, I should have had them on to start with.

Arriving in Mortlake, we headed to our accommodation, settled in, and then went out for dinner at Macs Hotel.  Small pub, but great food and good service.  After dinner, we went back to the accom, grabbed our gear, added another ten layers (it was freezing) and set up at the old Mill for some light painting and to shoot the milky way.

The cold eventually drove us back indoors, and we were all in bed reasonably early. We planned to be up at 5 am to go for a sunrise shot at Dunkeld.  If we thought it was cold that night, it was freeeeezing the next morning. The windscreen was iced over and took ages to clear. We were on our way but about 15 mins behind schedule with an hour drive in front of us.  Pitch black roads and countryside, eyes on alert for suicidal kangaroos. We made it to Dunkeld just in the nick of time.  Our goal was to shoot the morning light at the Dunkeld Arboretum with Mt Abrupt in the background.  Sunrise was pretty ordinary, and we were all freezing with the ground frozen over. But no one left until they all had the shots they wanted 🙂

The rest of the weekend passed without anything noteworthy. Clouds rolled in that night, so no Astro. It was also too cold for light painting outside, so we did a little inside with LEDs before falling into warm beds for a good night’s sleep.