At least the first three replacement coaches direct to Southern Cross got away quickly, and a dozen or so who could not find seats on those coaches and another dozen or so wanting to get to scheduled intermediate stops were promised replacement coaches were coming. I got on the first of those which was also supposed to be going direct and had not been paying attention in the dark until the driver was forced to do a U turn in a residential fringe street because he had missed some turn towards Lara station where he had been diverted to pick up some more stranded travelers. Google Maps on the iPhone at least enabled me to confirm that his second attempt was closing in on the target.

Then attempting to drive off from the Lara station car park, the gears refused to engage and we still hadn't moved when the all stations bus arrived. Its driver solved the mechanical problem but it was decided that since all the passengers could easily fit in his bus that the other should be taken straight back to its depot. I'd again stopped paying attention when I realised that the second driver must have opted to bypass Werribee and Footscray to get us all to Southern Cross as quickly as possible, a decision I could hardly objected to having earlier chosen that option for myself, though I might not have got home any later had I waited for the next train from Geelong.

Maybe it's an omen for the next couple of weekends with hundreds of little bombers washed up like kite surfers on Marengo beach: