Thursday 18 October 2007

Travel in Australia

Posted by speedygeoff on Thursday, October 18, 2007 with
Having driven to Brisbane and Adelaide many times, staying at various places along the way, I am starting to accumulate a list of really really bad places to visit and really really good places to visit; really really bad motels and really really good ones; places to run, places to eat, and so on.

Often we plan a slightly different route so we can visit somewhere new.

Sometimes we just drive until it's time to stop, and find the nearest motel. This is not always a good plan; some "half-way" places are little more than a less-than-basic motel at a feature-less location. Others are surprisingly good. But it is not true that every location had something of inherent interest for the casual visitor.

We have never bothered to book ahead on such trips as we like to be free to go where we feel like; although our experience twice on these holidays was to get the last room in town despite no-one being sure why all the motels were booked up. Perhaps people are travelling again?

Shepparton is fantastic
On Tuesday night we stayed at a new place; Shepparton in country Victoria. What a great place to stay! The town had a really good feel to it. Friendly people, pretty town, great restaurants, and the most excellent motel we have stayed at, Tirana Motor Inn. Shepparton has great sporting fields, is the home of the SPC factory, is the centre of a large fruit growing area as well as dairy. And "kids town" which we will visit another time, which is a children's/adult's playground centre. And many many kilometers of cycling tracks, as well as many kilometers of walking tracks. And an excellent art gallery - I loved the mooving cows.

So I will add Shepparton to my "must revisit and stay longer" list of Victorian towns. Along with Echuca and Ballarat.

Mooving Cows