Road Trip - Day 1 Melbourne to Echuca

Sunday 4th is the day we take off on our Mum and Son road trip.   Cant say I'm not just a little sorry to leave my very comfortable car at home whilst we travel interstate in Tom's little 1996 RAV but I'm not putting a Learner driver with a love of speed in a V8 auto.  He is going for his manual license and so that is what he needs to drive.  I guess its a bit of a buzz for him being the driver, taking his Mum on a trip.  So I'm taking all the rattles and smallish seat (for my rather large rump) in my stride.  He is so proud of his first car so who am i to complain.

Our first leg was from Hoppers Crossing to Bendigo and then onto Echuca on the border of Victoria and New South Wales, approx 225 km in total which we did in about 3 hrs.  Tom was loving being able to go at full speed (110km/hr on freeways and 100km/hr on highway) knowing that when he hits the border he has to follow NSW rules for Learners, which is 90km/hr max.

As you can see its a pretty gloomy day but with only a few light sprinkles of rain

We stopped briefly in Bendigo which is a regional city with a population of approx 103,000.  It was built in the gold rush era and the historic buildings reflect this.  It really is a place that deserves to be its own destination and therefore a separate post so i will just show you a few of the beautiful building i took pictures of through the window as we drove by.

I expected to be tortured with booming sounds all the way but surprise, surprise we actually didn't turn anything on and just observed what we were seeing and made conversation. Tom saw a line of sheep walking one behind the other in a straight row which led to a good laugh and talk about not being a sheep and being your own person.  This is important for an Aspie to understand as they are often isolated for being a little left of centre in social situations.  It seems he accepts who he is and so perhaps the talk is for me who needs to accept that i have a son that is an individual.

We arrived at Echuca in good time and parked in the Old Port Area.  Echuca is a river town and is one of the few places in Australia that still operates Paddle Steamers as tourist attractions  Historically this town was a trading port where wool and grain were delivered by the paddle steamers and then taken by rail to Melbourne for transport to England. Essential provisions and passengers were then returned to the farming communities along the river by paddle steamer.  The old port area has many attractions to amuse the tourist and so we just walked around for a while.

Steam Roller

Gee i bet those wheels give a good ride.

We met up with Glenda, my sister, who had travelled separately and finally grabbed a late lunch from The Beechworth Bakery.  This bakery gets around.  Its no longer in Beechworth but seems to have sprouted in every historical tourist town in Victoria.  I guess when you are on a winning formula you stick with it and reproduce.

A friendly Kookaburra dropped by to watch us eat.  At the first opportunity it swooped in and stole the another diners lunch, while he was still eating it.  Very Cheeky!

At Toms request (and my absolute agreement) we stayed in a B&B rather than a motel and enjoyed a lovely evening of  word search puzzles, sudoku, and for me a novel.

We couldn't bring ourselves to leave for dinner and so we pooled all our "roadies" on a coffee table and snacked through the evening.  The place we stayed, Charlotte's Cottage most definitely deserves its own post and so i bid you farewell as i climb into a wrought iron bed with embroidered bedspread, soft white pillows and cool white linen.  Day 1 of the road trip has been pretty good.

Stayed tuned for the making of a B&B - a renovators delight!

Thanks for visiting Living In The Land of Oz