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Published: February 27th 2013
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Echuca
The famous Emmylou Paddle Steamer Hannah and I had now been living a few months back in Melbourne and were ready to get away for a weekend, especially after an emotional week with my Nana passing away. We were booked into a lovely but unusual themed hotel in the small country town of Echuca on the border of Victoria and New South Wales, right on the Murray River. After work on the Friday night I made my way to Hannah’s work and we drove straight to Echuca from there, the drive taking a little over 2 hours. We arrived around 8PM and were starving so we headed straight into town for some dinner before making our way to the hotel and checking into our unbelievable Egyptian themed room, complete with a massive spa bath.
12/05/2012 – The next morning we headed into town to grab some breakfast at a local bakery and soon after began exploring the streets and historic port. It was a stunning autumn day in Echuca which was a welcomed change from the miserable weather in Melbourne over the past week. We bought tickets to one of the paddle steamers which ran up and down the Murray River. Our tickets
Echuca
The many different Paddle Steamers at the historic Port of Echuca were for the most famous paddle steamer of them all, it was called the ‘Emmylou’, it’s engine built over 100 years ago in England and shipped to Australia. We watched as it slowly approached the pier and once docked, jumped aboard for our cruise down the Murray. It was a fantastic trip down the famous River as we passed small towns and holiday parks situated on the banks of the Murray, but what was most interesting was the Paddle Steamer itself. Hannah and I spent most of the time just staring at the massive and deafening steam engine at work, with loads of moving cogs and axels it was fascinating to watch. We were really hoping the engineer would give us a brief explanation of how it worked, but he didn’t look like the chatty type. Soon enough the Emmylou arrived back at the Port of Echuca and we decided to grab some lunch at a small café on the main street.
This afternoon we headed out of town towards a very unusual place called the Great Aussie Beer Shed which housed an unbelievably large collection of beer cans and anything and everything beer related. The owner Neil showed
Echuca
On the Emmylou heading down the Murray River us around and got us all involved telling us all about his collection. There were so many beer cans it was ridiculous, some of them Neil explained were extremely rare and worth a lot of money. After an ice cold beer in the beer shed we headed back to the hotel for a rest before going out for dinner in Moama on the New South Wales side of the Murray.
13/05/2012 – We decided to set off early and stop by Bendigo to have a look around before heading back into Melbourne. Bendigo was once a mining town and become famous when gold was discovered here over 150 years ago and considering it was less than 2 hours from Melbourne I couldn’t believe I’d never been. We visited the Central Deborah Gold Mine on the main street in the center of the city and were lucky enough to get on a short tour of the mine. It took us down 2 levels of the enormous 9 level deep mine and we were shown exactly how the miners mined gold and the awfully dark, damp, noisy working conditions they put up with. After the tour we grabbed some
Echuca
The Great Aussie Beer Shed with tens of thousands of beer cans from all over the world lunch then made the drive back into Melbourne after an enjoyable break away from the city.
Accommodation: Buena Villa Boutique Motel
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