There's nothing exciting about Mt. Gambier I

I have put off writing this post for 6 weeks. My right brain is feeling particularly awake today, so I will get this done.

First off, the drive down was long and arduous despite plenty of caffeine and loud rock music. Even taking the 'scenic' route along the Great Ocean Road, the trip qickly became monotonous and boring. When you are driving, you can't really look out the ocean anyway. Interestingly I found the sights much more picturesque once the highway turned inland. You are confronted with the vast steppe of grassland with a sea of green nothingness and no proof of civilisation anywhere, apart from the lonely winding road, worned down and stretched far up the end of the horizon, disappearing beyond the eyes can see.

It was quite hard to stay awake driving by yourself. I had to stop by a couple of towns to refuel myself with greasy meat pies, energy drinks, and much needed rest; including one 20-min snooze at a resting station along the highway. It certainly did not help that I had a splitting alcohol-induced headache from the previous night, half of which had blurred into vague oblivion. I am pretty sure I had embarrassed myself and my friends, but that happens a lot anyway.

Some of the towns along the way were rather nice. Robe was a small sea-side town that I found out later as the holiday-house filled destination for a lot of Adelaideans and Mt. Gambier locals, being half way between the two. The famous gigantic sculpture of the red crustacean at Kingsington was the most exciting thing to see among the small town scenes.

The accommodation was nothing impressive. The stock standard 3-bedroom house with everything that you would need to sustain life, but at a bare minimum. It was no luxury mansion. The dribbling shower drizzles fluctuating hot and cold water was the bane of my stay. But, it did come with a roaring gas heater in the living room (the fan can be rather noisy), and two good housemates. Linens were provided by the hospital, and sure enough, it's the same hospital linens that they use for patients, so I slept in my sleeping bag for the 6 weeks.

The hospital is a portion of the size to its previous incarnation. It was a glorious 400-bed regional hospital built in the 50s, but as the demand unable to live up to the supply, the hospital was running a big loss. As medical technology improved, the hospital required to be upgraded. It'd have made more sense to tear the building down, and rebuild on the same site as it was prime location, but the asbestos in the building meant that it'd cost millions just to tear it down. It was thought to be cheaper to rebuild a new smaller hospital on the other side of town, and so they did, without the foresight of extra room for future expansion, now there's problem with a small hospital unable to meet the demands of the quickly expanding population, and no room for expansion.

The old hospital is left standing by the lake, abandoned, overlooking the town like an old guard still manning its post. One walks pass it as part of the trail around the Lakes. It now looks like something you'd find in a movie set in the post-war Soviet era East Berlin. It's the place to go if you are looking for hard drugs at night, among other transactions that still take place there.

Continues next post...