Around Australia 02 - days 6-9

Sydney to Melbourne via Moruya, Bega, Cann River and Drouin

Day 6 - Monday, 05 April 2010

We're off! We are planning to visit the Bega Cheese Factory. We stopped at Nowra, for a buffet lunch at the Shoalhaven RSL Club. We really must remember to ask for our seniors' discount. Could have saved $5 for lunch!

We have stopped for the night at the Moruya Motel - about 120km north of Bega (http://moruyamotel.com.au/). it's a very pleasant room, almost as good as the Shiralee in Guyra. I suspect the Shiralee is going to become our basis for comparison. It really was very good.

- B

Day 7  - Tuesday, 06 April 2010

We left reasonably early today and had a really good drive away from Moruya to Bega.  The countryside around the Bega area is absolutely lovely - very green and lush.  Stopped for lunch at the Bega Cheese Factory (http://www.begacheese.com.au/visit/visit.html).  Very nice!  Also bought a couple of really pretty coffee mugs.  Most of the motels only seem to have little tea cups and saucers.  After lunch, we continued down the coast road after deciding to stay the night at Orbost in Victoria.  It was really incredible how quickly the countryside changed after crossing into Victoria.  We went from lovely open green fields with lots of dairy cattle,

to very thick forest

 - a lot of it badly burnt.

It's really interesting to see the thick green forest on one side of the road, and absolutely burnt black and not recovering yet on the other side of the road.  We passed kilometers like that.  Didn't quite make it to Orbost tho' for the night.  We ended up staying at a place called Cann River because the road was so winding and up and down, that we were quite tired by then and decided not to go the extra distance to Orbost.

- J

Day 8 - Wednesday, 07 April 2010

After a fairly ordinary night at the Hop Inn Motel at Cann River, we set off today, after making a pre-booking into a motel in Drouin for tonight. Drouin is about 100 kms east of Melbourne, on the Princes Highway.  We decided to book in ahead because we were worried that the closer we got to Melbourne, the harder it would be to get a room, but we shouldn't have worried, because, even tho' school holidays are still on, there are plenty of vacancies.

Anyway, we continued on through the sometimes burnt, sometimes beautifully green bush, eventually magnificent views of the Southern Ocean.  Stopped just to take some photos and look at the view at a place called West Cape,

stopped a couple of more times at Lakes Entrance, which is a very beautiful seaside spot - great swimming place with a sandy beach for little kids.  Also for the heaps of black swans and their cygnets!

Over the road from the Lakes Entrance RSL, are three moving carvings, commemorating the sacrifices of ANZAC troops at Gallipoli:

We had a really good lunch at the Lakes Entrance RSL.

I think we just might end up having all our lunches at an RSL club - they make terrific food and are not too expensive.  The only trouble was that the meal was too big, and on top of that, we stupidly ordered a dessert because they seemed to be too good.  So, I ended up getting my dessert in a take-away, and have just had banana fritter and ice cream for tea.  Very bad!!

View from the road leaving Lakes Entrance

So now, here we are at the Best Western Drouin Motor Inn for the night.  Very nice, and has just been all done up.  Not cheap tho'.

- J

Day 9 - Thursday, 08 April 2010

Drove to Melbourne from Drouin and found our nephew, David's home. Lovely to see his son, Stephen again, then David took us to yet another RSL club, this time Box Hill RSL, where we had lunch. This memoir is developing into an 'RSL clubs I have known' saga! :) Really good seeing David again. We enjoyed his company. We missed out on seeing his wife Denise, who was working. Luckily, it was school holiday time, which is why we were able to see David. He is teaching grade 8 maths now.

Next stop will be Bendigo, which will be 'continued in our next'.

- B