Latrobe

Left scrubby Creek Rest Area after breakfast, and continued south, stopped at Cann River for a coffee, and then stopped at Bairnsdale to have a look through St Mary's Church. Last time we came through here we read about it but didn't have time to stop.

The whole ceiling is painted like the Sistine Chapel (definitely not as grand) but still impressive. These murals were painted by Francesco Floreani, an Italian painter, who studied at Turin then moved to Australia in 1927 he couldn't find work (due to the great depression ) but came across the catholic church in 1931 and asked the priest if there was any work around. Once the priest heard he was an artist he told him he could decorate the interior of the church. So between 1931-1938 he painted the ceiling of the church.

He even painted himself in the crucifixion scene, and the priest of the church. Francesco is the one kneeling down and the priest is the older man.

We then headed into Sale for lunch and planned to stop at Gormondale but the free rest area was non existent when we got there 🤦🏽‍♀️ after much discussion - I wanted to go south to a national park (which was a bit over an hour out of the way) and Bart thought that was crazy, seeing we'd have to come back the same way.

Unfortunately common sense prevailed and we headed towards Melbourne and stopped at a Big 4 caravan park for the night. Was handy because we were able to get all our washing done and ready for the real start of our trip tomorrow night 🤗Read more