May 4th: Driving to Dookie (with detours)

Day 31 (Day 6 in Australia)

The four of us (with Phil & Carolyn) set off in both their cars to spend a couple of days in Dookie with their son, Connor, who lives and works there. It’s a 2.5 hour trip but they decided to double that with a couple of detours  

First stop was Echuca, a small town on the Victoria and New South Wales border beside the Murray, Australia’s longest river. Here we were joined by Connor and his girlfriend, Tess.

An interesting little place famous for its paddle steamers. The town’s significance diminished with the coming of the railways.






Wooden gutters

It was time for lunch and so we ‘nipped up the road’ a mere 50km or so to the middle of nowhere. It was signposted as ‘Picnic Point’,which I thought was just a lay-by or a rest stop beside the road but actually is a place.

The only thing there, as far as I could tell, is ‘The Timbercutter Redgum Cafe Bar and Function Venue’. It was a much larger than expected and was quite busy. Nice lunch too!



The cafe is surrounded by red gum trees. 
There was ‘evidence’ of kangaroos but none were spotted. 

The Murray River

Phil, me and mi’ Julie, Carolyn, Connor and Tess

And finally on we went to Dookie, a little town of just 333 people according to the 2021 census. It is also a campus of Melbourne University, which is how Connor came to be there. On the way we saw some wild emus. I took some photos but then they flew away*.


Eventually, we arrived at this charming and very quiet little place. Our Airbnb was tucked in behind an ‘antiques emporium’ and could easily be missed. Inside it was spacious and very well-equipped.

Antiques Emporium (on the right) on Dookie High St

The BnB entrance. Honest!

The actual entrance

Once we had settled in, it was off to the pub! The Gladstone (unsurprisingly the only pub in town) was right next door. Excellent fayre was produced (I had Filipino stew and a couple of pints of something tasty). Then it was time for bed. (Or in my case, listen to Arsenal 3-0 AFC Bournemouth on Radio Solent via the internet. Don’t you just love VAR?

The Gladstone, Dookie, Victoria, Australia

A good day!

* they didn’t!

NB: May 3rd typos now corrected (thanks to Julie, my trusty proofreader)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

May 12th: Crossing into Queensland

Image
Day 39 (Day 14 in Australia) I didn’t sleep well last night. It was a bit hot in our room. I was up at 6:50 and went for an early morning walk. The streets of Gunnedah were deserted, even allowing for it being a Sunday morning (and Mother’s Day here). Not only quiet but pristine clean and SO wide. Parakeet Julie loves these gum(?) trees that seem to have been stripped of their bark and sandpapered to a polish Nice house in Gunnedah We set off on the second of our five leg journey to the outback fairly early but first we detoured to a local park full of gum trees. Gunnedah is sometimes known as the ‘koala capital’ of Australia. We spent 15/20 minutes looking for them  without luck. They don’t move much and are, apparently, hard to spot. We did, however, have fun watching some argumentative cockatoos squabbling over a perch. The 436km (272 mile) drive to St George was about 5 hrs (without stops). The sky, initially overcast and providing some spots of rain, gradually cleared and beca...
Read more

May 25th: Fun, Food and ‘Footie’

Image
Day 52 (Day 27 in Australia) A rare treat this morning - a proper breakfast in the hotel. Old fashioned too as a waitress took our order and it was cooked just for us rather than buffet style. It was good! The video below is the view from our room. I would have filmed it last night for the sunset but I couldn’t fine out how to unlock the door. Turns out it wasn’t locked! Milawa is a very sleepy little place but in a famous gourmet region. As well as wineries, there is a bakery, cheesery, olivery and a mustardry. (I may have just made up some of those terms but the establishments exist).  Milawa Mustard Shop Mr Milawa Main Mustard Maker is from Harrogate Our journey back to Phil & Carolyn’s in Melbourne was only 3 hours so we had plenty of time to enjoy it and arrive mid afternoon in time for this evening’s entertainment. First stop was for coffee at a random town just off the highway. Violet Town was picked because we liked the name. Charming little place that is clearly strugg...
Read more

May 14th: Glamping It Up!

Image
Day 41 (Day 16 in Australia) Our stop for tonight and tomorrow is 3km outside the town of Longreach, which is less than 2 hrs drive from our ultimate Outback destination of Winton. We’re at Mitchell Grass Retreat for a spot of ‘glamping’ with a definite emphasis on ‘glam’. Our ‘tent’ The view from the deck As the owner showed us around our ‘tent’ with its large double bed, separate bathroom with bath and  large shower, kitchen area with fridge/freezer (including a large bar of KitKat - dark chocolate Tasmanian mint flavour - you don’t get that back home!), deck with gas barbecue etc, she pointed to a decanter half full of port and said, “if you run out just let us know and we’ll restock it for you”!! She also said, “I’ve just cleaned your toilet again as there was a green frog in it. He likes it here so he might come back”!!! We like frogs so I’m hoping it is a green tree frog and does pay us a visit. Well done to Carolyn for booking this place! Mind you, the first thing I saw aft...
Read more