Melbourne to Naracoorte

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Thanks to the global pandemic it is 927 days (2 years, 6 months, 1 week and 5 days) since we last posted! And ... it is nearly eight months since Bernie retired. His ‘celebrating retirement’ holiday has been planned, scaled back, re-planned and rescheduled multiple times but, finally, we have left Melbourne and indeed Victoria behind us and we are in South Australia.

This morning we packed the MU-X and set out for Horsham where we had arranged to meet up with our travelling companions, Cathy and Steve. It was quite grey in Melbourne and when we reached West Ballan for our first stretch break it started to drizzle. We continued in drizzle and rain and when we stopped in Stawell we had to stick to the shop verandahs to stay dry as we stretched our legs again. At least it wasn’t as cold in Stawell as it was in the truck! It’s a/c is very efficient, in fact, a bit too efficient in my opinion!

We had planned to eat at Waack’s Bakery - renowned for its vanilla slices - but they have not resumed eat in service. After eating elsewhere we popped into the bakery and purchased our vanilla slices to go. We decided to continue towards the SA border via Mount Arapiles, Mitre Rock and Goroke because we knew that there was some silo art at Goroke that we missed when we were in the Wimmera for a short (un-blogged) break in late February 2021. The trio of silos in Goroke feature a kookaburra, a magpie and a galah. There was a very convenient picnic table beside the silos where we were able to consume our vanilla slices which were … disappointing. The custard just wasn’t as smooth as it should have been!

We headed south to pick up the Wimmera Highway again, travelling via Bringalbert to Apsley. There was much discussion about whether that should be pronounced Bring-Albert or Bringal-Bert?? A few kilometers west we found ourselves at the border where we took silly photos as if we were 16 instead of 60-ish! Obviously it’s been way too long since we took a holiday and way too long when our movements were severely restricted.

With gaining half an hour at the border we arrived at the Naracoorte Hotel Motel mid-afternoon. We checked in and did a partial unload of the truck before strolling along to the Sheep’s Back Museum. It is a National Trust property so we saved ourselves $10.00 each on the entry by showing our membership cards. We were treated to a lot of very interesting information about the wool industry in Australia.

The staff at the museum told us that we should eat tonight at the Naracoorte Hotel, where we are staying and, tomorrow night, we should head across the main drag to the Pearl Continental which, apparently, has a little bit of everything from Indian food to pizza.



Steps for the day:

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Comments

[Janet Morrison]

Hooray to new adventures
Looking forward to hearing more about your experiences as you enjoy exploring new sections of our beautiful country. Paul and Paula crossed the SA border yesterday too so maybe you will cross paths along the way. I am not sure where they are going specifically but they are also doing a bit of a road trip. I saw two photos of that border sign yesterday. It seems we all get a little excited at the prospect of travels!

[Trabern]

Definitely more travellers these days
It certainly seems like people are keen to get into SA. I am aware of quite a few other Victorians who have just been, are here at the moment or are planning a trip soon. As it turns out, with the rain up north, South Australia has been a much better option for travel. There has been a weather alert today about flash flooding in Broken Hill where we are planning to be at the end of the month. Hopefully not too much damage has been done??

[John Wemhof]

Congrats on your retirement, Bernie!
It seems so long since we rode together on the Bike and Barge trip. Nice to hear you are out and about again. Winter here in Canada. Between the weather and the pandemic, we haven't been doing much. Planning a weekend in Jasper National Park in the spring. Hope to be able to do some biking then.